STEELY DAN: Audiophile perfection in pop/rock

A friend of mine, who is audiophile, asked me about a rock recording with audiophile quality. I suggested him to get Steely Dan's "Two Against Nature", and he told me this became one of his reference recordings ever.

I did some search over the Net and found a lot of information about Donald Fagen’s obsession for high quality of his recordings. Reminded me of renowned Brazilian composer Joao Gilberto, another perfectionist.

From Steely Dan I have Two Against Nature, Aja, Gaucho and Can’t Buy a Thrill. What else do you guys think is also worth having from this band?

Kind regards,
Demetrio.

Well, obviosly I'm a bit biased (I love Steely Dan), but I think every recording is worth owning, for the music alone. The first album, Can't Buy a Thrill isn't of the highest quality, but everything after that is great. Donald Fagen's solo albums, The Nightfly and Kamakiriad are absolutely great, though as far as music goes, Nightfly is incredible.

Here's the complete list of SD albums in chronological order:

Can't Buy a Thrill
Countdown to Ecstasy (this one is different from the two before and after it, as it has more exploration into Latin rhythms)
Pretzel Logic
Katy Lied
The Royal Scam
Aja
Gaucho
Two Against Nature
Everything Must Go

The Dan rocks! Two Against Nature is a great sounding recording and in the usual fashion of Donald Fagen is great music. The only disc I am really unhappy with performance is the Two Against Nature Concert DVD b/c the recording is so harsh sounding.

I heard the DVD-A version of that disc is great too. I need to get it myself

As a friend of mine once said, if your foot doesn't get a tapping to Steely Dan, there is something wrong with you

I'll second The Nightfly as a truly great recording, it's one of the top notch early all-digital CDs that make for excellent demo discs - Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" would be another. I haven't heard the DVD-A of Nightfly but I bet it's great, I see it ranked pretty high in this poll: http://www.quadraphonicquad.com/QQHiRezPoll2004.htm

The Nightfly DVD-A is killer in both 2CH and MC, as one would expect.

As for the Dan, I would sugegst getting the Citizen Steely Dan Boxed Set. It has everything they have done up to and including Gaucho, and is reknowned for its sound quality.

As for Dire Straits, as much as a I hate the format, I picked up the Dual Disc of Brothers in Arms. Like the Nightfly, a very early digital recording that has stellar sound quality.

But beware, the CD side of my copy will not play in all my machines. In fact, it does play in my Rotel 1072 and Pio 45a, but not in my Denon 3910 or Pio 509 CD Recording deck.

Brian

Steely Dan

I'm probably really dating myself, but here goes. My first serious "Hi-Fi" system was some Sansui stuff I bought as a sailor aboard an aircraft carrier visiting Japan in the early 60's. I thought I had a pretty good ear for audio (as good as someone can have spending all day on the flight deck three feet from jets in afterburner) When I got out of the service, I was continually bummed out by the wretched audio quality of the records available. Then, in '72, here came these to wise-*** New York guys who were real perfectionists (Fagen & Becker). I finally had records worthy of the several hundred dollars I had spent on my phono cartridge. For years, I thought I was the only one who appreciated these guys, but looks like I was not alone. First the LPs, then the CDs, I have always made sure I had everything these guys made.
While Father Time sure hasn't been kind for their looks (or mine, either) they still know how to put out some killer music.
Not bad for a band named after a dildo.

Back in the seventies I and my fellow Dan fiends eagerly awaited every release. Sometimes we were mildly disappointed (Royal Scam '76) and sometimes we were in ecstasy (Aja '77, their best imo).

Let me add my thirds for The Nightfly....better than half the Dan catalogue in my opinion. Since Fagan was the singing voice of Steely Dan, this album sounds very much like a regular release of the 'group.' The DVD-A 5.1 surround mix by Elliot Scheiner is first rate, even though it is "only" 48kHz/24-bit.

I'll fourth that emotion though Fagan's Kamikiriad DVD-A is one of my reference surround titles. Another Scheiner mix of course.

It's a small world - howdy John S

Welcome Rantz! You'll like it here.

The Dan

Buy each and every Dan album...there is nothing else like it. If you want to hear a couple of really tight clean sounding tunes get Steely's CD entitled "Gold" and listen to

Century's End and True Companion....crank it and tell me what you think.

Those are both superb songs that Fagen did. Century's End for the movie Bright Lights, Big City and True Companion for the movie Heavy Metal. I think I'll have to go put them on now...

Getz/gilberto

I have all the Steely Dan albums as well, and especially love the DVD audio and SACD releases. I noticed you also mentioned Joao Gilberto. Do you have the Getz / Gilberto SACD? I just got that a few weeks ago, and can only say WOW that is a great recording. I cannot believe that it was made over 40 years ago, the sound quality is outstanding. Bossa nova is one of the styles I have just discovered and begun ti explore.

I play Steely Dan's DVD-A "Everything Must Go" with a standard DVD player and use the DTS surround tracks and it's the best sound mix I have. It even beats the Eagles' "Hell Freezes Over" DTS Music disk for the mix (although I prefer the the Eagles' music).

In the very early 70's while working at Zody's,thats all that played in the car audio section,SD all day long. Is Nightfly that much better then Kamak.

shokhead said:

In the very early 70's while working at Zody's,thats all that played in the car audio section,SD all day long. Is Nightfly that much better then Kamak.

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I could dig that store

And yes, I really think Nightfly is that much better than Kamakiriad. Kamakiriad, for the most part, has the same "bubbly" funk groove through the songs. Nightfly is a lot more varied, and actually has some topical lyrics, as opposed to straight up sci-fi. Nightfly is about Fagen as a boy and the world around him. It's a great album. Period.

I've noticed that "Nightfly" is totally devoid of Walter Becker, whereas "Kami" was produced by Becker and he also performed on it. Was there bad blood between Fagan and Becker around the time of Nightfly that they eventually reconcilled by the time of Kami.

I think there were a few of reasons for Becker's lack of appearance on Nightfly. He was in a bad car accident, then in drug rehab. I think Fagen also really had some stuff he wanted to do on his own.

Interesting fact: Gaucho was basically a Fagen solo album, as Becker was basically out of commission during the whole process due to the car accident aftermath. So in a way, Nightfly was basically a continuation of Fagen's work on Gaucho.

Electone said:

I've noticed that "Nightfly" is totally devoid of Walter Becker, whereas "Kami" was produced by Becker and he also performed on it. Was there bad blood between Fagan and Becker around the time of Nightfly that they eventually reconcilled by the time of Kami.

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Fagan couldnt finish Kami and asked WB for help.