Steely Dan Countdown To Ecstasy

Steely Dan - Steely Dan Countdown To Ecstasy

Steely Dan Countdown To Ecstasy
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Music CD Cover

Artist: Steely Dan
Brand: STEELY DAN
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1998-11-17
Music Label: Mca
Soundtracks:
  1. Bodhisattva
  2. Razor Boy
  3. The Boston Rag
  4. Your Gold Teeth
  5. Show Biz Kids
  6. My Old School
  7. Pearl Of The Quarter
  8. King Of The World

Free Music Notes for Steely Dan Countdown To Ecstasy

Free Music Review: Steely Dan's first masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars

Although Steely Dan's 1972 debut album "Can't Buy A Thrill" has some terrific stuff, it's a very uneven album. That's not the case though for the follow up album, the fittingly-titled "Countdown To Ecstasy", which was originally released in mid-1973. David Palmer who was an additional lead vocalist on the previous album was thankfully gone, and as Donald Fagen & Walter Becker point out in the liner notes for the 1999 remastered version, this was the only Dan album specifically written for a "working ensemble"--unlike later albums where the band was officially a duo, Steely Dan was an official 5-piece band at this point--in addition to Fagen & Becker, the band contained drummer Jim Hodder, guitarist Denny Dias, & future Doobie Brother Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. The resulting album is a masterpiece. It starts off with "Bodhisattva" which is a high-energy, uptempo, blues-based tune with super cool layered guitar licks and great guitar soloing including an extended, rip-roaring song ending solo from Skunk Baxter that absolutely tears it up. "Razor Boy" is a catchy soft-rock tune with splendid vibraphone work from the late Victor Feldman (a legendary musician who contributed regularly to Steely Dan's records)--it points straight down the road to the brilliance of 1975's "Katy Lied". The somewhat bossa nova-flavored "Your Gold Teeth" has a contemplative feel and it's simply infectious. "Show Biz Kids" is a great, lyrically biting song with a looping, bluesy groove & spiked with slide guitar played by Rick Derringer. "My Old School" is a fun song that matches upbeat, horn-laden music with witty, drug bust-themed lyrics. The album-closer "King of the World" has somewhat world-weary lyrics and is a splendidly melodic song with an instrumental snippet (arriving at 2:28 of the track) that surprisingly recalls '70s Genesis--it's got a great arrangement complete with cool echoey guitar--it's also got surprisingly & amusingly clumsy lead guitar work from Dias, but it doesn't hurt the track considerably. The cleverly arranged "The Boston Rag" is a strong track as well. "Countdown To Ecstasy" was initially a considerable commercial disappointment--in a way, it's not hard to see why--with the generally longer songs, extended instrumental breaks, & the fact that they made "Show Biz Kids", a song that includes the f-word, the first single, you could say that they didn't exactly set themselves up for a commercial blockbuster. Frankly though, I say more power to them. Steely Dan made their first masterpiece with "Countdown To Ecstasy"--it's not as consistently elegant as "Katy Lied" or as mind-blowingly sophisticated compositionally as "Aja", but "Countdown To Ecstasy" is nevertheless an essential chapter in Steely Dan's incredible discography. If you have yet to really discover/ explore Steely Dan's music, a great idea is to start with "Countdown..." and then 'evolve with the band', so to speak, moving ahead album by album in chronological order through "Gaucho" (and of course any serious fan will ultimately want "Can't Buy A Thrill" as well). On the other hand, if you think you'll be turned off by all of the extended instrumental passages, then "Katy Lied" is the ideal place to begin.

The 1998 "original recording remastered" version has superb sound quality as you'd expect (with Fagen & Becker having long been the consummate perfectionists). Also, the newly-written liner notes by Fagen & Becker themselves include fascinating background information regarding the creation of the album including how Denny Dias worked painstakingly to perfect his performance on "King of the World", yet it was considered to be "too perfect" & was ultimately left off (that goes a long way in explaining the unusually clumsy performance of his that DID end up on the album). In the end, this is the most desirable version of "Countdown To Ecstasy" to have.
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Steely Dan Countdown To Ecstasy Poster

Japanese only SHM-CD (Super High Material CD - playable on all CD players) paper sleeve pressing. Universal. 2008.
The only element of sophomore slump in Steely Dan's second album was the disappointing sales response upon its initial release in 1974. Musically, Countdown to Ecstasy is even stronger than the Dan's terrific debut, pushing the musical envelope with more complex jazz harmonies and intricate time signatures, and carrying their lyrics into even more shadowy realms peppered with sci-fi imagery and street-level slang. The songs are stunning, from the opening blast of "Boddhisattva," a Zen boogie fueled by Denny Dias's and Jeff Baxter's angular, bopping guitars, to the postnuclear apocalypse of "King of the World." In between, they deliver the one-two punch of "Show Biz Kids," with its perfect snapshot of affluent decadence, and "My Old School," in which college daze is remembered through a collision of staccato guitar and blazing horns. --Sam Sutherland

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