The Steely Dan Shrine

Seeing the profusion of bigilla-blogs dedicated to band worship, and realizing that much bigilla-reverence is misdirected towards undeserving posers, I have decided to personally redress the situation. So here, for the benefit of my everloyal readership, is a blog entirely dedicated to that most fascinating of musical ventures, Steely Dan. Here you may post your hosannas, shame facedly-confess your ignorance, or mail heretical Dan-bashing posts (much as I would like to, I cannot bar you, heretical brainless one, from accessing this space). What follows now is a sort of feverish rant, enjoy.

There is a certain school of criticism within the music community that will never dig Steely Dan. It is a school that abhors sophistication in all its forms and deems it to be equivalent to pomposity. If you're an honest to God musician or music lover you have certainly encountered this type of critic. He normally inhabits magazines like NME and pseudo-artistic Blogs, and thinks Arctic Monkeys are the ultimate statement of what is 'happening'. The painstaking production which characterizes Steely Dan records is for him merely a glossy sheen, the literate lyrics pure pretence, the elaborate solos on sax and guitar overblown, and certainly passe. He is, of course, a dunce.

Today's generation of musically minded kids would do well to ignore the advice of these pretend-intellectuals. Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs and the rest of the merry 'indie' brigade do surpass the likes of Britney and J-Lo hands down, but their musical achievements are still a far cry from the heady heights achieved by the truly alternative rock bands that emerged in the 70's.

Steely Dan were (and, since their 2000 reformation, are) one of the most daring and compelling of those legendary groups. The duo at the heart of Steely Dan, guitarist Walter Becker and keyboardist/vocalist Donald Fagen has written music that straddles with ease all the common modern musical idioms. Listen to 'Aja', with its magnificent blend of lounge-jazz and prog rock, or to the bossa nova nudges on 'Rikki Don't loose that Number', or to'My Rival' with its allusions to the music of Western movies, and you'll know what I mean. The Dan's music is an amazing concotion of rock, pop, country and funk, embellished by occassional forays into jazz territory and underscored by some fiendishly clever lyrics. Anyone who thinks Radiohead are clever (and, let me hasten to add, they are) should check out the bouncy 'Haitian Divorce' and its wicked lyrical twist, or the darkly humorous 'Everything you Did' before proclaiming them the cleverest band on earth. The Dan are swaggering grooves and snazzy solos, clever lyrics and sophisticated harmony. They're not shoddy 'rough around the edges production', they're not bum notes and off key singers, they're not three-chord mayhem. And for that they're reviled. Go figure.

I must call upon you, bigilla-blogdom, all you tech savvy thick speccy geeks, all you brussels translators with too much time on their hands, all you misguided alt-rockers, to give these guys a listen, for you own sake, and for that of sheer fairness towards one of the most intriguing musical experiments ever. Throw that U2, REM, Anonymous Electro Artist, out of the CD player now, and invest in a copy of 'Aja' and 'The Royal Scam'. Or just rip the whole thing off the internet. Don't miss the Dan.

And for your convenience I am included hereunder a list of 'must listen' tracks for you to plonk onto your limewire (nasty criminal you)

'Do it Again' - You must have heard this one at BJs
'Aja' - majestic lounge-jazz prog rock saga
'Gauco' - Morricone inflected instrumental bridge highlight
'Josie' - sweaty funk number
'Things I miss the most' - includes the word 'sex'
'With a Gun' - the Dan do country, the right way
'Kings' - glorious chorus
'Negative Girl' - dark, sexy groove
'Cousin Dupree' - cheerful ditty, theme; incest.
'The Caves of Altamira' - can you go wrong with a title like that?

Now that that is out of the way, you will we pleased to hear that my next post will be another of those lovely blog-bashing ones. Would Maltese blogosphere - Bigilla avec sushi be too much of a wanky title? Suggestions welcome.