Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
I’m admittedly not a huge fan of Steely Dan. The stuff of theirs that I do like I think is excellent. At a certain point it all got to be too polished for me though. It seemed like the musicianship and array of session aces that played with them took precedence over the actual songs themselves. You’ll NEVER be able to convince me that “Hey Nineteen” is a good song. Sorry 😆
Anyway, I tend to like their output when it was more of a cohesive band. They obviously had some incredible drummers play with them over time. Keltner, Gordon, Purdie, Gadd… some of my absolute favorites. Jim Hodder was a fantastic and incredibly tasteful drummer in his own right.  I love his playing on the first few records and I think it’s on par with what all those incredible session drummers laid down over the years.
I’m admittedly not a huge fan of Steely Dan. The stuff of theirs that I do like I think is excellent. At a certain point it all got to be too polished for me though. It seemed like the musicianship and array of session aces that played with them took precedence over the actual songs themselves. You’ll NEVER be able to convince me that “Hey Nineteen” is a good song. Sorry 😆
Anyway, I tend to like their output when it was more of a cohesive band. They obviously had some incredible drummers play with them over time. Keltner, Gordon, Purdie, Gadd… some of my absolute favorites. Jim Hodder was a fantastic and incredibly tasteful drummer in his own right.  I love his playing on the first few records and I think it’s on par with what all those incredible session drummers laid down over the years.
