A review is coming your way shortly. In the meantime, this was posted yesterday on the awesome Steely Dan fansite Dandom Digest. Definitely relevant to what Aswad's said a couple of times here on Pleasing Sound Discussion.
It's a very long winded post but it's right
here on the front page posted by a guy named hoops, who's a sharp guy. Here's the "relevant" excerpt:
Quote:
So initially, there was something like 80% Deadheads at what we now call the Dandom Digest. Then again, I encounter many who can't stand the the Grateful Dead sound when Steely Dan's studio sound is so relatively pristine.
So when SteelyDan.com came on line in 1996, it was right after Jerry Garcia died and when, at least for me a few others, the Grateful Dead scene stopped being so magical. Given the fact that there were so many Deadheads in the Danfan community, it was clearly a ripe topic for D + W to have fun with.
A few Dangents in this part of community: Walter and Donald really seemed to like the idea that everyone got up and danced at GD shows and they liked the idea of the same at SD shows. I certainly would dance like a fool at the mid 90s SD shows. I remember for the Alpine Valley (East Troy, WI) show in 1996, I printed maybe 200 or more of the Dead-to-Dan conversion page and distributed them on windshields at the 1996 Furthur Festival shows. The Furthur Fest was a post-Grateful Dead revue featuring other members of the Grateful Dead with their own side projects. The Furthur Fest wasn't nearly as satisfying as the Grateful Dead shows. I think the lime green flyers handed out also encouraged Grateful Dead fans to come to the new Steely Dan concert scene and dance. And then the following week, sure enough, I do remember some Deadhead types there, some dancing and even a pair of "spinners" at the stage. Security came and made them sit down, although from the stage, Walter asked security to "let them stay." In the end, security only allowed 79-year-old Maggi McCoy go to come up front, her chin resting on her arms folded on the edge of the stage, practically at Donald's feet. (That's how she liked to describe it in later accounts.)
So in closing, Danfans seems to be very polarized in terms if they are also Deadheads or not, just like those who dance and don't dance at shows also tend to be two very defined groups. But it also seems quite likely that Donald and Walter like the Grateful Dead fans and dancing at shows.
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The conversion page he mentions:
Conversion Chart
The whole Steely Dan network thing is like TVTropes for Dan fans. It's internet heroin.