Search - Steely Dan :: Best Of: Then & Now

This "Best of" is very similar to "A Decade Of Steely Dan"

FlashbangBob | Victoria, Australia | 01/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great album but, if you're after a greatest hits my recommendation is to buy ASIN: B000002P4R "A Decade Of Steely Dan".



There are three reasons for this. Firstly, the track listing between the two are almost identical. "Then & Now" has a couple more songs but all the main hits are on the "Decade" album.



Secondly the "Decade" album is not an import so it is less than half price and thirdly, "FM" which is my favourite song on the album has a Sax solo whereas on the "Decade" album the version, while otherwise identical has a guitar solo. A minor difference but I don't think the sax solo is as good as the guitar solo. Someone told me once that Larry Carlton played the solo in FM. I don't know if this is true but it certainly sounds like his style.



A great Album but get "Decade" and save a few bucks."

Great collection, weird sequence...

Curly Q. Link | Somewhere Out There | 11/04/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Unlike most "Best Of" collections, which tend to highlight a few great songs "padded out" with a bunch of filler tracks, this Steely Dan compilation covering their "golden years" (that is, basically the whole decade of the 1970's) is truly loaded with great material from start to finish. But hey, when the group in question is Steely Dan, whose level of songwriting and musicianship was above and beyond virtually all of the "stadium rock", "smooth pop", and disco with which it shared the radio airwaves of that era, the problem is not which mediocre material to include, but rather, which excellent songs have to be omitted due to the time limitations of one CD. I think the compiler(s) did a very good job for the most part, although personally I think I would have replaced "Black Friday" with "Black Cow". If there were "1/2 stars" available, I would have given this disc 4-and-1/2 stars. The only reason I'd withhold a half star is that some of the sequences are a bit weird, none moreso than at the very beginning: We get off to an energetic start with "Reelin' in the Years", but since it's followed by "Rikki Don't Lose That Number", a fine song which was unfortunately saddled with an all-but-useless Intro of some sort of mumbling "log drums" or marimba that runs 23 seconds, we get a half minute (a long time in pop music terms) of what amounts to "dead air". If you listen while driving in your car, where this Intro barely cuts through at all, you might think there's something wrong with the disc, or your CD player. I suppose that this complaint should really be directed at the band and producer of the original track, but as Steely Dan is usually thought of as a "groove" group producing slick, toe-tapping, jazz-&-funk-inflected rock, the slowpoke Intro should have been cut out, at least for this collection; it kinda kills the pace so early in the album. There are a couple other odd sequences as well---it shows how important this aspect of producing a record can be, something that affects the listener's whole perception of it. That said, it really is a superlative batch of music, and anyway, in today's hi-tech world, you can play with the sequence as you wish, or "randomize" the tracks, which can be cool with this type of collection; just don't try to do that while driving your car---the cover photo shows what happened to those who did."

Correction to "Just A Correction"

M. Dart | 03/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"(which is painfully obvious to any REAL Dan Fan), March 7, 2006

Reviewer: B. Essex "Sings2Teddy"

FM is not a Steely Dan song - it is a Walter Fagen song.



You are joking right?! REAL Dan fan?? First of all it's Donald Fagen & Walter Becker. FM is a Steely Dan song - see below



FM

Drums and Percussion: Jeff Porcaro

Bass: Walter Becker

Guitar: Walter Becker

Steel Guitar: Cosmo Creek

Piano: Donald Fagen

Tenor Sax: Pete Christlieb

Percussion: Victor Feldman

Backup Vocals: Tim Schmit



"