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YOU WONT BELIEVE: Steely dan | Mind Blowing Facts

Steely Dan’s The Royal Scam turns 50 this month – and it's a brilliant test of your hi-fi’s chops

Aja is considered the band’s sonic pinnacle, but its predecessor gives your system just as much of a challenge

What Hi-Fi?

“I don’t want to hear someone improvise and stretch out and be completely extemporaneous”: St. Vincent has named her pick for the best guitar solo of all time – and says it should always be played note-for-note

Annie Clark has named a Steely Dan solo as her favorite – and explained why it's “sacrosanct”

Guitar World

“He would often arrive at sessions with two banners, which he placed either side of his kit while recording, reading ‘You done hired the hit-maker’”: From the Purdie shuffle to its extended jazz chords - analysing Steely Dan's Babylon Sisters

A track that took 274 attempts to mix must’ve been worth it in the end, right?

MusicRadar

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KEF's nouveau Muo is a solid little Bluetooth speaker, but the game's changed since 2016 — and it's no longer top of the pile

After too long a break, KEF is back in the Bluetooth speaker game. It’s aiming for the upper end of the market though — so does the Muo hit the mark?

TechRadar

"I don't like the jock atmosphere of the travelling rock'n'roll band. It's corny, it's boring and it's silly." The story of the rock'n'roll band who aren't really a band and don't like rock'n'roll but have sold 50 million records to people who do

Steely Dan: An enigma in search of perfection

Louder

The Guide #220: The best things we watched, read and listened to this year – that weren’t from 2025

We revisit forgotten noirs, rediscovered albums and retro games that stole the year

The Guardian - UK

“Along with Journey, REO Speedwagon and Foreigner, we’d been lumped-in with the whole Corporate Rawk thing. We weren’t ‘cool’": Steve Porcaro on the rise, fall and resurgence of Toto, working with Michael Jackson and his new solo album

"Yacht Rock! When I first heard that phrase, I groaned. But then I thought, ‘Who cares what it’s called? If it keeps people listening to some great music, I’m happy!'"

MusicRadar

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“The minute you put a microphone right up against the skin of a drum you've got a problem because it doesn't sound like it's supposed to”: How the rules of drum recording were shaped over decades of trial and error

A history of those who figured out the best ways of capturing a live drum kit in the studio

MusicRadar

“You can play everything from Cannibal Corpse to Steely Dan on this if you want to”: Brendon Small of Dethklok is selling some crazy gear on Reverb – including a fretless Iceman and some Epiphone prototypes we’ve never seen before

Some of the strangest metal guitars you'll see– who ever thought to mod an Iceman by taking out the frets? The co-creator of Metalocalypse's brother did

MusicRadar

Rick Derringer obituary

Guitarist and singer who featured on Hang on Sloopy by the McCoys, and went on to collaborate with top artists including Bonnie Tyler and Steely Dan

The Guardian - UK

“The guitar player got caught in a snowstorm and couldn’t get down for the gig. They were looking for somebody and I said, ‘I know all that stuff’”: Jeff “Skunk” Baxter went to a James Brown gig – and had to step in as his sideman at the last minute

Brown may be known as the the “Hardest-Working Man in Show Business”, but it seems like Skunk is also worthy of that moniker...

Guitar World

“His passing leaves a void in the music world, and he will be deeply missed”: Rick Derringer, legendary rock pioneer who played with Johnny Winter and Kiss, dies aged 77

The influential guitarist scored a hit single when he was still a teenager and carved out a formidable career playing with the likes of Kiss, Steely Dan, Bonnie Tyler and more

Guitar World

Rick Derringer, who had a hit with 'Hang On Sloopy' and produced 'Weird Al,' dies at 77

Guitarist and singer Rick Derringer has died

The Independent UK

“I’ve only seen it that once and just for about two hours. It was a piece of crap”: Steely Dan’s Denny Dias says his iconic Do It Again electric sitar solo was recorded on a lousy rental model

The former Steely Dan guitarist was required to borrow a Danelectro/Coral electric sitar for the job – but he was less than impressed

Guitar World

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Louder

"Steely Dan had the capacity to be both inscrutable and popular, an enviable place to be": Steely Dan's tunes are rich and assured on the nonchalant Katy Lied

The Dan has a sonic wingding in 1975

MusicRadar

“We’ve never met, but I’m most impressed with Jack. He’s fearless and certainly innovative”: Jeff “Skunk” Baxter to perform at NAMM 2025 and present TEC Innovation Award to Jack White

The legendary Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers guitarist will host NAMM’s 40thannual TEC Awards and appear at seminars on song structure, music marketing, and sound therapy

Tom’s Guide

How to watch 'Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary' online and stream from anywhere

The 'Yacht Rock' tag may have started off as a joke but it is having something of a revival. Here's how to watch 'Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary' online from anywhere.

Guitar World

What is the Steely Dan “Mu chord”? Breaking down the left-field chord voicings that will open up your harmonic world

This deep dive into the Steely Dan chordal approach is a masterclass in Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s supreme harmonic awareness

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Louder

“It’s the irony of ironies – paying Zuckerberg to show people songs that are denouncing him”: Church Of The Cosmic Skull’s Bill Fisher puts politics in prog as he explores How To Think Like A Billionaire

He took inspiration from Steely Dan, Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel to take a shot at space-race moguls via what he calls “yacht doom” music

Guitar World

“They’re probably some of the first guitar solos I ever learned”: Trey Anastasio tackles Steely Dan classics in searing Songwriters Hall of Fame performance

The Phish guitarist honored Steely Dan and their session guitarists’ work with an extended version of the Reelin’ in the Years solo

MusicRadar

'Instead of just sticking to conventional chord shapes, Walter Becker preferred to use different inversions to place guitar in the track in a different way': If you only learn 5 Steely Dan guitar chords, make time for these

Reelin' in the G mu major

The Guardian - US

Jim Beard, keyboardist for Steely Dan, dies aged 63

Beard was known for collaborations with jazz legends including Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin and Wayne Shorter

Top News

Grammy-Winning Keyboardist Jim Beard Of Steely Dan Dies At 63

Renowned keyboardist Jim Beard, known for his work with Steely Dan and jazz icons, passes away at 63 due to sudden illness.

Guitar World

“I don’t like outward complexity – I enjoy being stealthy about it, and Steely Dan are beacons for that”: Meet Sam Vallen, the shredder swiping yacht rock chords and turning them into one of 2024’s best prog-metal albums with Caligula’s Horse

The Australian virtuoso explains how writing a dissertation on Steely Dan’s harmonic vocabulary helped him build a record full of ambiguity and tension in Charcoal Grace

USA Today Sports Media Group

Best of 2023: Why we loved these 14 albums, from Olivia Rodrigo to Gorillaz

Here are some favorites from our staff for 2023.

1 2

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