Steely Dan Fans Are Assholes

A comment I made related to the varying opinions of Steely Dan proves I am an asshole. I once claimed that people who took rock seriously and did not like Steely Dan were snobs and didn't understand the music and the people who were causal pop fans and liked Steely Dan didn't appreciate the true complexity of the music and didn't understand the lyrics. 

I made this comment because I was frustrated at how many of my friends who had similar music tastes to mine hated Steely Dan (one going as far to say that the Dan reminded him of a bad 70's porn soundtrack) and was amazed at how many people liked the band and often compared them to the Doobie Brothers and The Eagles which would be like saying "I like the Beatles because they remind me of the Dave Clark Five and Gary Lewis and the Playboys". In fact I tend to believe that it's the Dan's comparison to The Eagles and the Doobies that have my more musically inclined friends turning up their noses. True the Doobies did have Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and Michael McDonald in common, although Baxter was not well represented in the Doobies and I always liked McDonald as a background vocalist better and thankfully Becker and Fagen never let him write anything for Steely Dan. 

Speaking of McDonald, I am not one of those who believe he ruined the Doobies. That is completely absurd. That would be like blaming the speaker for making the insurance seminar boring or the a dentist for not making a root canal an enjoyable experience.

I got hooked on Steely Dan when I was 15, way before I got my Liberal Arts Degree. I know nothing about music, but I just love SD. Nothing compares with these guys! The guy who wrote the article is a true SD fan; tongue-in-cheek double-speak.

There are people who just LISTEN to them. Remember that now.

Steely Dan is my biggest musical influence.  I model my songwriting in their style and I wouldn't want it any other way...  www.romanriccio.com

what do you have  against a great sound? music is to make you feel something, it's not all that hard unless you make it hard by over analysing it. Save the intellectualizing for the idiots that probably can't even play a note. Music makes you feel something.... like how you feel at the moment, is that poetry or just plain life? Bach and Braums make you feel their music too. It's different but it gets your feelings moving...

A Marxist Reading of Steely Dan. Submitted for partial fulfillment of the degree of t Bachelor of Arts in Humanities at University of Massachuset, Amherst. By Nicholas Pell, aka Nick Pell, Ulysses Lazarus.

Abstract: Steely Dan (hereafter SD), an American musical group whose debut album was released in 1972, will be presented as an archetype of white male privilege. This thesis engage with Marxist texts to focus on three main areas.

First, SD’s album Aja, features a photo of a Japanese woman in exotic garb, Orientalizing the otherness of East Asians and women. Moreover, SD also made extensive use of hired black session musicians in the recording of Aja. Despite their integral contributions to the albums, these musicians were paid a set hourly rate and received no writing credits and royalties. Thus, the recording of Aja echoes the planation dynamic of white male exploitation of black labor.

Second, for their hit single “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” SD borrow -- without attribution -- the ostinato from  “Song for My Father” by jazz pianist Horace Silver. This song was written in honor of Silver’s father, a native of Cape Verde. SD thus efface the culture of an island that was colonized by Europeans and served an integral part in the transatlantic slave trade. 

Long live to Steely Dan, one of the best bands in the world !No one sounds like Steely Dan!

Steely Dan is like the Terry Gilliam film "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" in that the more you know, the more in-jokes and obscure references you get. Life is hard when you're stupid. The point of life is to become less stupid. I realize that concept fell out of fashion beginning around 1980...

music journalism,,by people who can't write for people who can't read

becker sucks

Steely Dan fans are much like Tool fans in the sense that they think there is something to "get". In actuality the joke is on the "fan" because there is nothing to get. But everyone wants to feel they belong to something. So, if thinking that you "get" steely dan does it for you, then so be it. It really isnt that great.  I personally don't care for over produced music that can hardly be reproduced live. One final word of advice: There is more music out there than whats played on the radio! Broaden your horizons!

Great article!

I've been a Steely Dan fan since the mid-70s, and a "Danfan" since 2000.  Can I have the time back I just wasted reading this whaledreck?  Oh, and I apologize for not having a liberal arts degree.

Insufferably pretentious Dan fan since 1976...this whole article explains why I like Umberto Eco, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis de Berniers, Meryl Streep and Loro Piana...if you're not thinking about it...you make it meaningless... 

Well the only thing your comments prove is that you are an asshole.

As a musician who loves steely Dan, I can'ts stand people who call themselves Dan fans and talk about liberal arts degrees. As a wise man once said, "talking about music is like fishing about architecture". STFU and just listen.

A line from "Fawlty Towers" popped up in my head while reading this crap and nearly all comments: "Pretentious...moi?!" I believe that each and everybody who like Steely Dan(like myself), listen to them in their own special way - it's as simple as that! This almost "sect-like" description - "we who understand and analyze them, and all the other jerks that don't" - are soo pathetic!!

As an actual performing musician who does it for a pretty good living, I must say Steely Dan is my favorite contemporary band.  The lyrics are cool, but the chord structures are the thing that raises the goose bumps on my arms.  Musically, they are superior to most modern groups. I have learned about 60% of all their material, although I don't get to play it live much, as much of my show is request based.  At home it's Aja, Nightfly, True Companion, Gaucho, Katy Lied, and that type of quirky, mind bending songs.  By the way, I have an Album of my own, am classically trained, can sight read, and have been playing since I was 3. (I'm 62).  Is that a good enough experience base to form a judgement? 'Cause I love these guys, as does almost every quality player I know.

Steely Dan found "The Lost Chord" that The Moody Blues searched for!!!!Hint: It's in Aja!                                                               

  Katydid...Katydidn't...Katy Lied!

I have been a major asshole since 1978. Long live the DAN!!!

let me guess .. you all love Jason Mraz too ?

Danfan - Since 1977 - Definitely. Asshole - maybe. Those of us who "get" them, love them. 

One of the most ironic things about SD now is that they seem to have a hard on for touring and their lighting is far more precise than the sound.

I hate free trade beer and artisan coffees.  I'm not much of an asshole, or so they say.  Do love me some Dan, though.

Spot On. However, I don't think we're assholes. I just think we are perceived as assholes by those who don't get the Dan. I am genuinely well liked by my co-workers, friends and family. Unless of course I begin to tout the virtues of the Dan. Then everything goes downhill.

They look like they sound - and I do like the way they sound. I'd love to ask them if they ever watched Stewart Copeland playing Polo but I just know I'd get cut dead.

Pity that I had them confused with Steeleye Span all this time. This explains my half-baked hipsterism, my pointless existence reciting perfectly nonsensical and oddball lyrics, my inexplicible nihilism, while finally justifying my liberal arts college credentials. But seriously dude, I think that they lost the plot after Fagen's 'Nightfly'. 'Gaslighting Abby', 'Janie Runaway' - YAWN!!!!

We already knew you were an asshole for being a purposeful and annoying contrarian by deeming Lulu a work of genius.  You didn't need to give us another reason.

I love Steely Dan, and I am glad someone has properly articulated how I, I mean WE, feel.