FEATURE:
Countdown to Ecstasy
Ranking Steely Dan’s Studio Albums
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I am going to cheat here a bit…
PHOTO CREDIT: Henry Diltz
because I think I did a ranking of Steely Dan’s studio albums a while back. I have changed my mind regarding a couple of the album placings. I have also sourced some biography from AllMusic before. I am going to use that again prior to getting to the rankings. 2022 marks fifty years since Steely Dan’s debut album, Can’t Buy a Thrill, was released. Because one of their members, Walter Becker, died in 2017, we will never hear another album of original songs from them. It is a shame but, in the time Becker and Donald Fagen recorded together, we were treated to nine amazing studio albums. Here, I have recommended the best tracks from each; a link where you can buy the album (their albums are not easily available on vinyl), and the standout track (plus a review to go alongside things). Here is some great detail about the incredible Steely Dan:
“Most rock & roll bands are a tightly wound unit that developed their music through years of playing in garages and clubs around their hometown. Steely Dan never subscribed to that aesthetic. As the vehicle for the songwriting of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan defied all rock & roll conventions. Becker and Fagen never truly enjoyed rock -- with their ironic humor and cryptic lyrics, their eclectic body of work shows some debt to Bob Dylan -- preferring jazz, traditional pop, blues, and R&B. Steely Dan created a sophisticated, distinctive sound with accessible melodic hooks, complex harmonies and time signatures, and a devotion to the recording studio. With producer Gary Katz, Becker and Fagen gradually changed Steely Dan from a performing band to a studio project, hiring professional musicians to record their compositions. Though the band didn't perform live between 1974 and 1993, Steely Dan's popularity continued to grow throughout the '70s as their albums became critical favorites and their singles became staples of AOR and pop radio stations. Even after the group disbanded in the early '80s, their records retained a cult following, as proven by the massive success of their unlikely return to the stage in the early '90s.
Walter Becker (bass) and Donald Fagen (vocals, keyboards) were the core members of Steely Dan throughout its various incarnations. The two met at Bard College in New York in 1967 and began playing in bands together shortly afterward. The duo played in a number of groups -- including the Bad Rock Group, which featured future comedic actor Chevy Chase on drums -- which ranged from jazz to progressive rock. Eventually, Becker and Fagen began composing songs together, hoping to become professional songwriters in the tradition of the Brill Building. In 1970, the pair joined Jay & the Americans' backing band, performing under pseudonyms; Becker chose Gustav Mahler, while Fagen used Tristan Fabriani. They stayed with Jay & the Americans until halfway through 1971, when they recorded the soundtrack for the low-budget film You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It, which was produced by the Americans' Kenny Vance. Following the recording of the soundtrack, Becker and Fagen attempted to start a band with Denny Dias, but the venture was unsuccessful. Barbra Streisand recorded the Fagen/Becker composition "I Mean to Shine" on her album Barbra Joan Streisand, released in August 1971, and the duo met producer Gary Katz, who hired them as staff songwriters for ABC/Dunhill in Los Angeles, where he had just become a staff producer. Katz suggested that Becker and Fagen form a band as a way to record their songs, and Steely Dan -- who took their name from a dildo in William Burroughs' Naked Lunch -- were formed shortly afterward.
Recruiting guitarists Denny Dias and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder, and keyboardist/vocalist David Palmer, Becker and Fagen officially formed Steely Dan in 1972, releasing their debut, Can't Buy a Thrill, shortly afterward. Palmer and Fagen shared lead vocals on the album, but the record's two hit singles -- the Top Ten "Do It Again" and "Reeling in the Years" -- were sung by Fagen. Can't Buy a Thrill was a critical and commercial success, but its supporting tour was a disaster, hampered by an under-rehearsed band and unappreciative audiences. Palmer left the band following the tour. Countdown to Ecstasy, released in 1973, was a critical hit, but it failed to generate a hit single, even though the band supported it with a tour.
Steely Dan replaced Hodder with Jeff Porcaro and added keyboardist/backup vocalist Michael McDonald prior to recording their third album, Pretzel Logic. Released in the spring of 1974, Pretzel Logic returned Steely Dan to the Top Ten on the strength of the single "Rikki Don't Lose That Number." After completing the supporting tour for Pretzel Logic, Becker and Fagen decided to retire from live performances and make Steely Dan a studio-based band. For their next album, 1975's Katy Lied, the duo hired a variety of studio musicians -- including Dias, Porcaro, guitarist Elliot Randall, saxophonists Phil Woods, bassist Wilton Felder, percussionist Victor Feldman, keyboardist Michael Omartian, and guitarist Larry Carlton -- as supporting musicians. Katy Lied was another hit, as was 1976's The Royal Scam, which continued in the vein of its predecessor. On 1977's Aja, Steely Dan's sound became more polished and jazzy, as they hired jazz fusion artists like Wayne Shorter, Lee Ritenour, and the Crusaders as support. Aja became their biggest hit, reaching the Top Five within three weeks of release and becoming one of the first albums to be certified platinum. Aja also gained the respect of many jazz musicians, as evidenced by Woody Herman recording an album of Becker/Fagen songs in 1978.
Following the release of Aja, ABC was bought out by MCA Records, resulting in a contractual dispute with the label that delayed until 1980 the release of their follow-up album. During the interim, the group had a hit with the theme song for the film FM in 1978. Steely Dan finally released Gaucho, the follow-up to Aja, in late 1980, and it became another Top Ten hit for the group. During the summer of 1981, Becker and Fagen announced that they were parting ways. The following year, Fagen released his solo debut, The Nightfly, which became a critical and commercial hit.
Fagen didn't record another album until 1993, when he reunited with Becker, who produced Kamakiriad. The album was promoted by the first Steely Dan tour in nearly 20 years, and while the record failed to sell, the concerts were very popular. In 1994, Becker released his solo debut, 11 Tracks of Whack, which was produced by Fagen. The following year, Steely Dan mounted another reunion tour, and in early 2000 the duo issued Two Against Nature, their first new studio album in two decades. It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Steely Dan followed it in 2003 with Everything Must Go. Fagen's solo album Morph the Cat was released in 2006, and Becker released Circus Money in 2008 as Steely Dan embarked on another tour. In September 2017, it was announced that Becker had died in Maui, Hawaii. He was 67-years-old.
Fagen carried on with Steely Dan after Becker's passing, often calling the group "the Steely Dan Band." This new lineup was showcased on a pair of live albums released in September 2021: Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live and Donald Fagen's The Nightfly Live, both recorded between 2018 and 2019”.
Leading up to the fiftieth anniversary of Can’t Buy a Thrill (in November), I am going to do a series of features about the group/duo. For now, here is my view on which studio albums fit where. Maybe you will disagree with some of the placings. It would be interesting to hear…
WHAT you reckon.
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9. Everything Must Go
Release Date: 10th June, 2003
Producers: Walter Becker/Donald Fagen
Label: Reprise
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=65834&ev=mb
Standout Tracks: The Last Mall/Slang of Ages/Everything Must Go
Review:
“When Steely Dan released Two Against Nature in 2000, their first album in 20 years, it was an unexpected gift, since all odds seemed against Donald Fagen and Walter Becker reteaming for nothing more than the occasional project, let alone a full album. As it turned out, the duo was able to pick up where they left off, with Two Against Nature seamlessly fitting next to Gaucho and earning the band surprise success, including a Grammy for Album of the Year, but the bigger surprise is that the reunion wasn't a one-off -- they released another record, Everything Must Go, a mere three years later. Given the (relatively) short turnaround time between the two records, it comes as little surprise that Everything Must Go is a companion piece to Two Against Nature, and sounds very much like that album's laid-back, catchy jazz-funk, only with an elastic, loose feel -- loose enough to have Walter Becker take the first lead vocal in Steely Dan history, in fact, which sums up the Dan's attitude in a nutshell. This time, they're comfortable and confident enough to let anything happen, and while that doesn't really affect the sound of the record, it does affect the feel. Though it as expertly produced as always, there's less emphasis on production and a focus on the feel, often breathing as much as a live performance, another new wrinkle for Steely Dan. Sometimes, it also sounds as if Becker and Fagen have written the songs quickly; there's nothing that betrays their high standards of craft, but, on a whole, the songs are neither as hooky nor as resonant as the ones unveiled on its predecessor. While it might have been nice to have a song as immediate as, say, "Cousin Dupree," there are no bad songs here and many cuts grow as nicely as those on Two Against Nature. But the real selling point of Everything Must Go is that relaxed, comfortable, live feel. It signals that Steely Dan has indeed entered a new phase, one less fussy and a bit funkier (albeit lite funk). If they can keep turning out a record this solid every three years, we'd all be better off” – AllMusic
Key Cut: Godwhacker
8. Gaucho
Release Date: 21st November, 1980
Producer: Gary Katz
Label: MCA
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=17020&ev=mb
Standout Tracks: Babylon Sisters/Glamour Profession/Time Out of Mind
Review:
“A man flees west, pursued by saxophones. That’s how Steely Dan’s Gaucho starts, with “Babylon Sisters,” a foreboding melody that creeps into the room like toxic fog, and a lyric about a guy in a car en route to a three-way. While the horn section keeps rupturing the mood the keyboards are trying to set, the narrator spins stick-with-me-baby fantasies of California leisure and hedonism for his female companion(s). There may be no more perfectly yacht-rock tercet in the Dan canon than, “We’ll jog with show folk on the sand/Drink kirschwasser from a shell/San Francisco show-and-tell.” But even the singer doesn’t believe the sales pitch. By the end of the verse he’s talking to himself, or maybe he has been all along. “It’s cheap but it’s not free,” he says. “And that love’s not a game for three/And I’m not what I used to be.” Meanwhile, Randy Brecker’s muted trumpet dances around him, mocking his pain the way only a muted trumpet can.
Good times! Is it any wonder Gaucho—the seventh Steely Dan album, and the last one Donald Fagen and Walter Becker would make together until the year 2000—is the one even some hardcore Danimals find it tough to fully cozy up to? The almost pathologically overdetermined production is elegant, arid, a little forbidding, and every last tinkling chime sounds like it took 12 days to mix, because chances are it did. And underneath that compulsive craftsmanship, that marble-slick surface, there’s decay, disillusionment, a gnawing sadness. But that’s what’s great about Gaucho. It takes the animating artistic tension of Steely Dan—their need to make flawless-sounding records lionizing inveterately human fuckups—to its logical endpoint.
It’s their most obviously L.A. record, so of course they made it in New York, after spending years out West making music so steeped in New York iconography it practically sweated hot-dog-cart water. And it’s also the most end-of-the-’70s record ever made, 38 minutes of immaculately conceived malaise-age bachelor-pad music by which to greet the cold dawn of the Reagan era. The characters in these songs have taken an era of self-expression and self-indulgence as far as they can. They’re free to do and be whatever and whoever they want, but all that severance of obligation has done is isolate them from other people.
The only character who’s having any kind of communal fun is the coke dealer on “Glamour Profession,” who makes calls from a basketball star’s car phone and takes meetings over Mr. Chow dumplings with “Jive Miguel…from Bogotá.” Everyone else is lost out there in the haze, having mutually demeaning sex or reaching for human connection in angry, possessive, usually futile ways. “Gaucho” and “My Rival” are both about relationships into which some threatening/alluring interloper has driven a wedge; both “Hey Nineteen” and “Babylon Sisters” are about older guys who chase younger women and wind up feeling older than ever. Things fall apart, the center does not hold, there’s a gaucho in the living room and he won’t leave, and it’s getting hard to act like everything’s mellow” – Pitchfork
Key Cut: Hey Nineteen
7. Two Against Nature
Release Date: 29th February, 2000
Producers: Walter Becker/Donald Fagen
Label: Giant
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=17120&ev=mb
Standout Tracks: Gaslighting Abbie/Janie Runaway/West of Hollywood
Review:
“Speaking of “unexpected”, though, Two Against Nature initially made for a pretty surprising listen. As much as I praise albums like Aja and The Royal Scam, none of the records from the duo’s initial run manage to reach the - for lack of a better word - JAZZINESS of this one. The chill atmosphere and lush arrangements of Gaucho have now been expanded even further, and a lot of the instrumental passages really do approach the realms of traditional jazz fusion. The 70s Dan albums always flirted with jazz classics, but their pop leanings always brought them back under the umbrella of “jazz rock” instead of all-out jazz fusion. In other words, if you’re looking for the most challenging and complex record Donald Fagen and Walter Becker ever released, this is the one. Just listen to the way the title track keeps shifting in and out of different time signatures with its latin beat, or how “Almost Gothic” can’t seem to pick a consistent key or chord progression to stay in.
But here’s the thing: the record goes about its business in such a subtle way that you’re not going to absorb it all in one listen. The music still goes under the same chill guise you’d get from a slick smooth jazz album, but it’s the little quirks that really set it apart. One of the best examples of this comes in the form of “Negative Girl”; the tune is so relaxing as it glides across your eardrums, but listen closer and you’ll find wonderfully complex bass lines from Tom Barney and equally off-kilter drum patterns. On the other side of the energy spectrum, you have the upbeat closing mini-epic “West of Hollywood” which starts out pretty conventionally before revealing its true colors halfway through; a roaring saxophone solo takes over, with Chris Potter tearing it up over ever-changing keyboard melodies. Consequently, stuff like this also makes Two Against Nature the least accessible Dan record, but it’s incredibly rewarding if you give it a chance. Plus, there are still some songs that are much more approachable, notably the relatively straightforward singles “Cousin Dupree” and “Janie Runaway”.
Of course, as with most albums by the duo, the polished music is often presented in contrast with the lyrics. “Cousin Dupree” was the most extensively discussed song to come from the album, as it deals with a slacker who’s just a little too interested in his cousin, and the lyrics even got a nod from Owen Wilson for being reminiscent of the movie You, Me and Dupree (though the song came out first). But let’s be real here; wild topics like infidelity and incest aren’t really out of place in a Steely Dan album. So if anything, I have to commend them for sticking to their guns after being away for so long. Other songs explore similarly dirty topics, such as the sexual escapades found in “Janie Runaway” or the meth-fueled character portrait of “Jack of Speed”. Just as with Gaucho, the music is so beautiful and slick that you almost get distracted from just how dark these songs can get. The juxtaposition is simply fantastic.
While I probably would have rooted for Kid A at the 2001 Grammy Awards, Two Against Nature wouldn’t have been far behind it. People may still complain and consider the win an “upset”, but this really is a fantastic album that progressed Steely Dan in a meaningful way stylistically. If anything, it actually represents the end of their slow transformation into the jazz fusion group that they were always hinting at becoming… it just so happens that people had to wait another 20 years to finally hear it. Give it a listen if you’ve been predisposed to avoid it; you might be surprised” – Sputnikmusic
Key Cut: Cousin Dupree
6. The Royal Scam
Release Date: 31st May, 1976
Producer: Gary Katz
Label: ABC
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=16969&ev=mb
Standout Tracks: Kid Charlemagne/Don’t Take Me Alive/The Fez
Review:
“We’ve all heard of the genre called “outlaw country”. But with Steely Dan‘s 1976 fifth studio album, The Royal Scam, the group put forth a collection of songs that may be labeled “outlaw fusion jazz”. With allusions to characters both fictional and contemporary, many lyrical themes focus on darker subjects such as crime, homelessness, drug dealing, divorce, the loss of innocence, and other general bad faith “scams”. Musically, this album features more prominent guitar work than most Steely Dan releases, led by band co-member Walter Becker and session guitarist Larry Carlton, who delivers some of his finest performances on this record.
Steely Dan began as a tradition rock group but following their early success, Becker and lead vocalist/keyboardist Donald Fagen wanted to tour less and concentrate on composing and recording. Following their tour in support of Pretzel Logic in 1974, Steely Dan ceased live performances all together. Eventually the other members departed, with group founder and guitarist Denny Dias staying on in more of session role for later albums while Becker and Fagen recruited a diverse group of other session players starting with the 1975 release Katy Lied including Carlton and backing vocalist Michael McDonald.
With the sessions for The Royal Scam, the group brought in funk/R&B drummer Bernard Purdie for most tracks as Becker and Fagen strived for amore rhythmic sound. The album was produced by Gary Katz and it’s cover features artwork originally for and unreleased 1975 album by Van Morrison.
The album begins with its best overall tune and, really one of the most musically rewarding songs by Steely Dan, “Kid Charlemagne”. This track is built on a catchy clavichord which works perfectly in the cracks between the vocal phrases and rhythm provided by Purdie and session bassist Chuck Rainey, But the most rewarding moments here are are dual leads by Carlton, blending elements of rock, funk and jazz with not a single note less than excellent. “The Caves of Altamira” follows as a jazz/pop with more fine rhythms and featuring a rich horn section, climaxing with the tenor sax of John Klemmer. The lyrics refer to cave paintings in Spain created by Neanderthals, proving early man’s call to be creative and expressive.
Carlton’s heavily distorted and snarling guitar works into a full intro lead for “Don’t Take Me Alive”, another track that explores the criminal edge lyrically. However, this track has an overall feel of 1980’s AOR rock, which really shows Steely Dan’s forward-looking approach to compositions. “Sign In Stranger” changes pace as a piano-dominated piece led by Paul Griffin who provides most of the musical movement and a great lead section. Griffin also co-wrote “The Fez” along with Becker and Fagen, a track that starts with slow and moody piano but soon falls into a perfect 70s funk rhythm with some disco-era, over-the-top synth strings on top” – Classic Rock Review
Key Cut: Haitian Divorce
5. Katy Lied
Release Date: March 1975
Producer: Gary Katz
Label: ABC
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=16954&ev=mb
Standout Tracks: Bad Sneakers/Your Gold Teeth II/Any World (That I'm Welcome To)
Review:
“The songs Becker and Fagen came up with are the usual mix of the funny, cynical, and cryptic, but here and there are moments of what seems to be actual sweetness. The brilliance of their songwriting is that they always aimed for complexity and never allowed themselves to be pinned down. Everything was up for negotiation, even when the lyrics were studded with clear meaning. “Black Friday” is a brilliant depiction of chaos, describing what it would be like to make your way out of town and cash your checks when the apocalypse hits. Fagen makes evil sound appealing, suggesting that it might be the only sane response to living in an insane world, but listen with the other ear and you hear the satire and even a kind of yearning from someone who might actually wish for a better world. Meanwhile, Becker plays the best guitar solo on the album, capturing the ragged edge of the moment.
Steely Dan made songs about the destructive force of male vanity that came from two people you knew were speaking from personal experience. They never hold themselves above their characters, but they don’t let them off the hook, either. On “Bad Sneakers,” we see a man bopping around the street near Radio City Music Hall like he owns the place. We feel what he feels but also see how ridiculous he looks, while McDonald’s background vocals suggest grace in his awkwardness, celebrating the energy that powers him even though his actions are laughable. “Rose Darling” is the third track in a row to mention money specifically, but on a more casual listen it sounds something like a pure love song. And then two cuts later, the A-side closes with “Dr. Wu.”
Lodged in the middle of the album that came in the middle of the decade and in the middle of Steely Dan’s decade-long, seven-album run is one of their very best songs, a weary and funny and specific and mysterious ode to longing and loss. “Dr. Wu” gave the album its title (“Katie lies/You can see it in her eyes”) and crystalizes its essential mood. One moment it’s about drugs, the next it’s about a love triangle, and then you’re not sure what’s next or even what’s real, and weaving through it all is the saxophone solo from Phil Woods, connecting dots between musical worlds both corny and elegant, from Billy Joel to Billy Strayhorn.
The characters flailing clumsily throughout Katy Lied are paralyzed by desires they aren’t introspective enough to understand, so all they can do is keep stumbling forward. “I got this thing inside me,” Fagen sings in a bridge on the late album highlight “Any World (That I’m Welcome To)”, “I only know I must obey/This feeling I can't explain away.” Sometimes obeying those desires lead people to something ugly and inexcusable, as on “Everyone’s Gone to the Movies,” a song about a guy who is almost certainly grooming kids for abuse. It’s a Todd Solondz film rendered in sound, and Fagen only shows us the lead-up, forcing us to assemble the pieces in our heads as he hides the crime behind the album’s cheeriest arrangement.
This collision between word and sound—in which the precise moral takeaway and is obscured even as the music makes it go down easy—made the band hard to trust. “The words, while frequently not easy to get the definite drift of, are almost always intriguing and often witty,” John Mendelsohn wrote in a review of Katy Lied in Rolling Stone. But a few paragraphs later he concluded: “Steely Dan’s music continues to strike me essentially as exemplarily well-crafted and uncommonly intelligent schlock” – Pitchfork
Key Cut: Black Friday
4. Countdown to Ecstasy
Release Date: July 1973
Producer: Gary Katz
Label: ABC
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=16898&ev=mb
Standout Tracks: Bodhisattva/The Boston Rag/Show Biz Kids
Review:
“Now renowned more as studio-based boffins, following the release of their first album, Can't Buy A Thrill, in 1973 the newly-minted Steely Dan found themselves forced to tour. This forced them to create the follow-up on the hoof. While the band expressed a certain disappointment with the results (and certainly the commercial gains fell way short of the predecessor), Countdown... remains a jewel in their very large artistic crown. A more jazzy affair than Can't buy..., the album built on the duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen's ability to combine cynicism with wit, intelligence and some great hooks, all bolstered by the best players around. Still composed of a core of Jim Hodder (drums), Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter (lead guitar) and Denny Dias (rhythm guitar), the duo demoted David Palmer to backing vocals and handed the mic to Donald for perpetuity. It was a wise move.
These tales of drug abuse ("Boston Rag"), class envy ("Your Gold Teeth"), and post-nuclear devastation ("King Of The World") needed the distinctive, weary tones of Fagen to propel them. While opener, "Bodhisattva" may have been a live staple designed for soloing, the band's chops were now fearsome enough to elevate it beyond mere jamming. What's more in "Pearl Of The Quarter" the pair showed that with little more than nuance they could paint a rich picture indeed (it's the tale of a midddle class boy chasing forbidden fruit).
Add to this the usual array of talent drafted in to fill any gaps ie; Rick Derringer's fearsome slide on "Showbiz Kids". With the latter the Dan also forged their fearsome reputation as social commentators as they finally turned their gaze towards the excesses of the West Coast, while reserving no mercy for even themselves ('they got the Steely Dan t-shirts').
Post-modern before the term was coined, erudite, musically literate and still unbelievably cool; Steely Dan by this point were setting a benchmark that few have ever matched” – BBC
Key Cut: My Old School
3. Aja
Release Date: 23rd September, 1977
Producer: Gary Katz
Label: ABC
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=16921&ev=mb
Standout Tracks: Black Cow/Peg/Josie
Review:
“The album, which went on to sell 2 million copies, was (at least initially) anathema to a new generation of listeners who rejected the calculation of its expensive studiocraft. Which is in a way highly ironic, since Fagen and Becker’s gnomic lyrics spun stories as sharp-fanged and perverse as any found in the punk canon of the day.
Beyond their obvious allegiance to “Chinese music” (the term applied by Louis Armstrong to bebop), the art-schooled Dan maestros drew on a wealth of literary inspirations for their lyrics, which dealt heavily in subterfuge and misdirection, in the manner of a Times Square three-card monte game.
The influence of Beat forefather William S. Burroughs, whose scabrous experimental novel “Naked Lunch” spawned the band’s name, is always lurking behind the rocks, as are the dark comedians Bruce Jay Friedman and Terry Southern.
No high-lit precursor made as abiding an impact on Steely Dan’s music as did the Russia-born novelist Vladimir Nabokov, for whom Fagen and Becker shared a mutual love. The author of such satiric, game-playing books as “Lolita” and “Pale Fire” contributed his cloaked scenarios, unreliable narrators and caustic observations of human madness to their songs.
The hypnotic suavity of the musical concepts on “Aja” and Fagen and Becker’s propensity for writing brainy, elliptical lyrics manage to obscure the sometimes Stygian stories at the album’s core.
“The hypnotic suavity of the musical concepts on “Aja” and Fagen and Becker’s propensity for writing brainy, elliptical lyrics manage to obscure the sometimes Stygian stories at the album’s core.”
Take the record’s lead-off track “Black Cow.” The song’s silken, soul-derived groove (propelled by Rainey’s fat bass lines), Feldman’s pristine electric piano solo and Tom Scott’s tenor sax outburst all cloak the tale of a man at odds with his drug-addicted, promiscuous girlfriend, whom he may or may not be clandestinely stalking.
Likewise, the ingratiating No. 19 hit “Deacon Blues” sports one of Fagen and Becker’s many unreliable protagonists: a delusional suburbanite who has decided to reinvent himself as a saxophone-playing creature of the nighttime demimonde. The jittery “I Got the News” — which incredibly made it to the B side of the single “Josie” — is nothing more or less than a description of an especially sweaty all-night sex bout.
Is the unnamed actress of “Peg,” as some believe, actually starlet Peg Entwistle, who leaped to her death from the Hollywood sign in 1932? It’s not outside the realm of possibility. Is “Josie,” as writer Brian Sweet has suggested, about an oceanside orgy celebrating the jail release of a female convict? Again, not an unreasonable conclusion.
For Fagen and Becker, the beautifully tooled music they made with their studio cohorts served as the ultimate alienation effect. The true import of their work, which addressed forbidden impulses that moved to the edge of crime and frequently beyond, was always garbed in satiny elegance; its sardonic and horrific essence was marketed as the purest ear candy.
To this day, “Aja” is a thing of musical beauty with a hard-edged heart, and a consummate act of creative sleight-of-hand” – Variety
Key Cut: Deacon Blues
2. Can’t Buy a Thrill
Release Date: November 1972
Producer: Gary Katz
Label: ABC
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=16883&ev=mb
Standout Tracks: Do It Again/Kings/Reelin’ in the Years
Review:
“Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were remarkable craftsmen from the start, as Steely Dan's debut, Can't Buy a Thrill, illustrates. Each song is tightly constructed, with interlocking chords and gracefully interwoven melodies, buoyed by clever, cryptic lyrics. All of these are hallmarks of Steely Dan's signature sound, but what is most remarkable about the record is the way it differs from their later albums. Of course, one of the most notable differences is the presence of vocalist David Palmer, a professional blue-eyed soul vocalist who oversings the handful of tracks where he takes the lead. Palmer's very presence signals the one major flaw with the album -- in an attempt to appeal to a wide audience, Becker and Fagen tempered their wildest impulses with mainstream pop techniques. Consequently, there are very few of the jazz flourishes that came to distinguish their albums -- the breakthrough single, "Do It Again," does work an impressively tight Latin jazz beat, and "Reelin' in the Years" has jazzy guitar solos and harmonies -- and the production is overly polished, conforming to all the conventions of early-'70s radio. Of course, that gives these decidedly twisted songs a subversive edge, but compositionally, these aren't as innovative as their later work. Even so, the best moments ("Dirty Work," "Kings," "Midnight Cruiser," "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again") are wonderful pop songs that subvert traditional conventions and more than foreshadow the paths Steely Dan would later take” – AllMusic
Key Cut: Midnite Cruiser
1. Pretzel Logic
Release Date: 20th February, 1974
Producer: Gary Katz
Label: ABC
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=16984&ev=mb
Standout Tracks: Night by Night/Any Major Dude Will Tell You/Charlie Freak
Review:
“The album begins with “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”, which would become the biggest hit of Steely Dan’s career, topping out at number four on the pop charts. Musically, this is about as smooth as any song by the band, led by the simple piano line of Michael Omartian and great samba-inspired drums and percussion by Jim Gordon. During the lead and bridge section, the song morphs from jazz to rock seamlessly and the rather obscure lyrics tend to add to the overall mystique of this unique song (although artist Rikki Ducornet believes it was inspired by Fagen approaching her at a college party years earlier).
The choppy rock rhythm and spectrum of brass intervals of “Night by Night” is followed by the cools and somber “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”. Starting with a brightly strummed acoustic that soon settles into an electric piano groove with electric guitar overtones, this latter song offers great little guitar riffs between the verses composed of uplifting lyrics of encouragement;
The oldest composition on the album, Fagen’s “Barrytown” is lyric driven with a moderate piano backing, not all that complex but with good melody and arrangement. Named for a small upstate New York town near the duo’s alma mater, the song is a satirical look at the small town class system. The first side concludes with the only cover and instrumental on Pretzel Logic, Duke Ellington’s “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo”. This modern interpretation, features the indelible pedal guitar lead by Jeff Baxter, who emulated a mute-trombone solo masterfully. The rest of the piece pleasantly moves through many differing lead sections before returning to Baxter’s guitar to finish things up.
“Parker’s Band” contains much movement as a funky track with rock overtones. Perhaps the highlight of this track is the dual drums by Gordon and Jeff Porcaro, which are potent and flawless. “Through With Buzz” is a short, almost psychedelic piece driven by mesmerizing piano and a strong string presence. This is another example of how the Katz and the group gets everything out the door with extreme efficiency in this lyrical proclamation of a resolution. The title track, “Pretzel Logic”, contains a slow electric piano groove and verse vocals which are the most blues based of any on the album of the same name. This song contains lyrics that are cryptic, driving rhythms and grooves, a pretty respectable guitar lead by Becker, and is also the only song on the second side which exceeds three minutes in length.
The album’s final stretch features three very short tracks of differing styles. “With a Gun” is like an upbeat Western with strummed fast acoustic, Tex-Mex styled electric riffs, and a strong, Country-influenced drum beat. “Charlie Freak” features a descending piano run, which the vocals mimic with simple, storied lyrics of a downtrodden man who pawns his ring to the protagonist at a discounted price to buy the drug fix that ultimately does him in. The closer “Monkey in Your Soul” features the coolest of grooves, with an electric piano and clavichord accented by horns between the verses and a Motown-like clap to end the album on an upbeat note.” – Classic Rock Review
Key Cut: Rikki Don't Lose That Number