Steve Albini explains why he hates Steely Dan

Oh Steve…

Steve was an edge lord before being an edge lord was cool and has remained an edge lord now that being an edge lord is no longer the cool thing to do.

He makes SOME valid points from time to time, this case being no exception on some of his points, but it always feel like he’s trying to be a contrarian for the sake of being contrary. Great engineer and producer for the kind of music he likes to be sure.

 

Steve who?...

 

"Music made for the sole purpose of letting the wedding band stretch out a little."

bwahahahahaha!!!

 

different strokes.

steely dan has been a great band to hear and see. i like almost all of their music and i think they were right on time delivering their own version of pop goodness. i think a few of their tunes are iconic. they helped bring 'jazz sounds' into the pop/top-40 mainstream. their arrangements are complete, and the musicians are extraordinary!

i own no recordings and they wouldn't be my first pick from a well-rounded jukebox menu.

 

There's a lot of that going around.

 

No there’s not!

…see what I did there?

 

When I clicked on that site, I read "Scrotum"... Kinda fits though.

 

HAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!

I like the first four-or-so Steely Dan albums in smallish, irregular, doses, but Aja and beyond do absolutely nothing for me, so I'm definitely in the edge lord's corner on this one. And let's face it, a lot of it DOES sound like the SNL band of the same era.

 

Steve starts with a point of view - he's someone who strives to preserve what a band does in a recording. That point of view drives everything he does. He doesn't play "contrarian", he disagrees with things that don't fit his point of view - things that don't make sense given what he's trying to do. If you understand this about him, his reactions to things make perfect sense - there is a rock solid logic behind how he approaches things, and his reactions are very predictable, if you understand that.

If you have a band and you love what you do, and want THAT on a recording, he IS your guy - there's nobody better at that than him. If you want to sound at all different from what you really are, he's NOT your guy. It really is that simple.

 

While I can appreciate steely dan reintroducing jazz to a pop-audience, I agree with steve on not liking the creative process of doing 103423994824918294819328 takes for the ultimate goal of reading someone else's mind in what they want.

Tbh I'm of the camp that he's a better producer/engineer than a guitar player

On a positive note, here's a steely dan related collab with John Entwistle of the brief supergroup "The Best"

 

Steve clearly doesn't know enough music theory to get Steely Dan at any level. Say what you like but the Steely Dan guys put huge amounts of effort into their work.

 

His position as a "music archivist" as opposed to a recording engineer or producer has been pretty widely known for decades. He makes it pretty clear.

His point of view is often not the majority or popular opinion of the day as has been seen over the course of his career. The definition of a contrarian is someone who opposes or rejects popular opinion. I think that applies perfectly well to his stance on many things both in the music industry and outside of it.

On some things, certainly. On other things, definitely not. Some of his engineering arguments have been discredited by many in the field.

I'd agree with that, but I fail to see what it has to do with the topic at hand.

 

Funny, I was just thinking to myself:
I wonder what Steve Albini thinks of Steely Dan.

 

I was happy to see them at the Shoreline shortly before Walter Becker died. They were (are?) a great band. Totally original. Many iconic tunes.

 

I was at the Pine Tar Extravaganza in Chicago almost 30 years ago and Steve Albini walked up to the urinal next to me dressed in an old school baseball uniform and some drunk dude approached him at that moment and said “OH MY GOD, STEVE ALBINI!!!! SAY SOMETHING COOL!!!”

 

Was that the tour they did with Elvis Costello? I caught that one in Auburn WA. My wife and I had nose bleed seats and were randomly approached by a woman who said she had bought first row seats for her anniversary with her husband, but didn't know that he had bought first row center seats already. She holds out the tickets and says "do you guys want to sit up front in our extra seats?" Totally random, but we moved up, the tickets were legit, and we watched the show right in front of Walter. It was wonderful.

 

Ha, I saw this on Twitter yesterday and wondered if it would get posted here. I generally respect Albini, even if I don't always agree with him. In this case, I think he's partly right. I like certain Steely Dan songs--the more concise ones, usually--but eventually, the unending slickness makes me not want to listen any more for a good while.

 

personally, i'm not going to spend any amount of time on someone explaining why they hate music.

is there anything beyond that at that link?

 

hard to respect the opinion of a person who was in a band called r*peman