RIP Greg Kihn

[DanOregon]

Good call, though few of the tracks by either are A+ clavinet-dominant in the way, say, "Superstition", "You Haven't Done Nuthin'" or "Up On Cripple Creek" or even "Jeopardy" are.

Fagen is more of a Rhodes/Wurly kind of guy, but there is one track on "The Nightfly" with clavinet ... "Green Flower Street". That's about his batting average with clavinet and Dan too. Used sparingly with "Kid Charlemagne" the only one that jumps at me from the top of my head.

Edit: fork me. "Black Cow" has clavinet. Still, about an average of one per album.

Stevie? I was curious, so I looked it up.

"Hotter Than July", which came out in 1980, has three tracks with clavinet, including "I Ain't Gonna Stand For It" and "Master Blaster (Jammin')". I suppose I recall clavinet in those two, but they're nowhere near as prominent as in his early-to-mid-70s stuff. That was it. None of his other 80s albums had it, which stands to reason, given that he always wanted to be at the cutting edge of keyboards/synths.

Didn't Fagen use the Clavinet in Time Out of Mind?

 

[maumann]

Didn't Fagen use the Clavinet in Time Out of Mind?

That looks like a melodica to me. I thought a clavinet was an electronic instrument with a keyboard.

 

[YMCA B-Baller]

That looks like a melodica to me. I thought a clavinet was an electronic instrument with a keyboard.

Plus, that's Dan, not Fagen solo. (Pedantic, I know.)

 

[Slacker]

Huge fan of the Dan...and Black Cow is one of their finest songs. So outrageous!

Aja, Black Cow and Home at Last are enduring favorites, always, from that outstanding album. Deacon Blues is a good song, too, but radio ruined it for me forever by playing it every forkin' 15 minutes back then. Peg is good, and Josie too, but radio played them into the ground, too.

Still and always, a stellar album from top to bottom.
But what the fork does "Call me Deacon Blues" mean, or matter?

That line lost me the first time I ever heard the song, and every
other time to this day. Funny/sad how one line can ruin a song, etc.

But I'll list to that album anytime and anywhere. It's just that good.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Aja, Black Cow and Home at Last are enduring favorites, always, from that outstanding album. Deacon Blues is a good song, too, but radio ruined it for me forever by playing it every forkin' 15 minutes back then. Peg is good, and Josie too, but radio played them into the ground, too.

Still and always, a stellar album from top to bottom.
But what the fork does "Call me Deacon Blues" mean, or matter?

That line lost me the first time I ever heard the song, and every
other time to this day. Funny/sad how one line can ruin a song, etc.

But I'll list to that album anytime and anywhere. It's just that good.

Fagen said it occurred to him that if winners can have grandiose names, losers should be able to have grandiose names too. The character in the song is a loser. Hence the full line:

They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues.

 

[I Should Coco]

Slight sidetrack … but stations/programs playing a "Yacht Rock" format like to slide Steely Dan songs into the mix, especially Deacon Blues.

IMHO, the lyrics of Steely Dan songs are way too nasty (and good) to be considered Yacht Rock.

 

[garrow]

Aja, Black Cow and Home at Last are enduring favorites, always, from that outstanding album. Deacon Blues is a good song, too, but radio ruined it for me forever by playing it every forkin' 15 minutes back then. Peg is good, and Josie too, but radio played them into the ground, too.

Still and always, a stellar album from top to bottom.
But what the fork does "Call me Deacon Blues" mean, or matter?

That line lost me the first time I ever heard the song, and every
other time to this day. Funny/sad how one line can ruin a song, etc.

But I'll list to that album anytime and anywhere. It's just that good.

Deacon Blues is my absolutely favorite Steely Dan song

 

[garrow]

Slight sidetrack … but stations/programs playing a "Yacht Rock" format like to slide Steely Dan songs into the mix, especially Deacon Blues.

IMHO, the lyrics of Steely Dan songs are way too nasty (and good) to be considered Yacht Rock.

Couldn't agree more. Steely Dan were NYC hipsters...no yachts in sight

 

[YMCA B-Baller]

Don't get me started on what Yacht Rock is or isn't. A fair percentage of people absolutely do not get it.

Watch the original Youtube series. It's simply supposed to be smooth music with Michael McDonald as the template. The yacht part is because of the perception that people who would like that music are well off, and, that it was a status symbol in the late 70s/early 80s to have a yacht.

If McDonald is the template, Steely Dan is yacht, because McDonald was all over their records, especially "Peg", and they traded in their NYC roots for that El Lay vibe.

What isn't yacht is "Ride Captain Ride", "Rock The Boat", "Brandy" or anything else with a vaguely nautical theme. The Sirius Yacht rock channel plays those songs and it's so dumb.

It's a shame the Yacht Nyacht website isn't around anymore. Created by the dudes who did the Yacht Rock series, it listed what was and wasn't yacht. The Dan definitely made the cut.

Edit: Someone compiled their list in a Google doc.

Yachtski Scale - Google Drive

 

[maumann]

Hey, Koko got impaled by his lucky harpoon because of Christopher Cross, darn it! Now that's real smoooooth.

 

[Scout]

This is a Kihnspiricy.

 

[Slacker]

Deacon Blues is my absolutely favorite Steely Dan song

My favorite, too, when it first hit, but then radio beat it to death, and now once every five years is fine by me.

But the album's title song, Aja – man, the musical path that song takes is Steely Dan at it's finest.