Steely Dan is without a doubt one of the best groups ever. All their albums are good. I've truly enjoyed watching music reactions to this band because almost everyone is blown away by their brilliance. And I got to grow up with them.
In high school when all this great music came out We were much more free back then..everyone one was outside. No cell phones or computers stuck to our hips..it was wonderful back then
Absolutely! I always tell the youngins today that in the seventies there was a new genre of music literally every six months. Classic Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Country Rock, Rock Ballads, Top 40, Funk, Disco, Jazz Rock, R&B, Punk, and New Wave and they were all BRAND NEW at the time!.... Amazing!
As a 68 year old man now it's nice to see the music from 'my day' still lives and is appreciated by younger generations. As for why this music was so good, so happy and well constructed ... there was no cable TV, or internet, no computers, cell phones or facebook. Today the media is all round the clock depressing news from every source. We were focused on music and fun. Here are a few recommended Steely Dan treasures ... Hey 19, Deacon Blues, Rikki don't lose that number, Dr. Wu, Josie, FM, Peg, Home at last, The Fez, Haitian Divorce, I got the news, Black Friday. AND here are a few Donald Fagan tunes you need to check out ... I.G.Y. , Snowbound, Century's End, The Goodbye Look, Trans Island Skyway , True Companion, Countermoon. I didn't include the tunes you've already reacted to obviously. START with Hey 19 and I.G.Y. Thanks for trusting the music of the past.
That's a pretty good list of songs to recommend except for one thing. You didn't list any songs from their best album 'The Royal Scam." The first three songs, Kid Charlemagne, The Caves of Altamira and Don't Take Me Alive are all monster songs.The rest of the album is very good as well.
Many of us didn't even have FM radio! I listened on my 9V Transistor Radio listening to on AM Radio! Thus the *fantastic* song FM, once it hit the airwaves.
Great guitar work on this song T by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter who was also an integral part of The Doobie Brothers as well. The song was on the Countdown To Ecstasy album released in July 1973. I think people were slow to recognize their greatness. After a few years they became very successful although the critics were not crazy about them because they didn’t fit into any genre. They were a genre unto themselves. Green Earrings, My Gold Teeth, My Gold Teeth II, Kid Charlemagne, Dr. Wu, The Royal Scam, Don’t Take Me Alive, Hey Nineteen, Babylon Sisters, Time Out of Mind…. I could go on T. 🔥
There will never be musical talent like this ever again on planet earth! All these musicians back in the day had raw talent, no auto tune,etc..etc. kids back in these days met in garages and masterfully crafted their talents.
Hey TNT, enjoyed your reaction. I'm a first-time watcher, stumbled upon it searching for reactions to MOS. Good observation, about 70s bands enjoying playing and interplay with other musicians. I think that's quite true, from The Beatles, Tom Petty, Steely Dan... With Steely Dan, most of that interplay was in the studio. As you know from Aja--yes, correctly pronounced asia--Fagen and Becker are perfectionist studio geniuses. I highly recommend the Steely Dan rabbit hole. Their style and emphasis change and evolve, but all the albums are great, without a bad song. Fantastic writing, performance, and production--music at its best. Peace! 👍🤙
Fortunately, I've seen Steely Dan live a couple of times. They are fantastic. In fact, they are as tight as any performers ever in my view. My Old School live is the tune that most transforms their events into a party atmosphere for the audiences. If you have the chance to see them in person, jump at it while you still can. Before time runs out.
I love this band, I loved them then and still do. I don't listen to the radio but rather to cd's from my youth. This is one of the top bands of the time, in my opinion. I agree with you that music just seemed diferent back then. More real and more important even.
They were big in the 70s. Everywhere I hitchhiked, I heard them. "Showbiz Kids" is my favorite. It is a great song with the rarest thing of all: criticism of showbiz
Steely Dan's music so sophisticated, well thought out and FUN! I'm so glad to see the "next generation enjoying as I did as a high-schooler in the 1970s. It was truly a "miracle decade" for music. To have lived through is truly the thrill of my life. It's vibrations of excellence still bless us to this day!
Got this album on its release and never stopped playing it, this track was always my favourite. Your reaction was so similar to mine when I first heard it. It always makes me smile. Joyous music.
I love Steely Dan! This is one of my favorite songs of theirs. There is a great backstory to this one. Kid Charlemagne is another of my favorites. Great backstory to that one also. Love your reactions! 💖😎
Can’t Buy A Thrill was their first album. This song is from their second album, Countdown To Ecstasy (the video got it wrong). When judging early Steely Dan, you’d have to compare their music to other music going on at that time. Right from the beginning, SD had a musical sophistication that was totally beyond any other pop/rock of the time. With each album, they got more and more sophisticated, until they left everyone else in the dust.
This was the song that changed my life. I had never heard anything like this and I was a senior in high school. It came out of nowhere. It turned me on to Steelly Dan, which turned me on to Jazz. This is a way better song than Black Cow.
I was a kid when this was popular and radio stations played such variety of artists then. So, you could be hanging out in the neighborhood and hear this one followed by a Nazareth tune, which would then be followed by the Bee Gees, E.L.O., Barbra Streisand, The Kinks, O'Jays, and Donna Summer. Stations played a wide variety of music, so we were exposed to lots of stuff. Such a great education coming out of a transistor radio or hi fi speakers!
They got their heads shaved for punishment. Chino was slang for weed and daddy G was G. Gordon Liddy the DA that prosecuted them. He later became famous in the Watergate scandal.
Before anything else I have to admit that I have not gone very far down the Steely Dan rabbit hole but as a child of the 70's and 80's they have about 4 songs I can think of off the top of my head that were absolute staples on any classic rock station. Some day I will hop into the rabbit hole.
I don't know why they have the Can't Buy A Thrill cover up for the video,but this song is 100% off the Countdown To Ecstasy album,which was their second LP. It's actually about a drug bust at Bard College,where Fagen and Becker went to school. The Daddy G mentioned in the last set of lyrics was actually one G. Gordon Liddy,who was a local prosecutor at the time but would later be the main "Rat F*cker" in Richard Nixon's Watergate fiasco.
Born in 61, heard it on AM radio; didn't climb the charts but mirrored my feel for the school i was in but couldn't get out of as young then. Going to be and did become my anthem once i could leave. Seminal in thinking and Steely Dan proceeded and anticipated all other steps personally and most importantly, musically to this day- 5-5-24.
I'm 59;years old and when I was fortunate to hear Aja album in 1977 my young mind was blown and my journey as an amateur musicologist and audiophile began. Pure gold
We had options. So many. This song didn't get a whole lot of AirPlay but when it did it got a lot of attention. This is one of my favorite of the Steely Dan albums besides the nightfly which is really Donald Fagan's baby. For a lot of us we weren't going back to our old school. It was a battle cry for me.
Back in the day, when you would go to buy your huge stereo system, it was common knowledge that you must bring your Steely Dan album to play on the record player to check out the sound and speakers before deciding which one to buy. It was the best way to test them.
60's, 70's, and 80's (I think) was DEFINITELY the golden era of modern music. I think one way of putting it could be...that it really was...better than it HAD to be.
Was telling my wife 2 days ago that the best 5-year period for music was 1973 - 1977. It seems to be the peak of the mountain. Most of the top songs ever came from that period. I feel blessed that it was the sounds of my teenage years.
Man, this music makes me happy. Just so good. As a teenager in the seventies, I was right into SD. The sound makes me move. Love your reaction and articulate comments.
Donald Fagen was heavily influenced by Thelonius Monk, so I guess that is considered "BeBop", which is before my time, but you can hear the horns and the swingin sounds. It's a bygone era of American history long forgotten. It's a very rich sound and heritage.
Yeah, I don’t know what happened to music. It’s like, the kids today don’t want it. My favorite period for music is 70s. I hadn’t started school yet, when this came out, but I’ve heard it all my life. I love this band so much.
All of there stuff is great, but so many are taken by the sheer brilliance of Aja. Donald Fagen has said that they made Aja after reaching the point where their success allowed them to do whatever they wanted without pressure from the record company or elsewhere to do "popular" stuff. So, they made Aja - the music they'd always imagined doing.
I think your observation nailed it the music was by and large for the mist part fun and you could dance to it. Glad you got to hear and appreciate their artistry.
Discography; Many bands start off with jilted lover songs. Struggling songs. But as their careers take shape. Traveling songs, party songs, Lots of times. It is where the band is in their timeline. The mood that flows through their music.
Your are 100% right I grew up in the 60's and only knew amazing music for decades, then in the 90's music started to go down hill and has never recovered.
I WOULD like to point out that Steely Dan lyrics are dark as FUUUUCK!!! 💯 That song is basically about a dude that watched a girl he knew, that had a future ahead of her, start turning tricks for cash... And he's saying that its when he realized that he can't ever go back to before he realized that life wasn't they way they taught him it was supposed to be... 💯🤯🤯🤯🤯
Great reaction! This was never one of my favorite SD songs, now, with that being said, whenever this came on the radio, hell would freeze over before I would change the channel. I knew what was coming at the end, I was going to be blessed enough to hear (Skunk) Baxter take it home with the best guitar lead-out in music history! His contribution to this song is still as awesome today as it was the first time I heard it over 40 years ago.
This IS a masterpiece! You are right that it is ASIA: pronounced like the continent, not ajja. Great reaction to one of my favorite bands and songs. I’ve own this as an album, tape, cd, and now it’s all in the cloud.
I've been listening to Steely Dan since the 70s, and I always heard Aja called AY-sia. As you had thought. Like the continent. Well, actually more like Age-a.
I was a senior in high school when this album came out, I've always been a fan of Steely Dan. When Fagan and Becker had a band at Bard, the drummer was Chevy Chase, real name Cornelius Crane of the Vanderbilt bloodline, it was a very exclusive school. Remember the character he protrayed in Caddyshack, well, he wasn't acting, he was that jerk
It wasn't until Pretzel Logic LP that they started doing more of the type of music they really wanted to do. Execs had in their mind what they wanted from them. The Royal Scam and Aja LPs are more reflective of who they were. That's not to say the older stuff is not good music. Jazz was part of Fagen and Becker's influence growing up . Always top Musicianship and production! Thanks for this one.....
How many times in the song do they have sing Aja, Aa (long "A")-gah ("G" as in genre), for people to get the hint as to how the title is pronounced? Think of it as Asia the continent and you can't go wrong.
The 70s was a great era for music. That being said you NEED to listen to Snarky Puppy. In the 70s, when FM radio was THĒ THING, whenever SD was played my friend and I stopped everything we were doing and danced to the music!
I agree 100%. Music should make you feel good. I loved it when it first came out and it was a big hit and the Steely Dan legend was born with Can't Buy a Thrill. You really need to start at the beginning with Steely Dan because they started in one place and evolved over a decade into the Steely Dan that created Aja. And it is pronounced ASIA.
Steely Dan is the band that other bands listen to (even if they won't admit it) - they are their own genre - Jazz, rock, fusion, prog, AOR, and more - even reggae - give a listen to (one of my absolute favorites) "Haitian Divorce": ua-cam.com/video/dKMCz1b2RxE/v-deo.html.
You're right TNT. In many respects music is a reflection of the times we live in. And we are living in dark times, hence so much angry and depressing music. And Steely Dan come from a different time. Don't get me wrong - in the 70s there was plenty to be down and depressed about, yet they never wrote a depressing song in my book. Sad songs? Sometimes yes, but never depressing. They never wallowed in that trough. Their music was always joyous to listen to. Enjoy discovering their back catalogue. They will always lift your day. PS When is Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous live album going to hit the deck? Peace.
We had a hard time really…if you or someone you knew didnt own the albums, you never got to hear all the tracks…you had to wait for a radio station to play a “hit” and if you were lucky you could get the tape recorder out and capture it 🤣🤣🤣 Not like today where everything is readily available anytime anywhere !!!
I'm obviously coming late to your (Steely Dan) reactions, so you probably already know what I'm about to drop on you, but: many, MANY hip-hop/rap artists have loved and sampled Steely Dan in their tracks over the past few decades. Such as: Peter Gunz, De La Soul, Ice Cube, Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa and (my absolute favorite) MF Doom. ("Gas Drawlz", mothafuckas!) There are probably more, but those are the ones that I know of.
That's a pretty good list of songs to recommend except for one thing. You didn't list any songs from their best album 'The Royal Scam." The first three songs, Kid Charlemagne, The Caves of Altamira and Don't Take Me Alive are all monster songs.The rest of the album is very good as well.
The funny part is that Steely Dan likes to hide dark, suggestive lyrics (and themes) inside of their bangers. This song, for instance, starts with the narrator getting a blowjob (35 sweet goodbyes, half of 69), then his GF ends up in jail, betrayed by the school's administrators (I did not think a girl could be so cruel) and he's so pissed that he skips his graduation and wants to take his GF and bugger off somewhere (I hear the whistle but I can't go/I'm gonna take her down to Mexico). Kid Charlemagne is about the rise and fall of Owlsley Stanley, a real-life Walter White who literally cooked up a better, cleaner, sexier version of LSD in his San Francisco basement and who enjoyed the high life until LSD started falling out of favor and Cocaine started taking over as the drug of choice on the West Coast. You wouldn't know that you were listening to a song about a drug lord just by focusing on the upbeat, driving music, however. Black Cow is a guy so disillusioned with his girlfriend (who hangs around in bars all day and then rags on him when she's actually around) that he starts mocking her by telling her to drink her shitty yuppy mixed drink (the big black cow) and quote "get outta here". "Do It Again" is lamenting all the people who are so addicted to vice (first verse: violence, second verse: lust, third verse: gambling) that they "Go back, Jack, and do it again" even as it ruins their lives. "Hey Nineteen" is a guy in his 30s in a bar somewhere realizing that he's not the hot shit anymore, and that he has nothing in common with this 19-year-old girl that he's trying to hit on. The same exact kind of girl he used to regularly score with when HE was nineteen or twenty and still in college. (She thinks I'm crazy/but I'm just growing old/Hey Nineteen, we got nothin' in common/no we can't talk at all) Or how about "Deacon Blues" where the guy is daydreaming about becoming a washed up lounge lizard? (They got a name for the winners in the world/and I want a name when I lose/they call Alabama the Crimson Tide/call me Deacon Blues). I find it fascinating and love taking deep dives into what their songs are actually all about.
Can't Buy a Thrill was their first album. My old School is from their second album, Countdown To Ecstasy.
Steely Dan is without a doubt one of the best groups ever. All their albums are good. I've truly enjoyed watching music reactions to this band because almost everyone is blown away by their brilliance. And I got to grow up with them.
In high school when all this great music came out
We were much more free back then..everyone one was outside.
No cell phones or computers stuck to our hips..it was wonderful back then
Absolutely! I always tell the youngins today that in the seventies there was a new genre of music literally every six months. Classic Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Country Rock, Rock Ballads, Top 40, Funk, Disco, Jazz Rock, R&B, Punk, and New Wave and they were all BRAND NEW at the time!.... Amazing!
As a 68 year old man now it's nice to see the music from 'my day' still lives and is appreciated by younger generations. As for why this music was so good, so happy and well constructed ... there was no cable TV, or internet, no computers, cell phones or facebook. Today the media is all round the clock depressing news from every source. We were focused on music and fun. Here are a few recommended Steely Dan treasures ... Hey 19, Deacon Blues, Rikki don't lose that number, Dr. Wu, Josie, FM, Peg, Home at last, The Fez, Haitian Divorce, I got the news, Black Friday. AND here are a few Donald Fagan tunes you need to check out ... I.G.Y. , Snowbound, Century's End, The Goodbye Look, Trans Island Skyway , True Companion, Countermoon. I didn't include the tunes you've already reacted to obviously. START with Hey 19 and I.G.Y. Thanks for trusting the music of the past.
Add my vote for Century's End--an overlooked gem that showcases the Dan at their cynical, tuneful, ear-candy best.
That's a pretty good list of songs to recommend except for one thing. You didn't list any songs from their best album
'The Royal Scam." The first three songs, Kid Charlemagne, The Caves of Altamira and Don't Take Me Alive are all monster songs.The rest of the album is very good as well.
Don't forget it was also before corporations took over the music industry...
Many of us didn't even have FM radio! I listened on my 9V Transistor Radio listening to on AM Radio! Thus the *fantastic* song FM, once it hit the airwaves.
Cool thing about growing up in 1970's, great music was constantly being released.
Great guitar work on this song T by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter who was also an integral part of The Doobie Brothers as well. The song was on the Countdown To Ecstasy album released in July 1973. I think people were slow to recognize their greatness. After a few years they became very successful although the critics were not crazy about them because they didn’t fit into any genre. They were a genre unto themselves. Green Earrings, My Gold Teeth, My Gold Teeth II, Kid Charlemagne, Dr. Wu, The Royal Scam, Don’t Take Me Alive, Hey Nineteen, Babylon Sisters, Time Out of Mind…. I could go on T. 🔥
There will never be musical talent like this ever again on planet earth! All these musicians back in the day had raw talent, no auto tune,etc..etc. kids back in these days met in garages and masterfully crafted their talents.
Never
That still happens, you gotta look for it
As a young teenager this was my intro to Steely Dan, the syncopated beat and variety of instrumentation got me. Great jam.
Hey TNT, enjoyed your reaction. I'm a first-time watcher, stumbled upon it searching for reactions to MOS.
Good observation, about 70s bands enjoying playing and interplay with other musicians. I think that's quite true, from The Beatles, Tom Petty, Steely Dan... With Steely Dan, most of that interplay was in the studio. As you know from Aja--yes, correctly pronounced asia--Fagen and Becker are perfectionist studio geniuses. I highly recommend the Steely Dan rabbit hole. Their style and emphasis change and evolve, but all the albums are great, without a bad song. Fantastic writing, performance, and production--music at its best.
Peace! 👍🤙
Fortunately, I've seen Steely Dan live a couple of times. They are fantastic. In fact, they are as tight as any performers ever in my view. My Old School live is the tune that most transforms their events into a party atmosphere for the audiences. If you have the chance to see them in person, jump at it while you still can. Before time runs out.
I love this band, I loved them then and still do. I don't listen to the radio but rather to cd's from my youth. This is one of the top bands of the time, in my opinion. I agree with you that music just seemed diferent back then. More real and more important even.
"Reeling In The Years" & "Dirty Work" are classics.
They come at you from a million different directions.
They were big in the 70s. Everywhere I hitchhiked, I heard them. "Showbiz Kids" is my favorite. It is a great song with the rarest thing of all: criticism of showbiz
I have been listening to CtE for almost 50 years. When Fagan sings, "They don't give a f*** about anybody else", I still get a little bit of a shock.
@@stanleycostello9610 Me too.
Walter fucking Becker on the guitar, ladies and gentlemen!!! 😎💯
Most underrated player outside of musicians EVER!!!
This is Skunk Baxter on guitar.
@@jayp398 Oh Shit! 🤣 I feel like an ass now. Haha!
Steely Dan's music so sophisticated, well thought out and FUN! I'm so glad to see the "next generation enjoying as I did as a high-schooler in the 1970s. It was truly a "miracle decade" for music. To have lived through is truly the thrill of my life. It's vibrations of excellence still bless us to this day!
What did we feel when it came out? "More great music!" The radio kept pumping out great music. Steely Dan just went on getting better.
Got this album on its release and never stopped playing it, this track was always my favourite.
Your reaction was so similar to mine when I first heard it. It always makes me smile. Joyous music.
I love Steely Dan! This is one of my favorite songs of theirs. There is a great backstory to this one. Kid Charlemagne is another of my favorites. Great backstory to that one also. Love your reactions! 💖😎
Can’t Buy A Thrill was their first album. This song is from their second album, Countdown To Ecstasy (the video got it wrong). When judging early Steely Dan, you’d have to compare their music to other music going on at that time. Right from the beginning, SD had a musical sophistication that was totally beyond any other pop/rock of the time. With each album, they got more and more sophisticated, until they left everyone else in the dust.
Agree! So glad u found them. Brilliant band. The best musicians!
You have great spirit. Thank u
For me as a brit this is America. Just the best 🥰
This was the song that changed my life. I had never heard anything like this and I was a senior in high school. It came out of nowhere. It turned me on to Steelly Dan, which turned me on to Jazz. This is a way better song than Black Cow.
im 72 ..and i love your appreciation ..what to say about the Dan...beyond cool...
I was a kid when this was popular and radio stations played such variety of artists then. So, you could be hanging out in the neighborhood and hear this one followed by a Nazareth tune, which would then be followed by the Bee Gees, E.L.O., Barbra Streisand, The Kinks, O'Jays, and Donna Summer. Stations played a wide variety of music, so we were exposed to lots of stuff. Such a great education coming out of a transistor radio or hi fi speakers!
I wore out three Aja cassette tapes back in the day. Couldn't get enough of it. Loved it! Glad to see you enjoy it. You've got good taste in music 😉!
Love this band so much
Yea man, Steely Dan is a new favorite for me.
True story. This song is about a drug bust at a school they attended in Annandale, NY.
A girl they knew ratted them out.
They got their heads shaved for punishment. Chino was slang for weed and daddy G was G. Gordon Liddy the DA that prosecuted them. He later became famous in the Watergate scandal.
Song is about Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson NY. This is where Becker and Fagen met.
Before anything else I have to admit that I have not gone very far down the Steely Dan rabbit hole but as a child of the 70's and 80's they have about 4 songs I can think of off the top of my head that were absolute staples on any classic rock station. Some day I will hop into the rabbit hole.
No day like today! It's the best rabbit hole ever!
I don't know why they have the Can't Buy A Thrill cover up for the video,but this song is 100% off the Countdown To Ecstasy album,which was their second LP.
It's actually about a drug bust at Bard College,where Fagen and Becker went to school. The Daddy G mentioned in the last set of lyrics was actually one G. Gordon Liddy,who was a local prosecutor at the time but would later be the main "Rat F*cker" in Richard Nixon's Watergate fiasco.
Born in 61, heard it on AM radio; didn't climb the charts but mirrored my feel for the school i was in but couldn't get out of as young then. Going to be and did become my anthem once i could leave.
Seminal in thinking and Steely Dan proceeded and anticipated all other steps personally and most importantly, musically to this day- 5-5-24.
I'm 59;years old and when I was fortunate to hear Aja album in 1977 my young mind was blown and my journey as an amateur musicologist and audiophile began. Pure gold
Steel Dan is the best. Every song is so unique and amazing and they never phoned it in. Every song has something to appreciate.
We had options. So many.
This song didn't get a whole lot of AirPlay but when it did it got a lot of attention.
This is one of my favorite of the Steely Dan albums besides the nightfly which is really Donald Fagan's baby.
For a lot of us we weren't going back to our old school. It was a battle cry for me.
Back in the day, when you would go to buy your huge stereo system, it was common knowledge that you must bring your Steely Dan album to play on the record player to check out the sound and speakers before deciding which one to buy. It was the best way to test them.
60's, 70's, and 80's (I think) was DEFINITELY the golden era of modern music. I think one way of putting it could be...that it really was...better than it HAD to be.
Awesome song, but this is from the Countdown To Ecstasy album, not Can't Buy A Thrill.
Was telling my wife 2 days ago that the best 5-year period for music was 1973 - 1977. It seems to be the peak of the mountain. Most of the top songs ever came from that period. I feel blessed that it was the sounds of my teenage years.
One of my SD faves. That cowbell!!
Man, this music makes me happy. Just so good. As a teenager in the seventies, I was right into SD. The sound makes me move. Love your reaction and articulate comments.
Donald Fagen was heavily influenced by Thelonius Monk, so I guess that is considered "BeBop", which is before my time, but you can hear the horns and the swingin sounds. It's a bygone era of American history long forgotten. It's a very rich sound and heritage.
This song is not from Can't Buy a Thrill, that was their first album. My Old School is from their second album, Countdown to Ecstasy, 1973.
Yeah, I don’t know what happened to music. It’s like, the kids today don’t want it. My favorite period for music is 70s. I hadn’t started school yet, when this came out, but I’ve heard it all my life. I love this band so much.
try their song Green Earrings ... funky ....jazzy
Yes, YES!!!!
All of there stuff is great, but so many are taken by the sheer brilliance of Aja. Donald Fagen has said that they made Aja after reaching the point where their success allowed them to do whatever they wanted without pressure from the record company or elsewhere to do "popular" stuff. So, they made Aja - the music they'd always imagined doing.
Ask Jamel aka Jamal about Steely Dan. He went thru a whole series/catalog of their music.
Videos made by one certain person.
I think your observation nailed it the music was by and large for the mist part fun and you could dance to it. Glad you got to hear and appreciate their artistry.
Honest assessment. Steely Dan was a staple of being in the high school parking lot with the ladies
This song is about a drug bust at a college in upstate NY.
Discography;
Many bands start off with jilted lover songs. Struggling songs.
But as their careers take shape. Traveling songs, party songs,
Lots of times. It is where the band is in their timeline. The mood that flows through their music.
Your are 100% right I grew up in the 60's and only knew amazing music for decades, then in the 90's music started to go down hill and has never recovered.
early SD.... but they always had the funk jazz incredible craftsmanship ... from day one
I WOULD like to point out that Steely Dan lyrics are dark as FUUUUCK!!! 💯
That song is basically about a dude that watched a girl he knew, that had a future ahead of her, start turning tricks for cash... And he's saying that its when he realized that he can't ever go back to before he realized that life wasn't they way they taught him it was supposed to be...
💯🤯🤯🤯🤯
Great reaction! This was never one of my favorite SD songs, now, with that being said, whenever this came on the radio, hell would freeze over before I would change the channel. I knew what was coming at the end, I was going to be blessed enough to hear (Skunk) Baxter take it home with the best guitar lead-out in music history! His contribution to this song is still as awesome today as it was the first time I heard it over 40 years ago.
This IS a masterpiece! You are right that it is ASIA: pronounced like the continent, not ajja. Great reaction to one of my favorite bands and songs. I’ve own this as an album, tape, cd, and now it’s all in the cloud.
One of their older ones, "Pretzel Logic," (to me) has one of the best vibes ever. I listen to it often, takes me to a good place !👍
I've been listening to Steely Dan since the 70s, and I always heard Aja called AY-sia. As you had thought. Like the continent. Well, actually more like Age-a.
"
Their Song "Bad Sneakers" will definitely captivate you...
I was a senior in high school when this album came out, I've always been a fan of Steely Dan. When Fagan and Becker had a band at Bard, the drummer was Chevy Chase, real name Cornelius Crane of the Vanderbilt bloodline, it was a very exclusive school. Remember the character he protrayed in Caddyshack, well, he wasn't acting, he was that jerk
It wasn't until Pretzel Logic LP that they started doing more of the type of music they really wanted to do. Execs had in their mind what they wanted from them. The Royal Scam and Aja LPs are more reflective of who they were. That's not to say the older stuff is not good music. Jazz was part of Fagen and Becker's influence growing up . Always top Musicianship and production! Thanks for this one.....
How many times in the song do they have sing Aja, Aa (long "A")-gah ("G" as in genre), for people to get the hint as to how the title is pronounced? Think of it as Asia the continent and you can't go wrong.
I looked it up before I did the stream and people still cursed me out saying its " AJah"
YEAH T, THE CREATIVITYYYY WAS ON ANOTHERRRR LEVEL IN THE 70'S FOR SURE! 💯😊
1 speaker AM radio usually after 10:00 PM
Hadn't heard this one...but it definitely displays their signature sound...and I can dance to it!
Steely Dan is your favorite band's favorite band!
This song wasn't on "Can't Buy a Thrill"...
The 70s was a great era for music. That being said you NEED to listen to Snarky Puppy.
In the 70s, when FM radio was THĒ THING, whenever SD was played my friend and I stopped everything we were doing and danced to the music!
Skunk Baxter killed it on guitar!
I agree 100%. Music should make you feel good. I loved it when it first came out and it was a big hit and the Steely Dan legend was born with Can't Buy a Thrill. You really need to start at the beginning with Steely Dan because they started in one place and evolved over a decade into the Steely Dan that created Aja. And it is pronounced ASIA.
You pronounced Aja correctly the first time. Anyone saying otherwise is simply confused.
What did we think? We thought wow what is this? And I’ve never turned it off since. There is so much to hear
The "Skunkmaster" rocks it !
It's pronounced just like the continent 'Asia". I was a disc jockey in the 80's and know the music industry.
GREAT GUITAR RIFFS!
Steely Dan is the band that other bands listen to (even if they won't admit it) - they are their own genre - Jazz, rock, fusion, prog, AOR, and more - even reggae - give a listen to (one of my absolute favorites) "Haitian Divorce": ua-cam.com/video/dKMCz1b2RxE/v-deo.html.
Lot of history in this song, of the potted ivy variety.
You're right TNT. In many respects music is a reflection of the times we live in. And we are living in dark times, hence so much angry and depressing music. And Steely Dan come from a different time. Don't get me wrong - in the 70s there was plenty to be down and depressed about, yet they never wrote a depressing song in my book. Sad songs? Sometimes yes, but never depressing. They never wallowed in that trough. Their music was always joyous to listen to.
Enjoy discovering their back catalogue. They will always lift your day.
PS When is Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous live album going to hit the deck? Peace.
Uhm, I don't know if this has already been mentioned, but this is NOT off of Can't Buy A Thrill. It's off their second album, "Countdown To Ecstasy."
Sometimes Mom knows best
This guy gets it. The music of that era was fun, it was witty, it was diverse. Stick with the '70s.
Sounds like Thin Lizzy, never noticed before but now can't unhear it.
Same. I can’t unhear it
35 sweet goodbyes is a half of 69, figure it out!
You got it right, it```s AJA = Asia it`s a play on words . congratulations
We had a hard time really…if you or someone you knew didnt own the albums, you never got to hear all the tracks…you had to wait for a radio station to play a “hit” and if you were lucky you could get the tape recorder out and capture it 🤣🤣🤣
Not like today where everything is readily available anytime anywhere !!!
I'm obviously coming late to your (Steely Dan) reactions, so you probably already know what I'm about to drop on you, but: many, MANY hip-hop/rap artists have loved and sampled Steely Dan in their tracks over the past few decades.
Such as: Peter Gunz, De La Soul, Ice Cube, Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa and (my absolute favorite) MF Doom. ("Gas Drawlz", mothafuckas!)
There are probably more, but those are the ones that I know of.
This song is the shit 🔥
Dig your enthusiasm and positivity.
Tight first album from the Dan
Most of our music was party music .The rest spoke to the human condition. ☮️
That's a pretty good list of songs to recommend except for one thing. You didn't list any songs from their best album
'The Royal Scam." The first three songs, Kid Charlemagne, The Caves of Altamira and Don't Take Me Alive are all monster songs.The rest of the album is very good as well.
The funny part is that Steely Dan likes to hide dark, suggestive lyrics (and themes) inside of their bangers.
This song, for instance, starts with the narrator getting a blowjob (35 sweet goodbyes, half of 69), then his GF ends up in jail, betrayed by the school's administrators (I did not think a girl could be so cruel) and he's so pissed that he skips his graduation and wants to take his GF and bugger off somewhere (I hear the whistle but I can't go/I'm gonna take her down to Mexico).
Kid Charlemagne is about the rise and fall of Owlsley Stanley, a real-life Walter White who literally cooked up a better, cleaner, sexier version of LSD in his San Francisco basement and who enjoyed the high life until LSD started falling out of favor and Cocaine started taking over as the drug of choice on the West Coast. You wouldn't know that you were listening to a song about a drug lord just by focusing on the upbeat, driving music, however.
Black Cow is a guy so disillusioned with his girlfriend (who hangs around in bars all day and then rags on him when she's actually around) that he starts mocking her by telling her to drink her shitty yuppy mixed drink (the big black cow) and quote "get outta here".
"Do It Again" is lamenting all the people who are so addicted to vice (first verse: violence, second verse: lust, third verse: gambling) that they "Go back, Jack, and do it again" even as it ruins their lives.
"Hey Nineteen" is a guy in his 30s in a bar somewhere realizing that he's not the hot shit anymore, and that he has nothing in common with this 19-year-old girl that he's trying to hit on. The same exact kind of girl he used to regularly score with when HE was nineteen or twenty and still in college. (She thinks I'm crazy/but I'm just growing old/Hey Nineteen, we got nothin' in common/no we can't talk at all)
Or how about "Deacon Blues" where the guy is daydreaming about becoming a washed up lounge lizard? (They got a name for the winners in the world/and I want a name when I lose/they call Alabama the Crimson Tide/call me Deacon Blues).
I find it fascinating and love taking deep dives into what their songs are actually all about.
So many great steely Dan songs..Have you listened to kid Charlemagne ?
Great song.
Weren’t any cds not for another 12 years
Bangers? SD is a groove. Bangers, probably "Green Earrings" is the sauce.
It’s pronounced “Asia”. That’s how Donald Fagan pronounces it in the song Aja.
brilliant
You've heard jazzy Steely Dan try funky Dan with Josie or bluesy Dan with Pretzel Logic.
Same reactions that you have. 💃💃🍀🍀