Steely Dan Quotes
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When you get a groove going, time flies.
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As jazz fans, it was amusing for us to play jazz harmonies on these big, ugly electric guitars.
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We opened for the Kinks, the Beach Boys, the Guess Who, Chuck Berry, Sha Na Na. We opened for Cheech and Chong - I opened for Cheech, and Don opened for Chong.
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We've been allowed to operate unmolested on the fringes of the music scene, really. That's where we enjoy it most.
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Let's face it, us '60s folks had pretty high expectations.
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I spent a couple of years not doing any music or anything, just here in Hawaii trying to get healthy and adjust to the new regimen I was setting up for myself.
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I learned a lot from the various artists I produced. Either you see them doing something that you do want to do it, or you see them doing something the way you don't want to do it.
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I've never been comfortable as a lead performer, and I never wanted to be a singer, particularly.
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I always look for the weirdest note to land on. I felt that that was the least I could do for the great musical traditions which I've spawned.
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My style is a little quirky. I can't play as fast as most professional jazz players.
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There was a film called 'FM,' and we were asked to do the title song. And I said, 'Does it have to have any specific words?' And they said, 'No, it just has to be about FM radio.' It took a day or two to write.
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Most of our songs are about relationships.
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I listen to a mixture of old jazz, contemporary, pop, some world beat stuff and various odds and ends.
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Melodies can be good depending on the context. You can have a simple melody, and if the harmony behind it is interesting, it can make a very simple melody really different. You can also have a complex melody. The more complex it is, the harder it is to sing, and then sometimes it can sound contrived. You could write a melody that would be fine on a saxophone but if you give it to a singer, it can sound raunchy.
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'8 Miles to Pancake Day' is a reconciliation of the classic space-time dilemma.
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I'm starting to get older, and began to think about mortality a little more. My mother died in 2003 and that was a big shock. When your parents start to die off, that's going to be a revelation. So for me, this album - although it might sound quite cheery - is really talking about death.
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I have a critical nature, in the sense that when I look at something I often look for the flaws.
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I think we're right up there with Herman's Hermits and the other greats. Maybe somewhere between Herman's Hermits and the Gershwins.
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I don't think that the Grammys are in any way a just way of grading music.
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With 'Aja,' there was a sort of happy conjunction between our tastes and the backgrounds and styles of studio musicians at the time.
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It was the 'Gaucho' album that finished us off. We had pursued an idea beyond the point where it was practical. That album took about two years, and we were working on it all of that time - all these endless tracking sessions involving different musicians. It took forever, and it was a very painful process.
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My writing is really intuitive. As a kid, I went to school in New Jersey and hung out in New York, so the way kids used to talk got into our earlier songs.
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'Gaucho' was a struggle for us for a lot of reasons, and in the end, we just sort of survived it.
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With any relationship that goes on and is productive over a long period, there have to be some sort of interlocking qualities in those personalities that make it possible to survive.