Beyond bizarre...

[Hörnisse]

I bought Aja when I was 15.  It really blew me away.  Not only the playing of Chuck Rainey but the quality of the recording.  It was the best fidelity recording I'd heard up to that time.  I always loved the idea of using session players on their later output.  Larry Carlton's solo on Kid Charlemagne (with Chuck on bass) is super.  I always love to play along to Peg.  Chuck is just so funky. 

I read an interview long ago where they asked Becker what his favorite solo on Aja was.  He replied it was Wayne Shorter's Sax solo on the title track.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Don't feel bad.  I feel the same about Pearl Jam.

..because there's some substance to Pearl Jam. Love 'em or hate 'em, they defined an entire era of popular music and kept playing and growing even when they weren't writing hits and had a definite cultural relevance. Steely Dan is clinically meticulous and polished musically and sonically, but there's nothing there. The songs are pointless pondering. "Are you reelin in the years?" Huh? WTF does that even mean? That's a pretty far cry from "Jeremy spoke in class today." ...even without the video that would never be allowed to air today. And just to be completely confusing, here's Pearl Jam covering Pink Floyd:



The camera work is terrible, but the audio is great.

I've always considered Steely Dan's name to be the epitome of irony: it's middle-aged limp dick music to me.

[gweimer]

..because there's some substance to Pearl Jam. Love 'em or hate 'em, they defined an entire era of popular music and kept playing and growing even when they weren't writing hits and had a definite cultural relevance. Steely Dan is clinically meticulous and polished musically and sonically, but there's nothing there. The songs are pointless pondering. "Are you reelin in the years?" Huh? WTF does that even mean? That's a pretty far cry from "Jeremy spoke in class today." ...even without the video that would never be allowed to air today. And just to be completely confusing, here's Pearl Jam covering Pink Floyd:



The camera work is terrible, but the audio is great.

I've always considered Steely Dan's name to be the epitome of irony: it's middle-aged limp dick music to me.

And to me, Pearl Jam too often sounds like a bunch of kids sniffing glue and trying to remember Aerosmith riffs.

[4stringer77]

Alive was one of the first tunes I learned but it wasn't my idea to cover it. Evenflow was a decent jam. I don't own any Pearl Jam but I had aja on vinyl when my phonograph was still working. I definitely like Chuck Rainey's playing but Donald Fagan's voice wears on me after a while. Hey Nineteen always makes me smile.

[nofi]

pre SD fagen and baxter were in a one album band called navasota, a town in texas. i saw them but have no memory of their sound. do i hear crickets?

[the mojo hobo]

From the same concert as the original post, but much more interesting:

[the mojo hobo]

Bass solo!

[lowend1]

And to me, Pearl Jam too often sounds like a bunch of kids sniffing glue and trying to remember Aerosmith riffs.

Doh!
I said I only liked three Steely Dan songs - I like exactly "0" Pearl Jam songs. While SD (IMHO of course) is the epitome of pretentious, self-absorbed jazz noodlings stuffed into pop songs, PJ is the equivalent of angst-ridden, self-absorbed teen crabbiness stuffed into rock songs. HOWEVER, at least SD has some neat hooks and nice harmonies thrown in. That placates those of us who don't relate to the technical wanking aspect. I can walk around humming those three Steely Dan tunes, and generally feel pretty good - can't say that I've ever been inspired in that way by "Even Flow". But that's me. I'm generally not interested in songs that make overt political, sociological or idealogical statements. I listen to music to get away from that stuff.

[Pilgrim]

Not much of a Steely Dan fan here...they seem neither rock nor pop.  They did have some good tunes, but their tonal palette just doesn't do that much for me.

My tastes run more to the 12-bar-blues and rock genre.  (And surf, but it's 12-bar too.)

[Dave W]

Thanks to Pearl Jam, I know what "yarling" is. Eddie Vedder may not have invented it but he popularized it. Just another vocal technique the world would be better off without.

[westen44]

Thanks to Pearl Jam, I know what "yarling" is. Eddie Vedder may not have invented it but he popularized it. Just another vocal technique the world would be better off without.

I think Scott Stapp of Creed may do that, too.  I used to be around two people who listened to Creed.  I complained a lot about it because I didn't like Scott Stapp's singing.  Then one day I decided to sing along with a Creed song to see how I would do.  It turned out to be higher than I was expecting.  My conclusion was that although I still didn't like Scott Stapp's singing, he was better than I realized.  I think Chris Cornell is sometimes compared to Eddie Vedder.  Chris Cornell is pretty good, IMO.  What I've heard of Eddie Vedder, though, doesn't much interest me. 

[Psycho Bass Guy]

And to me, Pearl Jam too often sounds like a bunch of kids sniffing glue and trying to remember Aerosmith riffs.

That's not too far from the truth!

[rahock]

I'm a bit surprised there are so few Steely Dan fans around here. Although they are not the style of music that I choose to play, I really enjoy listening to them. I caught them live way back when Reeling in the Years was happening and they were outstanding. Absolutely flawless performance and their stretched out live solos were mind blowing great. I've always loved Fagans work and he always surrounds himself with first rate musicians.
Rick

[nofi]

for some reason sd tunes remind me of northeast prep schools!? i like them ok but don't have any of their stuff.

[OldManC]

I don't own any SD albums but reading this thread made me; 1. look up "yarling," and 2. think about where they fit in my own listening hierarchy. As a kid I mostly preferred stuff that was a little more rocking (OK, a lot more rocking), but I liked a lot of pop stuff too, so that side of SD made the radio stuff accessible to me (I'd put Toto in the same category). I also like melodic lead guitarists, so that probably helped, but ELP or King Crimson coming on the radio would have me racing to change the dial in two bars.