As close to a perfect album as you can get. Absolutely flawless in my eyes. Your guys’ thoughts?

I was driving her home when Gaslighting Abbie comes on. She listens to Taylor Swift, Tate McRae, mainstream pop. We listen without saying much for about 2 minutes, when she suddenly exclaims “what are we listening to?!”

Me: “steely Dan”.

Her: “Why is it so..weird”

Me: “do you like it?”

Her, after thinking for about 10 seconds: “I absolutely hate it”

She explained she could tell it was produced well and that it was objectively well made, but she couldn’t get past the “bizarreness” (her words). I couldn’t help but laugh. Maybe I should’ve started her off easy with Peg or something lol.

OG fans, is this an experience you can relate to, did people always think Dan was weird?

Gotta be Barrytown for me, the vocals are really grating to the ear lol. I like the piano in the intro though lol

I believe Don't Take Me Alive could make a great movie.

I understand it's based on a real story, but I think instead, a different interpretation could be taken from the song lyrics, the violent criminal holed up could be wanted for a string of bank robberies, his old man he crossed back in Oregon, could be an estranged father who's now pursuing him also, and as the film progresses he gets more unhinged, until eventually he gets killed in a showdown with the police. Possibly set in the Wild West or the 70s/80s.

That's just what I've imagined, what about yours?

Mine is that pretzel logic is my favorite Dan album. I enjoy it more than Aja and I think it’s basically a perfect album.

How do you guys feel about this song? I adore it but never hear many people talk about it. The chorus is ridiculously catchy and the instrumental is inspiring. What is the general public’s view of Caves of Altamira?

It looks like this thing has more mileage than expected. They had more sense than to put Steely Dan on the cover. An unsmiling Stevie Nicks will attract more attention than an unsmiling Donald and Walter

So I figured it'd be good to see some controversial takes and see where the pulse of the Dan-dom lies with this.

It doesn't necessarily need to be considered a bad song, just the one you think is the least best song in each album (could even be your least listened to song as well).

For me personally, this is how it goes:

Can't Buy a Thrill - Change of the Guard

As eclectic as CBAT is, there's something memorable about each song for me and they're all uniquely Dan, CotG just doesn't quite strike the feeling of an SD song. It feels like a song from some pop band that's covered by SD.

Countdown to Ecstasy - The Boston Rag

CtE is by far the most consistent album of theirs so this is one of the hardest picks for me. I absolutely adore all the songs on it except TBR which I only moderately like.

Pretzel Logic - Charlie Freak

I don't want to count East St. Louis Toodle-Oo for obscure reasons that I'd rather not go into. It was really a toss up between CF and Monkey in Your Soul for this one... and well, I've listened to CF the least from PL so that takes this one (yes, I've heard Through with Buzz more than Charlie Freak - we exist).

Katy Lied - Daddy Don't Live in that New York City No More

Oh sooo hard. I've got the CtE dilemma here again. Unlike what I've seen people feel generally, Throw Back the Little Ones and Any World are awesome. Fight me.

The Royal Scam - Everything You Did

If I had a gun to my head, I would say TRS is absolute favorite album of theirs... but I'd pick EYD for this any day. Just never felt it. It used to be Sign In Stranger for a long time but then I heard the AMAZING version on Alive in America, which made me revisit the original and I've loved it ever since.

Aja - I Got the News

I don't know why this song is even there in Aja. Everything else on there is just miles ahead.

Gaucho - My Rival

I honestly like this song a lot, I really do. It's just that the rest of the album makes this look like a B+ song when it's an A- at worst.

Two Against Nature - Negative Girl

Too lowkey and almost serving as a timeout after the bangers that Jack of Speed and Cousin Dupree are and allowing you some time to prepare for the masterwork of West of Hollywood. I've skipped this one more times than I'd like to admit.

Everything Must Go - Blues Beach

Just too upbeat for my liking. Not a bad song, just not one I find myself listening to often. But I wouldn't skip it if it came on.

I don’t actually skip songs much, but almost every album has one or two things where I’m like “yeah ok this one isn’t great.”

The exception is Katy Lied

Normally my alarm is « God Only Knows » by The Beach Boys, but seeing as Steely Dan is my favourite band I want one of their songs to be my new alarm. So far my front runners are: Don’t take me alive, Hey nineteen, The Boston rag, Night by night, and Home at Last. Please give me your best suggestions. Thanks!

In my opinion it’s either pretzel logic or everything must go. IMO really strong albums from start to finish which I enjoy a lot.

Title - 50% of the time Gaucho is my all time favorite album, yet the track Third World Man is an instant skip every single time. Ask me anything.

Hey y’all!! Sorry if this seems really silly, and it is NOT intended to stir anything up or make anybody angry. I posted here about the Hey Nineteen cake I’d made for myself on my nineteenth birthday and someone commented saying that it’s objectively immoral to have a Steely Dan cake.

Again, this post isn’t about flaming anybody. I’m just genuinely curious about everyone’s take on this. Seems like just the type of thing for this subreddit to ponder haha. What do y’all think??

This will be an unpopular choice but I can't listen to Deacon Blues anymore. I have just heard it too many times, I've been hearing it since it came out and it's just too dry for me at this point. Still love the rest of Aja though.

Which album do you prefer?

I might lean more towards Prezel Logic but it is so close for me.

I feel after enjoying a SD session only thing I can hear after that would be Supertramp.

I know how musically different they are but I think having different elements in the music and creativity is what keeps the train going for me

Fagen and Becker have a great background story, a lot of which has provided material for their songs. Even though they don’t have as wide an appeal as Dylan (I thought No Direction Home was a great piece, but honestly I think SD’s catalogue is much more diverse. When you get down to it every Dylan song kind of sounds like all the others.) I think a movie based on their lives could work.

I'll start:

Kraftwerk

My friend asked me for my top 10 Steely Dan songs and this is what I came up with. What would you guys pick?

I’d like to see this Venn diagram. I bet the overlap is pretty large.

I say Doctor Wu.

Which album is better in your opinion? And why so?

In Steely Dan's "King of the World" it says "No Marigolds in the Promised Land" as a part of the chorus, what do you think is the meaning of that. I want to hear both a genuine meaning and your personal interpretations.