Added: 4 years ago
From: Libertine62
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  • A perfect tune.  damn

  • Yup, in my 50's fat and gray but in my mind I'm still 17 long hair flowing in the wind playing this on my eight-track in my 69 Super bee.

  • capability brown did this song , a lot better!

  • Iam 25 and i am a dick!!!

  • @86burzum

    but you're not an asshole, that's the main thing - a dick is just thoughtlessly intrusive and unintentially rude, whereas an asshole is (wait for it) full of shit :D

  • I'm 33. A few grays. Got a belly. Love the Dan.

  • @sleepybrownbear lol agreed

  • I'm 21, and I still dig these guys. Guess that means there's some hope for the future?

  • Well Dan fans. I,m 58, have white hair, no belly, no hearing aid. Been turned on to these guys since 1973. Helped get me through basic training. Used to sing Steely Dan and James Taylor when I had to pull fire watch. These guys make my MP3 player smile every time I listen to them. I have had them on 8-track, LP's, cassettes, CD's, MP3. Can never get enough of the Dan.

  • @lsc7727 >>Same here. I'm 55 and today's new music doesn't even come close to the Masters of "Our" Time, do they?? /:o]

  • 2:30 - 3:00 is sheer brilliance.

  • I love the sound of vinyl - sounds like it was encoded from off of vinyl!

  • my friends and i used to think david palmer was a guy who wandered into the studio off the street, and they liked him so much they gave him a job. later, we thought he must have pissed off someone important cuz he wasn't on 'countdown'

  • the time of our time has come and gone...man i blinked and now this applies to me too..:(

  • Thanks for posting.

  • Steely Dan filled a void by creating and recording some good, complex and multi-styled music. And they still do!

  • really great song. Its my favourite

  • this was back in early 70's... no huge digital filters, no computer drums. no fillins by the computer piano...no adjusting vocals...this is real people !

  • @JonBassettx - And from everbody here let me be the first to say...right back atcha.

  • LJH I am with you....this is one of those albums that has every song different and full of parts of life..the music is sweet and full,,,, yeah desert island for sure !!!

  • wish someone had Time Machine Jive.

  • Can't Buy a Thrill has always been on my Deserted Island Discs list. You know , if you're stranded on a deserted island , and you have a CD player (back in the day it was a turntable) but you can only have 10 albums. I like all of their albums , but this one has so many songs that I consider classics, I would have to have it.

  • Time Flies

  • This album has one of the most intriguing sounds I've ever heard. Reminds me of better days.

  • I remember going to college in Maryland and all the guys had Steely Dan playing on their tape decks like me. One of my sisters had all their records.

    I miss those old days!

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  • don't hear this guy sing lead much for the Dan. Fagen is OK, but if you have multiple singers, everyone should have a lead. Dave Evans, for example, rarely gets a U2 lead. Even Ringo got leads with the Beatles, Jane Weidlin with the Go Gos, Vickie and Michelle with the Bangles. Makes for a stronger band all around.

  • @jonathanmacpac That's David Palmer singing - i think he was out of the band by the next album, and he only sang a couple on the debut anyways.

  • @vonbontee Thats jimmy hodder singing.  He was in the band for a short time. Saw his son play last night, amazing

  • @MrCypressjones OK, thanks for correcting me!

  • Steely Dan is a soul Rock and Roll group. It contains many influences, but it took the great minds of Walter and Donald to make it be. As for Mr Blacklorre, I ask; The Royal Scam was shitty? I hardly think so.

  • The greatest jazz-rock (studio) band of all time: they never liked to tour!

  • not jazz -rock. There was article in Rolling Stone "back in the day" and Donald Fagen mentions that the band was up for some kind of nomination in the "jazz" classification . He said he did'nt even know they were a jazz band. it's not jazz. it's Steely Dan -it defies classification. It's not rock'nroll. It's not blues.

  • Takes me back to junior high.  Still my favorite.

  • Que bueno amigo. 

  • ^O^

  • Gracias x toda la buena musica que nos dan y todos los recuerdos inherentes a ella,salud !

  • great to see you still have this up thanks!!!!

  • anyone else think 1:08 - 1:17 sounds a lot like "echoes" by pink floyd live at pompeii?

  • Still the best album Thrill-then Logic the rest are weird or a bit shitty!

  • Libertine62 - I was wondering if you could include vocalist “Jim Hodders” name to the title or at least in the tags.

  • A geat song, from what is my favorite Steely Dan album. I never get tired of hearing it.

  • Glad there are more Dan fans than I'd imagined. Hope you all don't have a big belly, white hair and a hearing aid. There's too many of us as it is listening to this.

  • @Imallears1958 Fan since 1989. Still got some hair. Ha! 1 Love

  • @Imallears1958 lol, im 55 no big belly, a little gray, and no hearing aid, and no glasses, and listening to Steely Dan since this album

  • Yeah those days are gone, columbian gold, window pane......Tell me where are you driving?

  • Yeah those days are gone, columbian gold, window pane......

  • I'm 46, and when I was 16, I visited my Aunt and Uncle in NH- Bloomsburg class of '69. I wore out their "Royal Scam" LP. My cousins, now in their mid-20's, are of like mind. Good music is recognizable by any generation.

  • Love this album

  • I have their box set.Best investment I ever made. Ive worn that sucker out many times :)

  • Picking my favourite song off this album is unbelievably difficult, I can't do it but I can say for sure that it's my favourite album of all time

  • #1 Steely Dan favorite.

  • this album was considered one of the great rock-album of the year (1972)

  • One of their masterpieces!

  • I had this album what a great sound so full of energy-hope-promise. Who in today's music arena plays songs like this-or am I just getting old? Thanks for the upload.

  • living in las vegas at the time sitting at pool side smoking the Tia stick, diging on the Dan lol, thanks Greenberg for the smoke and turning me on the Dan

  • Is that "Morla" the Turtle from The Never Ending Story singing?

  • The Dan came to Portland last night....AMAZING, still tight, tight and Donald and Walter are still kicking. I had to wait 30 years to see them, and it was worth every minute of it.....i've always said, "the best mix of blues, jazz, funk, rock, soul and all things uniquely American". Now i can back it up....truly a great night.

  • the beginning kinda sounds like "Bologna is my old friend" XD

  • timeless music ,dig it or get out.

  • people dont always get it but almost all their songs are about sex in some way.

  • As popular as this band was I never understood why they weren't more popular than they were! They just don't make music like this anymore. What a great band!

  • @fios4me Perhaps the obscure subject matter and complex chord structures guaranteed them a limited audience until those who got used to that musical outlook, got used to it, to a point.

  • Underated?? It's pure f*cking genius.

  • A, in my opinion, VERY underrated Steely Dan song!

  • so thankfull I get to see them before they stop touring. I think I desearve it. everyone does and owes it to themselves.

  • this song was shades of dan to come

  • Got it on Vinyl, and boy does it sound great!

  • i love the very beginning part :)

  • I have one correction.. it's "Great music".

  • A couple of days ago I had this blaring while I was cleaning out the back of my SUV, and two kids about 16 were walking by. One hollered "Hey mister.. what kind of music is that?" Thinking he was bieng a smartass I said "Good music"  His friend said, "Yeah it is." We listened to the rest of the CD, and they now know Steely Dan... and 'good music'.

  • @dbcoll1957 great story very cool i only wish more 16 year olds would listen to this shit i guess that back in the 1970`s we took all this good music for granted every time i hear this guitar solo i get goosebumps

  • @dbcoll1957 I'm seventeen and I just saw them live last weekend. They didn't play this song, I wasn't expecting them to, but it was a good show. Unfortunately, the vocals were a bit muddled, and they could have turned down a few of the back up singer's microphones. We got lucky though. They basically played through Aja, and the last half of the show was older stuff. Anyway, they're a fun band, not my favorite, and maybe not the best I've seen live, but I certainly enjoyed myself.

  • @dbcoll1957 Share it with all who will listen. :) The musical education of America must continue.

  • @dbcoll1957

    Please save them from hippopp!

  • @dbcoll1957 hey i knw what u mean im only 20 n i've known who steely dan is for a longe time i grew up listening to him most of my life and i can never tire of his wonderfull music steely dan hasnt dissapointed me. And i honestly think kids these days dnt really knw what gd music is anymore.

  • @dbcoll1957 You mean "GREAT MUSIC"!

  • @dbcoll1957 Hope you didn't touch these kids you black man you..

  • @dbcoll1957 That's always great! Share with the kids and pass great music on. Today's music is so lacking.

  • @dbcoll1957 you sound like a pedophile.

  • @kusa7 So how long have you been a troller... what an a**hole. I'm surprised you even listen to something this good.

  • i got the Citizen Steely Dan album on my 1Pod, and it has some of the best songs ever

  • I can't understand why Can't Buy a Thrill never seems to show up on anyone's top 10 list of the best albums of all time.Every song is so strong.You'd miss a gem if you skipped over any of them.

  • @oleole52 --I guess it's like that place in Pennsylvania that has been burning since 1962 --from a coal mine fire. Smoldering and ever present--but oft ignored.

    I am convinced that the riffs from this song and other "Dan" songs ( prominent during my HS and College) influence(d) my selection in "musicaa " that followed, by being "seared" into the sucules of my Hemispheres. It is truly, ...subconsciously ever present.

    Thus --did this album "impact" Music ? Hell yes, ...by any definition.

  • USS DIXIE AD-14 August 1973 - listening while on o one level at night while sliding thought the sea - i wore this song out while on that cruise!!

  • This is great. If you want to call these guys a studio band, fair enough. However, They can replicate all their stuff, despite whatever "habits" they might be going through at the time. Check out the live stuff. As tight as you could hope for. Super record.

  • I feel so blessed to have grown up in the 60's-70's; What a GREAT classic!! I'll always LOVE and ADORE Steely Dan!!!! :) I'm 43 and listen to them at least 4 times a week! Thanks for the memories; a life-long fan.

  • @macluvin66 JUST four times a week? I own enough tunes on vinyl and CD to run 3-4 radio stations and I make room for the Dan every. single. day.

  • @GoGoGadgetBeer I so hear you

  • It should be illegal to be this good, Abolutely brilliant in every way !!!!!!!

  • This reminds me of other 70s pop rock such as Todd Rundgren's "Hello, it's me" or "We Gotta Get You a Woman" as well as Carole King's work in 'Tapestry'.

  • Good vocal by the drummer.

  • does no one read shakespear any more?, it is felonius

  • this about my man thelonious shpere monk

  • Favorite Steely Dan Song

  • Is that guy Marlon Brando on the cover?

  • @tw1964 No, I believe it's Charles Atlas, the bodybuilder who used to advertise his regimen in comic books and magazines with that same photo. An icon of print advertising to us kids of the '50s-'60s.

  • Thelonious as in Thelonious Monk: jazz pianist and composer.

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  • I always thought it was Felonious , too . You can google either and get info on the song . There are a couple of mentions that "Thelonious" is one of those famous misheard lyrics.

  • Donald Fagen & Walter Becker to Owen Wilson: "You did us wrong!"

  • I think "Midnight Cruiser" is actually spelled "Midnite Cruiser"

  • They are a group of story teller from the 70's I was seventeen when I bought this LP I played it till the needle went dull One of a Kind Sessions

  • "One more time let your madness run with mine" love that line

  • I love it!

  • I set my ipod on repeat and play this the whole time i'm practicing pool. every time.

  • My Dad used to play this entire album when I was just a little guy. Now I'm 22, and whenever I hear this song, I get flashbacks of my Dad and my little brother, and all the good times.

  • nice

  • バタ臭いんだけどカッコいい・・・シンプルでジャンルを超えた男­らしい曲だね

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  • @andy18401 yes a very good song!!!

  • I thought it was Felonious...as in some who has a committed a felony....like the hippie radical..ie the Midnight Cruiser...;-)

  • the greatest jazz-rock band of all-time..

  • @thejohnmarchant

    very KOOL story.....I love it!

    YOU enlightened their lives my friend Awesome

  • Andy18401, I definitely agree that this is the best song on this album. It's the first cut my band learned how to play. STILL love this one!

  • how are there 9 dislikes??

  • @kdw456 well, there are plenty of nobs about!!

  • "Felonius my old friend

    step on in and let me shake your hand

    so glad that you are hear again

    for one more time let your madness run with mine,

    the streets still unseen will find somehow

    no time is better than now..."

  • @RootsNahNah Misheard, it's actually Thenonius as in Thenolius Monk the N.Y. jazz & blues musican of rather great fame who later suffered from insanity as a misdiagnozed condition of manic depresion & schizophrenia. Honestly, no offense inteaded, but it's a commonly held misperception. Just as many don't realize or understand the meaning of "Brooklyn (owes the charmer under me)" or of "Deacon Blues". Good luck in your search of history. ;) BTW, Deacon Blues is actually about football. LOL

  • @MrAmberRocker Right on, and thanks for history lesson. No offense taken. The history of a song is cool but listening to it and loving it is where it's at. Btw, probably just a typo, but it's Thelonius Monk. Did not know about Brooklyn or of Deacon Blues until now, thanks.

  • @RootsNahNah OOPS, that was a typo, guess I was in a hurry and didn't proof read. Sorry man. XD Hate it when I do that. LOL And you're right about loving a song despite its history. At my age though, I've become a bit of a history fanatic. I actually hated it when I was younger, I'm horrible at names & dates. But in college I came to see that history is the foundation upon which all of mankind's knowledge is built. Doing otherwise is to build upon the shifting sands & that house never lasts :)

  • @MrAmberRocker I majored in History in college for that very reason. If you don't know where you've been, how do you know where you are going? Thanks for sharing brother!

  • @MrAmberRocker What you're saying makes sense, but the Steely Dan website says it's Felonius. Do you think they made a mistake?

  • @RootsNahNah streets still unseen we'll find somehow. "will" makes no sense

  • R.IP. Jim Hodder

  • best song on the greatest first-album ever

    

  • Becker and Fagen are genius and no one will ever touch their musical mastery!

  • I agree!

  • I agree!!

  • Such tasty guitar playing and phrasing. The drums punctuate nicely.

  • I wholeheartedly agree with you two!

  • Is it "Felonious" or "Thelonious" as in Thelonious Monk? I thought it was the latter, which would fit with the Harlem reference.

  • @coybacon251 He said Thelonious. If you listen again he says "...let your madness run with mine..." Thelonious was said to have gone slightly mad before passing away. He had a bit of a craziness to him anyway like many geniuses do. Another fact is that he was in a romantic relationship with one of the billionaire Rothchild women (forgot her name). She was of course kicked out of the family because of being with him, but was still left a generous fortune to live on. 100 million if I recall.

  • @syzeone77 Her name was "Baroness Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter" patroness to several New York Jazz Musicians. It's said that Monk's mental illness was misdiagnosed as they failed to recognize his symptoms of manic depression & schizophrenia & that the drugs he was prescibed may have caused brain damage during his hospital stay. The Baroness had also nursed Charlie Parker during his final illness. Fagen & Becker were highly infuenced by Jazz & their complex works show it.

  • Felonious: what a name. Also, for some reason, in the lyrics, which came with the original LP, one line says, "Take me to Harlan [sic] or somewhere the same." I'm pretty sure they really say Harlem, unless they mean a small town in Iowa. Great song. Always makes me think of various interpretations.

  • @Teflon65 Unless they were big fans of ZZ Top, and wanted to go to Harlan, Texas lol

  • Well, I know every song that ELO charted, & sing along! I realize SD and ELO both had a rep of "studio group", relying as much on engineers and producers as the musicians. Seems ELO often doubled (or more) an identical vocal or melody to give it texture, & to me the result was an over-produced sound.

    I remember the "recorded concert" flap, when ELO 's concerts were found to last precisely the same amount of time each night. To me neither ELO nor SD should 've ever played live: it ruins dreams.

  • Great track, influence of the dead must be.

  • i really love this song and would listern to it over and over again

    when i was i kid has to be the second best song on the album

  • Everything on this album was fantastic, even the cover. CBAT has to be one my favorite albums of all time. Fagan's voice is great, but I don't think it would have worked on this song. Love the piano.

  • i love this song!!!!

  • I have to agree with rwwagsneb, Steely Dan has their own category. Lota jazz, with rock overtones, although growing up, they were played on rock stations ( in Ohio ) but when I lived in California it was played on jazz stations (alot). They have been and will always be one of my most favorite bands. Thanx for sharing!

  • steely dan has a lot of gems on albums that weren't called..ahem "hits"..but there songs were so carefully written and played so beautifuly that you didn't care if the songs made sense or not...this is one of the gems..great song!

  • Jeff Skunk is a man to be remembered forever!

  • what a lovely tune...

  • "Drive me to Harlem - or somewhere the same..." haha

  • Jim Hodder had a great voice. Check out "Dallas". 

  • @charthead Thank You! I just listened to it...you're right he does have a great voice.

  • I like reelin in the years, its my fav steely dan song.

  • there is a detroit connection here

  • i thought it was janis joplin

  • i literally picked this album out of the trash around 1973

  • i just got here

  • I got into Steely Dan from listening to them with an old punker I used to smoke tons of dope with

  • This was my anthem when I got my drivers license. Cool to hear the few songs where Fagen is not singing lead. He sang everything after this. Jim Hodder on drums (R.I.P) was simply amazing.

  • thank god for libertine

  • Maybe not the "best" song on the album, but definitely the one that defined a long gone era of my stay here on Tera. I fully agree with rwwagsneb. Fagen & Becker are so Iconic they created a category that they occupy alone to this day. I get old. Steely Dan music doesn't. Sheer genius.

  • now here we go, over and over when you are six yrs old, kinda sets your expectation of music, eh?

  • No one and I mean no one can match the guitar solos by The Dan!

  • The first 16 seconds of this song display more musical "intelligence" (for lack of a better term) than most composers or musicians can muster in their entire lifetime. Gorgeous.

  • I 1st heard it in '72, but still shake my head in awe. Incredibly layered & complex textures; richly harmonic yet with a kiss of dissonance in sublime opposition. This music touches something elemental, common to us all. Anyone can hear this, and at the very same spots say, "There! Listen to it right there!" Now THAT is perfection.

    I usually hate "studio" groups (ELO? Echh!), but SD is so masterful that they're in a class alone, where composition, arranging & recording IS the performance.

  • @jum1801

    hate ELO? oh boy, that's some rich harmonizing you're missing out on.

  • @jum1801 couldn't have said, or explained it better. I am a singer-songwriter. over 300 songs, raised with Neil Young. My favorite progressive groups are: Genesis 1969-1979 - Foxtrot Yes - Close To The Edge King Crimson - Discipline album Steely Dan - Royal Scam Camel - Mirage Gentle Giant - Octopus Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick Living Color - Cult Of Personality Nektar - Remember The Future, and Recycled Triumvirat - Spartacus
  • @andy18401 What fantastic musical influences you've had! A well-educated sense of the "progressives". I probably wouldn't call Living Color "progressive", but what the hell do you call 3 black guys playing guitar-oriented riff-heavy but melodic rock?

  • @jum1801 this was before they were a studio band though..

  • @jum1801 ggreat and meaningful comment especially the last sentence...a little wordy, but maybe you are a journalist. :)

  • @PJNARS Heh. A "little wordy"? Oh, jeez, I came off like an arrogant prick! For the love of God, why didn't someone spare me the humiliation and just kill me?! I'm so ashamed it'll be several days before I can summon enough courage to post again, which is like several months in internet/dog-years....

  • @jum1801 well put

  • I'm going to call a pet "Steely Dan" one day :D

  • @WoodRatGirl a fun thing to do, hearing the music after they pass is beautiful brutality. My Dan Dog is still rolling, my other rocker pup = home at last. peace ;.)

  • @0marigolds

    Oh you have a dog called Dan, and the other who passed was called Steely?

    How cool :)

  • A way you can judge a group is to see if anyone successfully covered their music. This of The Beatles, Stones, The Who, Credence, Beach Boys, Elton John, and Steely Dan...some artists have covered their songs in a great way, but the list is very short. In other words, their music is so unique it is rare to hear anyone attempt to match. it.

  • LOVE THESE GUYS!!

  • I agree that this is the best song on the album. How great is a group when the best song on the album features the drummer and probably the third best singer, Jim Hodder (behind Donald Fagen and David Palmer) on lead vocals? I think "Dirty Work" and "Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)" are also great, and "Do It Again" and "Reelin' in the Years" are big hits. If you like "Can't Buy a Thrill" check out "Pretzel Logic", too. I think these are their best two albums.