{"id":39596,"date":"2006-01-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/countdown-to-ecstasy-2\/"},"modified":"2006-01-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-01-11T00:00:00","slug":"countdown-to-ecstasy-2","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/countdown-to-ecstasy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Countdown To Ecstasy"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

By 1973, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen — the minds
\nbehind Steely Dan — had apparently honed their musical edge to the
\njazz-rock that the group would become known for. Their second disc,
\nCountdown To Ecstasy<\/i>, is the first real effort in that vein
\n— Can’t Buy A Thrill<\/i> was more of a rock-oriented
\n“feeling-out” period for the group as they got their sea legs under
\nthem.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite the presence of some very powerful
\ntracks, this disc pales in comparison to its predecessor. Maybe —
\njust maybe — it’s because the change into a jazz-rock band is so
\nsudden and complete that it catches the listener off-guard. Maybe,
\nbecause they didn’t quite follow the same pattern musically that
\nthey did on Can’t Buy A Thrill<\/i> — and I’m not saying they
\nshould have — people didn’t react with the same enthusiasm to this
\ndisc.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, Steely Dan has lost none of its
\nmusical edge or brilliance. The leadoff track “Bodhisattva” hammers
\nthat point home clearly in an amalgam of shuffle blues, rock and
\njazz, and could well be one of Steely Dan’s best tracks that few
\npeople know about. Simply put, this track is a lot of fun to listen
\nto, and demonstrates the musical excellence that Becker and Fagen
\ndemanded from their revolving-door slew of bandmates.<\/p>\n

The other two tracks off this disc that occasionally
\nsee airplay, “Show Biz Kids” and “My Old School,” don’t pack the
\nsame kind of wallop that “Reelin’ In The Years,” “Do It Again,” or
\neven “Bodhisattva” do. “Show Biz Kids” is the weaker of the two,
\nwith its constantly repeated (and grating) rhythm line and chorus
\nchanting “lost wages,” apparently a slap at Las Vegas. [Editor’s
\nNote: According to the band, it is a line taken from Lenny Bruce,
\nwho used to refer to Las Vegas as “lost wages.”]<\/i> “My Old
\nSchool” is a shade better, but isn’t the juggernaut that one was
\nprobably expecting from Steely Dan.<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, some of the better tracks on
\nCountdown To Ecstasy<\/i> are ones that you never hear played
\nunless you’re sitting there with the CD jammed into your player.
\n“Razor Boy” hints at what would be coming from Steely Dan in their
\nAja<\/i> period, but dares to suggest that the band had already
\nachieved that level of perfection so early in their career. And,
\nwhile I admit I wasn’t particularly interested in these tracks on
\nthe first pass, both “The Boston Rag” and “Your Gold Teeth” do grow
\non the listener, and prove to be worth the effort.<\/p>\n

By no means is Countdown To Ecstasy<\/i> a bad
\nalbum; in fact, hiding in the shadows of a disc like Can’t Buy A
\nThrill<\/i>, this one might be a prime candidate for re-discovery by
\nfans of smooth rock. But it does signify the major shift of Steely
\nDan’s focus from the world of rock to a more jazz-oriented
\nexistence — and I, for one, kind of wish that Steely Dan had
\nexplored the rock side just a little bit more.<\/p>\n

<\/review><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6277],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39596","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-steely-dan","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39596"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39596"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}