Steely Dan title tracks

"Gaucho" without a second's hesitation. The way Fagen struggles to sing the loquacious chorus while the backup outsings him is only on eof its charms.

SEE THE GLORY OF THE ROYAL SCAM.

No doubt.

Love all those little fills that Larry Carlton does on that one and how the backing vocals kick in during the choruses.

not technically a title track but the answer is "doctor wu"

out of the real title tracks, it's aja or gaucho. aja is an overwhelming sonic experience, but "gaucho" is one of the few dan songs that actually tugs on my heartstrings.

might have to flip a coin

A poll of SD's last songs on albums would kill too.

It's between Pretzel Logic and Gaucho for me. Two very different ends of the Steely Dan experience. Pretzel Logic is one of my favorite rough and tumble early Dan songs. Gaucho is sublime.

Royal Scam is a great song, but couldn't be a favorite. Like, not trying to knock it, but I'd rank it last out of all the songs on the album.

Aja is beautiful, but maybe overshoots its mark a smidge. Was there ever a radio edit? Gaucho feels like a correction in that regard.

Anytime I listen to the reunion stuff, my ears curdle. I have no memory of these two particular tracks.

yeah Alfred i thought about that one, actually, kinda figure Third World Man would wipe the floor w/the competition. i think a poll of leadoff tracks would be a real close race however.

"Pretzel Logic" by miles--one of my favourite SD songs in any context.

yeah Alfred i thought about that one, actually, kinda figure Third World Man would wipe the floor w/the competition. i think a poll of leadoff tracks would be a real close race however.

Their lead tracks were often singles too.

Somebody dissed Gadd's drum solo in the big SD poll thread and that stuck with me; now I find it overwrought. (The Shorter solo still great--have we polled Dan solos by instrument?)

so I'm gonna go with the (bodacious) Gaucho...

Pretzel Logic - excellent and unfussy, with a really eye-opening chorus coming out of a simple shuffle
The Royal Scam - the last "heart-on-sleeve" Dan song? I like it a lot but Fagen seems unsure of how to deliver the vocal
Aja - the song is very good, the instrumental interlude is, yes, overwrought. I edited it out in my version
Gaucho - my least favourite Dan song, and no-one has said a convincing word to explain its appeal to me
Two Against Nature - underrated, the most spritely song from this album in a clever 6/4
Everything Must Go - a pretty limp envoi, and I like the album more than most

I'm voting for the song about Hitler.

Gaucho - my least favourite Dan song, and no-one has said a convincing word to explain its appeal to me

For me it's in the last minute when the guitars and the keyboard and horn section get into the most ebullient syncopation of their career, and Fagen for once shuts up.

the last "heart-on-sleeve" Dan song?

what about your least fav dan song "gaucho"?

calling the aja instrumental section overwrought is like calling the trevi fountain "a bit much"

the last "heart-on-sleeve" Dan song?

what about your least fav dan song "gaucho"?

It's mocking the singer, his boyfriend and the gaucho, amigo, I don't hear any feelings in it.

But the melodies is pure sunshine. I've nicknamed one of my best mates the Gaucho b/c of his habit of overdressing for the wrong occasion years ago (he loves SD).

I don't hear mockery -- lyrics aren't everything! They've got meaner songs.

is = are

The groove in "Gaucho" is totally 70s afternoon talk show, it's lost me even before the melody comes in. I don't like Keith Jarrett that much, either.

Best solo album title track: "Circus Money". Your other choices are "The Nightfly", "Morph the Cat" and who can forget "Morph the Cat (Reprise)" - once wasn't enough?!? Walter Becker is the only songwriter who I can imagine trying to write a song called "11 Tracks of Whack".

Aja is like a Steely Dan symphony

Hmmm I am unexpectedly digging "Everything Must Go" !

wish I would've held off on voting

I love "Everything Must Go" -- helluva sax solo.

Wayne Shorter’s solo on “Aja” may clinch it for me.

I may go with “Pretzel Logic” though, I like it more in terms of a composition.

Aja. gadd's drumming on the outro is one of my favorite things in the world. sampled and turned into an 8 minute detroit tune! can't remember the producer...

the chorus of "gaucho" is dazzling, the drumming and all that phasing and stuff is disorienting, it feels like i'm getting lightheaded in the elevator up to the custerdome.

I'm voting for the song about Hitler.

Me too, and I think this deserves its own button: "I Voted (for the song about Hitler)."

This is "Gaucho" for me but "Aja" really does give it a run for the money.

Okay they have two songs about hitler ? (Chain lightning)

Random aside, I heard Mel Brooks was given free reign to improvise on Mad About You and years ago someone posted an outtake where one of his ramblings about a beverage (I think a cocktail?) was "it's like Hitler - it does whatever it wants!" I still have no idea how Brooks came up with that.

Besides the Nazi allusion of the title, there's also "I would love to tour the Southland/In a travelling minstrel show." It's like they just wrote or something.

Supposedly Fagan said the song was about "time travel." I think he was trying to be glib, but I don't think he wasn't lying either, so he could be tying together various geographical locations and eras sharing a common but awful trait.

*Fagen

Aja. gadd's drumming on the outro is one of my favorite things in the world. sampled and turned into an 8 minute detroit tune! can't remember the producer...

It's this one by Shake! So good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKGaO4ur4_M

"Gaucho" is so pretty.

(note: I don't often make much of an effort to follow SD lyrics)

yeah, shake, how could i forget - thx! xpost

"Dr. Wu" OTM

Hadn't thought about that...for some reason, was thinking this was "opening tracks" when I voted. "Dr. Wu" is sort of a title track--wouldn't change my "Pretzel Logic" vote, but very, very close.

Challenge: rename Steely Dan albums 1, 2 and 4 after one of their songs (track listings and cover art unchanged):

Change of the Guard
Show Biz Kids
Throw Back the Little Ones

write in for "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" as the title track to Can't Buy A Thrill

If Doctor Wu was on the list it would be real easy as it's my favourite Dan song. Aja from this list

1. Midnight Cruiser
2. My Old School
4. Any World That I'm Welcome To

1. do it again (a fun first album title! steely dan do it again! for the first time!)
2. show biz kids (makes the most sense as an album title of the options)
4. doctor wu (is doctor wu the name of the bug on the cover? maybe!)

For Countdown, I'd go with one of those non-title title-tracks lifted from my favourite song: either No Marigolds in the Promised Land or Any Man Left on the Rio Grande. This'd be a fun thread idea with Neil Young albums (must be a few without title tracks, though a quick mental check says maybe not after #1).

Dirty Work would be the perfect title for the first album if only for the cover art alone.

Have I ever told y'all about the Steely Dan challenge? Try make the best possible playlist within the constraints:

- No more than one song from each release
- No more than one song from each track number, e.g. Doctor Wu cannot be on the same playlist as Time Out of Mind because they are both track 5 on their respective albums
- (Optional) Songs are sequenced according to their original track numbers, e.g. the first song on the playlist must be an album opener, if you put Doctor Wu on your playlist it must be the 5th song, etc

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7fDjCJkNGz9304Ee4QHFkV
^ One man's doomed attempt

i may give that a shot

Think I'd do it like this:

1. Do It Again (CBAT)
2. Hey Nineteen (G)
3. Any Major Dude (PL)
4. Peg (A)
5. The Fez (RS)
6. Jack of Speed (TAN)
7. Your Gold Teeth II (KL)
8. King of the World (C2E)
9. Everything Must Go (EMG)

Aja is beautiful, but maybe overshoots its mark a smidge. Was there ever a radio edit?

Is there a term for when you are 100% on board with this idea, except when you are actually listening to it?

Ajafreude

the Steely Dan challenge

Rikki Don't Lose That Number
Bad Sneakers
Kings
Peg
Time Out of Mind
My Old School
Haitian Divorce
Lunch With Gina
West of Hollywood

The algo served me something cute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs_CrLnPPms

I know people who would applaud kitty's taste.

^^^

potential Dan lyrics

We need a thread.

I finally found a use for Chatgpt

“Kitty’s Taste”

Out on the mezzanine, the martinis glow
Somebody’s laughing like they’re in the know
You lean in closer, drop that velvet phrase
“I know people who would applaud kitty’s taste”

Chrome-plated stories and a silk cravat
Names get traded like this and that
You trace the rim of your glass with grace
While the room pretends it can’t place your face
Pre-Chorus
It’s a low-lit game, it’s a curated scene
Where the lines stay blurred but the shoes stay clean

I know people who would applaud kitty’s taste
They’d raise a glass in a mirrored place
Where nothing’s real but the smiles we trade
And every little debt gets quietly paid

Midnight driver in a rented car
Says he knows exactly who you are
But the signal fades when you change the pace
And he never quite recalls your face

Cool decoders in a private lounge
Talk in circles just to keep it sound
Every angle has a price to name
Every favor feeds the same old game

I know people who would applaud kitty’s taste
In a soft-lit room with a guarded face
Where the truth slips out, then gets erased
Yeah, I know people… who’d applaud kitty’s taste

I’m not gonna hand it to AI but that could be worse

It’s a low-lit game, it’s a curated scene
Where the lines stay blurred but the shoes stay clean

Well done.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Morph the Cat" and who can forget "Morph the Cat (Reprise)" - once wasn't enough?!?

Playas playin' in the Bronx/respect to Morph the Cat

aja

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

No complants.

complaints even

I guess I shouldn't be surprised about the spread between the top 2 and the rest. I would've thought Pretzel Logic at least would get more votes.

Those “Kittie’s Taste” lyrics tho. That could easily be on TAN or EMG. Is anyone truly going to have to use their brains to be creative ever again.

Now get AI to improvise 30 different guitar solos for the song that Fagen can reject

disappointed people think those ai lyrics are good or even serviceable parody. very little of fagen/becker's economy in there

otm they're not even in the ballpark

I agree with y'all -- I've never used AI -- but you show me clean shoes and I melt.

you should check out Joe Jackson

Don't get be wrong--AI fucking sucks, and I had regrets the second after I posted the gag lyrics. But that's all they are; if anything, their failure is proof of AI's fallibility (to put it mildly).