Any Major Dude
Lately I've been driving the Psychedelic Eskimo crazy with my obsession over a bad review that Pitchfork gave Steely Dan's "Two Against Nature" five years ago. The chump who "reviewed" it made a bunch of lame Kenny G jokes and cracked wise about men with little pony tails driving SUVs. Ha, ha. Mixed imagery aside, the dude didn't even bother to review the record, he just vented his allegedly informed indie biases against the long dead schlickmeisters of 70's rock, may they rust in peace. I suspect a little Oedipal drama in that review...
Let's just put the guy's ignorance aside for a moment (for example, Kenny G doesn't have the chops to hang in with the Dan's Fagen and Becker--they're beboppers, not smooth jazzers), and consider this: Many of Steely Dan's fans probably do have little ponytails and drive SUVs. They probably did listen to Aja and Goucho while hanging out in fern bars while gold coke spoons that hung around their necks tickled their chest hair. These people probably shell out hundreds of dollars for the latest Eagles farewell tour and if you aren't careful will bore you with the wonders of colon cleansing.
Yeah, well let me tell you this: Steely Dan makes fun of these people, they always have. Steely Dan are everything that an in the know Pitchfork writer thinks they are: hip, worldly wise, sardonic, ironic. Their intricate funkish bop delivers a subversive message through those SUV speakers, and they're named after a dildo.
To put it in the argot of the hip pop critics of the day: Steely Dan are anti-rockist. They were as "Post Rock" as the Post Punks, as steeped in black music as any pop music diva of today (and Donald Fagen's voice is as thin and warbly as theirs). So, put that in your soy chai latte and drink it!
Let's just put the guy's ignorance aside for a moment (for example, Kenny G doesn't have the chops to hang in with the Dan's Fagen and Becker--they're beboppers, not smooth jazzers), and consider this: Many of Steely Dan's fans probably do have little ponytails and drive SUVs. They probably did listen to Aja and Goucho while hanging out in fern bars while gold coke spoons that hung around their necks tickled their chest hair. These people probably shell out hundreds of dollars for the latest Eagles farewell tour and if you aren't careful will bore you with the wonders of colon cleansing.
Yeah, well let me tell you this: Steely Dan makes fun of these people, they always have. Steely Dan are everything that an in the know Pitchfork writer thinks they are: hip, worldly wise, sardonic, ironic. Their intricate funkish bop delivers a subversive message through those SUV speakers, and they're named after a dildo.
To put it in the argot of the hip pop critics of the day: Steely Dan are anti-rockist. They were as "Post Rock" as the Post Punks, as steeped in black music as any pop music diva of today (and Donald Fagen's voice is as thin and warbly as theirs). So, put that in your soy chai latte and drink it!
posted by ken at 5:08 PM
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