The drummer is the late great Jeff Porcaro. He navigates the shift from funky 4 to swinging 6 (with a bar of 3 and maybe a bar of 9) so effortlessly. Makes it all feel dreamy. Such a gem.
Restrained but elegant, nicely said. There's nothing accidental about their compositions - every note is exactly where they want it, so there's no room for filler and nothing feels superfluous.
One of Fagen's best with hints of what was coming in Aja. There is no other band / musician that does what Steely Dan does...it's jazz but it's not traditional or frenetic like bebop, it rock but it's more complex, it's full of virtuosity but it's not overwhelming in its presentation of that virtuosity. It's totally original while being derived from so much that preceded it, blues, rock and jazz. The music is unparalleled, the lyrics complex and mysterious, but meaningful if you take time to think about to them. Fagen delivers his totally unique vocal style backed up by rich complex harmonies. I can't imagine anyone singing these tunes as well as he does. Steely Dan music is hard to categorize because there is simply nothing else like it, and because of all this I think it may be the most interesting popular music of the last 50 years.
Yes, the drumming on this one is phenomenal! That's a 19 year old Jeff Porcaro (later of Toto fame). When Donald Fagen noticed that Jeff wasn't feeling the drum part like he wanted it, he sent him home with a Charles Mingus album, and, after a few days, Jeff came back and nailed it! I also adore Denny Dias' guitar work on this cut. This is one of my (many) favorite Steely Dan songs! The whole album is wonderful, especially "Dr. Wu", "Chain Lightning", and "Any World (That I'm Welcome To)", Enjoy your Dantastic Trip! 🎵❤️🎵
I remember when you reacted to “Time out of mind” and you imagined the song to be about traveling to an exotic far eastern land. That was fun, you never know what you are going to see when you peek behind the lyrics of a steely Dan song.
😎 I just did a search of your channel. This is actually the second song off of "Katy Lied" that you've reacted to (the first was "Black Friday"). I think it's definitely their most underappreciated album, and it includes my personal favorite Steely Dan song, "Any World That I'm Welcome To."
Love this song. Once when I made a significant move in my life, this was a significant song, along with "Bodhisattva", and especially "Any World That I'm Welcome To". You still have such events ahead of you, and you may look back and retrieve the songs, as a sort of companion guide. The words: "Any world that I'm welcome to is better than the one I come from" really hits home when things aren't going so swimmingly as one might have wished. And when people move, they are usually pulled somewhere else, and pushed from the current place, in one way or another. They write and play such perfect songs. They set the bar high.
Katy Lied has always been my favorite Steely Dan album, but recently I have been in love with The Royal Scam. Can’t Buy a Thrill will forever have a big place in my heart.
That shift from the jazzy intro to the 6/8 verse and chorus takes *everyone* by surprise, the first time they hear it. On the second or third listen, you suddenly realize that the guitar solo is based on exactly that same chord (and rhythm) sequence, just "stretched out" so there's breathing room for the solo.
A standout SD track for me. Jeff Porcaro brilliance shines through on drums. Denny Dias absolutely kills it on guitar and love Donald's vocals! The excellence trifecta!
Always a composition of texture and light, rarely flashy but always brilliant. Steely Dan seems to finds a door into some moment in everyone's life. Thank you, beautiful!
In high school in the 80s, I was allowed to drive my parents old Buick LaSabre with an 8-track player. I’d go to thrift stores and get Steely Dan 8-tracks and jam in my horribly embarrassing ride!
"Katy Lied" was a very powerful album, another synthesis of rock and jazz. This number veers more to the jazz side. I always like the interplay of guitar and piano on Steely Dan's numbers.
”They stab it with their steely Knives,But they just can’t kill the beast” This is part of a lyric from Hotel California, and I was once surprised to learn that it was apparently referring to Steely Dan.
This was the song that hooked me on Steely Dan. I still remember the first time I heard it 25 years ago. Check out Dr Wu from the same album. It also features the late great Jeff Porcaro on drums.
Each of the Dan's albums features an instrument, almost as if DF/WB are exploring the sounds they produce and how to integrate them into the compositions. Katy Lied is the piano album: almost all of the tracks feature the Bosendorfer concert grand they purchased for the recording sessions and charged it (very expensive) to the record company. The high-end Bosendorfer Imperials have an extra bass octave needed for some of Bach's piano and organ pieces. Those extra bass notes are double strung and you can hear and feel the low end resonance they add even though they're not actually being played. Oscar Peterson, like many jazz pianists, would only play Bosendorfers.
This is one of their "jazziest" tracks ever. This could easily be played by a 3-piece jazz band at the Baked Potato in Los Angeles on a Saturday night with bourbon in hand. The guitar solo in the middle, to me, is one of the best (saying a lot) in a SD song.....it just takes you away!! Daniel, thank you for reviewing a classic.
On subject, you can't go wrong with most, if not all, Steely Dan. Top quality, multi-layered production. Particularly, for me, anything from Can't Buy a Thrill.
Daniel, check out Donald Fagen’s first solo album The Nightfly. Not only Excellent music and lyrics, but a snapshot of the “world of tomorrow” zeitgeist that existed in 1950’s post war America. From the red scare to smoky jazz clubs to flying cars to banana republics. It really is a musical time capsule.
Bad Sneakers, Daddy dont live in that new york city no more, Any world (that I’m welcome to) and Doctor Wu are other strong songs from this album you definitely should check out 😁
I love the whole album. Check out Mike Mcdonald(Doobies) singing backing vocals on Rose Darling and the girls singing heavenly "ooohs" in the verses on the island-flavored Everyones Gone to the Movies. Creepy lyrics, angelic arrangement.
Try "Everyone's Gone to the Movies." It's actually pretty perverse, but Steely Dan wasn't afraid to delve into such aspects of life, since they do exist.
There's so much Steely Dan I've never heard. Aja was the only album I owned, but thanks to RUclips and music reactors, I've heard a lot more. I still haven't heard a song by them that I don't care for. I can't think of any other band that I can say that about, though I'm sure there's gotta be at least 1 that's just "ok".
I've been a fan since their second album (Countdown to Ecstacy) was released in the early '70s, and I know of only three or four songs in their whole "mainstream" catalog that I think are just so-so. No other group or artist I know of approaches this level of consistent quality.
Rose Darling, Daddy Don't Live in that New York City No More, or my personal favorite, Dr. Wu...all from this great album (although every SD album is great).
I prefer the 1973 track you review previously. YGT II is a kinda Jazz Waltz, w/ verses alternating bars of 6/4 and 3/4, and has a very jazzy guitar solo by Denny Dias.
Critic Joe S. Harrington called Katy Lied the best album of all time. Everyone's Gone to The Movies is the best island music I've ever heard and Chain Lightning is the best blues song I've ever heard. Both on Katy.
I gave up analyzing Steely Dan lyrics a long time ago. They are many times too cryptic to make sense. I read an interview years ago where Walter Becker confessed that sometimes they use words in their lyrics simply because they like the sound of them, not for any particular meaning. The point for them seems to be the music. Always the music. The words are well crafted, but they are too cynical to worry about any deeper meaning. Always fun watching younger people discover this music that is now almost 50-years old. Holds up for sure.
Massive SD fan, this song is perhaps enigmatic in that the music, uplifting and ethereal, actually supports the lyrics. Doesn't the piano remind you of Peanut's sound tracks...in a good way!
This is another SD song where the lyrical content is not of much importance, literally speaking. The singing is there more as a musical component. If you want lyrics packed with mysterious meaning, check out "Chain Lightning" on the same album.
The drummer is the late great Jeff Porcaro. He navigates the shift from funky 4 to swinging 6 (with a bar of 3 and maybe a bar of 9) so effortlessly. Makes it all feel dreamy. Such a gem.
Nice acknowledgement of one of the great jazz drummers of his generation.
He was also 19 when he recorded this.
"I hear you're mad about Brubeck
I like your eyes, I like him too
He's an artist, a pioneer"
(Donald Fagen, New Frontier, from The Nightfly, 1982)
Restrained but elegant, nicely said. There's nothing accidental about their compositions - every note is exactly where they want it, so there's no room for filler and nothing feels superfluous.
One of Fagen's best with hints of what was coming in Aja. There is no other band / musician that does what Steely Dan does...it's jazz but it's not traditional or frenetic like bebop, it rock but it's more complex, it's full of virtuosity but it's not overwhelming in its presentation of that virtuosity. It's totally original while being derived from so much that preceded it, blues, rock and jazz. The music is unparalleled, the lyrics complex and mysterious, but meaningful if you take time to think about to them. Fagen delivers his totally unique vocal style backed up by rich complex harmonies. I can't imagine anyone singing these tunes as well as he does. Steely Dan music is hard to categorize because there is simply nothing else like it, and because of all this I think it may be the most interesting popular music of the last 50 years.
Keep the Steely Dan coming, we love it 😁 what a guitar solo!
Yes, the drumming on this one is phenomenal! That's a 19 year old Jeff Porcaro (later of Toto fame). When Donald Fagen noticed that Jeff wasn't feeling the drum part like he wanted it, he sent him home with a Charles Mingus album, and, after a few days, Jeff came back and nailed it! I also adore Denny Dias' guitar work on this cut. This is one of my (many) favorite Steely Dan songs! The whole album is wonderful, especially "Dr. Wu", "Chain Lightning", and "Any World (That I'm Welcome To)", Enjoy your Dantastic Trip! 🎵❤️🎵
thanks for the insights
Excellent inventory you have .
This one brings back Boatloads of memories . Mostly good .
Crisp fall days ...florid colors . Simple times in '75 .
Bad Sneakers, Doctor Wu, and Any World (That I’m Welcome To) are some more from this album you should check out. Thanks.
I remember when you reacted to “Time out of mind” and you imagined the song to be about traveling to an exotic far eastern land. That was fun, you never know what you are going to see when you peek behind the lyrics of a steely Dan song.
😎 I just did a search of your channel. This is actually the second song off of "Katy Lied" that you've reacted to (the first was "Black Friday"). I think it's definitely their most underappreciated album, and it includes my personal favorite Steely Dan song, "Any World That I'm Welcome To."
Doctor Wu is a must.
That exquisite sax solo by Phil Woods on Dr Wu was reportedly one take. WOW.
Love this song. Once when I made a significant move in my life, this was a significant song, along with "Bodhisattva", and especially "Any World That I'm Welcome To". You still have such events ahead of you, and you may look back and retrieve the songs, as a sort of companion guide. The words: "Any world that I'm welcome to is better than the one I come from" really hits home when things aren't going so swimmingly as one might have wished. And when people move, they are usually pulled somewhere else, and pushed from the current place, in one way or another. They write and play such perfect songs. They set the bar high.
Elegant is the perfect word for Steely Dan.
Katy Lied has always been my favorite Steely Dan album, but recently I have been in love with The Royal Scam. Can’t Buy a Thrill will forever have a big place in my heart.
That shift from the jazzy intro to the 6/8 verse and chorus takes *everyone* by surprise, the first time they hear it.
On the second or third listen, you suddenly realize that the guitar solo is based on exactly that same chord (and rhythm) sequence, just "stretched out" so there's breathing room for the solo.
A standout SD track for me. Jeff Porcaro brilliance shines through on drums. Denny Dias absolutely kills it on guitar and love Donald's vocals! The excellence trifecta!
I was thinking of an adjective to describe this, and you beat me to it, Daniel. Elegant.
Always a composition of texture and light, rarely flashy but always brilliant. Steely Dan seems to finds a door into some moment in everyone's life.
Thank you, beautiful!
I read that it's about young jazz musicians coming on the scene, and wowing the older crew.
In high school in the 80s, I was allowed to drive my parents old Buick LaSabre with an 8-track player. I’d go to thrift stores and get Steely Dan 8-tracks and jam in my horribly embarrassing ride!
Redeeming that there Buick, friend!
"Katy Lied" was a very powerful album, another synthesis of rock and jazz. This number veers more to the jazz side. I always like the interplay of guitar and piano on Steely Dan's numbers.
Keep up the great work. Thanks
Gosh, I've heard a lot of Steely Dan, but this song maybe once... SO happy you reintroduced it! Quite a canvas he paints!
If you're thinking of other songs from this album, Doctor Wu still has my favorite sax solo. Just incredible.
Definite Dan Fan here...thanks dude
”They stab it with their steely Knives,But they just can’t kill the beast”
This is part of a lyric from Hotel California, and I was once surprised to learn that it was apparently referring to Steely Dan.
Steely Dan referenced The Eagles, in one of their lyrics. “Turn up The Eagles, the neighbors are listening “
This was the song that hooked me on Steely Dan. I still remember the first time I heard it 25 years ago. Check out Dr Wu from the same album. It also features the late great Jeff Porcaro on drums.
And the great Phil Woods on Alto.
Oh here is a good one Hope you enjoy love you
Each of the Dan's albums features an instrument, almost as if DF/WB are exploring the sounds they produce and how to integrate them into the compositions. Katy Lied is the piano album: almost all of the tracks feature the Bosendorfer concert grand they purchased for the recording sessions and charged it (very expensive) to the record company. The high-end Bosendorfer Imperials have an extra bass octave needed for some of Bach's piano and organ pieces. Those extra bass notes are double strung and you can hear and feel the low end resonance they add even though they're not actually being played. Oscar Peterson, like many jazz pianists, would only play Bosendorfers.
This has always been my favorite Dan song.
Denny Dias on the guitar solo. Pure hard bop jazz runs.
This is one of their "jazziest" tracks ever. This could easily be played by a 3-piece jazz band at the Baked Potato in Los Angeles on a Saturday night with bourbon in hand. The guitar solo in the middle, to me, is one of the best (saying a lot) in a SD song.....it just takes you away!! Daniel, thank you for reviewing a classic.
Check out the demo tape with Donald in the background after the solo "holy fuck that's great!"
Love to see the reactions to some lesser-known SD material!
Fading out is hell 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
When I hear this song, I imagine I am in a Jazz bar sipping a great bourbon neat. Elegant indeed. No better music.
Nice jazzy smooth work from this band!
Can’t ever go wrong with The Dan.
On subject, you can't go wrong with most, if not all, Steely Dan. Top quality, multi-layered production. Particularly, for me, anything from Can't Buy a Thrill.
"The Caves of Altamira" from The Royal Scam is another one you should react to.
I think that is my favorite song of theirs. Not that I could actually pick one, but that one always comes back to the top.
@@NoCanDu It might be my favorite as well. That outro is the best thing ever.
@@MichaelTrogdon1990 “when there wasn’t even any Hollywood” is my favorite line ever!
The horns!
Daniel, check out Donald Fagen’s first solo album The Nightfly. Not only Excellent music and lyrics, but a snapshot of the “world of tomorrow” zeitgeist that existed in 1950’s post war America. From the red scare to smoky jazz clubs to flying cars to banana republics. It really is a musical time capsule.
Bad Sneakers, Daddy dont live in that new york city no more, Any world (that I’m welcome to) and Doctor Wu are other strong songs from this album you definitely should check out 😁
I love the whole album. Check out Mike Mcdonald(Doobies) singing backing vocals on Rose Darling and the girls singing heavenly "ooohs" in the verses on the island-flavored Everyones Gone to the Movies. Creepy lyrics, angelic arrangement.
Steely Dan Best Blues Song "Chain Lightning" wish it was longer tho"
Try "Everyone's Gone to the Movies." It's actually pretty perverse, but Steely Dan wasn't afraid to delve into such aspects of life, since they do exist.
There's so much Steely Dan I've never heard. Aja was the only album I owned, but thanks to RUclips and music reactors, I've heard a lot more. I still haven't heard a song by them that I don't care for. I can't think of any other band that I can say that about, though I'm sure there's gotta be at least 1 that's just "ok".
I've been a fan since their second album (Countdown to Ecstacy) was released in the early '70s, and I know of only three or four songs in their whole "mainstream" catalog that I think are just so-so. No other group or artist I know of approaches this level of consistent quality.
Rose Darling, Daddy Don't Live in that New York City No More, or my personal favorite, Dr. Wu...all from this great album (although every SD album is great).
You should do "Bad Sneakers." You won't be sorry.
I prefer the 1973 track you review previously. YGT II is a kinda Jazz Waltz, w/ verses alternating bars of 6/4 and 3/4, and has a very jazzy guitar solo by Denny Dias.
Critic Joe S. Harrington called Katy Lied the best album of all time. Everyone's Gone to The Movies is the best island music I've ever heard and Chain Lightning is the best blues song I've ever heard. Both on Katy.
I gave up analyzing Steely Dan lyrics a long time ago. They are many times too cryptic to make sense. I read an interview years ago where Walter Becker confessed that sometimes they use words in their lyrics simply because they like the sound of them, not for any particular meaning. The point for them seems to be the music. Always the music. The words are well crafted, but they are too cynical to worry about any deeper meaning. Always fun watching younger people discover this music that is now almost 50-years old. Holds up for sure.
First yes!!!! The 2Dans.
Dr Woo is the standard.
Massive SD fan, this song is perhaps enigmatic in that the music, uplifting and ethereal, actually supports the lyrics. Doesn't the piano remind you of Peanut's sound tracks...in a good way!
For your next Steely Dan song, you should do the live version of Bodhisattva off the Steely Dan Gold album.
can you react to their song green earrings please
Off subject, but I think you would like White Punks on Dope by The Tubes.
I hope you read this message, Daniel.
Can you acknowledge if you been to your P.O. Box. and if your got the card? Thanks. 😒
This is the direction you should go
This is another SD song where the lyrical content is not of much importance, literally speaking. The singing is there more as a musical component. If you want lyrics packed with mysterious meaning, check out "Chain Lightning" on the same album.
This might not be the strongest Dan album... the next best one is Doctor WU.