When you get to "Reelin In The Years" you will find out why Jimmy Page said it was his favorite riff, and why so many started playing guitar in the 70's. I know when I was 10 in '72, and heard it on AM radio my jaw dropped on the floor, and I decided then, that I would be playing guitar. Been playing for 50 years now. Love how SD incorporates Middle Eastern, and Reggae along with Jazz, and Rock, and so many other feels in their music. They are definitely there own genre.
Yes, this is like a very elevated “Riders on the Storm”. The Dan pretty much smoked The Doors at their own game on this tune! Fagen’s double tracked flanged vocal on this one is POWERFUL!
This is one of those songs like Sultans of Swing that gets a lot of radio play but that I never get tired of hearing. That electric sitar solo has a lot to do with it.
Yes Danny Dias did the electric sitar solo. But Jeff Baxter - better known as Skunk Baxter - set the studio on fire with his solos on My Old School. Better known for his work with the Doobie Brothers after Steely Dan went all studio.
The Coral Electric Sitar solo is by Denny Dias. Dias was the leader of the band of Bard College students that Fagen and Becker joined, and eventually took over due to their songwriting abilities. He contributed many good guitar solos on their albums throughout much of Steely Dan's history - eg. the "Aja" solo. The short documentary "Steely Dan : More Than Just a Band" goes into their early history.
Excellent reaction as always. First track on their debut album, a harbinger for the greatness to come. Upbeat, Latin-influenced groove set against dark lyrics about the cycle of impulse and addiction, and the inability to break self-destructive habits - a running theme throughout their catalog.
I first heard Steely Dan at the very young age of 12 and I definitely didn't fit into the rich category. Since that one song I've had a lifetime love affair with their music. I still have my original Aja Album I bought at 14. Steely Dan is more for the musically intelligent.
One thing that sets *this song* apart: Doing an entire verse-and-chorus instrumentally (before the vocals come in for verse one), was a standard thing of the 30's and 40's, when jazz *was* the pop music of the day. (It's 100% a "20/20 hindsight" observation, I had no clue at age 14 in 1972) ~~~ But those guys ? Pretty sure *they* knew what they were doing .....
One can never go wrong with Steely Dan. Love love love them. Their music is just exquisite and endlessly interesting. Great reaction. Love your channel. I’m a subscriber from this day forward. 🌺✌️
"You find you're back in Vegas with a handle in your hand." I flashed on Alan Parsons "The Turn of a Friendly Card". Highly recommend if you haven't heard it. Peace, all 💕
I think that’s the best APP album, even better than the eye in the sky record. It’s a perfect prog album, it’s deceptively dark, it goes up and down takes you on a real ride
SHOW BIZ KIDS from Countdown To Ecstasy (1973) featuring Rick Derringer on guitar is THE BOMB! "Show Biz Kids, making movies of themselves - you know they don't give a ruck about anybody else..." SO TRUE, btw... see also The Tubes WHITE PUNKS ON DOPE (1975) where "I go crazy 'cause my folks are so rucking rich - Have to score when I get that rich white punk itch = Sounds real classy, living in a chateau - So lonely, all the other kids will never know!" (Apologies to Scooby-doo.)
Tons of great Steely Dan,Lee! THe first 5 albums are all fire! If you haven't reacted to 'Reelin' In The Years' yet...huhe debut hit for them. My fav tune might be ;My Old School' from the second album. You're in for quite a journey,bro...Enjoy!
Denny Dias on the electric sitar. I was 13 years old in 1972 when this first came out, and it blew the top of my head off. If you want another really great song by a jazz guitarist using an electric sitar, check out Pat Metheny's "Last Train Home."
The song was played in The Tender Bar 2021, Under the Banner of Heaven 2022, Run 2020, the Stand, ep 3 2020, Escape at Dannemora 2018, Invincible 2006 and an ep of 911 in 2018, according to Google
@L33Reacts Jeff "Skunk" Baxter was in The Doobie Brothers too as well as did session work for a long list of bands. Interestingly he's also worked as a defense consultant for the government.
He worked for DARPA if I recall correctly. I read an interview with him about 20 years ago where he talked about his interview process for his security clearance. He said he told them he could not be tempted by sex or drugs to divulge government secrets because he had already been there and done that as a member of rock bands.
This song is a classic example of how double tracking a singer can make them sound much better. To me this song is an outlier on the debut, which is dominated by major chord pop featuring David Palmer's vocals. The electric sitar by Danelectro was a popular sound in the early 70's. It features heavily on Yes' "Close to the Edge".
Steve Howe plays the sitar quite a bit on the first two sides of "Tales From Topographic Oceans" by YES and also on "To Be Over" from their "Relayer" album.
Reeling in the Years live on the Midnight Special recently popped up on the show's YT channel, not sure if it will get copyright struck but it's fantastic. Skunk Baxter goes HAM on the guitar solo
Donald’s personality really comes through with that unhinged organ solo. What other band would say “ok we’re going to release our first single, it’s gonna be 6 minutes long, it’s gonna be in a minor key, it’s gonna be about gambling and addiction, it’s gonna start with 30 seconds of only percussion and it’s gonna have back to back solos in the middle” are the solos guitar solos? “Oh no we forgot to mention, the first solo is an electric sitar and the second solo is on a cheap imported Japanese organ with a pitch bend function so I can bend all kinds of notes into one another”. The record label musta thought they were nuts
@@donhollI guess they wanted everyone to know from the first song on the first record (and the first single) that this band was a little different. Takes a lot of balls to release something like this as your first single. We know Donald and Walter were confident in their art or maybe they just didn’t know any better. Luckily for us it went well. It could have gone sideways for them right away and then we never would have gotten Royal Scam, Aja, etc
So if you took the instrumental version of Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean on one turntable and this on the other, cue them correctly, they are work back and forth perfectly. This song was first.
Interesting Donald Fagen who sings didn’t really want to sing. He was shy as front and didn’t think his voice was good so live at this time he had backup singer David Palmer sing live.
"Rich-people music", haha! Yah, Lee it's called "Yacht Rock", haha! But Steely was edgy and "street-level" back in the day, for sure! The fact that they could pull off such excellent Jazz-influenced, funky, Rock-Pop shows that they were, indeed, elite, but their lyric writing was pretty edgy. I get the feeling that they read alot of Hunter S. Thompson back in the day, an it influenced their songs. Cool to burn, baby!
This was their first hit, if you didn't know, in 1972. Before that, they were not very successful songwriters, back-up singers, and released a few flops.
This song is about gambling AJA has to be the best album in the Universe...really not kiddin Walter Becker was LEGEND Mr. ES 330 and I dont mean Lexus either
The new song on the radio that made me buy the debut album that triggered a lifelong love of Steely Dan. Combustibles ready and waiting.
Same on all counts
Me too, I feel so lucky to have caught them from the beginning of their career.
Same here 😊
I concur
I'm close on 70 and Steely Dan remains one of my favourite bands of all time. I've just had my combustibles.🙃
The Bass is insane, the entire song, a masterpiece
And not a drum machine in sight... what a Groove.😎
SD waited until "Hey Nineteen" to incorporate a drum machine into their music.
When you get to "Reelin In The Years" you will find out why Jimmy Page said it was his favorite riff, and why so many started playing guitar in the 70's. I know when I was 10 in '72, and heard
it on AM radio my jaw dropped on the floor, and I decided then, that I would be playing guitar. Been playing for 50 years now. Love how SD incorporates Middle Eastern, and Reggae along
with Jazz, and Rock, and so many other feels in their music. They are definitely there own genre.
elliot randall did the solo in one take
Yes, this is like a very elevated “Riders on the Storm”. The Dan pretty much smoked The Doors at their own game on this tune!
Fagen’s double tracked flanged vocal on this one is POWERFUL!
The debut album was called Can’t Buy a Thrill.
This is one of those songs like Sultans of Swing that gets a lot of radio play but that I never get tired of hearing. That electric sitar solo has a lot to do with it.
Yes Danny Dias did the electric sitar solo. But Jeff Baxter - better known as Skunk Baxter - set the studio on fire with his solos on My Old School. Better known for his work with the Doobie Brothers after Steely Dan went all studio.
The Coral Electric Sitar solo is by Denny Dias. Dias was the leader of the band of Bard College students that Fagen and Becker joined, and eventually took over due to their songwriting abilities. He contributed many good guitar solos on their albums throughout much of Steely Dan's history - eg. the "Aja" solo. The short documentary "Steely Dan : More Than Just a Band" goes into their early history.
Dias has been on a few SD tracks I've heard and he always does a great job. He killed it here.
And the original Drummer was…..?
@@brianvernon249 Chevy Chase - I almost added that.
I don't think Dias went to Bard. Not sure why you said that.
@@-R.Gray- He was never in SD ever. He was in some other band with Becker and Fagen
Showbiz Kids is a must!!!
Kids do grow so fast. So glad you get to spend time with her. She’s as adorable as you are! ☮️😎❤️
This has a similar vibe to it as Santana's "Evil Ways".
Walter's bass groove is so funky
Hearing this song takes me back 1972 when I saw them perform this at the Terrace Ballroom. It was a great night as the act was the Doobie Brothers.
Give "Any Major Dude" a listen. Another Steely Dan great. Thanks for this reaction.
Been listening to lots of Steely Dan myself lately. I use them to get myself grounded back to good music.
This band like Yes is going to be one of your favorite bands. Love this song!!! Love LOVE THIS band Steely Dan.
My two favorite bands!
That 3rd verse beat drop is one of my favorite moments in music history.
Every song on this album, all their albums are tip tier!
My favourite Steely Dan song. So smooth and groovy. There is a Doors organ sound to it, good observation.
Excellent reaction as always. First track on their debut album, a harbinger for the greatness to come. Upbeat, Latin-influenced groove set against dark lyrics about the cycle of impulse and addiction, and the inability to break self-destructive habits - a running theme throughout their catalog.
I first heard Steely Dan at the very young age of 12 and I definitely didn't fit into the rich category. Since that one song I've had a lifetime love affair with their music. I still have my original Aja Album I bought at 14. Steely Dan is more for the musically intelligent.
One of the tastiest guitar solos ever! Great groove, great vocals, it's perfect
This one is always a stand up, clap, and sing along live!!
Awesome. One of their best. This one almost has a haunting sound to it. Great choice.
For years this was #1 on the pool hall jukebox and I never knew it was SD until years later.
Had a nice chat with Skunk a few weeks ago at the NAMM show.
One thing that sets *this song* apart: Doing an entire verse-and-chorus instrumentally (before the vocals come in for verse one), was a standard thing of the 30's and 40's, when jazz *was* the pop music of the day.
(It's 100% a "20/20 hindsight" observation, I had no clue at age 14 in 1972) ~~~
But those guys ? Pretty sure *they* knew what they were doing .....
Love steely Sundays! ❤
Me too bryan!! Shit is amazing. Every song is one of the best of the best 👌 Thank you for watching!
One of the best guitar solos to ever hit AM radio. I can attest.
The skunk!
Jeff Baxter has security clearance with the DoD and provides consultative support and coaching on asymmetrical thinking. It’s wild.
One can never go wrong with Steely Dan. Love love love them. Their music is just exquisite and endlessly interesting. Great reaction. Love your channel. I’m a subscriber from this day forward. 🌺✌️
Thank you so much!! So glad you enjoy the videos. Glad to have you 🙏😀
Maybe soon you can play ONLY A FOOL WOULD SAT THAT by the Dan😊
Such a happy song 👍🏼
“rich people music” is a hilariously perfect description of SD. Fortunately for the rest of us poor-ass folk, we can still listen in awe.
I agree :)
One of the few bands that never disappoint. ❤❤
Great song. And I can't think of a more famous electric sitar solo.
That guitar solo was "Skunk" Baxster .
"You find you're back in Vegas with a handle in your hand." I flashed on Alan Parsons "The Turn of a Friendly Card". Highly recommend if you haven't heard it. Peace, all 💕
I think that’s the best APP album, even better than the eye in the sky record. It’s a perfect prog album, it’s deceptively dark, it goes up and down takes you on a real ride
My favorite album from Steely Dan
Years ago l seen Donald Fagan at Levon Helms barn in Woodstock. It was a very eclectic show for sure.
Great to hear this..your reaction matches 🎇
This is where it all started!
Still my favorite album by Steely Dan. I listen to it often.
Denny Dias on the electric sitar; Skunk on the guitar.
Live this album! Love Steely! BUT... yea yea do "Reelin' In The Years" ❣️🎶💫
Chill and relax to Steely Dan !
SHOW BIZ KIDS from Countdown To Ecstasy (1973) featuring Rick Derringer on guitar is THE BOMB! "Show Biz Kids, making movies of themselves - you know they don't give a ruck about anybody else..." SO TRUE, btw... see also The Tubes WHITE PUNKS ON DOPE (1975) where "I go crazy 'cause my folks are so rucking rich - Have to score when I get that rich white punk itch = Sounds real classy, living in a chateau - So lonely, all the other kids will never know!" (Apologies to Scooby-doo.)
Tubes “White Punks On Dope” would be a great song for L33 to react to!
Tons of great Steely Dan,Lee! THe first 5 albums are all fire! If you haven't reacted to 'Reelin' In The Years' yet...huhe debut hit for them. My fav tune might be ;My Old School' from the second album. You're in for quite a journey,bro...Enjoy!
This was a huge smoke out song in the day.
one of my fav top guitar solos ever 🎸🎸🎸💥💥
My fave!! 🔥
Denny Dias did the solo he used a Coral Dan Electro Sitar Electric Guitar
Denny Dias, electric sitar, on the crazy solo
This song is featured in ME MYSELF AND IRENE, but covered by Smash Mouth
Denny Dias on the electric sitar. I was 13 years old in 1972 when this first came out, and it blew the top of my head off. If you want another really great song by a jazz guitarist using an electric sitar, check out Pat Metheny's "Last Train Home."
Probably my favorite SD album
The song was played in The Tender Bar 2021, Under the Banner of Heaven 2022, Run 2020, the Stand, ep 3 2020, Escape at Dannemora 2018, Invincible 2006 and an ep of 911 in 2018, according to Google
First track on debut album and it’s an all time classic
@L33Reacts Jeff "Skunk" Baxter was in The Doobie Brothers too as well as did session work for a long list of bands. Interestingly he's also worked as a defense consultant for the government.
He worked for DARPA if I recall correctly. I read an interview with him about 20 years ago where he talked about his interview process for his security clearance. He said he told them he could not be tempted by sex or drugs to divulge government secrets because he had already been there and done that as a member of rock bands.
Solos are Denny Dias on the Danelectro Coral Electric Sitar and Donal Fagen on Organ
The band Smash Mouth does an excellent job covering this song.
We've all heard that Question; What's the definition of insanity? The spelt it out for you.
This one is my favorite song from Steely Dan ! 😎
You said you used to listen to classic rock radio so you probably heard it there. It gets a lot of airplay.
LP 1, Song 1, side A: They were great from the start.
Crazy, right? First track was a fucking home run lol
That solo is fantastic. I think it's a Coral Sitar if I'm not mistaken
Dirty Work should be next
My favorite.
Please check out Steely Dan’s “Babylon Sisters” Great song with Bernard Purdie on drums.
You should check out Hypnotized by the pre Buckingham/Nicks Fleetwood Mac
YES!
This song is a classic example of how double tracking a singer can make them sound much better. To me this song is an outlier on the debut, which is dominated by major chord pop featuring David Palmer's vocals. The electric sitar by Danelectro was a popular sound in the early 70's. It features heavily on Yes' "Close to the Edge".
Steve Howe plays the sitar quite a bit on the first two sides of "Tales From Topographic Oceans" by YES and also on "To Be Over" from their "Relayer" album.
It's been used in 5 movies. All good things, Mask,Laurel canyon, Invincible, Air America.
First track on their first album - not a bad way to introduce yourselves to the world…
Sublime track. Heresy I know, but this is my favourite Dan album
Check out their song My old school .
Reeling in the Years live on the Midnight Special recently popped up on the show's YT channel, not sure if it will get copyright struck but it's fantastic. Skunk Baxter goes HAM on the guitar solo
Thanks for the recommendation. I love that channel because those videos NEVER GET BLOCKED 🚫 😀😀
There was a 4-minute edit of this for AM play: the beginning/ending are both tapered, and the organ solo was removed.
SD used to get bashed as a rich people's band...the cheese and wine crowd. ❤😊
this song is in every movie 😂
This might be their oldest hit, reminds me of Heart's MAGIC MAN.
Denny Dias / electric sitar
There is a mash-up of this song & Motley Crue’s Looks that Kill.
Steely Crue - Look Away.
Bill McLintock 2022
❤❤❤
The song that sucked us in and made slaves of us.
Diaz on Sitar
Donald’s personality really comes through with that unhinged organ solo. What other band would say “ok we’re going to release our first single, it’s gonna be 6 minutes long, it’s gonna be in a minor key, it’s gonna be about gambling and addiction, it’s gonna start with 30 seconds of only percussion and it’s gonna have back to back solos in the middle” are the solos guitar solos? “Oh no we forgot to mention, the first solo is an electric sitar and the second solo is on a cheap imported Japanese organ with a pitch bend function so I can bend all kinds of notes into one another”. The record label musta thought they were nuts
Indeed! A "drawing outside the lines" debut for a band that did so, from the start. I once made a very similar quip about it.
@@donhollI guess they wanted everyone to know from the first song on the first record (and the first single) that this band was a little different. Takes a lot of balls to release something like this as your first single. We know Donald and Walter were confident in their art or maybe they just didn’t know any better. Luckily for us it went well. It could have gone sideways for them right away and then we never would have gotten Royal Scam, Aja, etc
Yeah, you've heard reeling.
Check out the movie, if you haven't already. Pretty cool. Not the directors cut though.(I don't know what they were thinking with that).
You haven't heard Reelin in the Years yet? Look forward to that. You probably have heard it in the same way as this, tho.
'they sound like money, they sound like rich people music'......hahahaha
Do you know what Steely Dan means? I shouldn’t say it the comments. The clue is that it comes from Wiiliam Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch.
Yes I know what it means. 😏
just wanna say your intro music is so cool 😊
Judith by a perfect circle and dark signs by sleep token 👌❤️
@@L33Reacts and the stuff you recorded. it all flows well 😁
So if you took the instrumental version of Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean on one turntable and this on the other, cue them correctly, they are work back and forth perfectly. This song was first.
Interesting Donald Fagen who sings didn’t really want to sing. He was shy as front and didn’t think his voice was good so live at this time he had backup singer David Palmer sing live.
"Rich-people music", haha! Yah, Lee it's called "Yacht Rock", haha! But Steely was edgy and "street-level" back in the day, for sure! The fact that they could pull off such excellent Jazz-influenced, funky, Rock-Pop shows that they were, indeed, elite, but their lyric writing was pretty edgy. I get the feeling that they read alot of Hunter S. Thompson back in the day, an it influenced their songs. Cool to burn, baby!
Definitely yacht rock lol. I love it so much though. Makes me feel way more classy then I actually am LOL
REO Speed wagon golden country government protest song try it
This was their first hit, if you didn't know, in 1972. Before that, they were not very successful songwriters, back-up singers, and released a few flops.
This song is about gambling AJA has to be the best album in the Universe...really not kiddin Walter Becker was LEGEND Mr. ES 330 and I dont mean Lexus either
It's not really an uplifting song though. It's about the inevitability of repeating your mistakes over and over again.
Only A Fool Would Say That and I’m obviously not talking about you.
Do It Again was in All Good Things, Mask, Laurel Canyon and more.
Rich people's music? What does that mean?
That means I feel like I'm wealthy when I'm listening to them. They are of high class.