Best Three Album Run - Bob Dylan vs Steely Dan

Bringing it all Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited & Blonde on Blonde vs Katy Lied, The Royal Scam & Aja?

I vote Steely Dan - as lyrically complex as Dylan but compositionally 5d chess to Dylan's checkers

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dylanchords.info/05_biabh/she_belongs_to_me.htm
tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/steely_dan/dr_wu_chords_1501400
dylanchords.info/07_bob/rainy_day_women.htm
dylanchords.info/07_bob/fourth_time_around.htm
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I'm not going to argue with you there. Generally I like Steely Dan better than Dylan for that reason

Is compositional complexity always a good thing though? I'd rather take rolled-in-the-dirt bluesy shit over jazzy frittering

Steely Dan is like right next to Beach Boys as my favourite band, so im biased.

It's a perfect 3 album run.

not much jazzy frittering in Katy Lied or Royal Scam, user.

The Hurting
Songs From the Big Chair
The Seeds of Love

I fail to see how any of those SD albums are more "compositionally complex" than BoB, more complex than 61 and BiaBH some (but that doesn't make them better).

I would put all those Dylan albums above all SD albums easily.

>as lyrically complex as Dylan
no

is that post malone?

steely dan is shitty yacht rock their lyrics suck too loser

Here you go. Chords from two songs chosen randomly.

dylanchords.info/05_biabh/she_belongs_to_me.htm

tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/steely_dan/dr_wu_chords_1501400

Note that the Steely Dan's music is more interesting melodically as well as harmonically. Unless you count Dylan's atonal wailing or shitty harmonica solos as microtonal.

>as lyrically complex as Dylan


I love Steely Dan, but that's ridiculous

She belongs to me is on BiaBH, not BoB
For all your wank about "muh complexity", you aren't even able to read basic English.

>lol it's boring easy listening for 40 year olds but dood lmao it's not what it seems lmao this song is really about death it just sounds like forgettable schlock XD
steely dan in a nutshell

As lyrically complex as Ballad of a Thin Man, Sad-Eyed Lady, or Tambourine Man? Is this bait?

it should actually be Royal Scam, Aja, Gaucho, but you could call it an 4 album run, with Pretzel Logic a 5 album run

>solo on Your Gold Teeth 2
>solo on Kid Charlemagne
wat?

Umm, ok?

dylanchords.info/07_bob/rainy_day_women.htm

dylanchords.info/07_bob/fourth_time_around.htm

>>For all your wank about "muh complexity"

If complexity isn't important, it shouldn't be an issue conceding that Dylan has less of it then, should it?

>>you aren't even able to read basic English.

>>I fail to see how any of those SD albums are more "compositionally complex" than BoB, more complex than 61 and BiaBH some

Learn to write

>unironically using the term 'yacht rock'
get out

gaucho is wayyyyyyy better than katy lied.

ok, time to rank steely dan albums. my order:

aja > royal scam > gaucho > katy lied > pretzel logic > cant buy a thrill > two against nature > everything must go > countdown to ecstacy > roaring of the lamb > alive in america

I love Steely Dan and their lyrics but claiming they even compare to Dylan's lyrics is asinine. However I will grant that Steely Dan's music is WAY more complex than Dylan's. Anyone who claims otherwise is fooling themselves. For christsakes, half the songs off the sum of those three albums are just 12-bar-blues numbers. They're amazing, but certainly not as complex as Steely Dan's music.
All that said, I favor Dylan's three album run over Steely Dan's. I've heard all six albums several times and Dylan's is just more enjoyable.

...

Can't Buy a Thrill >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> everything else

Never ever been impressed by any Steely Dan lyrics, most of their songs are pretty similar: light and consumable music partnered with lyrics that have a dark underbelly. Structurally simplistic and linguistically dull with zero emotional resonance. Putting them anywhere near Dylan is an utter insult, they're not even in the echelon 4 tiers below Dylan's pantheon.
And though their music is more complex, it's nowhere near as innovative nor provocative as Dylan's. I'm reminded of that quote contrasting Duke Ellington and Stan Kenton

Steely Dan is my favorite pop band of all times and I like only classical music better. but it's not as complex at it might seem. the thing about Steely Dan is that they have a very unique style in songwriting and did a good job to implement it in actual music. It must be very difficult to make musicians understand and play such a special vision of music and Steely Dan are so great because they spent hours and hours in the studio until it was done. That's the complexity, not the melodies or the harmony. I mean, it's not blant either, but it's certainly not extremely complex

Ah so it's forced and overproduced

Gotchya

lol
I pity you that you can't enjoy the beauty of SD

Maybe I only think of it as really complex since I can play any Dylan song on guitar but not one Steely Dan song, least not any I've attempted anyway.

>forced and overproduced
no, it's seeing the details in a musical idea and not stopping to try to elaborate it until it's transferred from the vision in your mind to the material world. in the case of SD it has nothing to do with overproduction. you can hear that uniqueness of them already in the songs from roaring of the lamb which only consist of acoustic piano and vocals.
People who don't get SD think of them as overproducing band a la Toto or Asia, but the appeal of SD is something completely different

I guess it depends on how you define complexity. Dylan uses chord progressions that are used everywhere, so it's not difficult to recognize and reproduce them. Once you figure out SD chords/melodies it's not difficult to play, but it's nearly impossible to reproduce after listening because it's so unique and unparalleled

I can enjoy Steely Dan, I like a good number of their albums. I just have never been wowed by any of their lyrics nor any of the singing of said lyrics, like I have been with hundreds of other musicians.
Nothing sadder when someone is butthurt and bitter and says "I-I-I p-p-pity you". For what? For not liking a rock band? Pretty sad

>it's seeing the details in a musical idea and not stopping to try to elaborate it until it's transferred from the vision in your mind to the material world. in the case of SD it has nothing to do with overproduction. you can hear that uniqueness of them already in the songs from roaring of the lamb which only consist of acoustic piano and vocals.
If you can't do that in one take, then it's overproduced garbage

I pity you because you're butthurt, otherwise you wouldn't make the effort to show your bitterness in a Steely Dan thread. I give a shit about the lyrics, the music is just great. Listen to 'Peg' for instance, no equalizing, no click, great grove, everything in it's spot and somehow a satirical take on the blues form and all of that in a 3min pop song. that's just great entertainment

>If you can't do that in one take
there talks the expert, huh? they didn't use click, they didn't equalize, they made everything as natural as possible, so I think that's just the band to which this doesn't apply.
I'm not saying Steely Dan are the best music imaginable, but they certainly stick out of anything else in the pop/rock genre from that time

>they didn't equalize
[citation needed]

Dylan is my personal favorite but I’ll agree that Steely Dan is GOAT-tier from a compositional standpoint. They’re genuinely brilliant.

saying you pitty someone is a little condescending but it is sad when someone doesn't understand the magic of steely dan

there is nothing wrong with being meticulous when creating a piece of art. if you'd listen to a steely dan record you'd realized it isn't overproduced in the least bit. its refined perfection

But I'm not butthurt nor bitter? You made a thread (or if you're not the OP, then a thread was made) comparing Dylan and SD on the basis of lyrical and musical complexity. I gave my opinion that Dylan was vastly superior on the lyrical front and that SD's lyrics are generally forgettable. Then you responded in a smug and pretentious manner worthy of ridicule.

I've listened to Peg many times, it's perhaps my favourite song of theirs and yeah it sounds great, but there gets a point where it becomes indistinguishable from the schlock they're supposedly satirising, which has always been kind of an issue for me.

classic albums - aja. I think it's even on youtube

I understand the "magic" of SD, I just don't love it.
It's just a rock band, stop acting like it's some great spiritual revelation.

Not a citation.

It's an impossibility to not use any sort of EQ on a professionally made album. What about the RIAA curve?

as I said, I give a shit about the lyrics. Peg and many other things by Steely Dan are satirical in a mere musical way, e.g. Haitian Divorce/reggae, Parker's Band/Bebop, Glamour Profession/Disco

>RIAA curve
isn't that more like a mastering thing? but, ok, I give you that, they used as little equalization as possible and didn't use it to conceal shortcomings in the sound. In their biography it's said that they tried out 90 kick drums for Aja until they found the right one.

>not a citation
yes, of course it is

>if you'd listen to a steely dan record
No
> it isn't overproduced
They didn't spend eyars in the studio perfecting everything?

Dylan literally recorded live in the studio. It either has the magic or it doesn't It's not forced or tampered with

>they used as little equalization as possible
Nice backpedaling

What about junk frequencies? Steely Dan must sound pretty fucking awful if they have literally 24 layers of 15hz on everything

>They didn't spend eyars in the studio perfecting everything?
how does that imply that it was 'over'produced?

>Dylan literally recorded live in the studio. It either has the magic or it doesn't
Dylan didn't write the lyrics in one try, he though a lot of them and took his time with them. Did he 'overproduce' them? Hell, he just focussed on something different, he wasn't a musician like the guys from Steely Dan. If you think Steely Dan tries to polish something up that would be blant otherwise you just didn't get them

>Nice backpedaling
sorry that I can admit that I exaggerated, I know that's not common on Sup Forums

Composition =/= recording

Nice try

Also if you don't understand why recording an album for two fucking years you hopeless

How is Haitian Divorce or Parker's Band musically satirical of those genres exactly?

>Composition =/= recording
in the case of Steely Dan it belongs together. I admit that with Gaucho they did a bit too much with the drum computer and everything, but with 'Aja' everything went just right and every note is where it belongs, not one is superfluos.
Asia, Boz Scaggs, Toto and the likes are 'over'produced, Steely Dan is just very well produced. Just because it took time to make it doesn't mean it took too much time

because it takes use of key features of those genres and puts them in a song structure and in a lyrical context that has nothing to do with it and which is actually much more sophisticated as the usual examples of those genres. those are the two most obvious examples btw, I hope you're just baiting with that question or you don't know the songs

So it just uses key chords, progressions and overall features of those genres?
That's not satire, that's just playing a genre
Oh but because it's SD it's some brilliant satirical masterpiece am I right?
And no, HD is not structurally nor lyrically unique, different or more complex than the average reggae song. It's probably less so, same goes for Parker's Band (though ignoring the lyric part).

No

Composition and recording are completely different
Steely Dan is not some magical force that gets to be different

when I hear a reggae song with jazzy, steely dan chords, a vocoder guitar solo and bernard purdie, a notorious motown drummer, playing the reggae beat than it's obviously satirical to me. and no, it's not brilliant because of that, it's brilliant because it's well done, bold and unique.

>And no, HD is not structurally nor lyrically unique
now you're just ridiculous m8. I don't know what secret reggae bands you know, but the reggae songs I know, and it's quite a lot, don't score with their complex chords or lyrics. same goes for parker's band actually. did u even make the effort to figure out the chords or look them up?

>Composition and recording are completely different
you can't just generally say that. in musique concrete and cologne school it was turned around. in pop music it's not true in many, many cases. in miles davis albums it's the other way round as well.

>It's just a rock band, stop acting like it's some great spiritual revelation.
i wasn't implying that in the least bit

being meticulous isn't the same as over producing a record. if anything they took care to make sure it wasn't over produced. also, im well aware of dylan's recording techniques as im a massive dylan fan as well but he's doing something completely different from SD. dylan's music benefits from a raw and spontaneous sound

neither of those are the best 3 album run imo
>Tago Mago/Ege Bamyasi/Future Days
>This is a Long Drive/The Lonesome Crowded West/The Moon & Antarctica
either of these i would probably say are the best

>also, im well aware of dylan's recording techniques as im a massive dylan fan as well but he's doing something completely different from SD
Then why compare the two?

>being meticulous isn't the same as over producing a record
there seem to be anons that cant understand that, maybe to excuse the quality of their shitty bedroom records they create

Do you even know what satire means? How on earth does throwing in some jazzy chords or using a vocoder satirise the genre of reggae at all? Oh shit they used a MOTOWN DRUMMER watch out Jamaica, Steely Dan have got your number.
Compare that to something like Bunny Wailer's Blackheart Man, which is musically far more interesting, unique and complex
>, but the reggae songs I know, and it's quite a lot,
Let me guess, two Bob Marley albums?

im not sure, im not OP.

because you said Steely Dan was 'over'produced. you actually compared the two

>being meticulous isn't the same as over producing a record.
Recording hundreds of different guitar parts is overproducing it you dingus
Sorry I'm not good enough to not use EQ!

Steely Dan is founded in jazz composition, Dylans stuff is blues and folk founded.

Are Steely Dan fans literal brainlets?

>Do you even know what satire means?
yes, do you? it's not brilliant because it's brilliant satire, but it's a well crafted song and on top of that it's funny. It would be great without the satire, though. It's like the second or fourth movement of Beethoven's 8th symphony. It's great in itself but it also carries a musical joke.

>Recording hundreds of different guitar parts
you are aware that there is hardly any overdubbing in Steely Dan records, are you? you just telling the old prejudices about Steely Dan. Just watch the making of Peg on youtube where they show the first takes on the guitar solo and compare it with the final one. Wasn't that a great decision to wait for that one?

>you are aware that there is hardly any overdubbing in Steely Dan records, are you?
Are you saying they didn't go back and bring in a number of different guitar players, who each tried their shot?

stop acting like a retard.

Ooops you didn't answer my question

Try again

Holy fuck why is mu talking about this dad rock?

Listen to better music you retards.

Like what?

I despise Bob Dylan.

I love Steely Dan. So pretty simple for me I guess.

>not Can't Buy a Thrill, Countdown to Ecstasy, and Pretzel Logic

Calm down pimp. It's not like Steely Dan has a bad album.

You sound like a shithead

I vote bob Dylan because I am a pleb

>It's not like Steely Dan has a bad album.
Except all of them

We'll... thanks.

>Katy Lied good
what the fuck is wrong with you, that's their worst album in their original run.

You poor cunt

Tell me more about your yacht rock

the idea that the lyrics of Steely Dan are comparable to those of Bob Dylan is laughable
i'm not even sure why these two artists are being compared, they have very little in common

Typically, a Steely Dan fan has had a "eureka" moment at some stage listening to their music. For me, it was listening to their greatest hits a few times, thinking it was bland, over produced elevator music but one day Kid Charlemagne just struck me as a brillian song in every way.
The next step is breaking through their cryptic lyrics and realising that for decades, these bastards have had some of the most subversive lyrics floating out at normies in supermarkets and elevators.
Fucking genius.

Wow don't soil your Dockers there Todd.

3 album run. It's that vs gaucho. And black friday is awesome.

>And black friday is awesome.
Don't forget Bad Sneakers and Dr Wu. Masterpieces.

don't forget Your Gold Teeth 2, too. It has my favorite SD guitar solo. Overall it's a great album. It only sounds not as good as the others because they used a Dolby noise reduction device that malfunctioned and destroyed the tapes

same for me. I remember the exact moment. I drove in my car and listened to Black Cow and in the fade out the groove just hit me. Before that it sounded boring and too slick to me, but after that I couldn't understand everything they did

countdown to ecstasy sucks