Both bands fell just outside the top 100 in our poll in 2008 on top artists. (109 and 104 with Roxy Music getting a few more points)

Who will SOMB go to bat for now?


Steely Dan

Most rock & roll bands are a tightly wound unit that developed their music through years of playing in garages and clubs around their hometown. Steely Dan never subscribed to that aesthetic. As the vehicle for the songwriting of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan defied all rock & roll conventions. Becker and Fagen never truly enjoyed rock -- with their ironic humor and cryptic lyrics, their eclectic body of work shows some debt to Bob Dylan -- preferring jazz, traditional pop, blues, and R&B. Steely Dan created a sophisticated, distinctive sound with accessible melodic hooks, complex harmonies and time signatures, and a devotion to the recording studio. With producer Gary Katz, Becker and Fagen gradually changed Steely Dan from a performing band to a studio project, hiring professional musicians to record their compositions. Though the band didn't perform live after 1974, Steely Dan's popularity continued to grow throughout the decade, as their albums became critical favorites and their singles became staples of AOR and pop radio stations. Even after the group disbanded in the early '80s, their records retained a cult following, as proven by the massive success of their unlikely return to the stage in the early '90s.

Roxy Music

Evolving from the late-'60s art-rock movement, Roxy Music had a fascination with fashion, glamour, cinema, pop art, and the avant-garde, which separated the band from their contemporaries. Dressed in bizarre, stylish costumes, the group played a defiantly experimental variation of art rock which vacillated between avant-rock and sleek pop hooks. During the early '70s, the group was driven by the creative tension between Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno, who each pulled the band in separate directions: Ferry had a fondness for American soul and Beatlesque art-pop, while Eno was intrigued by deconstructing rock with amateurish experimentalism inspired by the Velvet Underground. This incarnation of Roxy Music may have only recorded two albums, but it inspired a legion of imitators -- not only the glam-rockers of the early '70s, but art-rockers and new wave pop groups of the late '70s. Following Eno's departure, Roxy Music continued with its arty inclinations for a few albums before gradually working in elements of disco and soul. Within a few years, the group had developed a sophisticated, seductive soul-pop that relied on Ferry's stylish crooning. By the early '80s, the group had developed into a vehicle for Ferry, so it was no surprise that he disbanded the group at the height of its commercial success in the early '80s to pursue a solo career.

good poll. I voted Steely Dan. I went through a Roxy phase a long time ago, but never really find myself interested in listening to their music. Steely Dan is nearly always a pleasure to hear. My vote would have gone the other way 25 years ago, but now it's an easy pick.

I've never gotten into Roxy Music, despite hearing a handful of albums. Could just be a glam fetishization/British thing there. The music doesn't quite knock me out. I've never been a huge Bowie fan, either. Something about the interplay between loungey sophistication and quirky artsy weirdness just doesn't result in anything I'm too excited about. I've always liked For Your Pleasure, though.

Steely Dan has been an all time favorite band since I finally decided to give their discography a chance. Incredible songs that perfectly appropriate elements of jazz and soul for maximum harmonic/melodic transcendence. The most listenable full lengths for me are the ones where they stretch out and indulge their jazzier leanings... Countdown To Ecstasy, Aja, and also Gaucho. I'm not quite as crazy about Katy Lied and Pretzel Logic because there's one half of each that kind of sucks.

Favorite Roxy Music song: "Lover"

Favorite Steely Dan song: uh... "Bad Sneakers"? "Time Out of Mind"? "Peg"? "The Boston Rag"? Maybe it's the title track from Aja. I couldn't say.

Tonight when I chase the dragon
The water will turn to cherry wine
And the silver will turn to gold
Time out of mind

^^^
This pretty much says it all.

Steely Dan is so fucking boring.

They gargle my balls, for sure.

Steely Dan's original incarnation never really suffered a poor album, so I went with them.

They had quite the solid career, yeah. Every record is very tight and confident, even if I think a lot/most of Can't Buy A Thrill isn't that good.

Just finished listening to it. The production sucks, but it's aces. Just remarkably ambitious stuff.

Roxy is a pretty great band, but Steely Dan is one of the few classic rock radio staples that I can still listen to.
Steely Dan by a nose.

I’m going to listen to Aja.

Good poll. A match up that I would never think of making, and it's really hard to decide.

Steely Dan is one of those bands that's seemingly despised by the cooler side of the rock universe, but a lot of music geeks really love them. And on the whole their discography is really solid once you dig into it.

Roxy Music on the other hand is this eternally "cool" band always held in high esteem by anyone who really "knows" music. Yet, aside from their first couple and Avalon, their albums are really pretty spotty, I think.

I honestly don't know. I love Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera, but it's hard to take a lot of Brian Ferry. I love the first couple of Steely Dan albums and The Royal Scam, but I could never really get into Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied, or Aja. I probably like Gaucho a lot more than I should, though.

This requires more thought.

Steely Dan after 1974 weren't really a band, so I'll go with Roxy Music.

Pretty retarded logic free post you just made there.

retarded is my middle name.

Going with Steely Dan.

It was my instinctual first response before I started over-thinking it.

Someone once compared my guitar playing to Phil Manzanera, so I'm going with #2.

I am so glad to see someone say this and finally get away with it. A few years ago it was all "the later albums are cold. Steely Dan sucked after Pretzel Logic" around here.

Once Aja and Gaucho came out there was no going back to their earlier albums for me. Although I do love "My Old School;" and maybe "Bodhisattva" foreshadowed the course they'd eventually take. "Time Out of Mind" is definitely one of my top 50 songs of all time..."Babylon Sisters" and "Peg" are in the next 50.

"Avalon" is a wonderful song, it's somewhere in my top 600.

I thought it would be a little closer than this to be honest!

especially considering Roxy Music got a few more points on the artist poll, as you mentioned.

Tough call.
On the one hand, Steely Dan's probably a better band overall. On the other hand, More Than This. I'll have to let this stew for a while.

How'd I miss this poll? Big Steely Dan fan here but bigger Roxy Music fan. One of my touchstone bands.

But the main reason I went searching was that I just had to state that the new Bryan Ferry album, Olympia, featuring four original members of Roxy Music along with David Gilmour, Scissor Sisters, Jonny Greenwood, Chris Spedding, Flea, and more, is the best work he's done since Mamouna in '94. Loving this album.

I'm not crazy about either of these bands but 'Charlie Freak' and '2HB' are both really great.

I have about a 30% knowledge of both bands at this point. Not going to say that my vote means shit, seeing that both seem to be capable of making what I consider to be perfect rock albums.


Roxy Music though... this is my band. I'm glad to find something from the 70s that I truly enjoy through and through. I love Bowie and Steely all that, good stuff. This is just better, by miles, IMO! I look forward to exploring the entire discog.

Ferry's voice is the best voice I've ever heard. No hyperbole. Best voice.

That's more like it, have a reputation of pitting close battles to uphold here!

just voted steely

roxy does nothing for me...not really sure why, seems like a band i would be into

I realized For Your Pleasure is one of the few "valid" 10/10s I'm aware of.

This is the only Roxy Music song that I really like:

I hadn't heard that one yet. I haven't explored in depth any other album except For Your Pleasure. Personally I hear it as the epitome of what I want out of rock and roll. It's perfect. I'm giddy right now over this. "Do the Strand" and just about every song brings me to a state of bliss. Not to mention the intrigue and mystery.. the sleek sexuality and shadow factor inside all of it.

It's extremely exciting music. And it's also melodically magical and even cosmic at times. And the lyrics are awesome, the delivery. I'm talking about the early albums, I've listened to a bit of Avalon and the song you posted, and I can tell it also serves a purpose as great music and the second half of the band and Ferry's career. I look forward to exploring that stuff more, because I can tell it's great. For now though... "Beauty Queen," "Bogus Man."

doing some steely dan tonight. countdown to ecstacy and aja. very trippy music. not in the "psychedelic" way. it's just super realized. like we're seeing some guy's hallucinations. it's great. or maybe i'm going nuts.

I went with Roxy mainly because I have Roxy music in my collection but no SD.