THE PRODUCTION ON THIS IS SO GOOD! First Time Hearing Steely Dan - FM (No Static At All) Reaction!
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- 🎸 About the Video: We're diving into the smooth and sophisticated world of Steely Dan with their track “FM (No Static At All)”. Renowned for their exceptional production quality and jazz-influenced rock, this song promises a rich auditory experience. Join us as we hear it for the first time!
🔥 What to Expect in This Video:
Our First Impressions: Watch our reaction to “FM (No Static At All)” and discover our take on Steely Dan’s production and musical style.
Song Breakdown: We’ll discuss the intricate details of the track’s arrangement, the production techniques, and how Steely Dan creates their signature sound.
Fan Interaction: Share your thoughts on “FM (No Static At All)” and let us know which other Steely Dan songs or tracks with outstanding production you’d like us to react to!
👫 Who We Are: Join us, a couple who loves exploring the nuances of music and sharing our authentic reactions and insights!
👍 Like and Subscribe: Enjoying our journey through music? Hit the like button, subscribe, and ring the bell to stay updated on our latest reactions!
💬 Join the Conversation: What do you think of Steely Dan’s “FM (No Static At All)”? Share your experiences with the song and suggest other tracks with great production for us to check out next!
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#steelydan #fm #firsttimereaction
Steely Dan is what musicians listen too!
...and Dire Straits.
At 68, I remember when I first bought a radio with an FM band right around 1970...to have only heard staticky, crackly AM in my life, the crystal clear FM, even during thunderstorms, was life-changing!
I remember those days too! FM was amazing compared to that old AM!
Exactly.
💯. And the signal travel to much further distance, and between all of that, suddenly it was possible to have songs more than 3 minutes long on the radio, and then we got the explosion of FM stations, especially FM Rock stations.
I didn't see FM until 1977 or 78. 🤔
Pioneer radio with the super tuner hooked up to a kraco Amp and with pioneer 6x9 speakers . A radio station out of Wichita KS. Playing the complete rock album on Sunday night. F.m made stereo albums/ music seem to come live . We had rock stations everywhere.
Not only was FM much better quality, but it also introduced stereo to the airwaves. It was much closer to what you would hear from music you purchased.
Steely Dan was known for their great production. They were extreme perfectionists in the studio. They used a ton of top-quality session musicians, because they wanted a certain sound out of every song, and a great musician for one song wouldn't necessarily be a great musician for another song. That's why, other than Donald and Walter, they never really had a band.
When the Rock Hall inducted SD, only Donald F' (keyboards, vocals) and Walter B'(guitar -mostly) were "the Band" - two other talents who recorded with SD had joined The Doobie Brothers, got in the R'Hall that way. Several men of the band Toto recorded with SD. The Dan would call on Jazz talents to record with, or if they need a Funk drum and Base combo. Or like a Cuban influence. Steely Dan are like the Rabbit-hole into Wonderland. I heard a number of songs, on FM radio, in the early 80's, when I was a teen - eventually, "All these songs are by this same band!!" so, I started buying albums, to not just wait for FM to play The Dan.
The most classy rock band ever. Just listening to Steely Dan’s makes you feel and sound cool…🤘🏼😎
I've never heard a single song of Steely Dan that wasn't good. I've been listening to them for over forty years and they never get old. Outstanding Duo.
I don't care much for Barry Town...but Everything else is Beyond good...I am 69, not unlike Pink Floyd, SD can have diff effects on you as you get older...
The first few albums are uneven.
Steely Dan is a very worthwhile rabbit hole to explore - the way they bring in variations to the songs is pretty unique
with Steely Dan you've opened the door to jazz , rock , blues fusion . enjoy the journey .
Whatever genre music you're into, everyone is fine with Steely Dan.
Oh where to start.. You've entered a rabbit hole that you won't regret not coming out of!
on this song - Donald Fagen - vocals, piano, Walter Becker - electric guitar, bass, Jeff Porcaro - drums, percussion, Victor Feldman -percussion, Pete Christlieb - tenor saxophone, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Tim Schmit - backing vocals, Johnny Mandel - string arrangements. Steely Dan was basically Donald and Walter, with the best musicians around for each song. You'll love their "Deacon Blues", "Aja" and "Josie" from the Grammy Award winning album Aja. The album Aja won Best Engineered Recording - Non-Classical.
When the Eagles sing background. This song is great
You missed Skunk Baxter- lead guitar and some percussion
People who sell high quality hifi used Aja to ‘test’ the turntable! I bet it sold well 🤣
In the Steely Dan song "Everything You Did" there's a lyric "Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening"... irony, the Eagles are on this track as backing vocals.
Steely Dan's vibe will remain fairly consistent and the recording / production quality will remain top notch all the way through.
Your favorite band's favorite band. The Dan production, arrangement, musicianship is the finest.
I was a DJ in AM radio back in the early 70s and can assure you AM was more than news and talk, in fact it was mostly music. FM was just starting to get traction country wide. That signaled the death of AM as a music platform. While it’s still around, it is fading. The static is and was an issue but AM will always have the ability to bounce of the ionosphere and reach much farther. If SHTF ever happens it will needed !!!!!!!!!
WCFL
Steely Dan evolved from their early pop/rock sound to the later Jazz/pop sound like you just heard. Pure studio perfectionists but always surrounded themselves with the top studio musicians of the time. Amazing sounds!!!
AM radio WAS radio until the late 60's. Once FM arrived we suddenly had music with no static. Not even lightning made static. It was wonderful. Early FM stations (due to lack of advertisers) became famous for playing whole album sides. We often called FM stations "album stations". Almost everything switched to FM and AM became the realm of news, sports, and talk-radio that it is today.
Steely Dan!❤❤❤❤ Without doubt they're my "desert island" band. The foundation of SD is Walter Becker and Donald Fagan and they bring in an array of exceedingly talented musicians depending on the track.
I remember carefully positioning my turquoise transistor radio and antenna in a desperate attempt to get a clear AM signal to hear my favorite songs. FM was life-changing!
So many Steely Dan greats:
- Rikki Don't Lose That Number
- Black Cow
- Deacon Blues
- Don't Take Me Alive
- Babylon Sisters
- Josie
- Asia
- Peg
- Kid Charlemagne
- Pretzel Logic
Decades after first hearing songs like these, I feel the pull to spend a few hours groovin to the Dan.
The production quality and talent on display will always satisfy.
I worked at an FM station as a DJ from 1978-1980 and really identified with this song and used to play it on the air. We had 100,000 watts of power and covered quite an area. When I started working there we switched our format from elevator music to album rock. This allowed me to become familiar with great artists from different genres such as Steely Dan, Gino Vanilla, Rush, the Bee Gees, Earth Wind & Fire and many others. I still love each of them today. Every song from Steely Dan is fantastic. Give Aja a try. Many live sound engineers use Steely Dan to set up their systems because the recording and mixing is such high quality.
Newsflash: this is the tip of the iceberg. You guys are gonna LOVE the Steely Dan catalog.
Understatement of all time!!! My No. 1 duo, Donald and Walter and their incredible collaboration with the other musicians! Perfection sought and usually achieved.
Sooo many hits! Next try:
Hey Nineteen
Peg
Rikki Don't Lose that Number
My Old School
Reelin' in the Years
Do it again
AJA!! The whole album!!
Haitian Divorce
Don't waste time cherry picking a few hits - every album has more hidden gems than the single or two. Listeners cheat themselves by not listening to whole albums.
This, my friends, is a very deep rabbit hole!
At the time FM was brand new, AM was the TOP 40 radio station that you could follow week to week to see what new music was introduced. Then you could switch over to FM to hear the album or "long" version of that song you didn't hear on AM. Wonderful time to be alive.....
In the '60s and, even in the '70s, most cars only had AM radio. AM did play music more back then. Sam's comment about content is more valid today than it was about back then. It cost extra to get a car with FM, so not that many cars had it. People began adding under-the-dash 8-track players so they could play their own music. When we cleaned out my parent's estate, we came across an FM tuner that you had to insert into an 8-track player so you could have FM in your car.😂
remember having to jam a match book at one end of the 8 track after a while or it would drag...good times.
Aja the album is his came from is considered one of the best produced album ever.
It's apparently used to test how good a sound system really is.
Another vote for Aja
Without a doubt…… THE BEST !!
Yes Dear Brothers and Sisters.... This is the Type of Music we ALL LOVED AND ENJOYED When we Walked in the MALL in the 70s. Very Early 80s. Shopping. Then when we got in our Car. BRING IT BACK....
Once I got wrapped up in it, that sax solo at the end was so phenomenal, and I could have listened to it for easily twice as long. Such a masterful elocution, and so agile between very recognizable structures and punching the point home and making it all very danceable, and yet just really going for some really difficult nuanced technical flourishes and ornamentation that really felt right. And it was so fun; it felt so engaged.
I'm over 60 years old AM radio until the 80s was the predominant way we listened to music. Most cars only had AM radios and most of us at home had small radios with AM only. The 80s changed that though in the 70s it was available. As far as Steely Dan Donald Fagen and Walter Becker (RIP) they used studio musicians (Toto band members are in many of their music) are beyond epic IMHO. I have 3 bands that are in my personal best ...Chicago Rush and Steely Dan. The Dan is an awesome and epic rabbit hole. Enjoy the adventure 🔥🔥🔥
If you put jazz, blues, r&b and rock in a blender, that’s SD. Their album Aja was widely considered one of the best albums of the era and every stereo shop used it to demo equipment. My all time favorite band.
WLS from Chicago was an AM rock powerhouse station in my youth. You could get it over a huge area. It went to talk radio in the 90's
Best band EVER !!!! I love THE DAN !!! Many decades of the best music ……… have fun, THE DAN will NOT disappoint …… 🥰😘
This was later in their initial run (1972-1980). Best to go back to their debut and hit Do It Again.
Most rock stations were originally on AM then FM came along with a more crisp clear sound.
Once again someone's University is wrong.
Steely Dan is fabulous. You should definitely listen to more of their work. Peg, Josie, Rickki Don't Lose that Number, Reelin' in the Years, Aja, Hey Nineteen, Dirty Work, Deacon Blues ... not a bad song in the bunch. They are a class act.
I remember buying and installing an FM converter to my AM radio in my first car. (68 Chevy SS. 4 doors, green in color) Then installed the stereo speakers. Then the cassette player, Took some time and money but is a priceless memory.
funny how a song can give us a glimpse in history. "No static at all." thank goodness for FM!!
In the Southwest I can say in the late sixties music stations were all AM and very few FM station if any at all. Power station that covered large like KOMA and XROK-80 ruled the air waves covering multiple states. I lived about 400 miles away from both these stations with best reception at night.
Then FM came on the scene in the early 70's and the sound was so much better. I think around 73 when I first started listening/ found FM stations in my area.
I love this song back then and now.
Need to do Aja, Deacon Blues, Kid Charlemagne, My Old School, Black Friday, Josie and the list goes on and on. Yes, SD is one of the most technically proficient bands. Their recording process was meticulous and perfectionist. This is a different version than i’m used to. The other version has a guitar solo outro rather than the sax.
When i was young, i remember rocking out to steely Dan down in mexico.great days
FM’s introduction was Huge! We mostly had radios (everywhere 😊). FM stations brought ALBUMS!!
AM mostly played Top Hits if the time. Which was cool but we wanted more! FM opened up a lot for artists and there album Projects! Many FM stations played the long versions of songs or entire albums! ❤❤
Love that you listened to the album cut of this one - there was an edited single that while good, cuts out the sax solo at the end. You mentioned the production quality - you're not going to ever hear a "muddy" Steely Dan tune. As a child born in the 60's and growing up in the 70's, I very much remember the transition from AM to FM radio. Back in the day, all you had in the car was an AM radio - and you might have FM on the "hi-fi" at home, but there weren't many stations out there. I definitely remember listening to pop on AM radio when I was a kid. FM became more widespread when I was a teenager and you started seeing FM radios in cars. You had the stations that played pop or country or whatever - then you had the "album rock" stations - that's where the good stuff was. Keep on enjoying Steely Dan, they'll never disappoint.
AM radio was the way it was done for decades, so it was a whole lot more than news. But it especially was important because there was a lot of regionalism to it as well. This is how Regional music might be heard mixed in with the latest Hank Williams hit or something, for example. But they also had the equivalent of Television dramas, where they were these masterful radio Studio Productions on a nothing budget , and it would be broadcast over AM radio and whole families would sit down around the family radio, just like it was a television, and listen to these dramas.
But when there was national news like War stuff, or later, an assassination, families would gather tightly around the radio and hunch forward taking in every word and sound.
AM stands for amplitude modulation, which is kind of a simpler affair because you are communicating the music or the sound of voices or whatever by regulating the amplitude or the volume of the wave. But with the more modern FM, frequency modulation, now you are manipulating the frequency of it, and it turns out that now it's not as dependent on maintaining that volume over a long distance, the data is instead being communicated by varying the frequency of the signal, how long the individual wavelengths are, and so it takes less energy and it travels a much further distance and it's much more resistant to electrical and electronic disturbances and noise.
Pete Christlieb - monumental tenor sax solo!!!!
Even though you guys weren't there at the time, I feel you really get it. For us boomers, from static to stereo blew our musical minds. As you astutely noted, it was a great time
I grew up at the end of the AM transistor radio era. It was the place for contemporary music until the mid-seventies when FM with no static and stereo offerings took over. I remember it being played on the school bus in my youth. AM radio tried to compete with innovations into stereo format, but it did not sound as clear. Like Samantha stated, AM radio stations now are primarily used for news, religion and foreign language. Deep rabbit hole to explore in Steely Dan. You may start off with their first hit "Do IT Again".
I've never been a fan of jazz as a rule, but the "jazz fusion" (rock + jazz) sound of Steely Dan is an absolute exception!
They have a deep catalog and you won't go wrong with the suggestions included here. "Peg," "Do It Again," and "Reelin' In The Years" are a few great ones to continue your SD journey.
This band has so many songs with so many different styles and songs ,I was big fan, a lot of people made fun of me beacuse I listened to them,now everyone learned they are great musicians with jazz,fusion,rock,pop,all in one band Thier two staple songs are realing in the years, Rikki don't loose that number, but they got tons of great stuff enjoy this ride
Steely Dan "The Royal Scam" entire Album is Excellent as with most of their other works!
All that early rock and roll music was played on the AM stations. An iconic picture is a 60s youth walking around with his AM transistor radio held up to his ear.
If you haven't seen it, George Lucas' movie American Graffiti is a great representation of that era. And Wolfman Jack playing tunes on the AM radio!
"Deacon Blues" 🔥🔥🔥
AM was the dominant format for years until the early to mid 70's and this was a dig at the static you get from power lines and lightning as well as the sound quality of FM.
There is a story that Steely Dan had to take out the line " no static at all" to get airplay on AM stations.
This came out about the time friends were introducing me to Dave Brubeck and early contemporary jazz and I joke that Steely Dan was a gateway drug for me into jazz.
You should check out the movie, there are appearances by Linda Ronstadt, Jimmy Buffet, REO Speedwagon and Tom Petty.
Welcome to Steely Dan, one of my favorite bands-- smart, musical, subversive, and fun. You've come to the right place for sound quality--they were audio perfectionists, and are renowned for having fantastic composition, sonics, and playing. They would audition famous musicians until they found exactly the right ones for a particular track and sound. As you may have noticed, the musicians are fantastic. Their music is rich and deep, and rewards close attention and repeated listening--there's lots there.
No coincidentally, the Dan's ode to FM radio's lush production demonstrates the breakthrough that FM was.
AM was the first, and only type of radio from the 20s or so to the 60s when FM was introduced. AM had static and limited sound quality, and FM was clean and lush. Low power College FM stations emerged as the source of smart, hip music. Steely Dan fit that format perfectly.
"Give her some funked up Muzak (elevator music), she treats you nice"
If you listen closely, Fagen sings "funked up" so that it rhymes with "ducked up" 😆 That's The Dan--if you get it, you get it. And you're right--on of SD's strengths is an unconventional, unpredictable, brilliant fusion of rock, blues, and jazz. IMO a very rich vein! I recommend you listen in chronological order, to experience their brilliant evolution.
I recommend Do It Again from their first album, Can't Buy A Thrill. Once you hear a few songs, you're going to want to hear them all anyway. All my best!
Great reaction from you both....Steely Dan always have great production value and their arrangement skills are second to none, btw Steely Dan were Donald Fagen & the late Walter Becker, they hired the best session musicians for their albums and tours, you should definitely check out more as there's a wealth of incredible material from them....would love to see a reaction to "Peg" or "Home at last" by them but pretty much everything they did is excellent.
More Steely Dan please
This is a song made for the movie FM 1978 ,it was a flop but the soundtrack album was a million seller
My favorite Steely Dan song is "My Old School". Great song which involves some history.
For those old enough to remember, AM radio (mono) was king, until the very late 1960's, then FM radio blew up the industry. For the very first time, everyone was going crazy with headphones, stereo was the place to be. It was a HUGE boost for musicians and radio/stereo/headphone manufacturing. Think "internet boom" type groundbreaking change.
Time out of mind is my fav, its about smoking opium or herion, chasing the dragon
More Steely Dan
Reelin' in the years
Do it again
Rikki don't lose that number
Peg
Dirty Work
Deacon blues
Hey Nineteen
Black cow
Don't take me alive
and Josie
Steely Dan is a vibe! I have several of their songs on my playlist.
Check out their other stuff
Hey Nineteen
Black Cow
Peg
Steely Dan always had exceptional producing and engineering of their albums. Some audio stores used to use Steely Dan albums to showcase the quality of their stereo equipment in the showrooms because of how well they were recorded. It didn't hurt that there were top notch musicians playing the music either.
STEELY DAN IS YOUR FAVORITE BAND'S FAVORITE BAND.
In the 1960's, I listened to "68, WRKO" out of Boston. I lived in New Hampshire. RKO was top 40 radio. In the early 70's, FM came about and WBCN in Boston and another Boston station started playing music in stereo; one played the right channel and the other the left channel. After a year or two BCN became the first station in Massachusetts to have a stereo transmitter.
Words are not enough when it comes to Steely Dan.
Believe it ir not, 3 of The Eagles sang background vocals on this. Henley, Frey and Timothy B Schmitt.
Lots of diversity to Steely Dan but the sound quality is always top notch. I recommend "Hey Nineteen".
AM music radio ruled North America with nothing but Pop Hits until the late 60s. FM stations started programming Album Rock and Alternative/Progressive Rock and it morphed into a billion dollar industry. FM radio (Frequency Modulated) had a very clean broadcast sound, No Static at All. The movie FM was set around a fictional FM Rock radio station. FYI- that was Pete Christlieb playing the Sax.
I'm 68 and back in the day AM was all that we had. There were 3 stations that played rock music. FM was a revelation! Def do more Steely Dan. Pick a song, any song! Also, this song comes from a cool movie called FM that takes place behind the scenes of an FM rock station. For sax solos check out "Jungleland" by Springsteen with the great Clarence Clemons on sax
more steely dan can't go wrong !
Chillax to Steely Dan !
Steely Dan at its best.
Oh what a glorious rabbit hole to dive into….♡
And a take it home sax! These guys were really good! Thanks for sharing this one.
These guys are so hip and cool. They are perfectionists and there’s so much music out there by them. Everything is different. Becker and Fagan were intellectuals very well read with a very dark sense of humor. The more you get into them the more you understand they started as a group put out a couple albums, and then decided they were tired of touring. Went into the studio, pulled the best musicians from all over and created nothing other than masterpieces. Enjoy. You really want to dig deep into this band.
SD high ultra quality music and recordings with creative deep lyrics with highest quality sound production. SD pure musical genius.
Sam was feelin' it! You guys are going to love The Dan. It's all good! Always the best studio musicians joining Donald and Walter. And the recording quality is second to none. When you wanted to test a stereo in the '70s and '80s, you put on Steely Dan.
200,000.
Nice work guys.
I can only imagine the work involved.
Yes, of course there was music ! they were all on AM since FM wasn t there yet ! I remember my rock station when they switched to FM ! CHOM 97.7 FM. the spirit of Montreal ! still there to this day ! 😎
This song was done for the 1978 movie FM.
Great reaction! Steely Dan had such a nice sound
Radio was all AM before the Seventies, and featured a wide range of programming before the advent of broadcast television in the late forties. The rise of Rock and Roll in the mid Fifties brought the rise of the Top 40 format in radio. FM brought in AOR - Album-Oriented Rock - which really accelerated with the introduction of stereo broadcasting. But the Eighties brought in MTV and the rise of computers and the Internet brought in file-sharing and streaming, which is how most people listen to popular music today.
Sax was killin' it. Love Steely Dan.
GREAT OPENING. WOW.
I bought the double vinyl album when it came out in 78, it was a compilation album with various Artists from Steely Dan to Doobie Brothers to Linda Ronstadt and whole host of other great Artists and tracks.
Steely Dan are their own genre
I love first time Steely Dan reactions!
FM became a thing when I was a teen.
Think you would like them doing Babylon Sisters or Hey Nineteen.
The AM stations had stronger signals and can reach further distances. (100’s of miles) FM signals were more condensed (can only reach about 50 miles) I live in central Washington state and could hear AM rock stations from San Francisco (after 9 pm)
Yes I could get Chicago stations in PA on AM back then.
You have to check out "Rikki don't lose that number" and "Do it again" by Steely Dan!
Steely Dan! Your favorite bands favorite band 🔥🤘✌
No... actually everything including music was all on AM , music migrated to FM because of the better quality. Back then we used to record whole albums from FM radio shows.
I did my recording on Saturday’s KC Kasem’s American top 100. Sometimes he would talk too much and I would have to wait until the next week to see if I could get a clean recording haha. Simpler times back then. ✌🏻
Steely Dan used some of the best session musicians in the game. The musicianship is always 10/10 , extraordinary playing.
My favorite band of all time. In Dec. 1980 I celebrated the end of freshman year final exams by listening to every Steely Dan album from Can’t Buy a Thrill through Gaucho straight thru in one sitting. It was glorious. 😎
There are two versions of this song... one with a guitar outro, and the other with a sax outro. The guitar outro version is more well known, but the sax outro version is great too. There is also an extended version where someone took the sax outro version and tacked on the guitar outro version onto the end of it.
Steely Dan always has such great Jazz/Rock fusion.
Timeless song with great vibes!
SD music is never predictable. That’s what makes them stand out, utilizing top notch musicians and production.
You have stepped into a very deep well of some of the best music ever created!
Welcome to Dan Land ! Best band ever ~ Donald Fagen and Walter Becker (R.I.P) surrounded themselves with the best musicians around to play their "creations" ~ I was Blessed to see them open for the band, The Guess Who in the early 70's in Chicago. I was 15 years old ~ they entered my soul that day and have resided there ever since.
I've heard it said that Steely Dan is probably your favorite band's favorite band.
Steely Dan was Walter Becker and Donald Fagan and literally every other musician on the album was a hand picked studio musician.
They combined jazz, blues and rock into some of the best quality music that you'll ever hear. Their music is masterfully complex, but infinitely fun to listen to.
For your next visit with them I’d suggest starting from the beginning with the first cut of the first album “Can’t Buy a Thrill”. One of the best debut albums of the last century.
This song has always been on my laid back evening Playlist
Finally! Best concert I ever attended was Steely Dan in Mt. Pleasant MI in 1976(?) They did three encores and the crowd went crazy. Later they were spotted at the town's only 24/7 diner. Guess they were too wired or stoned to head back to the hotel. Tons of great songs: Peg, Reelin In the Years, Rikki Don't Lose That Number, Deacon Blues and many more.
AM was the first broadcasting signals on the airwaves. AM = amplitude modulation. AM stations were originally like TV and radio, the internet all in one. Music, Comedy, Drama. News. Sports. Everything. When TV became popular AM radio focused on music and entertainment. FM radio did not become popular until the 1960s and 1970s. FM = frequency modulation. FM waves were free of static, had more bandwidth and could play in stereo. As FM became the preferred for music in the 70s and 80s AM radio then switched to sports, news, etc.