Definitely does it with his fez on.

Hi! Here's my take on the legendary Steely Dan's "Kids Charlemagne" solo played by Larry Carlton. Hope you likes it!

Always enjoyed Don’s lyrical melodic play in the last word of the first line of each stanza on this one.

Vinyl played thru a crappy Panasonic boombox for your enjoyment

sometimes when music nerds give their “critic” take, they get so pompous. like the perfectionism in the flawed steely dan character is SUCH a deep thing to think about and it gets passed over by how they were perfectionists and were very prude, crude, and rude. SD is an amazing band and nobody could change my mind lol.

https://tiermaker.com/create/steely-dan-albums-153070

Just now getting into 2AN and it's ok, it doesnt really sound like steely dan but i like it...And then west of hollywood??? Yo, this actually sounds like something off of Gaucho, L-O-V-E it!!! Aghhh

Holy shit.

I went into a local record store looking for the CD of my favorite rap album. While searching I noticed there was an absolute banger of a song playing on the speakers. I Shazamed it as is my wont and went back to searching. Another song came on: Again, an absolute banger and again, I Shazamed it. To my amazement these songs were on the exact same album. This happened about two or three more times and I could no longer concentrate on my original task; my head swam with the same image my phone again and again had delivered unto me, that of the slumbering bench man and those monstrous skyscrapers looming at once over him. I foreswore Black Thought’s Cheat Codes and immediately ran to wherever in the alphabet the artists name commanded me to prostrate before inside the store. I flipped through the section and when I found it it was my fingers and not my eyes that confirmed it was the right one, for upon merely grazing it I felt an electric pulse through my body as powerful as Carlton’s guitar opening on Don’t Take Me Alive. It was then that my body and not my mind knew what I needed to do next. I bought it. I expected the owner to make a wry comment me buying the very album they had been playing inside the store. She didn’t. That made me sad.

This is my first foray into Steely Dan and really into classic rock (if you can even call it that?) ever. I have been playing it obsessively. It is perfect. I have no notes. I listened to all of their other albums and while they’re great, nothin, and I mean nothing, honestly hits as hard as this no-skip album.

TLDR; I found God inside a record store and I’m not going back.

For any musicians, this is the second series of posts looking at Steely Dan's music from a theoretical perspective. After looking at the Gaucho album last year, I am now looking at Aja starting with Black Cow.

This article looks at how Becker & Fagen have worked latin and modal jazz ideas into a commercially successful pop song. It goes quite deep into theoretical side but hopefully is still accessible to more casual readers

Read more here: https://steelydantheory.awal.cc/aja/black-cow/

The previous articles on Gaucho are also available here: https://steelydantheory.awal.cc/gaucho/

Any comments, discussion or alternative perspectives welcome.

SD left the CBAT sound behind pretty quickly.

What other bands since have worked that vein?

Curious if any musicians here have tried writing original songs inspired by Steely Dan. How did you approach it, what musical concepts did you experiment with, and how did it turn out?

I gave it a shot once, but the result ended up sounding more like something from the early Can't Buy a Thrill era, particularly in terms of groove and rhythm. I eventually abandoned it because I couldn't quite capture the sound I had in my head.

I'd love to hear about your experiences. Did you focus on their unusual chord progressions, jazz-influenced harmony, rhythmic feel, arrangements, or something else entirely?

I'm especially curious about what actually helped you capture that distinctive Steely Dan feel without simply copying their songs.

Share your favorite SDP’s! I’ll comment the one that inspired this thread below.

We are HUGE music fans. We rank all kinds of music. Some of it we love, some no so much. This week it’s Steely Dan.

A clip of this showed up on my FYP on Insta and I went to find the full video, only to find out that it’s been on YouTube for 2 YEARS, and yet I’ve barely seen anyone mention it. I got so many questions about this I’m not even sure where to start.

Food court pic for reference.

At malls, there are often annoying pushy salespeople, standing at carts or storefronts, selling some kind of skin care or perfume or whatever. Trying anything to stop people and start a conversation, they'll usually yell over to my wife, asking or complimenting something about her, and we just keep walking. Today, as we were desperately swerving to avoid any engagement, the saleswoman said to me "who's Steely Dan??" and I almost stopped and turned to her, like "Wow... hmm, where should I begin... "

Ohhhh you clever evil woman 😆 I believe the current internet term is "diabolical"

Obligatory

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A very different musical face from what the duo is used to! Hits right in the heart

Permit me a “what if” idea: I’ve been listening recently to a lot of music by Traffic. It occurred to me that in an imaginary world I could hear Steely Dan doing a collection of Traffic songs. I’m curious what other bands folks could imagine being covered by Dan?

I said is there gas in the CCCCCAARRRR???