10 Dark Horse Albums By Legendary Bands

A lot of the uninitiated tend to see Steely Dan more as that one band that your dad always brings up at parties. Aside from their more yacht rock tendencies, this outfit did end up producing some of the most amazing music of the '70s, all while pushing the boundaries of what rock could be. They did have a heavier side though, which came out in spades on the Royal Scam.

With Donald Fagen and Walter Becker still at the helm, this record is one of the more edgy sounding recordings to come from these studio wizards, as guitars have a lot more grit in their delivery. There's still a lot of technical mastery on this record though, as guitarists like Larry Carlton absolute shred through songs like Kid Charlemagne and Don't Take Me Alive. What transpires is basically the equivalent of being in a smoky jazz club at the end of the night, when the musicians are out of their minds and just playing whatever ever the hell they want to.

This proved to be just the calm before the storm for Steely, with the next record Aja being one of the landmark recordings of the entire '70s thanks to songs like Peg and Josie. For as much as these songs have been sampled in recent years, it's sometimes better to go back to the source material to see what was really going on under the hood.