l've never thought of Steely Dan's 70s music as laid back. I say its their balanced style that turns off the kind of music listeners that are mostly staying in their corner expecting for everything to be like what they're used to. I frequently see others mention Prince & Steely Dan as their favorite artists. I grew up with a lot of Prince and I like a lot of his songs. I had his debut as the only Prince LP in my top 500, but he would peak later on inconsistent albums (1979-1984).
I am not in a position to speak for Moonbeam. But, the laid back vocals are relative to the pop vocalists that I hear Moonbeam rave about, e.g., Madonna and Annie Lennox. I appreciate Prince but Steely Dan has been one of my faves since 1972 and Prince was never close to being one of my favorites. Steely Dan provided great music with exquisite composition, production, and instrumental virtuosity - especially with their horns and guitars. But, in my view what makes Prince special is his creative rhythms and use of percussion. As much as I love Steely Dan, I do not remember their percussion and rhythms as the strength of their creativity and virtuosity. I also vaguely remember others disagreeing with me on this point.
Henry, how can you say that David Palmer does the singing on Reeling In The Years? He only sings 2 songs on that album and clearly that's not one of them. I also disagree about the rhythm. They don't rely on it, but there's still a lot of it. I still don't understand why some describe them as complex/difficult and others say stiff/predictable. An example of the balance that I'm talking about.
Henry, how can you say that David Palmer does the singing on Reeling In The Years? He only sings 2 songs on that album and clearly that's not one of them. I also disagree about the rhythm. They don't rely on it, but there's still a lot of it. I still don't understand why some describe them as complex/difficult and others say stiff/predictable. An example of the balance that I'm talking about.
Mea Culpa on the Reelin' in the Years vocal.
As I noticed a few minutes ago, Palmer does vocals on Brooklyn and Dirty Work (as I recall SD's first single).
While I don't find any innovative percussion in SD's works, they were remarkably precise and tight. They weren't straightforward or predictable in my view, and they worked magic with whatever complexity they brought to their songs.
l've never thought of Steely Dan's 70s music as laid back. I say its their balanced style that turns off the kind of music listeners that are mostly staying in their corner expecting for everything to be like what they're used to. I frequently see others mention Prince & Steely Dan as their favorite artists. I grew up with a lot of Prince and I like a lot of his songs. I had his debut as the only Prince LP in my top 500, but he would peak later on inconsistent albums (1979-1984).
Props to For You! I certainly find it to be weaker than his celebrated stuff, but it definitely has its charm. "Just As Long As We're Together", "Soft and Wet" and "In Love" are firm favorites.
As a Prince fan, I also come across many fellow fans who also list Steely Dan as a favorite, and Aja in particular. I never really sought them out and was hoping this AM World Cup would give me the impetus I needed to explore them more. While I wouldn't say the music itself is laid back (I'd say it's more sophisticated than laid back), the vocals do seem rather sterile. I guess I was hoping for something with a bit more teeth. Perhaps I need to listen to them outside of the context of a song here and there.
