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[miles]

Also, did anyone mention Steely Dan, Elvis Costello, RatM, Ramones, Teenage Fanclub, Warren Zevon, or the Red Hots?

No, I don't think so, but Lawyers, Guns, and Money by Zevon is one of the greatest songs of all time.

[Nabubrush]

Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner gives L, G, & M a run for its . . . well, you get the idea.

[slink]

6)Fugazi:  In on the Killtaker

I think my call for Fugazi would be Thirteen Songs. Something about it... I probably, really do ought to get a copy of In on the Killtaker again, but Thirteen Songs is, well, it's the one I still have a copy of around.

[AlohaDawg]

When I began to make my list I had intended including the caveat "but you already have all of these" but I forgot by the end. The problem with discussing music with people who have 5000 albums is you have to be hugely obscure if you want to suggest something they don't have. I am a bit surprised your collection had deficiencies in the Stones and Talking Heads, though.

Let's see . . . Little Sue, Radio Birdman, Brad "Shame", Clutch, Blossom Dearie (not that obscure), Forreals, Hellacopters, Pink Martini, Rocket from the Tombs, Poison Idea, and Roman Candles.

Also, did anyone mention Steely Dan, Elvis Costello, RatM, Ramones, Teenage Fanclub, Warren Zevon, or the Red Hots?

Thank you for mentioning Steely Dan. Awesome.

[jough]

When I began to make my list I had intended including the caveat "but you already have all of these" but I forgot by the end. The problem with discussing music with people who have 5000 albums is you have to be hugely obscure if you want to suggest something they don't have.

Not really, though.  I mean, I have a bunch of things on vinyl still, so I never ripped them to mp3.  So I'm downloading things like "Loggins & Messina" and Neil Young's "Harvest" which are necessary albums.

I am a bit surprised your collection had deficiencies in the Stones and Talking Heads, though.

I think I sold my Talking Heads CDs without ripping them first, just assumed that I had them.

And as for the Stones - I mean, they have 26 albums, not including live and bootleg albums.  Do you have them all[/]?  I didn't, but I will before the day is out.

Let's see . . . Little Sue, Radio Birdman, Brad "Shame", Clutch, Blossom Dearie (not that obscure), Forreals, Hellacopters, Pink Martini, Rocket from the Tombs, Poison Idea, and Roman Candles.

The problem with many of these is that neither this Russian site nor emusic have them.

Also, did anyone mention Steely Dan, Elvis Costello, RatM, Ramones, Teenage Fanclub, Warren Zevon, or the Red Hots?

Okay, so maybe I'm weird but I never understood the appeal of Steely Dan.  But I have completed the Elvis Costello collection, and I am pleased with even some of his awful mid-80s albums.

I just have the two Ramones collections, those "All the Stuff and More" which is quite enough.  I know not of Teenage Fanclub or the Red Hots - I mean, I've heard of TF but I don't know the music - is there a particular album I should start with?

[jough]

Also, did anyone mention Steely Dan, Elvis Costello, RatM, Ramones, Teenage Fanclub, Warren Zevon, or the Red Hots?

No, I don't think so, but Lawyers, Guns, and Money by Zevon is one of the greatest songs of all time.

My favourite Zevon is "A Certain Girl."

Oh, and yes, I've got Zevon covered.  I didn't really start listening to him until I heard he was ill and saw him do an hour on Letterman a couple of years ago.

[jough]

Thank you for mentioning Steely Dan. Awesome.

Okay, I'm still going to plead the ignorance here.  I've heard a little SD but I don't understand why someone would like them.

Could you enlighten me?  Are they one of those bands where their singles suck but the rest of the album is good?

[AlohaDawg]

Steely Dan music I like because - it's hard to describe - I find the sound of Steely Dan to be unbelievably clean - almost like a pure sound. There is nothing extraneous, no 'noise' and the storytelling is pretty good. (Some people would probably say they were overproduced.) They have (to me) their own category and I don't really think anything they did was particularly derivative or eventually copied.

I'm not the 'music guy' some of you are but there was a guy named Jerry Rafferty I put more-or-less in the Steely Dan category in terms of clean sound and storytelling but he didn't have a lot of songs that got radio play that I can remember.

<><>Edit<><>

1) It's Gerry Rafferty
2) Right Down the Line and Baker Street are the songs I most remember (1978)
3) He was also in the band "Stealer's Wheel" who did Stuck in the Middle With You in 1973

[V-Adore]

I have to weigh in in favor of "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" here, but this may be because the song is a massive nexus for inside jokes on my quad. (Yeah, can you tell we're the cool kids? Ohh yes.)

Also, I believe that I am contractually obligated to state that "Hit Somebody" has earned my undying love and should earn yours as well.

[AugustWest]

Steely Dan combines virtuoso musicianship with great lyrics.  Poppy? Sure.  Overproduced? I'm not sure what that means, but could be -- it's very slick.  Whatever it is, I like it.  Can't Buy a Thrill, Pretzel Logic and Aja are probably the best albums.

How can you not like a song like "Dirty Work"?

[Nabubrush]

Steely Dan is an interesting case. I've been pretty well mad for them forever - as my brother introduced me to them when I was youngish. However, I had a friend who always dismissed them as elevator music crap. Now there's a certain note of truth to that. They're extremely polished. Interestingly, some years later that same friend came back to me and faulted me for not doing more to turn him on to SD.

It's basically sort of light jazzy I-don't-know-what-you'd-call-it. The musicians are very, very accomplished. Don and Walter always knew exactly what they wanted and kept working on the songs until they got it down. I'd go so far as to easily recommend "Nightfly" and "Kamakiriad" - Fagen's solo joints. And I'm going to say that I would normally put the song "Royal Scam" into any listing I made of the greatest 10 songs of all time. Also, there's a lot of ironic/smartass humor in their songs. If they are more or less giving away mp3s, you really ought to have Pretzel Logic and The Royal Scam. "With a Gun", "Charlie Freak", and "Don't Take Me Alive" are all really nice caper/scam songs that I think almost anyone could really enjoy.

If what you are thinking of when you think of SD is the songs "Rikki . . . " or "Reelin' . . ." (both songs I enjoy) you owe yourself a listen to "Kings", "Black Friday", "Parker's Band", "Buzz", or "Show Biz Kids". * Having said that, I'd say that probably most people have heard the song "Kid Charlemagne" - I guess I'd say if that song doesn't convince you that they're a worthy band, maybe they aren't for you.


*(My perspective on this is the same as the way I feel about people who write off Stevie Wonder because he wrote "I Just Called . . .")


I switched some things around to keep things together and I don't know what . . . anyway:

I will add about clean/pure/overproduced that Steely Dan is very like Pink Floyd to my mind in this way. You could call it overproduced, or you could say these bands ended up with enough money and studio time and concern for their listeners that they decided to make things exactly right and exactly how they wanted them. It probably ends up driving producers/mixers/musicians nuts, but there's something to making things exactly how you want them. I'll admit, I listen to plenty of slapdash shit, and I don't listen to Pink Floyd much anymore, but there's a lot of very carefully put together music out there which is a pleasure to listen to.

In order, for me:

1) Royal Scam
2) Pretzel Logic
3) Can't Buy a Thrill
4) Aja
5) Countdown to Ecstasy
6) Gaucho
7) Katy Lied
8) Two Against Nature
I have not listened to Everything Must Go.

Honorable Mention: I also have a number of collections and other crap, and on Steely Dan Gold there's a (nearly eight minute) live version of Bodhisattva (a fine song) that features a spoken word intro in which a clearly inebriated individual praises a "Mr. Steely Dan" while the band members laugh.

"If it good to ya, it gotta be good for ya!"

[Nabubrush]

For Teenage Fanclub, just get "Bandwagonesque". I have others, but they are quite similar and not as good.

[CortJstr]

This is going to earn me hella geek points (and Jough probably can't DL it anyway) but I have to say Cowboy Bebop OST 1. It is, as a review said, bulletproof cool.

[Limmo]

I bought the Citizen Steely Dan box set, and the drunk introducing "Bodhisattva" is one of the highlights.

"All you purty, purty, purty little purty ones can tell all your friends tomorrah, that Sanna Monica...has been defenetly...set on fiyah."

iTunes has thoughtfully included a snippet of this introduction for your perusal.

[miles]

6)Fugazi:  In on the Killtaker

I think my call for Fugazi would be Thirteen Songs. Something about it... I probably, really do ought to get a copy of In on the Killtaker again, but Thirteen Songs is, well, it's the one I still have a copy of around.

I tend to think that Fugazi improved slightly with time until 1993 (although Repeater is a better album than Steady Diet, but, you know), and then kind of leveled out.  Although I do love 13 Songs, Repeater, and Steady Diet dearly.  Fugazi has never released a bad song or album.