Rate Steely Dan's albums

[Tracy 2112]

We're just going to do the golden years > 72-77
6 killer albums in 6 years

1- Katy Lied
2- Can't Buy a Thrill
3- Aja
4- Countdown to Ecstasy
5- The Royal Scam
6- Pretzel Logic

[Shug]

Katy Lied
Aja
Countdown To Ecstasy
The Royal Scam (for Kid Charlemagne alone!)
Pretzel Logic
Can't Buy A Thrill

Comparing how they sounded at Countdown To Ecstasy to Aja is almost like they became a completely different band.  Aja is one of those nearly perfect albums for me.  The drum break by Steve Gadd in the title track is one of my all time favorite drum "solos".  The production on that album is so over the top slick and smooth, and some people hate it for that while others love it.  The thing for me about the Dan is that while the music in the late 70s was super smooth "yacht rock" bordering on easy listening, the lyrical topics were about lowlifes, drug addicts, and skanks.  I love that irony that probably went unnoticed by a huge part of their audience.

Katy Lied is tops for me because of the songwriting, which I think was probably their best.  Pretzel Logic has not stood the test of time as well for me, so I ranked it lower.  I've come to appreciate Countdown To Ecstasy even more than when I first got into in in the mid 80s.  The Boston Rag is so ferocious, a song I didn't fully appreciate until I heard them play a rip-snorting version live sometime on the last couple tours.  Denny Dias and Skunk Baxter were shredding on Countdown, its probably their best guitar solo album. also the horn section on My Old School is so ripping good, I just love a good horn section.  But Larry Carlton's solo on Kid Charlemagne is still in my top five guitar solos of all time, it sends me into spasms of happiness every time.

I love Steely Dan, thanks for the reminder, Tracy!

[Jaimoe]

They are another sad example of video killing the radio star.

[exist10z]

1.) The Royal Scam
2.) Aja
3.) Pretzel Logic
4.) Countdown to Ecstasy
5.) Katy Lied
6.) Can't Buy A Thrill

For me it's The Royal Scam hands down, but that's because it has most of my favorite single songs, not necessarily the overall album quality (though in a sense I guess that's the same thing) - Kid Charlemagne, Don't Take Me Alive, the Fez; and Haitian Divorce is probably my favorite Steely Dan song period.

Aja was really my introduction to SD, so it holds a special place, hence second.  My dad got it on vinyl when it first came out, actually it might have been a promo copy, he got those a lot as a good friend worked at a record station.  So I was maybe 12 and that album was on heavy rotation for awhile and I really loved it.

The rest, honestly, I am equally fond of them.  I think they are all brilliant to one extent or another.  Steely Dan are so under-rated IMO.  Yeah, I guess as Shug said, some might think of them as 'soft' rock or 'easy' listening, but I don't hear them that way at all.  I hear brilliant musicianship and songwriting, jazz elements, and witty/interesting lyrics.  A combination not many bands have mastered.  I am a big fan.

I actually have some live tracks they recorded in LA around 1974, at the Record Plant I think, but they were amazing and improvisational live as well.  Sure they are still great live, I have to catch them at some point.