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Steely Dan Friday, June 11, 2004 • read strip Viewing 75 comments:

I like this strip but at the same time I often worry there is a joke that I am missing here because I am not familiar with Steely Dan.

I think the joke is just what they look like nothing about who they are.

i thought it was to highlight that ray is unable to use google or photoshop properly.....

Somehow it seems like this strip would reference Steely Dan more often.

if there was an audio track to this entire webcomic, it would be Hey 19 being played over and over.

A comment left by saint was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by TonyHighwind, tttt2, nutmeg)

Also "Reeling in the years", "Deacon Blues" and "Ky Old School."

KY: Old School.

Daryl Somers! THAT'S who saint reminds me of!

Great, you just informed the rest of the English-speaking world about Daryl Somers. Australia's economy is going to definately plummet now :[

Funny how our dollar went from being worth 95 US cents to somewhere around 83 since you posted that.

Dilution of the effect on Australia of The Daryl Somers Phenomenon was my intent all along.

Aaaaand now we're down to 2/3rds of what it was worth a few months ago. Nice going, fella.

I once heard Red Simons MC a comedy gig with a joke that went along the lines; People always ask me "What's Darryl Somers like?" and I tell them "Vodka and big cocks". Hilarious.

hahaha!



Economy?

We need a service like this, yeah?

A comment left by dracer2 was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by tttt, gothfae, tttt2, TTAGXAMM, Doc_Rostov, turnabout, mattylite, DickLaurent)

If you read their essays, Fagen and Becker are on par with Onstad in wit and writing style.

https://www.steelydan.com/heyluke.html
https://www.steelydan.com/heywes.html

Also, in terms of songwriting and jazz musicianship, they're really musicians' musicians.

that's the whole thing about that band: they're ridiculously smart about music, but the music they make is disgusting.

And they are also named after a dildo featured in William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch .
That is the whole thing about this band.

Yeah, I keep trying to get into them, and I understand the appeal of their musicianship and all that but every time I end up all, "shit is boring."

Their music is extremely bad.

Also, afterthought from nearly a year later: dracer2, your girlfriend may well be the only woman in the world who likes Steely Dan. The rest of their fans are aging or wannabe-aging men who either are perpetually single or have figured out how to disconnect their musical interests from their domestic happiness, with just under 70% of Steely Dan fans favoring the former.

I have a friend who liked them while he was in high school, which is pretty bizarre in its own right, but a girlfriend? The Smithsonian may take an interest.

That said, I do kinda like "Peg," but I like the version that gets constantly stuck in my head better than the actual recorded version.

A year later?! You think he still has that girlfriend?!

A comment left by pogo was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by apocowarg, TonyHighwind, unalone, dracer2)

They got the shapely bodies
They got the Steely Dan tee shirts

My mom likes Steely Dan.

Your Mum likes A Steely Dan.

Shorter johnnylandmine: Anyone who likes Steely Dan is a lame old man without romantic prospects, but isn't Peg a fun song?

I'm just sayin' I'm glad they recorded it so that De La Soul could sample it, is all.

"disconnect their musical interests from their domestic happiness"

I don't think I understand what this phrase means.

dont expect or require their significant other to enjoy or tolerate steely dans music.

I'm not a fan, per se, but your "elevator rock" allusion is all that I need to hear to surmise that you are possessing of a dog's ear, sir.

Perhaps not early Steely Dan, but their later work (that I've heard) isn't much better than elevator music. Fagen's solo work, especially, is practically no different from most shitty smooth jazz and MOR blue-eyed soul, aka types of "elevator music."

Just because something is musically complex doesn't make it good music. Most elevator music, be it smooth jazz, new age, pop standards, etc., is written and performed by highly trained musicians; that doesn't mean the shit has any real soul or worthwhile artistry. Usually, the term "musicians' musicians" means they can play their instruments but can't write a song.

Steely Dan always seems to get that annoying music critic pass because they made decent music back in the 60's/70's, and because they're intelligent and witty. So is John Cleese, but that doesn't change the fact that he hasn't been in a good fucking movie in almost 20 years.

oh fineoakstructure, how this comment articulates a number of my rants perfectly.

Whoa! Hello, two-year-old Steely Dan conversation which I never followed up on!

Anyway, you make some excellent points, but the fact that they are intelligent and witty (musically speaking, I mean) is really all it takes to set them apart from run-of-the-mill elevator music, I think. The average studio musician (or "musician's musician") has been taught his entire life to avoid interjecting those qualities into his music. That may be the only difference, but it's a key one.

Again, though - I barely even like them.

You must be deaf.

Here.

A comment left by jeofredo was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by JohnnyLandmine, fakead, reverendsam, dracer2)

Two people hate the fact that you like a band.

Argh. Accidental lame.

I added a lame just to keep you from being a liar Mr. rowboat

Nothing you can do could keep me from being a liar.

I don't know anything about Steely Dan, but I love his overly-specific descriptions and how they exactly match up to the people in the picture.

Ditto.

I believe this picture may have appeared on the Onion AV Club near the time of this strip.

A comment left by tttt was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by reverendsam, sheriff_mittens, dracer2)

that sentence contains grammar issues

That is exactly the picture I was expecting to see.

I wonder what Ray was going to use the picture for?

Five because I grew up immersed in Steely Dan.

My feelings on this strip are pro, but I think those guys are fools to do Ray's dirty work.

And they don't even have the fez on!

Why has this man not recieved chubbys?

Dude, I don't know about you, but I'm NEVER gonna do it without my fez on. Colossal chubby.

> My feelings on this strip are pro, but I think those guys are fools to do Ray's dirty work.

Buh-zing!

https://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/09/19/SD_070913021219571_wideweb__300x375.jpg

I remember the original version of this strip had an incorrect reference to Steve Miller Band, but was fixed in one of the infamous Onstad Insta-Edits. (Remember the SpongeBob saga?)

What?

Steely Dan is the best band of all.

please sir...

you're showing your age.

no static at all, EFF EMM!
(no static at alllll)

Steely Dan is the best band of all.. bands whose name is a euphemism for a dildo?

NO

That would be Dave Matthews Band.

you're thinking of bands that feature actual dildos as members.

Don't forget, his sidemen are douchbags.

Dildos and Douchebags and Dross, oh my.

That is so disrespectful to dildos. Dildos only exist to bring people joy.

Tell that to Darren Aronofsky.

What, does he use one on himself in Pi or one of his other films? (Thanks, search engine)

I'm referring to a particularly gruesome scene from a particularly gruesome film called Requiem for a Dream. A dildo is used for evil.

Man, I stared at that for a while before I figured out what you meant by it. If that's the dildo you mean, then I'm perfectly willing to accept that Dave Matthews Band is equivalent to junkies being forced to go ass to ass.

I rated a strip just so I could lame that. I have to listen to this band all the time at work.

This band. It is a band with two shits inside.

walter becker looks like james lipton's geeky kid brother, pass it on

James Lipton looks like James Lipton's geeky kid brother.