Steely Dan

bykfixer

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So growing up near an FM radio most of my life, there always seemed to be a Steely Dan tune coming out or played to death. Reelin' In the Years, Do It Again and Peg...lots of other minor hits were also played over and over and over.

Well, being that was the case I kinda took them for granted over the decades and never really gave them much thought. In the late 80's I had superior sound equipment and owned their best of album, which got played a lot, but again I never really gave them a lot of thought.

Early this morning a monster thunderstorm woke me up. I had a tune stuck in my head from the Alan Parsons Project album I Robot. So I blurry eyed searched my vast CD selection and could not find I Robot. But I did find Show Biz Kids, a Steely Dan best of and popped it in my truck CD player after sunrise this morning and set out on a 2 hour commute. Perhaps lack of sleep had me feeling kinda buzzed like a high school kid riding with Cheech & Chong to a show....

But man I have total respect for that epic 70's band. Those guys quest for perfection really pays off in todays ultra-hifi sound systems. My truck can play concert level volume with virtually no road noise at 75mph. 6 full range speakers, 4 tweeters and a centrally located sub woofer really sounds wonderful with Steely Dan blasting from it.

So I arrive at work wondering who was that awesome bass player, who played drums on this or that, who were the backing vocalists. Those 2 guys had a who's who of sessionists marching in and out of the studio. Mark Knophler, Skunk Baxter, etc etc. I just kept thinking all day what a gas it must have been creating those works of art all through the 70's. They say Walter and Donald were monsters to deal with. Their pursuit for sonic perfection can certainly be head (and felt) these days.
Stunning. Just stunning.

All day at work I was humming and quietly singing "the Cuervo Gold...the fine Co-lum-b-yen"....
 
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AVService

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Alan Parsons is a renowned Engineer,Musician and Producer and was heavily involved with a lot of bands including Floyd,The Beatles and Ambrosia aside from his own band and works of which I Robot is 1 of my favorites too!

"I Would not Want to be like you"!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Parsons

I have been in the Audio Business for more than 45 years and he is one of the big reasons I was attracted to it in the first place.

Ahh the good old days!
 

MAD777

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IMO, Steely Dan produced some of most musically sofisicated pop music of their day, and most certainly after that. Other than the very beginning, they never toured. Just two geniuses in the studio, bringing in session ensembles one after the other on each song until they heard the sound they were looking for. Their music endures.
 

raggie33

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off topic kinda but this thread made me think how bad i want one of them old radios that had tubes.im pretty dang old but tube radios is b4 my time
 

StarHalo

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off topic kinda but this thread made me think how bad i want one of them old radios that had tubes.im pretty dang old but tube radios is b4 my time

Most tube radios have dismal reception versus modern radio tech, people buy them for the style or "feel" but not for performance. Radio guys will often refurb them and then sell them at local flea markets/antique malls; the Galleria in Riverside out here usually has a few in stock at any given time, like this guy:
28198159866_3f358c20c9_o.jpg


But returning to the topic, if you want period correct for Alan Parsons, you'll want something like a reel-to-reel connected to massive floorstanding speakers like Klipschorns. I was going to say that I recognize the genius of Eye In The Sky even though it was before my time, but to be fair my first rock LP was Journey's Escape, which predates Eye by a year..



Should also mention:

I had a tune stuck in my head from the Alan Parsons Project album I Robot. So I blurry eyed searched my vast CD selection and could not find I Robot.
Spotify has the entirety of three versions of I Robot, the standard, the expanded, and Legacy editions.
 
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raggie33

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Most tube radios have dismal reception versus modern radio tech, people buy them for the style or "feel" but not for performance. Radio guys will often refurb them and then sell them at local flea markets/antique malls; the Galleria in Riverside out here usually has a few in stock at any given time, like this guy:
28198159866_3f358c20c9_o.jpg


But returning to the topic, if you want period correct for Alan Parsons, you'll want something like a reel-to-reel connected to massive floorstanding speakers like Klipschorns. I was going to say that I recognize the genius of Eye In The Sky even though it was before my time, but to be fair my first rock LP was Journey's Escape, which predates Eye by a year..



Should also mention:


Spotify has the entirety of three versions of I Robot, the standard, the expanded, and Legacy editions.


the glow relaxes me
 

Frijid

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Their album "aja" is an audiophiles dream. The band pays an outrageous amount of time to precision mastering and mixing. I got hooked on them in middle school after hearing "do it again" on the radio. Now I've got the greatest majority of their albums on vinyl. I still chuckle at how the band got its
Name lol
 

jabe1

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One of my all time favorite bands. Music for musicians.
They wrote complex music with lyrics about themes that were sort of taboo to speak of.
I always have a few cds in the van; there are times I just have to hear kid Charlemagne or green earrings!
 

SCEMan

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Thanks for the post. Steely Dan was the soundtrack for the best times in my irresponsible, pre-marriage adulthood :thumbsup:
I fondly remember blasting Bodhisattva while flying down canyon roads to Malibu in my 914-6.
I'll have to pull up their playlist more often.
 
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Lumen83

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Steely Dan is like nails on a chalkboard for me, while at the same time I appreciate just how talented they are and how great of musicians and songwriters they are. That may sound weird, but its probably a testament to the quality of the musicianship.
 

StarHalo

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Their album "aja" is an audiophiles dream.

Tried listening to it last night, just couldn't do it; something about the Gen-X genes that just can't tolerate that lounge style rock..

Now that I think about it I don't know that there's a whole lot of 70's music that I do like; disco-era Bee Gees obviously, Elton John is always Elton John, but it's thin beyond that. I dug Phantom of the Paradise though..

 

AVService

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Interesting observation and mine as well in a lot of cases.
I just have little patience any more for the Electronic and Synthesized Rock Lushness of that era and the quality of the recordings is often pretty weak compared to better recorded acoustic stuff of that era too.

Not all of it for sure but a lot of it.

I still have the original Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Master Vinyl of Aja and Dark Side of the Moon and no Digital copy can really hold my attention if I try to listen to them one after the other.

Analog really still can rule in the right systems.

Pink Floyd is actually one of the best of that type still to me and I still listen to Yes and early Genesis but for Audiophile Quality more than Musical Genius maybe I think The Grateful Dead American Beauty is still one of the best around from back then Jeff Beck Blow by Blow is still awe inspiring to Demo with and a lot of the mostly Acoustic or Live material still can really shine for me.

Give me The Allman Brothers or Little Feat Live and a whole lot of older Blues Live recordings from back then and put me on a Desert Island!


Tried listening to it last night, just couldn't do it; something about the Gen-X genes that just can't tolerate that lounge style rock..

Now that I think about it I don't know that there's a whole lot of 70's music that I do like; disco-era Bee Gees obviously, Elton John is always Elton John, but it's thin beyond that. I dug Phantom of the Paradise though..

 

bykfixer

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"Cause there's a fat man... In the bathtub....

Way back when AV my older brother taught me to play an album twice. Once to make sure it didn't skip and the second time to record it to a tape. He chose reel to reel where I went with a cassette player. He cheaped out on turntable but spent max coin on a reel to reel. I went all in on a turntable and cassette deck.
Back then speakers were furniture.

While I was in grade school he went to shows like Steely Dan, pre-Mike McDonald Doobie Bros, Allman Bros etc. Linda Ronstat etc. I bought their albums with left over lunch money and listened on hand me down equipment. Eventually my setup was better than my brothers.

I had a sister in between my older brother and I. She was into Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons and 'robot' music of the time while my brother was a hippy.

By the time I reached puberty I was into Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, the Modern Lovers and other 'alternative' music only available through military brats who had friends or family in places like LA or NY. I always liked the Kinks and David Bowie for their variety of styles and crafty lyrics.

And any live album I could get my hands on was just like being there with headphones on.
 
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