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Steve Albini explains why he hates Steely Dan
- Thread starter nomaj
- Start date
Steely Dan is obviously a ripe topic for discussion. 
I'll defend Aja, not that it really needs it from me, it's a popular album. But it's not a rock or rock and roll album, so don't look for that, not what it's about. It is about some great lyrics, sophisticated chords and changes, and melodies in keeping with that. I once made a Steely Dan mix tape, and included Deacon Blues and, in particular, Josie, on that ... "She's the raw flame, the live wire, she prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire!"
That's pretty darn evocative, imo. Donald Fagen talks about writing the song (his Ray Charles influences are inescapable). "Gregorian swampy blues" intro.
And I like The Nightfly quite a bit, too.
I'll defend Aja, not that it really needs it from me, it's a popular album. But it's not a rock or rock and roll album, so don't look for that, not what it's about. It is about some great lyrics, sophisticated chords and changes, and melodies in keeping with that. I once made a Steely Dan mix tape, and included Deacon Blues and, in particular, Josie, on that ... "She's the raw flame, the live wire, she prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire!"
That's pretty darn evocative, imo. Donald Fagen talks about writing the song (his Ray Charles influences are inescapable). "Gregorian swampy blues" intro
. And I like The Nightfly quite a bit, too.
Steely Dan is obviously a ripe topic for discussion.
I'll defend Aja, not that it really needs it from me, it's a popular album. But it's not a rock or rock and roll album, so don't look for that, not what it's about. It is about some great lyrics, sophisticated chords and changes, and melodies in keeping with that. I once made a Steely Dan mix tape, and included Deacon Blues and, in particular, Josie, on that ... "She's the raw flame, the live wire, she prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire!"
That's pretty darn evocative, imo. Donald Fagen talks about writing the song (his Ray Charles influences are inescapable). "Gregorian swampy blues" intro
And I like The Nightfly quite a bit, too.
It's also coming out at the peak of advancing studio techniques, which I think is something worth mentioning. All through the 50's and 60's engineers were working with fairly unsophisticated equipment and trying to wring the cleanest sound out of what little they had. If you look at old jazz records from that era, you can see that the push was toward cleaner and clearer sound, as everyone believed that the best way to hear something was to hear it as cleanly as possible, trying to get the sound to the point that it sounded the way your ears would hear it if the band was playing right in front of you. So there was a real push to refine recorded sound as much as possible.
In the 70's better gear became available, 2" tape became the standard, and everyone was chasing this big, clean, open sound in, ironically, an attempt to sound as much like reality as possible. The earlier SD stuff and the fidelity of that music is representative of what was typically available to rock acts at the time. Yes, there were some records made earlier that sounded very clean, but those were basically exceptions to what most studios possessed. Aja probably represents the pinnacle of what could be achieved in terms of quality recording with as much transparency as possible - and I don't think anyone cared much about "warmth" back then.
The move back toward lo-fi was a deliberate effort to ape the retro sound of music that was made during that earlier era. Not everyone got on board with that, of course, nor should they have. It served some acts well, and wouldn't have served others well. Lo-fi was a rebellion against what grew out of hi-fidelity, which was a lot of cleanly produced music that didn't have much emotional pull or anything much to say (I'm looking at you, smooth jazz).
But the big point was that people had a lot of choices they didn't have earlier. One of those choices was to deliberately go back to old recording techniques in order to find a rawness that was nostalgic. But what you did with the choices you had was dependent on the music you were creating. Regardless of technique, there was great music being produced in a multitude of ways, and there were imitators and wannabees too.
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@LBS-bass, I agree with the fact that they wouldn't sound as good if it wasn't produced the way it was.
It would be interesting to hear what a Steve recorded SD album would be like. I do tend to like raw, but 100% agree that some music or groups need more production and some don't.
I get what you're saying, and I get what Steve is saying. Me, long as it sounds good, it is good. I'm not a SD fan, but I appreciate it. Especially the talent. I guess for me I don't get why people are getting so worked up. He doesn't like it, did he put a ton of effort into his opinion and backing details, maybe not, but who cares.
Should he have thrown it out to the public, meh. But I'm all for people throwing out their opinions, especially if I don't agree. I guess it just bothers me when some people don't get the echo chamber they want for the confirmation bias they desire, and get worked up, that's all.
Thanks for throwing out your thoughts, much appreciated!
It would be interesting to hear what a Steve recorded SD album would be like. I do tend to like raw, but 100% agree that some music or groups need more production and some don't.
I get what you're saying, and I get what Steve is saying. Me, long as it sounds good, it is good. I'm not a SD fan, but I appreciate it. Especially the talent. I guess for me I don't get why people are getting so worked up. He doesn't like it, did he put a ton of effort into his opinion and backing details, maybe not, but who cares.
Should he have thrown it out to the public, meh. But I'm all for people throwing out their opinions, especially if I don't agree. I guess it just bothers me when some people don't get the echo chamber they want for the confirmation bias they desire, and get worked up, that's all.
Thanks for throwing out your thoughts, much appreciated!
This is a great thread. The insights in the latter pages is interesting to read
I like The Kinks one thousand times more than Steely Dan.
One band that tricks me into singing along; in my case, that's saying something.
he's not entirely wrong, what's wrong is taking this as some sort of campaign he has against them rather than just a silly social media post
That got picked up by some media company intending to monetize the content by appropriating or reusing it on their website.
Anybody want to put bets on the sound guy playing Steely Dan as pre-show music at Shellac's next concert?
For the joke, highly plausible.
I once saw how Albini's old house mate Botch Billions introduced a certain Touch and Go band with the Four F's, John Bonhan's comedy routine and countless Naked Raygun pre-shows with Warner Brother cartoons reels at the Metro.
I know the senses of humor at play here,
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I much prefer their later albums when I feel like they finally became what they wanted to be all along.
That certainly worked well, in my opinion, on the Slint albums that he produced.
I like their solo albums but yes, they're better together.
Something most fans probably never connected is that Albini and Jennifer Hartman were a couple back then.
