Musical Aside

Music

Over the past weekend I was listening to Steely Dan’s Can’t Buy A Thrill album, and it staggers the imagination to think that this was their debut album.  I mean, first albums are generally a band’s attempt to get things together, and one expects that things can only improve.  That wasn’t the case here:  Fagen and Becker got it absolutely right, the very first time.  There’s not a single weak song — let alone a bad one — on the entire album.

Which would lead one to think, “Oh well, they’ll probably bring out another album or two, and things will just get worse.”  Except that Steely Dan never did:  every single subsequent album just got better — or maybe they didn’t, they just restated the obvious.  As one commenter said:  “These guys were from a superior musical universe and still are.”  And Can’t By A Thrill, when compared to other albums of 1972 (!!!FFS!!!), just establishes the truth of that statement.

Which brings to mind something that annoys me about the Dan:  every time I listen to one of their albums, it becomes my favorite Steely Dan album — until I listen to the next one.

7 comments

  1. We have a great deal of overlap in musical taste, but this shows the difference. I cannot abide any Steely Dan at all. They have always struck me as boring and trite with a mediocre sound at best.

    1. It may have something to do with the fact that I used to be a musician, and in trying to play their stuff, I learned how complex it is.

      It’s not the case with traditional or especially modern jazz, which has always struck me as simply noise: five guys all playing at the same time, but not necessarily together.

      But I can see how SD’s jazz-inflected music might put some people off. New Wife walks out of the room when I play it, for example. (She prefers Haydn’s string concertos.)

      1. I don’t know it is a jazz thing, as I listen to a lot of jazz (and also a lot of Hayden).

        I think it can be summed up in a quote I saw about Bitches Brew, which is one of my favorite Miles Davis albums. DonaldFagen called it just a big trash-out for Miles,” calling it silly, out of tune, and unlistenable – and a failed attempt to make funk.

        Anyone who could be that wrong about that album, has no musical sensibilities IMHO.

      2. I understand why Vonz doesn’t particularly like it. SD is too perfect. It’s almost clinical. Music is art – it has a soul; it breaths. Steely’ Dan’s music is impressive to listen too, but it’s not something I often WANT to listen to – it just doesn’t have that human spark. I don’t want to be impressed; I want to feel something.

        It’s complex, true, and there are moments that are nice, but on balance I’ll pass. Not a fan of Steve Vai as a guitar player, for much the same reason. It’s impressive as hell as a technical demonstration of mastery of the instrument. But I don’t really want to spend hours listening to it – it’s almost clinical. Technical mastery is nice, but it needs to serve art – it has to make me feel.

        Most modern popular music is much the same; it’s computer controlled, placed on a perfect tempo grid. The drummer never changes tone, or speed, or feel; the guitar tone is perfect, every note is perfectly timed, the vocals are autotuned either to robotic tones or pitch perfection. And it’s sterile. Dead.

        That said, Donald Fagan’s “the nightfly” is one of my favorite albums. Go figure.

  3. Easily on my top ten list. +1 on covering their stuff, very hard to do convincingly.

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