"This is a 90s live gig with #VernonReid (Living Colour, Zig Zag Trio), #DennisChambers (#P-Funk, Santana, #SteelyDan), and JP Bourelly (#MilesDavis, Cassandra Wilson) and is an hour of both accessible and experimental jams of original material, as well as some very eccentric covers of The Meters‘ “Cissy Strut” and Sonny Sharrock’s “Dick Dogs”.
One of Steely Dan's engineers' daughters have just found a DAT tape of the infamous song that got accidentally destroyed - and it's gorgeous #SteelyDan
Fans of #theBand take note: Levon's barn studio lit up tonight for the 55th birthday of "Music from Big Pink," played live in its entirety by young #SteelyDan guitarist Connor Kennedy and illustrious others. [via IG: connorfkennedy]
"Peg" is a song by the American #rock group #SteelyDan, first released on the band's 1977 album #Aja. The track was released as a single in 1977 and reached number 11 on the #US Billboard chart in 1978 and number eight on the #CashBox chart. With a chart run of 19 weeks, "Peg" is tied with "#RikkiDontLoseThatNumber" and "#HeyNineteen" for being Steely Dan's longest-running chart hit. In #Canada, "Peg" spent three weeks at number seven in March 1978. https://youtu.be/LI7NDDQLvbo
The George Wallington Quintet (with Phil Woods and Donald Byrd) - Jazz for the Carriage Trade
I'd never heard of this album from 1956, but I was intrigued by the presence of Phil Woods and Donald Byrd, in early appearances.
You may know Woods from his appearance on Katy Lied, 20 years after this session. This recent AP release was pressed at QRP and, apart from the too small center hole (always a thing with QRP), it's a great sounding record.
Gaucho is making a second appearance here, mostly because I broke out a Japanese import. As was typical at the time, it's an immaculate pressing of a great album.
On this day 50 years ago #SteelyDan released Countdown to Ecstay’ which featured the defiant track My Old School’.
“California tumbles into the sea
That'll be the day I go back to Annandale
Tried to warn you
About Chino and Daddy Gee
But I can't seem to get to you through the U.S. Mail”
OK, I'm done with my tour of Steely Dan albums. As I expected, there was a big stylistic gap between the first 7 albums and the last 2. The top 3 or 4 are all nearly tied still, and 5 and 6 are also very close. My final rankings:
Countdown to Ecstasy
Can't Buy a Thrill
The Royal Scam
Aja
Katy Lied
Everything Must Go
Gaucho
Pretzel Logic
Two Against Nature
I was surprised by how much I liked Everything Must Go as an album. It swings throughout, and it has a nice Walter Becker main vocal on "Slang of Ages" that makes me wonder why he didn't sing more - he's got a good blues tone. Two Against Nature was also very much a jazz/jazz-rock album, and "Jack of Speed" is great, but it just doesn't move me overall. The less cohesive but more exciting Pretzel Logic edged past. #SteelyDan#MastoDan
Steely Dan — aka Walter Becker and Donald Fagen — were once considered toxically uncool. Now, they're enjoying a "Danaissance." In a new book of essays, pop-culture critic Alex Pappademas looks into why the band-that-wasn't-really-a-band is having a moment. Is it their themes of wry disillusionment, endless presence in sample-based hip-hop or famously precise approach to making music?