Danny Danzi
LOL! You so nailed Steely with quite a bit of this. Sounded good, James. Some interesting parts coming and going on this. Mix sounded fine to me. The only thing I caught was sometimes the horns seemed to just take over...which I love. I'm a horn prostitute....grew up on early Chicago, but at times your horns just seemed to lightly bury some of the other instruments. That's ok though....we need them to hit hard once in a while. :) I think I might have compressed them just a little more or ran some tighter automation. Loved the track though, just a minor subjectivity. :)
 
I love me some horns too (with the sax being the only other instrument other than guitar I had some formal training on) Thanks Danny.

emeraldsoul
My hat's off to you, sir, totally ballsy to pull this off. Degree of difficulty adds extra points . . . 
 
There is so much going on in your mix (I can see why this took you a while) that it's hard to pinpoint a comment! I think your vocals work in the Dan style, but the more you push that envelope, the more selective their appeal will get. Which is to say, Fagen won't pay the bills.     So what . . . you do a very credible emulation of his style and arrangement!
 
I think your guitar in spots comes through a bit thin in the mix - I dunno maybe 3:01 area, I'd like to hear those excellent riffs a little louder.
 
I listened to this three times, liked it better each time. Holy crap that's a monumental arrangement job! Well done, and it reminded me of the Dan meets Rush, with the proggy meter change-ups.
 
way cool.
 
-Tom

I think I might have worked more on this tune than I have the last four put together. What a mess! The arrangement was a real PITA.
 

markno999
Excellent Steely Dan Emulation.   I thought you got Fagan to sing it when the 1st verse started:)   The only thing that I could remotely think of to push this to the next level of perfection is if you got some female studio singers to add some dimension to the BGV parts but, wow, excellent work. 
 
One other thing, I would push the chromatic guitar fill at around 3:24 up a hair to match the level of the previous riff.
 

I did get my wife's cousin to sing some parts bt she didn't really work out too well...she's buried in the mix

Sanity Frowns was nice. It reminded me of Barry Manilow... just kidding
 
To be honest it is not the kind of music I could listen to for hours but I listened to this one till the last second. I dont know how to put it there was something in it that cought me... dont know what... so it is a "surprisingly" nice one .

Very intricate piece of work James, hats off to you. There is plenty of SD in there, but you divert from the Dan groove into Zappa territory I think. Not a crit, I enjoyed it whatever the influences.

James,
 
Prodigious simulation of SD songwriting, playing, singing, recording. The vocal sound & phrasing, Fender Rhodes, and GTR are very close to the original. Apparently you have internalized their entire catalog.
 
I have no idea how you did it,
 
Cheers,
 
Bert

jamesyoyo
Hey all.
 
Here's a song I have spent entirely too much time screwing around with. 
https://soundcloud.com/hammertoe/sanity-frowns
 

Time well spent!
 
Jesse Q. Screed

Glad you listened all the way through!

Bert Guy
James,
 
Prodigious simulation of SD songwriting, playing, singing, recording. The vocal sound & phrasing, Fender Rhodes, and GTR are very close to the original. Apparently you have internalized their entire catalog.
 
I have no idea how you did it,
 
Cheers,
 
Bert

There's a ton of SD songs mashed in my mind with this track:
Peg with my Michael McDonald-esqe bgvocals in the chorus
My Old School with the lyrics
Reelin in the Years with the guitar vamps
Hey Nineteen verse melody

I spent an extraordinary amount of time on this tune. Probably too many stop/starts but those transitions are too cool to avoid.

jamesg1213
Very intricate piece of work James, hats off to you. There is plenty of SD in there, but you divert from the Dan groove into Zappa territory I think. Not a crit, I enjoyed it whatever the influences.

Thanks J. It isn't a pure SD track so I get what you're saying.

Wow ...what everyone said....and I was gonna add the Zappa kudo's if not mentioned as was....very cool n inspiring stuff ...thx for that....I love SDan as well....very cool homage  

Exceptional piece of music.  There's so much to like here.
 
You certainly got the Steely Dan groove going and yeah, there's some Frank Zappa influence in there too.  Nicely melded together. Stuff like that excursion at 1:24.... BRILLIANT!!!!!
 
I love the melody lines that are dissonant and going to places you as a listener are not expecting.   It's nice to hear some melody that's unpredictable.
 
I loved the pauses and the timing sidebar trips.... I mentioned 1:24.... but heck... that's just one of the many tasty tidbits scattered throughout the music.
 
I'd venture to say this is your best one yet. Especially from the creative aspect.
 
Slammed that one over the centerfold fence....