Steely Dan:
I’m going to start by quoting Wikipedia, again, not because I’m lazy, there will be plenty of my own terrible writing for you to read, if this gets read at all:
“Steely Dan is an American rock band formed in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1971 by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Originally having a full band lineup, Becker and Fagen chose to stop performing live by the end of 1974 and continued Steely Dan as a studio-only duo, utilizing a revolving cast of session musicians. Rolling Stone magazine named them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the seventies".[7]
Becker and Fagen played together in a variety of bands from their time together studying at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. They later moved to Los Angeles, gathered a band of musicians and began recording music. Their debut album, Can't Buy a Thrill (1972), established a template for their career, blending elements of rock, jazz, Latin music, R&B, and blues[8] with sophisticated studio production and cryptic, irony-infused lyrics. The band enjoyed critical and commercial success with seven studio albums, peaking with their top-selling album Aja, released in 1977.[8]..”
This is another group that my brother introduced me to. The first album I heard was, “The Royal Scam,” and I love it, particularly the title track. But let’s start at the beginning with quite possibly their best album, “Can’t Buy A Thrill.” This album was released in 1972 and launched a stellar career for the two founding members, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, on bass and piano respectively. Talk about two musicians who were at the top of their game. There’s a lot of “heroin chick” in their music, a term used at the time for a certain sound and lexicon, and they had some of the best backing musicians on their albums including jazz guitarist, Larry Carlton, drummer Jim Hodder, and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, to name but a few. “Can’t Buy A Thrill” starts with the song, “Do It Again,” which became heavy in rotation back when radio stations still had DJs. The track starts with a gentle rhythm, a gentle drum beat and a shaker. Then Fagen’s electric piano comes in with a haunting melody along with Becker’s bass and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter’s guitar. Then Fagen starts to sing:
“In the mornin' you go gunnin' for the man who stole your water
And you fire 'til he is done in but they catch you at the border
And the mourners are all singin' as they drag you by your feet
But the hangman isn't hangin' and they put you on the street
You go back, Jack, do it again, wheel turnin' 'round and 'round
You go back, Jack, do it again..”
I know I said this about R.E.M., (if anyone ever reads that,) but if you haven’t heard this song before I wonder about what you’ve been doing for the past 40-plus years. This song was one of the the hit singles from the album and it’s only the first track. Because I have a lot to talk about in regards to Steely Dan I can’t write about every song on this album, but there’s a few I want to mention, including the second song, “Dirty Work.” Fagen isn’t really a singer which is partly why they were a studio band. I’ve been told that they just don’t work live. But at least in the studio his voice sounds okay. The guest vocal on “Dirty Work” was done by David Palmer and it’s a great tune:
“Times are hard
You're afraid to pay the fee
So you find yourself somebody
Who can do the job for free
When you need a bit of lovin'
'Cause your man is out of town
That's the time you get me runnin'
And you know I'll be around
I'm a fool to do your dirty work
Oh yeah
I don't wanna do your dirty work
No more
I'm a fool to do your dirty work
Oh yeah..”
Everyone comes in on the chorus and, at least in the studio it sounds good. Steely Dan was a band grounded in jazz and contemporary music but they incorporated many different styles into their work. Their album, Aja, is one of those you can put on after a hard day to relax. More on that later. Apparently, Fagen had terrible stage fright which might be why they rarely played live, and in my opinion they were just better suited to the studio, and what they did in the studio was incredible. Back to “Can’t Buy A Thrill.” As much as I’d like to for brevity I can’t quote all the lyrics I’d like to.
The next track is, “Kings,” which is a good tune but not one I want to talk about. The following track, “Midnight Cruiser” however, is one I’d like to mention. This was another hit from an album chock full of hits. This is a hard driving rock song with a characteristic sound that was the hallmark of Dan tunes. This is the last song from this album that I’m going to quote:
“Felonius my old friend
Step on in and let me shake your hand
So glad that you're here again
For one more time
Let your madness run with mine
Streets still unseen we'll find somehow
No time is better than now
Tell me where are you driving
Midnight cruiser
Where is your bounty
Of fortune and fame
I am another
Gentlemen loser
Drive me to Harlem
Or somewhere the same..”
Get used to my saying, “this song slaps” because it’s gonna happen again. This is the alchemy that I talk about with iconic bands. Fagen’s voice really works here as it does on dozens of Steely Dan songs. When the choruses come in the harmonies are excellent. Becker is an amazing bass player and Baxter an equally talented guitarist who plays well with others, including people like Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour, amazing jazz guitarists in their own right. More on them later too. Before I leave this album I want to briefly mention a few more standout songs including, “Rellin’ In The Years,” “Only A Fool Would Say That,” “Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me)” and “Change Of The Guard.” Steely Dan albums are ones you can listen to from start to finish and that’s intentional. On the “Album Years” podcast that Steven Wilson does with Timothy Bowness they talk about the golden era of music when bands produced entire albums instead of a few hits and Steely Dan falls neatly into that category. People like Prince and Steely Dan were geniuses at doing that. Maybe it’s because I’m old but I find producing hits lazy as fuck. It takes real work and talent to produce a great album. Post Malone, for all his hits, is great at producing a whole album. Back to our subject.
The next Steely Dan album is, “Countdown To Ecstasy.” This is not one of my favorite Dan albums but it’s still really good and I listen to it. Despite my personal preferences there are great tracks on this album including, “Bodhisattva,” “Razor Boy,” which I like, “My Old School,” where Baxter, Carlton, and Ritenour trade guitar solos. Hmm. I guess I like this album more than I let on. And the last track, “Pearl Of The Quarter” is excellent.
After they released that their next album was another triumph, “Pretzel Logic” in 1974. There are more great musicians on this album including, Jeff Porcaro, the drummer from Toto, (RIP.) The album also features Micheal McDonald of Doobie Brothers fame on vocals and keyboards, and a number of other session musicians. There are a lot of great songs on this album including, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” “Any Major Dude Will Tell You,” and “Barrytown.” If you buy only two Steely Dan albums you should buy this one and, “Can’t Buy A Thrill.” One track from this album that has been overlooked is one of my favorites, “With A Gun.” I love the lyrics and the tempo of this song:
“I could be wrong but I have seen your face before
You were the man that I saw running from his door
You owed him money but you gave him something more
With a gun
With a gun
You will be what you are just the same
Did you pay the other man with the piece in your hand
And leave him lying in the rain?
You were the founders of the clinic on the hill
Until he caught you with your fingers in the till
He slapped your hand so you settled up your bill
With a gun
With a gun
You will be what you are just the same
Did you pay the other man with the piece in your hand
And leave him lying in the rain?..”
It speaks to the drug culture of the 70s and the atmosphere of the time. It’s a great song. It slaps.
This brings us to “Katy Lied.” This is another excellent album. Fagen and Becker were perfectionists and sometimes asked the session musicians to repeat their work on a track up to 40 times. A rift began growing between Becker and Fagen and Steely Dan's other members (particularly Baxter and Hodder), who wanted to tour. Becker and Fagen disliked constant touring and wanted to concentrate solely on writing and recording.
So there were personnel changes. One thing that changed was that Becker started playing guitar on “Katy Lied.” There are so many great tracks on this album including, “Black Friday,” the opening track, along with “Bad Sneakers,” “Rose Darling,” and “Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More.” McDonald does a lot of vocal work on the album and it shows. You have to realize there were a litany of great artists on these albums, people who became famous in their own right. “Bad Sneakers” has great lyrics done by Fagen and McDonald:
“Five names that I can hardly stand to hear
Including yours and mine and one more chimp who isn't here
I can see the ladies talking how the times are getting hard
And that fearsome excavation on Magnolia Boulevard
Yes, I'm going insane
And I'm laughing at the frozen rain
Well, I'm so alone
Honey, when they gonna send me home?
Bad sneakers and a piña colada, my friend
Stomping on the avenue by Radio City with a
Transistor and a large sum of money to spend
You fella, you tearing up the street
You wear that white tuxedo, how you gonna beat the heat?
Do you take me for a fool?
Do you think that I don't see
That ditch out in the valley that they're digging just for me?
Yes, I'm going insane
You know I'm laughing at the frozen rain
And I feel like I'm so alone
Honey, when they gonna send me home?..”
Steely Dan was a New York band that recorded in Los Angeles. If you’ve heard Micheal McDonald on Doobie Brothers albums you will recognize his voice immediately. The next track is, “Rose Darling,” a beautiful piano melody from Fagen. “Doctor Wu,” “Everyone’s Gone To The Movies,” and “Any World, (That I’m Welcome To,” finish the album. There’s not a single bad song. I’m going to quote from, “Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More,” not because it’s the best track on the album but because it’s emblematic of their lyrics:
“Daddy don't live in that New York City
No more
He don't celebrate Sunday on a Saturday night
No more
Daddy don't need no lock and key
For the piece he stowed
Out on Avenue D
Daddy don't live in that New York City
No more
Daddy don't drive in that Eldorado
No more
He don't travel on down to the neighborhood
Liquor store
Lucy still loves her coke and rum
But she sits alone
Cause her daddy can't come
Daddy don't drive in that Eldorado
No more
Driving like a fool out to Hackensack
Drinking his dinner from a paper sack
He says I gotta see a joker
And I'll be right back..”
“Dr. Wu” is a beautiful song but I won’t quote it here. Like all of these songs you should hear it. I bought and lost all of these albums over the years so I bought their box set, “Citizen Steely Dan,” which is every album up to, “Gaucho.” It’s all the Dan you need. I highly recommend it.
And this brings us to the first Steely Dan album I heard, “The Royal Scam.” I fucking love this album with all my heart. It opens with, “Kid Charlemagne,” a song about a drug dealer who crosses heroin and cocaine in San Francisco:
“While the music played, you worked by candlelight
Those San Francisco nights
You were the best in town
Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl
You turned it on the world
That's when you turned the world around
Did you realize
That you were a champion in their eyes?
On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene
But yours was kitchen-clean
Everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motor home
Every A-Frame had your number on the wall
You must have had it all
You'd go to L.A. on a dare and you'd go it alone
(Could you last forever?)
Could you see the day?
Could you feel your whole world fall apart and fade away?..”
It’s an amazing opening to an amazing album. The guitar solo is so sweet. It’s followed by equally great tracks until we come to, “Haitian Divorce,” a funky reggae tune:
“Babs and Clean Willie were in love, they said
So in love, the preacher's face turned red
Soon everybody knew the thing was dead
He shouts, she bites, they wrangle through the night, yeah
She go crazy, got to make a getaway
Papa say, "Oh, no hesitation
No tears and no hearts breakin'
No remorse"
"Oh, congratulations
This is your Haitian divorce"
She takes the taxi to the good hotel
Bon marché, as far as she can tell
She drinks the zombie from the coco shell
She feels all right, she get it on tonight, yeah
Mr. Driver, take me where the music play
Papa say
"Oh, no hesitation
No tears and no hearts breakin'
No remorse"
"Oh, congratulations
This is your Haitian divorce..”
It’s followed by, “Everything You Did,” with Don Henley from The Eagles doing backing vocals. And then we come to the final and title track, “The Royal Scam.” I absolutely adore this song:
“And they wandered in
From the city of St. John
Without a dime
Wearing coats that shined
Both red and green
Colors from their sunny island
From their boats of iron
They looked upon the promised land
Where surely life was sweet
On the rising tide
To New York City
Did they ride into the street
See the glory
(See the glory of)
Of the royal scam
They are hounded down
To the bottom of a bad town
Amid the ruins
Where they learn to fear
An angry race of fallen kings
Their dark companions
While the memory of
Their southern sky was clouded by
With savage winter
Every patron saint
Hung on the wall, shared the room
With twenty sinners
See the glory
(See the glory of)
Of the royal scam..”
Which now brings us to the jazz infused, “Aja.” This is a gentle, lush and beautiful album. Some days when I’ve been stressed out I come home and put on this album. It’s relaxing but don’t mistake that for a lack of intensity. “Aja” reached the Top 5 in the U.S. charts within three weeks and won the Grammy Award for "Engineer—Best Engineered Recording—Non-Classical" at the 1978 awards. Everyone I knew had this album. It starts with, “Here At The Western World,” a lush song in which Fagen weaves a perfect piano melody:
“Down at the Lido they welcome you
With sausage and beer,
Klaus and the Rooster have been there too,
But lately he spends his time here.
Hanging with the mayor and all his friends
And nobody cares,
Where the sailor shuts out the sunrise
Blacked out on the stairs
Knock twice, rap with your cane
Feels nice, you're out of the rain
We got your skinny girls
Here at the Western World..”
It’s followed by the funky, “Black Cow.” (It’s a drink.) On this song and on the whole album the vocals are stunning. The horn section provides a nice backdrop for the melodies along with the backing vocals. As Lou Reed once sang; “..and the colored girls say..” The women on this album have pipes for days! To be fair it wasn’t all Black female singers, just mostly.
This brings us to the title track, “Aja,” one of my many favorites from this album:
“Up on the hill
People never stare
They just don't care
Chinese music under banyan trees
Here at the dude ranch above the sea
Aja
When all my dime dancin' is through
I run to you
Up on the hill
They've got time to burn
There's no return
Double helix in the sky tonight
Throw out the hardware
Let's do it right
Aja
When all my dime dancin' is through
I run to you..”
There’s a nice xylophone rhythm on the track along with a beautiful saxophone part. The drumming is excellent along with another great Fagen piano melody. If you haven’t heard this band you’re missing out. It’s a sonic feast for the ears and the soul.
This brings us to, “Peg,” a kind of pop jazz tune with a nice clipped beat:
“I've seen your picture
Your name in lights above it
This is your big debut
It's like a dream come true
So won't you smile for the camera
I know they're gonna love it, Peg
I like your pin shot
I keep it with your letter
Done up in blueprint blue
It sure looks good on you
And when you smile for the camera
I know I'll love you better
Peg
It will come back to you
Peg
It will come back to you
Then the shutter falls
You see it all in 3D
It's your favorite foreign movie..”
There’s a great rhythm on this song with a bright horn and vocal. It’s the only fast paced track on this album and it’s followed by the incredible, “Deacon Blues.” The album is rounded out with, “Home At Last” and “I Got The News.”
The last album in the box set is, “Gaucho.” “FM” and the title track are pleasing but it’s my least favorite Steely Dan album. Some people, including musicians whose opinions I respect love this album so maybe it’s just me, but this is my article that no one reads, so I’m going to share my thoughts and feelings about my subject matter. The bottom line is that Steely Dan is music you should hear. I don’t review crap. This era was one of more incredible music than most people will ever hear; Bruce Springsteen, The Who, Steely Dan; a wealth of amazing and talented musicians who should be heard. If this ever gets read I hope someone will appreciate my knowledge of this era and my opinions, poor though my writing is.