<< ... and his buddie said that Steely Dan is just a cheesy crappy band! >>
This guy obviously suffers from a medical condition called,
Anal-Cranial Inversion.
Steely Dan is an amazing group, and their music is some of the most sopisticated, intelligent music around. They can play tunes that take an audience full of three chord brains, lift them out of their seats, take them on some of the most diverse jazz chord progressions, far out poetic lyric images and strange time changes. At the end of the tune, the audience won't even know they left three chord land. They'll just know they've been some weird place, and they loved it.
That is talent! Unlike the jazz guys who say the audience can't understand their music, these guys reach their audience with the most sophisticated music.
Your friend's buddy is in dire need of a brain transplant.