Steely Dan - Two Against Nature POLL

...

I think I've only heard this once. I'll stick around for the Everything Must Go poll, though.

check out "Jack Of Speed." and then vote for it.

In Praise Of: Steely Dan - Janie Runaway

The dullest album they've ever released. I can hum "Cousin Dupree," at least.

"Gaslighting Abbey" is real good & "Janie Runaway" is one of DF's ugliest creeps ever ("Who has a friend named Melanie?/Who's not afraid to try new things?/Who gets to spend her birthday in Spain?/possibly you, Janie Runaway" - easily the skeeziest since "Everyone's Gone to the Movies") and I also like "West of Hollywood" but "Jack of Speed" wins this one in a walk - the groove is awesome and those are just spot-on druggie friend lyrics - really love "Sheena's party, there's a case in point/that right-wing hooey sure stunk up the joint" but every line in it carries its own weight.

i love "Jack of Speed". And "Cousin Dupree" actually, especially the PBS Special version. But since this is an album poll, i'll throw my vote in Jack's corner.

i love the chord changes in west of hollywood.

i dunno...tough one...janie runaway or jack of speed probably

Wow! Soto in a rare moment of wrongness here. Fwiw, I hated this album when I first heard it. But I was doing the dishes, NOT the way to introduce yourself to a new SD album. Now I'll take it over several of their 1970s titles that shall remain nameless. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say that for the sheer joy of language, it's the best, most exuberantly in the title cut which reads like an early treatment for Angel Heart. Endlessly quotable, this album. "Who has a friend named Melanie?" may be their best lyric ever. And who besides many parents could loathe this remarkable verse from "Cousin Dupree":

"She said maybe it's the skeevy look in your eyes
Or that your mind has turned to applesauce
The dreary architecture of your soul
I said - but what is it exactly turns you off?"

I went with "Almost Gothic" for its revival of the one-line verse from "Through With Buzz." And because steelydan.com tells us that the chorus starts one line later than it actually does.

I voted for "Janie Runaway", because like John said, it's got the overwhelming skeeze going for it. "Cousin Dupree" is pretty skeezy too, but it's also trying way too hard.

Right now it's a tie between 'Almost Gothic' and 'West of Hollywood' for me

Am I missing some reference in the "Who's got a friend Melanie" line?

Kevin John Bozelka has a friend named Melanie. I didn't get the reference either, had to look it up on Bozelkapedia.

Kudos for avoiding references to "Brand New Key."

It has been several years, and I heard it on my iPod *shrug*

My take on "Who has a friend named Melanie" is that it illustrates the limit of his knowledge about Janie's life.

xp
At least we know what Owen Wilson's voting!

I haven't gotten myself into late SD yet, still waiting for that urge to set in

RE: "Melanie", he's just trying to set up some kind of menage situation, no? I always thought that was implied in the following line. Don't think it's a reference to anything.

Vaguely OTM. "Who has a friend named Melanie?/Who's not afraid to try new things?" is a creepy old man talking to/about his teenaged girlfriend as one might talk to a young child: "Who wants spaghetti for dinner?" Only he's talking about bribing her into talking her friend Melanie into joining them in the bedroom: "Who gets to spend her birthday in Spain? Possibly you!" Super-ick, awesome.

haha - yes indeed!

oh, it's between Almost Gothic and West Of Hollywood for me too.

What a shame about my vote, evidently.

Thank you, J0hn D! You ought to set up a Paypal account for ILM services rendered.

I'm very close to yielding...

Yield. And stop doing the dishes!

I listen to a lot of great dishes while doing the dishes (it helps). You've confused me with jaymc.

"I listen to a lot of great dishes" could be the subtitle to this album.

"What a Shame About Me" I really like, so that one

You've confused me with jaymc.

Wait, what? I used to listen to music while doing the dishes in my last apartment, but now the computer's too far away.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

oh that's ridiculous.

eh singles almost always win these SD polls.

still there were at least 3 people (including me) that indicated they were definitely voting for "Jack Of Speed"!

eh singles almost always win these SD polls.

In this case it's probably a combination of "couldn't work up enough interest in the album to vote" and "the album wasn't interesting enough to wait for the hidden gems to surface."

This reminds me of "Almost Gothic":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxStmceNTs8

the first line of "almost gothic" is:

I'm living on gospel time these days

what is "gospel time"

we put this on in the car and half an hour later i realized it was still on. wallpaper album. i love gaucho though so i like this one too but i literally forgot/didn't realize i was listening to it

You maybe got lucky for a few good years
But there's no way back from there to here

The Dan on The Today Show in 2000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2I2SPRCEPo

"Peg", "Jack of Speed", "Kid Charlemagne", and a bonus "Black Friday"

Jack of Speed and Almost Gothic are as good as the 70s stuff