Customer Reviews

Best Of: Then & Now

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this CD originally in Hong Kong, and it got stolen back here in the states. This is by far the best compilation of Steely Dan, and has a great history of the group in its liner notes. Thank you, Amazon, for carrying this and making it easy to replace! If anybody has a Steely Dan fan on their Christmas list, by the way, this is the one to get them.

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.

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.

This fabulous collection of Steely Dan songs is definitely worth the price! It is the only CD I've found that has all of my favorite Steely Dan songs on it. The songs included on this CD are:

1) Reelin' in the Years 2) Rikki Don't Lose That Number 3) Peg 4) FM 5) Hey Nineteen 6) Deacon Blues 7) Black Friday 8) Bodhisattva 9) Do it Again 10) Haitian Divorce 11) My Old School 12) Midnite Cruiser 13) Babylon Sisters 14) Kid Charlemagne 15) Dirty Work 16) Josie

If you're a "Steely Dan" Music Fan the album "Best of: Then and Now" is great!!! Definitely worth the purchase.

After getting the bug to finally add some Steely Dan to my music ears I finally found one that has 'Josie' on it! Josie is my favorite song of thiers and this seems to be the only one with it on there along with all the others you would expect to find. Get it. Hear it. Love it!

This is one of the best CD's I've ever had. I love every song on it and that's saying a lot. My only "complaint" is that I have trouble setting the base and treble where it's just right but that may have to do with them being older songs and then remastered. Sometimes too much treble on the background music and I can't get it adjusted right. But I try to overlook because the songs are awesome!!

Can't think of better times in my life than driving down the road with friends, listening to Steely Dan! What great memories!

(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

This is a great compilation of all important Steely Dan songs and I'm glad to live in Germany because I had to pay only 13 DEM (= appr. 7.5 USD)which is a joke. It's a sad thing that this record is only available as an import in USA and therefore so expensive over there.