Steely Dan

Steely Dan

Steely Dan is a Grammy-Award winning American rock band centered on core members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. The band's peak of popularity was in the 1970s, when it released six albums that blended together elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop. Their music is characterized by complex jazz-influenced structures and harmonies, literate but sometimes obscure or ambiguous lyrics filled with dark sarcasm, and their adroit musicianship and studio perfectionism.

The group toured from 1972 to 1974, but in 1975 became a purely studio-based act. For all intents and purposes, they disbanded from 1981 through 1992 after Becker and Fagen parted ways, but have since reunited, first returning with two reunion tours in the summers of 1993 and 1994 and new studio releases in 2000 Two Against Nature and follow-up, 2003's Everything Must Go, with accompanying tours.

History

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker met at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York in 1967 and began playing in local groups (one of these, The Bad Rock Group, included future comedy star Chevy Chase on drums).

After Fagen graduated in 1969, the two moved to Brooklyn and tried to peddle their tunes in the Brill Building in midtown Manhattan. Kenny Vance, a member of the pop group Jay and the Americans, who had a production office in the building, took an interest in their material that led to work on the soundtrack of the low-budget Richard Pryor film You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat (1971) and jobs with the band's rhythm section. A series of demos made (supposedly) between 1968 and 1971 while under contract to Vance have been available on unofficial CDs and on various Steely Dan fan sites for some time. This collection features approximately twenty-five tracks, and are unique for two reasons. First, the stripped down production and decidedly "lo-fi" nature of these tracks (many songs are just Fagen and his piano) is completely contrary to known Steely Dan works. Second, although some of these songs (Caves of Altamira, Brooklyn, Barrytown, and a few others) eventually were recorded on a mass-produced album, the majority were never released formally.

Although they had a few notable successes—Barbra Streisand recorded their song "I Mean To Shine" on her 1971 "Barbra Joan Streisand" album—they made little significant headway until one of Vance's cronies, Gary Katz, moved to Los Angeles to become a staff producer for ABC Records. He hired Becker and Fagen as staff songwriters and they flew to Los Angeles. Katz would produce all their 1970s albums and from the first album on they commenced a long and successful collaboration with engineer Roger Nichols, who has since worked on every Steely Dan album, and the duo's solo projects.

After realizing their songs were too complex for other ABC artists, at Katz's suggestion they formed their own band with guitarists Denny Dias and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder and singer David Palmer, and Katz signed the band to ABC as recording artists. Being fans of Beat Generation literature, Fagen and Becker named the band for a steam-powered dildo in the William Burroughs novel Naked Lunch. The addition of Palmer as a second lead vocalist was due to a combination of Fagen's resistance to singing in front of an audience and the label's feeling that his voice was not "commercial" enough. Fagen lacked confidence in his voice and was known to have suffered from occasional bouts of stage fright. Ironically, it would soon become obvious that Fagen's voice was ideally suited to their material.

In 1972, ABC sent out promotional copies of Steely Dan's first single, "Dallas" backed with "Sail the Waterway." It is unclear if "stock" copies were ever released to the general public, and if they were, the single sold so poorly that promotional copies are more abundant today (whereas the reverse is true for most releases). Neither song has ever been included on a compilation or album of any kind, or re-released in any form, with few exceptions: a 12" European EP titled "Plus Fours." - this 1978 EP features "Dallas," "Sail the Waterway," "Do It Again" and "Haitian Divorce." "The Probe Family Sampler" - released by Music for Pleasure in the UK - included "Dallas".

Can't Buy a Thrill

Countdown to Ecstasy

Pretzel Logic

Can't Buy a Thrill (1972)

Produced by Katz and recorded by Roger Nichols at ABC Studios, their debut album, Can't Buy A Thrill, was released in 1972 and made an immediate impression with the hit singles "Do It Again", the Palmer-sung "Dirty Work" (later covered by Max Merritt), and "Reelin' In The Years." "Do It Again" and "Reelin' In The Years" reached #6 and #11 respectively on the Billboard singles chart. All three tunes soon became staples of FM radio. "Reelin' In The Years" also features an acclaimed guitar solo by Elliott Randall.

Because of Fagen's reluctance to sing live, David Palmer handled most of the vocal duties on stage. During the first tour, it became apparent to Katz and Becker that Palmer's interpretation of the material wasn't having the same impact, and eventually convinced Fagen that he was the one who best conveyed the attitude and meaning of the songs. Palmer quietly left the group during the recording of the second album, soon hooking up with Carole King, with whom he wrote the 1974 #2 hit, "Jazzman."

The musical lineup of Can't Buy A Thrill and its follow up, Countdown to Ecstasy, were very band oriented. Denny Dias handled the rhythm guitar as well as the famous electric sitar solo on "Do It Again," and Jeff Baxter handled lead guitar duties. Jim Hodder played drums as well as singing on one track, "Midnight Cruiser." As for Becker and Fagen themselves, Becker played bass and sang some sparse backup vocals while his partner Fagen played all keyboards (piano, electric piano, organ) and sang lead on every track but three.

Countdown to Ecstasy (1973)

Countdown to Ecstasy, released in 1973, had nowhere near the same level of commercial success as the first album (probably to the surprise of few, as it was much more jazz/blues oriented than its predecessor). Becker and Fagen blamed this on having to rush-record the album between tour dates and they weren't entirely happy with some of the performances on the record. The album's singles included "Show-Biz Kids" (curiously chosen to release as a hopeful hit) and "My Old School", both considered "classic" Steely Dan by fans and critics alike, but failing to make a significant entry into the charts. "My Old School" (and to a lesser extent, "Bodhisattva") did become a minor FM Rock staple as years passed, however, and remains so to this day. "Bodhisattva" was also notable as the only readily available live recording of Steely Dan for many years (as the B-side of the 1980 single "Hey Nineteen").

Pretzel Logic (1974)

Steely Dan returned to prominence with their third LP Pretzel Logic in early 1974, a diverse set that produced another hit single, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number", a US Top Ten hit (#4 on the Billboard chart) which became yet another enduring FM rock radio staple. It is also notable as the only Steely Dan album to contain a song by another composer—their cover of Duke Ellington's "East St Louis Toodle-oo". This song also holds other importance as the only instrumental ever done by Steely Dan, the only Steely Dan song to feature a banjo, and the only song on which Donald Fagen is credited with playing the saxophone (he also plays the piano solo). Album cuts "Any Major Dude Will Tell You" and the title track would go on to be fan favorites.

During the tour for the previous album, the band had added Sonny & Cher's young session drummer Jeff Porcaro (later a member of Toto) and also added singer-keyboardist Michael McDonald for back-up vocals. Both would become prominent on this and future Steely Dan recordings and would illustrate the duo's increasing reliance on session musicians. This album marks the first time Walter Becker would play guitar (6 string electric guitar) on a Steely Dan album.

A rift between Becker-Fagen and the other members of the group (particularly Baxter and Hodder) began to develop when the latter two seemed more intent on touring. Becker and Fagen disliked touring and wanted to withdraw from the road to concentrate solely on writing and recording. The other members also felt discouraged by their diminishing roles in the studio and gradually left the group, although Dias stayed on for some Aja tracks and McDonald continued to contribute vocals up to the 1980 Gaucho set (where he figured on "Time Out of Mind"). Baxter left to join The Doobie Brothers, where he was later joined by McDonald.

Katy Lied

The Royal Scam

Aja

Gaucho

Katy Lied (1975)

The 1975 LP Katy Lied saw the duo using a diverse group of session players, including Porcaro and McDonald, as well as guitarist Elliott Randall, famed jazz saxophonist Phil Woods, equally renowned saxophonist-cum-bass guitarist Wilton Felder, percussionist-vibraphonist Victor Feldman, keyboardist (and later producer) Michael Omartian and guitarist Larry Carlton, with only Dias remaining from the original group. The album went gold on the strength of the songs "Black Friday" and "Bad Sneakers", but Becker and Fagen were so dissatisfied with the sound of the album (caused by a faulty DBX noise reduction system) that they publicly apologized for it, and for years refused to even listen to it in its final form. Often considered a "transitional album," it also included such gems as "Dr Wu" (which also got minor but loyal FM airplay for many years) and "Chain Lightning."

The Royal Scam (1976)

The Royal Scam was released in May 1976 on ABC Records and is considered the group's most guitar-oriented record, in part due to Carlton's contributions, and it also features legendary session drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. Like Katy Lied, it sold well without the strength of a real hit single, although "Kid Charlemagne" and "The Fez" (in which keyboardist Paul Griffin earned a rare co-writing credit) would become two fan favorites. Also popular in Dan circles as well as at modern Steely Dan shows are the hard rocking "Don't Take Me Alive", the shuffling "Sign in Stranger", and the ethereal "Caves of Altamira." "Haitian Divorce" became a surprise minor hit in the UK. By this time, Becker and Fagen had dropped their musical responsibilities in favor of talented session players. Aside from a few keyboard parts from Fagen and the occasional bass or guitar track from Becker, the duo mainly focused on songwriting and producing from this album through Gaucho.

Aja (1977)

Their sixth LP, the jazz-oriented Aja, saw Becker and Fagen using the services of top-notch jazz, jazz-rock and soul musicians including Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Wayne Shorter, Steve Gadd, and Chuck Rainey. Aja won several awards, shot into the Top Five in the U.S. charts within three weeks of release, and was one of the first American LPs to be certified 'platinum' for sales of over 1 million albums. The first single off the album was "Peg," which featured Michael McDonald's prominent backing vocals and peaked at US #11. Other singles included "Deacon Blues" (#19) and "Josie" (#26). The album cemented the duo's reputation as songwriters, as well as their legendary reputation for studio perfectionism. The story of the making of the album has been documented in an episode of the popular TV and DVD series, Classic Albums. The album features such jazz and fusion luminaries as saxophonists Wayne Shorter, Pete Christlieb and Tom Scott, drummer Steve Gadd and ex-Cannonball Adderley pianist/vibist Victor Feldman. It also featured Becker's trademark clean, jazzy guitar leads as a prominent solo voice where they had only appeared sporadically in prior releases.

Soon after the success of Aja, Becker and Fagen were asked to contribute the title track for the movie FM. The movie was one of the year's worst box-office disasters but the song was another hit, barely missing out on the Top 20 in the US and was another minor hit in the UK. The group still performs it today.

Gaucho (1978-1980)

Becker and Fagen took most of 1978 off before beginning to write songs for the follow-up to Aja. The project would become plagued by technical, legal, and personal problems and ultimately cost them their partnership for many years.

In March 1979, ABC was bought by MCA, and for most of the next two years they were caught in contractual problems that prevented them from releasing the album. Becker and Fagen had planned on leaving ABC for Warner Brothers and wanted to release the next album on it, but MCA claimed ownership of the material and blocked Fagen and Becker from putting it out on any other label.

The first track completed for the album was "The Second Arrangement". It was one that Becker and Fagen were very proud of. But one night, Nichols was horrified to discover that all but a small fraction of the song had been accidentally erased by an assistant engineer. Nichols quickly tried to find Katz and eventually found him eating dinner at a restaurant. It was Nichols who also broke the bad news to the band. When Fagen was notified, he simply walked out of the studio without saying a word. Attempting to re-record it proved to be too discouraging, so they abandoned the song.

Becker was also having personal difficulties. His girlfriend at the time, Karen Stanley, was found dead of a drug overdose in their shared Upper West Side Apartment. Becker was hit with a $17 million wrongful death suit, later settled out of court in his favor, but he was hurt by the accusations and the tabloid press coverage that followed. He also had his own substance abuse problems to deal with. Not long after, Becker was hit by a taxi while attempting to cross a Manhattan street, shattering his right leg in several places and forcing him to go about on crutches. His sense of humor was evident in his statement to Rolling Stone magazine that he and the taxi had occupied the same space at the same time.

Another lawsuit dogged the band, this time regarding the title track for the album. Jazz composer Keith Jarrett claimed that the song had been based on one of his own compositions, entitled "Long As You Know You're Living Yours". Fagen later admitted he'd loved the song and was strongly influenced by it. Jarrett sued for copyright infringement and eventually won a co-writing credit as well as royalties on future pressings.

Gaucho was finally released in April 1980 and, despite the problems that had gone into recording the album, it was another major success. The first single, "Hey Nineteen", peaked at #10 on the pop chart in early 1981, and "Time Out of Mind" (featuring Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler on guitar) became a moderate hit in the spring. The album subsequently received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.

Fagen's "The Nightfly"

Time off

Becker and Fagen announced the temporary suspension of their partnership in June 1981. Becker subsequently moved to the Hawaiian island of Maui with his family. The two tried writing together again in the mid-1980s but were unhappy with the results.

In 1982 Fagen released his groundbreaking solo album The Nightfly, which was favorably compared to his Steely Dan work although it failed to match the wide audience appeal of the two previous Dan albums. It included "Ruby Baby", the only song in the Steely Dan oeuvre that was not written by Becker and/or Fagen (besides Duke Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo featured on Pretzel Logic).

Fagen then did no music writing and recording for several years. He occasionally did production work for other artists, as did Becker; one notable credit was British group China Crisis, who were strongly influenced by Steely Dan.

Reunion

Many fans believe that Fagen and Becker took the first steps toward reconciliation in 1986, when Gary Katz oversaw the production of Zazu, an album by the former model Rosie Vela. Both Becker and Fagen are featured on that album, and it is believed to be the first time they performed together since the breakup.

On October 25, 1991, Becker attended a concert of the New York Rock and Soul Revue, co-founded by Fagen and producer/singer Libby Titus (who was for many years the partner of Levon Helm of The Band and would later become Fagen's wife).

1993 saw Becker's production of Fagen's second solo album Kamakiriad. Fagen later nominated it as the most satisfying recording experience of his career. Returning the favour, Fagen co-produced Becker's solo album 11 Tracks of Whack in 1994.

During the same year, MCA released Citizen Steely Dan, a boxed set featuring their entire catalog on 4 CDs, plus 4 rare tracks: "Here at the Western World" (originally released on 1978's "Greatest Hits"), "FM" (1978 single), a 1971 demo of "Everyone's Gone to the Movies" and "Bodhisattva (live)", the latter recorded on a cassette in 1974 and released as a B-side in 1980.

Alive in America (1993-1994)

These events finally led to a reformation, and the mounting of a U.S. tour in 1993 to support Fagen's album (which sold poorly, even though the concerts were extremely well-reviewed). With Becker now mainly playing lead and rhythm guitar, they put together a band that included an additional keyboard player and lead guitarist, a bassist, three female backing singers, and a four-piece horn section. During this tour, Fagen introduced himself as "Rick Strauss" and Becker as "Frank Poulenc". They toured to great acclaim during 1993-96, performing mainly songs from the later Steely Dan albums plus a selection of re-arranged Dan classics, and they released a live CD compiled from recordings of several 1993 and 1994 concerts, Alive in America in 1995.

Two Against Nature

Everything Must Go

Two Against Nature (2000)

In 2000, they released their first studio album in twenty years, Two Against Nature. It was not only a return to form but proved to be one of the surprise successes of the year, and in February 2001, it earned them four Grammy Awards. They won in the categories for Best Engineered Album - Non-Classical, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Pop Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal ("Cousin Dupree"), and Album of the Year. Their win for Album of the Year came as a shock as they defeated Eminem and his highly controversial album The Marshall Mathers LP. In March 2001, Steely Dan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the summer of 2000, they took to the road for another US tour followed by an international tour later that year. A DVD was also released under the same title, which is essentially a live-in-the-studio concert performance of popular tunes from throughout Steely Dan's career.

Everything Must Go (2003)

In 2003 Steely Dan released another album, Everything Must Go, and toured America thereafter. Becker and Fagen went for a looser approach in the studio and attempted to capture a more live feel. Walter Becker contributed his first lead vocal on a Steely Dan studio album on the song "Slang of Ages" (he had sung lead on his own "Book of Liars," on Alive in America). Also, it is the first Steely Dan album since 1973 to feature the same drummer (Keith Carlock) on every track. Jim Hodder was the sole drummer on 1972's Can't Buy a Thrill and 1973's Countdown to Ecstasy. This album also showed a return to form for Becker and Fagen's playing. Becker plays bass and lead guitar on every track while Fagen adds piano, electric piano, organ, synthesizers, and percussion on top of his vocals.

Long-serving Dan saxophonist Cornelius Bumpus (who previously played with The Doobie Brothers and Moby Grape) died of a heart attack in February 2004. Mindy Jostyn, another frequent musician who played with Fagen and The New York Rock and Soul Revue, died in March 2005.

Steelyard "Sugartooth" McDan and The Fab-Originees.com Tour (2006)

The band embarked on a 33-date tour in the summer of 2006, a tour that followed Donald Fagen's tour in spring of 2006 in support of his first solo album in 13 years, Morph the Cat. Also featured on the bill was former collaborator Michael McDonald and his band. The name of the tour is an homage to the fictional "inventor of the blues" presumably created by Becker and Fagen. The website, Fab-Originees.com, was simply a mirror of SteelyDan.com.

Heavy Rollers Tour (2007)

The band's Heavy Rollers Tour began May 5, 2007, at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, TN. The tour will include North America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, making it both the largest and most exhaustive Steely Dan tour ever. The words "Heavy rollers" are featured in the lyrics of the Gaucho title track ("We've got heavy rollers, I think you should know") [1]

Musical and lyrical style

Steely Dan's enigmatic, sardonically humorous and topical lyrics add to the appeal of the songs. Although Becker and Fagen might have at first owed a certain lyrical debt to Bob Dylan, they rapidly developed a distinctive style and have since become one of the most accomplished and respected songwriting teams of their age.

Music

Overall sound

Special attention was given to the individual sound of each instrument. The recording was done with the utmost fidelity and attention to sonic detail, and mixed so that all the instruments are heard and none are given undue priority (a deft and accomplished use of the multi-tracking process). For example, in the song "Parker's Band", two drum kits are used (a technique which was standard in the Big Band era), which gives the song an unexpected drive, without overpowering the sound; it is not even immediately apparent that there are two drum kits on the track. Their albums are also notable for the characteristically 'warm' and 'dry' production sound, and the sparing use of echo and reverberation — effects which were often heavily over-used on other rock recordings of this period. Long known as perfectionists, they often recorded take after take before selecting the player or performance that made the final cut on their albums.

Backing vocals

Becker and Fagen favor a distinctly soul-influenced style of backing vocal, which after the first few albums were almost always performed by a female chorus (although Michael McDonald features prominently on several tracks, including the 1975 song "Black Friday" and the 1977 song "Peg"). Venetta Fields, Sherlie Matthews and Clydie King were the preferred trio for backing vocals on the group's late 70's albums.

Horns

The horn arrangements are usually jazz-oriented, and usually integrate a simple synth track. This was done to "thicken" the horn section sound (as in "Deacon Blues") or to counter the melody ("Jack Of Speed"). On the earlier albums Steely Dan featured guest arrangers. However, from Two Against Nature and on the arrangement work is creditted to Fagen.

Use of unusual harmonies and chord sequences

Steely Dan are famous for their use of chord sequences and harmonies that explore the area of musical tension between traditional pop music sounds and jazz. To conventional rock listeners, this sometimes seemed to be avant-garde music. In particular, they are known for their use of the mu major chord, often simply known to rock musicians as the "Steely Dan chord". Other staples of the Steely Dan "Chord Dictionary" include so-called slash chords, for example B♭/C or E/A. Slash chords formed from a bass note and a major chord based on a note a perfect fifth above the bass note, such as E/A, were commonly used, often as alternatives to the closely-related major 7th and major 9th chords (E/A can also be written as Amaj9(no 3rd)).

Lyrics

Lyrically, their songs cover a wide range of topics, but in their basic approach Becker and Fagen's writing can be compared with the observational, novelistic style of Lou Reed, and with lyricists such as Langston Hughes, who specialises in creating fictional personas that narrate the experience. The duo have said that in retrospect, most of their albums have a 'feel' of either Los Angeles or New York, the two main bases where Becker and Fagen lived and operated (see below). Characters appear in their songs that evoke these cities. Themes of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll appear, but never in a straightforward manner, neither encouraging or discouraging, and many (if not all) of their songs are tinged with an ironic edge.

Additionally, many would argue that Steely Dan never wrote a real love song. However, some of the demo-era recordings show Fagen and Becker at their most romantic. Such songs include "This Seat's Been Taken", "Oh, Wow, It's You", "Come Back Baby", and "Rikki Don't Lose That Number". Some lyrics are notable for their unusual scansion patterns; a prime example of this is their 1972 hit "Reelin' In The Years", which crams an unusually large number of words into each line, giving it a highly syncopated quality. Other themes are also present, such as prejudice, aging, failure, poverty and middle-class ennui, but these are typically seen from an ironic and detached perspective. Many of their songs concern love, but none can be classed as straightforward love songs, since there is inevitably an ironic or disturbing twist in the lyrics. One may think the song is about love on first inspection, however, upon deeper analysis the listener realizes that the real story is about rape, prostitution, incest, or some other socially unacceptable subject.

Steely Dan's lyrics contain subtle/coded references, unusual (and sometimes original) slang expressions, a wide variety of "word games" and intriguing lyrical choices and constructions of considerable depth. The obscure and sometimes teasing lyrics have given rise to considerable efforts by fans to explain the "inner meaning" of certain songs. Jazz is a recurring theme, with references abounding in their songs, and there are numerous other film, television and literary references and allusions, such as "Home At Last" (from Aja), which was inspired by The Odyssey.

"Namechecking" is another Steely Dan lyrical device; references to real places and people abound in their songs. The song "My Old School" is a well-known example, referring to Annandale (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY is the location of Bard College, which both attended and where they met), and the Two Against Nature album (2000) contains numerous references to the duo's original home region, the New York metro area, including the district of Gramercy Park bookstore The Strand and well-known upmarket food business Dean & DeLuca.

Discography

The following list includes all of Steely Dan's Studio albums. For a complete album list including compilations and live albums, see Steely Dan discography.

• 1972: Can't Buy a Thrill
• 1973: Countdown to Ecstasy
• 1974: Pretzel Logic
• 1975: Katy Lied
• 1976: The Royal Scam
• 1977: Aja
• 1980: Gaucho
• 2000: Two Against Nature
• 2003: Everything Must Go

External links

• SteelyDan.com — official website
• DonaldFagen.com — official website
• WalterBecker.com — official website
• Steely Dan at All Music Guide
• Under the Banyan Trees with Steely Dan - Fan Site
• Dandom.com - Mailing list since 1993
• Feverdreams - fansite focusing on song interpretations
• Steely Dan Dictionary — glossary of obscure words found in Steely Dan lyrics