Steely Dan's Drummers

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“‘Your Gold Teeth II’ is a song with lots of bars of 3/8. 6/8. and 9/8. And it’s bebop! I could swing the cymbal beat and fake it, but that always bothered me. After recording it, Fagen gave me a Charles Mingus record with Dannie Richmond on drums. It had a tune that was full of 6/8 and 9/8 bars. I listened to that for a couple of days, and we tried it again and it worked. What a cool thing!"

Jeff Porcaro.

Great inside baseball stuff!
 
The Purdue/Rainey combination on Royal Scam is magical.

Steely Dan are a band that could only have existed in the 70s. The recording budgets must have been mind bogling and they only toured the first album.

I've always wondered with all the drummers they used on Aja, was it the same kit they used for the whole album?
 
That first album was a hard hitting masterpiece with tougher sophistication . After they dropped Hodder things got too slick and clever . Geeks gonna geek I suppose , especially wealthy ones .
 
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mikyok said:
The Purdue/Rainey combination on Royal Scam is magical.

Steely Dan are a band that could only have existed in the 70s. The recording budgets must have been mind bogling and they only toured the first album.

I've always wondered with all the drummers they used on Aja, was it the same kit they used for the whole album?
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Rick Marotta said he used a Slingerland snare once owned by Buddy Rich for Peg. But that's the only drum he uses on the song so he didn't play the kit supplied which he didn't speak well of.
 
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I love the Paul Humphrey track in particular. Big fan of the Jim Gordon takes overall in addition to the Bernard and Rick M tracks. Those are all my favorites.

Wait…nearly forgot…the Ed Greene tune, also a standout.

Maybe I’ll pick up some funky bell bottoms.

Is it just me, or is it just musicians only that listen to Steely Dan? Kidding….

Or am I?

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No when I saw them in Pittsburgh seemed like 93,000 majority civilian ; ) in the outdoor crowd
1993 tour with Peter Erskine
 
ravenson said:
That first album was a hard hitting masterpiece with a tougher sophistication . After they dropped Hodder things got too slick and clever . Geeks gonna geek I suppose , especially wealthy ones .
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There's outtakes from that period- I like. I had the Cassette "The Early Years"
said they were a Duo

 
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Walter Becker - Topic

Walter Carl Becker was an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was the co-founder, guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter of the jazz rock band Steely Dan. Becker met future songwriting partner Donald Fagen while they were students at Bard College. After a brief period of...
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Purdie and Porcaro are my favorites. Gordon on Rikki Don't Lose that number also is fantastic. Porcaro on Doctor Wu and Pretty Purdie on Kid Charlemagne !
 
First two albums only for me; Do it Again is one my all-time favourites. Other than some songs here and there, they started to get too smooth and sterile for me after that. I liked the cynical lyrics, but the melodies started to take on a schmaltzy cheese and the addition of jazz soloists was often done in a very safe, boring way to me.

No doubt it was still all very well crafted music with a lot of musical substance beneath the pop surface, but the vibe just wasn't my thing anymore.
 
Seeing Rick play Peg helped me learn to do it right when the cover band I'm in wanted to cover it.

 
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