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Ardent15 wrote:Man, one of my favorite songs lately that I keep going back to is Josie by Steely Dan.

The WHOLE song is such a hip, funky, downright interesting piece of work. But a big part of that is Jim Keltner's drumming. Those grooves and fills-what possessed him to play like that? Performances like that are few and far between. The FEEL that Keltner oozes with every ghost note, snare drag, hi-hat flourish...everything lives and breathes groove. It literally makes me want to dance, since Keltner is dancing on the drums in this performance.

So anyone else feel this way about Josie? Which songs or performances ooze feel and musicality to you, at this point in time? Which songs, like Josie for me, do you listen to many times and pick something out new each time?

Gaddabout wrote:

Rodge wrote:Funny or not, I don't like Jim's take on "Josie", my favorite take is DC's one, the song sounds closer to the Rythm'n Blues, his groove is fat and I like that.
Keith does a great job on it too, Ricky too.

I think that I'm disturbed by Jim's hi-hat playing on the "and", it makes the song "jumping", not well "seated", you know what I mean...

I get what you're saying, and I sort of agree. The bass line is what holds that song together, IMO. But I have to disagree with you on Carlock. He played some half-Keltner thing interspersed with his manic sixteenth-note stuff. I wanted the engineer to pull him to the back of the mix during that song.

Clint Hopkins wrote:I heard a recording of Carlock playing it and it sounded too 'on top' for me.

"When I first heard 'Josie' back I didn't like it," said the ever-sunglassed bandito. "It was a funny groove. It was such an odd song, especially for that time. In retrospect, I love the sound of it, the feel. Fagen had been through full sessions with other drummers for the same song. He was such a commanding musical figure, you knew that when he told you to play a little figure, you'd better play exactly what he wanted. That was a lot of pressure on me at the time, but I relished the musicality of it. I concentrated heavily. It was a five page chart with no repeat signs.

"As for that fill near the end, it was a bar of 7/8. That's definitely not something that I would've played. That figure was written on the paper, it was totally Fagen's thing: I wish I could get a copy of that chart. I've had more drummers ask me about that lick. I was playing a 5x14 Ludwig Vistalite snare drum, a Super Sensitive---weird instrument.

"Later, they wanted me to overdub something over the breakdown, but they didn't know what. The beauty of those guys is that they truly wanted something weird. So I played this garbage can lid with rivets in it that I'd been given for Christmas. They liked the way it sounded, so it became a part of the song."

Clint Hopkins wrote:Keltner on 'Josie':

"When I first heard 'Josie' back I didn't like it," said the ever-sunglassed bandito. "It was a funny groove. It was such an odd song, especially for that time. In retrospect, I love the sound of it, the feel. Fagen had been through full sessions with other drummers for the same song. He was such a commanding musical figure, you knew that when he told you to play a little figure, you'd better play exactly what he wanted. That was a lot of pressure on me at the time, but I relished the musicality of it. I concentrated heavily. It was a five page chart with no repeat signs.

"As for that fill near the end, it was a bar of 7/8. That's definitely not something that I would've played. That figure was written on the paper, it was totally Fagen's thing: I wish I could get a copy of that chart. I've had more drummers ask me about that lick. I was playing a 5x14 Ludwig Vistalite snare drum, a Super Sensitive---weird instrument.

"Later, they wanted me to overdub something over the breakdown, but they didn't know what. The beauty of those guys is that they truly wanted something weird. So I played this garbage can lid with rivets in it that I'd been given for Christmas. They liked the way it sounded, so it became a part of the song."

Source: http://granatino.com/sdresource/md1.htm