I have been a Steely Dan ....
351731
fan since the early 80's.  I really never understood why they did not tour more or why they seemed to be out of the limelight so much.  Their music is incredible.  I like music from different spectors.  From Waylon and Willie (my country choice), to 70's rock (UFO / Rainbow to hair metal.  Steely Dan is classic blues / soft - up tempo rock (if you call it rock).  Alive in America is a very very good effort and it shows the band Alive and well.  Also if you notice the price, you can't beat it.  The tracks on the cd are really good.
2438474
I've always wanted to learn lap steel or pedal steel. For $100, I am having a blast learning a new instrument. Remember, it's only $100. I've run mine through a few different things (PODs, FX, amps, etc) and it sounds great. I'm glad I got it.
4951358
Over the last year or so I had been wanting to get back into vinyl. I was aware of the resurgence and had seen many of my old favs being put back out remastered and on high quality 180 gram vinyl. Back in 2007 I really wasn't even aware of what all those terms meant. My experience with vinyl was from when I was 14 and could pick up a copy of Def Lepards Pyromania from the local grocery store while my mom was shopping. I can still remember her face when I picked up Motley Crue's Shot at the Devil and put it in the shopping cart with the eggs. Funny... So in terms of record quality I couldn't really have told you the difference between 180 gram or 120 back in 07 when I started looking for a new LP player. I had done all the research and was really leaning toward either a used Thorens or Dual if I could even find one or a new Pro-Ject. I was really set on the Pro-Ject too. It looks cool and it had a USB so I could rip my vinyl to mp3.

*** Fast Forward to Anniversary Time 2008 ***

My little sister of all people was nice enough to listen and actually get me what I really wanted for my present that year. She did not get me a Pro-Ject turntable though. What I ended up with was a brand new release of Gun's and Roses Chinese Democracy on Vinyl and a Sony PS-LX300USB turntable. To be honest my expectations weren't super high. I mean come on, I had already done all the research and had kind of set my sites on something a little more expensive. To my surprise though the Sony turned out to be a very good performer. Overall I have been very please with the performance, sound, and ease of use. I have collected around 80 records or so over the last two years and am happy to report that many of the new reissues and even the old records I've picked up at various places sound fantastic. I would recommend this player to anybody wanting to get back into vinyl and say work your way up from there if necessary. For me that means that the Pro-Ject I had my sites set on will continue sitting over at the store and not on my shelf for a long time.

Thanks,
4143460
Awesome!  I wish this got some radio play.  Steel Dragon brings you back to the days of fast guitar and ball grabbing high notes!!  It makes me want to grow my hair long again!!  We listen to it so much my kids are hooked.  If you love early 80's metal, you will love this album!!  It rocks hard!!
2847763
I run a small recording studio for those who want to showcase their talents, wether it's performing or songwriting or both. I get called on for backing tracks of all genres of music and need the tools to create them. A while back, a friend who had borrowed me his ShoBud pedal steel decided to start playing again and wanted it back. I needed a steel guitar to form the occasional country tune as well as a couple of Pink Floyd covers. After scouring the usual used outlets I saw an ad for a new Rogue at Amazon for $79.99. I figured i'd take the risk for that kind of money - and i'm happy I did. It plays well, stays in tune, is built sturdy, and looks nice - and it's very light and portable should I need to perform a tune on stage. While I don't know how well it would hold up to regular gigging (the legs are rather thin) and the pick-up could be better (a P90 would be cool), it's a darn good deal for the price. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to get another one should it get lost or stolen. And the best part? It's $20 cheaper through Amazon than to buy direct from MF.
818909
OK,  you know how in your favorite movie, the main character picks up his head and beats the odds and the soundtrack picks up and pushes him along?  Steely dan's Pretzel Logic  has that kind of effect.  Amazing rhythm makes a genra I can only describe as (Piano) Jive.

  The optomistic "barrytown"  and the downtrodden "Charlie Freak"  remain two of my favorite of the tracks on this all encompasing album.  While ranging through all feeling and emotion The band "steely dan" (Made of crazy bearded hippie trailblazers of the 70's)  Never looses its sense of eternal jive.  After hitting the play button, my fingers rarley get a break from snapping and my toes from tapping.

  Clean, intellegent, creative, and fun music has stood the test of time.  After the crazy electric psycadelic guitar solo and right before you hear the endless jive rhythms present in the percussion and keyboard,  you will think to yourself "wow,  this is music...very good music"  Then you will realize that music today is stupid and lacks fundimental creativity and passion and is stupid;  you will continue to sell your worldly possesions and live out your days living on a commune in India modeling your spiritual inner self after  Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.  ... or you will like the album; and ask santa for more steely dan for christmas.  you will be heartbroken when you recieve wool socks.
4107481
one listen to this album and I was hooked for life on Steely Dan. Their music was so unique, rock/blues/jazz fusion kind of thing going there. I paid like $5.00 for this at my local record store and I still have it. Still one of their stongest lp's while Steely Dan would grow so much over the years this LP never sounded outdated or outshined by any of their latest music.
2366907
This album is music of the '60's to me.  I remember learning about blues hiding in an alley next to the stairs leading down to the Unicorn Coffee House in Boston, listening to the likes of James Cotton and the Siegel-Schwall Band and just being knocked out.  Then, on a rummage through the bins at a record store in Braintree, I just liked the look of the cover of this album. That choice changed my musical taste forever.
I had listened to blues, a lot of it, by the time I got this record; but, this stretched my imagination.  The first thing that grabbed me was the harp.  Butterfield on "Work Song" just made me want to turn it UP!  By the time I hit 'East-West' I was in magicland.  With an apology to a forgotten reviewer of many years ago,Bishop was from Chicago, and Bloomfield was from EGYPT!
I still listen to this album a couple of times a month, and have gone through a dozen copies on records, tapes, and CD's, which always seem to be missing after parties.  I don't mind . . . much.  As I have aged, and have seen rock lose its bearings more times than I can count, and then return to its bare essentials, the blues and folk, I return to this album like Linus' blanket.  It is comfort and joy for me.
In the many years since I have heard this music, which was ground breaking in its time, leading to much that followed, the odd consequence has been to send me back, to the old bluesmen to try and understand why 12 bars of repetitive use of three chords has been the hanger for a closet full of repressed feelings and release.  If you can't hear John Lee Hooker, all the great blues guitarists and harpists, Robert Johnson and the Devil, and some whiskey in this record, you haven't listened to it enough.
Buy it.  Often.
1008170
I have waited twenty years for this album and I must say I'm dissapointed. A few of the songs satisfy this S.D. fan, but the rest sound like a band trying very hard to sound like Steely Dan. I got lost in the boring,  lackadaisical attempts to match that original Fagen/Becker genius. Steely  Dan haven't grown up, they've grown old.
3700905
Best not to judge other people's creativity.  Sure sign of rigid thinking.  If you're a Dan fan, buy this and don't even THINK about judging it until you've heard it at least 5 times.  If I had to judge this what would I say?  Brilliant.  Perverse. Masterful. Nasty. Impeccable.  Steely Dan all the  way...
1306392
Yeah, I've always loved the song Magnet and Steel, what a great tune.  Now, just recently, I find out from my music nut friend (I'm a music nut too, and we both love Fleetwood Mac and the solo stuff) that Buckingham and Nicks are all over this album!  I had to have it, I've been listening to it this past few days, and it is really hitting home.  My lovely wife (soon to be EX) has decided to bail on me and our two beautiful children after 19 years together, and some of the lyrics on this album are really freaking me out!  Make it Alone is really powerful, but there are many lines here that are appropriate to my current situation.  I'll have to look Walter up and see what he has been up to, but well done Mr. Egan.  And I agree with the other reviewer, Lindsay and Stevie should play this song!  cheers
90214
What's important to note about Steely Dan on their debut album is that jazz-rock fusion,the sound they'd make as much a part of their sound as the Rolling Stones did Chicago blues, hadn't really been around all that long when this album was made and it really hadn't crossed over into a big way to change all that. Walter Becker and Donald Fagan had already recorded the soundtrack<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/You-Gotta-Walk-It-Like-You-Talk-It-Or-You-ll-Lose-That-Beat/dp/B000FJHW6G/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It ... Or You'll Lose That Beat</a>&nbsp;before this so when they gathered in LA with Jeff Baxter,Denny Dias,Jim Hooder and singer David Palmer they already had a pretty clear concept. Musically this album is nothing like the Steely Dan sound we'd come to know in the emmediate future,even more so than most debut albums aren't an extention of their overall sound. On the other hand if it wasn't for this album they'd probably have never developed their distinctive sound at all. There contemporaries on the MCA label at the time were Three Dog Night and somehow or other their mildly jazz and gospel based pop sound was finding it's way into what Becker and Fagan were doing. As such this is the only Steely Dan album where singers other than Donald Fagan have lead vocals on songs such as the soon to depart David Palmer's vocal on the very poppy styled "Dirty Work" along with Jim Hodders lead on "Midnight Cruiser"-two songs which showcase that Three Dog Night influence more than anything,especially the prominant use of fender rhodes. Palmer also takes the lead on the more obviously jazz-rock styled "Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me" and "Change Of The Guard". All of these songs find Becker and Fagan developing their destinctive lyrical preoccupation with sociatal misfits and their situations. The hits here are actually two of the most unique songs Steely Dan ever recorded. One is the excellent Santana styled latin-fusion flavor of "Do It Again" that,I admit when I first heard it I had no idea it was Steely Dan at all. Also there's their early breakthrough hit "Reelin' In The Years",the most obvious "rock" oriented type of jazz-rock song here and...well it's been played a lot on the radio but it still holds it power. Elsewhere on this album songs like "Kings","Fire In The Hole" and "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again" find the band working out the funk and stronger jazz elements of their sound and on the later is one of (if not THE only time) on a Steely Dan record Becker and Fagan would share lead vocals. "Only A Fool Would Say That" exibits something of a Frank Zappa type lyrical spirit from Donald Fagan as something of a witty put down of the remains of the 60's counterculture by referring to them as shallow and rather phony. Whatever your opinion it's certainly an interesting observation for the era. Steely Dan are still in search of a cohesive sound here and their usual elements are kind of seperate out into a patishe style sound rather than being jelled together the way they usually are. All the same the more time one spends with this album you realize how well executed and broad in scope it is and,even at this early period how much of a stand out musical entity Steely Dan was.
1397479
Wow!!! Wow!! what a great album.  I am so in love with this album.  every song here is great and very different.  My favorite song here is Reelin' in the years which we all have heard and my other favorite is Dirty work.  Steely Dan has done one of the best things musically possible which is mix rock and jazz my tow favorite styles of music.  Midnight Cruiser is just a fantastic song which you can totally sing along too and Kings is exceelent.  Do it again, the albums opener, starts the album perfectly with rhythmic percussion going through the whole album.  For those of you who want to buy some Steely Dan and are thinking of just buying a Decade of Steely Dan, get this one first I promise you you will thank me.  You can't just get the greatist hits you will be missing out too much.
3394133
This is the best piece of work you have ever put out...and I have been listening to your music good and bad since 1969! Tasty guitar chops and music with a groove.....
1194596
Excellent............ elevator music.  That's it, I've had enough, I can't take it anymore.  I once read an excellent review written about a fairly recent Rod Stewart CD, and the reviewer suggested that Rod be tied in a chair and forced to listen to 'Every Picture Tells A Story' over and over again until he realized that once upon a time, he could write and produce excellent music.  It's time we did the same thing with Donald.  This album is as bland as it gets - and I LOVE Steely Dan and Donald Fagen music - I'm not some recent band-wagon jumper who just discovered them - I've been an avid fan since the early 70's.

The area that upsets me the most is the drum playing.  Where are the Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie-type drums, with changes in tempo and great cymbal work.  This album is drum machine after drum machine monotony.  I knew I was not going to like this CD when at the very first listen, I could tell which instrument was going to hit which note next.  Song after song, the drum machine keeps playing at virtually the same tempo.  Jeez, Donald, if you're going to use a drum machine - spin the dial a little to get a different sound!

The guitar work was just as bad.  If you've seen the Aja DVD, where Donald and Walter discuss the choice of different guitar solos for particular songs, you get the sense that they aren't that far from paralysis by analysis.  They pick apart every nuance of a solo to get the right 'feeling'.  No such luck on Morph - they obviously took the first guitar lick laid down in the studio.  Zero originality.

I could go on and on with my frustration over this CD.  I can't stand it when an artist wimps out, is afraid to take chances, or refuses to get input from other great musical minds to bring something new and fresh to our ears.  Don not only went for the 'middle-of-the-road', he's the crack down the center line.  Donald, it's time to go off-roading - forget the Audi T-1 you lost in the divorce (last Steely Dan album) and get behind the wheel of a Hummer and create a new road!

This CD gets 1 star for the 'wackiness' of the song subjects - I guess the lyric-writing cells are still alive and well, but the music-writing cells are in safe-bet, early retirement mode!
444694
Wow, so many songs about whiskey.  I have to say, I like my SteelDrivers CDs better!  But like everyone else, I'm happy that Chris Stapleton is getting the acclaim he is due.
4622486
People listening to this CD for the first time shrug their shoulders and say: Yep, that's how pop music sounded back in 1972. Hold on! I will be the first to declare that later Dan albums sounded better and better, but don't  let that keep you from buying this one.
It is a debut album, and  probably the best debut album in the history of recorded music. There is  not a single stinker on it. All compositions are highly creative, the  lyrics already have that special trademark Steely Dan ring to them, Fagen's  singing is right on the mark, and the playing, the sheer musicianship is  there, even when these guys weren't studio cracks.
This album rocks, 28  years after it has been born. Can't buy a Thrill? Yes you can! You can buy  this CD and be thrilled.