Arjun Menon wrote
Back to the topic, i think Fagen and Becker are ridiculously talented (and they worked with some ridiculously talented players as well). Gaucho is my fave SD album.
For me
Gaucho is one of those albums that sounds too perfect, like the life has been squeezed out of it. I loved the early Steely Dan albums, but I think they ended up disappearing up their own backside. Things got too perfect, too cynical and clever for the sake of being cynical and clever.
Aja had some fine moments, and I enjoyed the allusions to The Odyssey (or The Illiads or whatever one of the classics it was they were alluding to). "Deacon Blue" is a marvellous song. I always feel the emotion of that song, even though I can't make strict literal sense of the words.
What I particularly enjoyed on those two albums was Larry Carlton's rhythm playing. We think of him as a soloist (eg "Kid Charlamagne") but he has a lovely feel as a rhythm player too.
I think it was
Aja where Becker started playing some lead. He really was a guitar player and a good one, but when the Dan were a band he took to bass and let "Skunk" Baxter, Denny Dias and, on the records, Elliot Randall take the guitar spotlight.
The first Dan album
Can't Buy A Thrill is one of my favourites for guitar soloing. There's some marvellous guitar playing on that record, including Baxter turning in some jazzy pedal steel. Baxter also puts in some great licks on "My Old School" - which I think is on
Pretzel Logic
