Steely Dan
| Steely Dan | |
|---|---|
 Steely Dan in Lucerne (2007) |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Los Angeles , United States |
| Genre (s) | Jazz rock , pop rock |
| founding | 1972, 1993 |
| resolution | 1981 |
| Website | www.steelydanofficial.com |
| Current occupation | |
| Donald Fagen (since 1972) | |
| former members | |
| Walter Becker (1972–2017; † 2017) | |
| Denny Dias (1972–1980) | |
| Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (1972–1974) | |
| Jim Hodder (1972–1974) († 1990) | |
| David Palmer (1972-1973) | |
Steely Dan is a band founded in 1972 by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen in Los Angeles , which had its greatest success in the 1970s with the release of seven studio albums. The band toured until 1974 and then temporarily became a pure studio band.
Their music combines elements from rock , funk , R&B , jazz and pop . The lyrics are often characterized by irony and sarcasm . The name of the band was borrowed from William S. Burroughs ' novel Naked Lunch , where it describes a steel dildo .
Steely Dan has sold over 30 million records to date and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. The band's well-known songs include Do It Again , Rikki Don't Lose That Number , Peg and Hey Nineteen .
history
First years
Walter Becker and Donald Fagen met at Bard College in New York in the late 1960s and quickly noticed their similarities in terms of music. They developed their own, sophisticated style with elements from rock, funk and blues (including American songwriting from the 1930s and 40s). A pronounced jazz influence can also be heard, for example in the piece Rikki Don't Lose That Number (1974), which quotes the pianist Horace Silver in the intro . In Parker's Band , Steely Dan made explicit reference to Charlie Parker . Almost all of the songs were written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen as a duo.
After Becker and Fagen had made numerous demo recordings of their own compositions between 1968 and 1971 - some with the participation of Denny Dias - Steely Dan formed in 1972 with the following line-up: Donald Fagen (vocals and keyboards), Walter Becker (bass) , Denny Dias (guitar), Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (guitar), Jim Hodder (drums, vocals) and David Palmer (vocals). On their first album Can not Buy a Thrill worked Elliott Randall as a guest guitarist. In 1974 the band went on tour. She was strengthened by Michael McDonald (vocals, keyboards), Jeff Porcaro (drums) and Royce Jones (vocals and percussion ).
Main phase and achievements
In 1974, after the support tour for Pretzel Logic, the Steely Dan project was continued by Fagen and Becker as a duo only in the studio, where they were supported by an increasing number of studio musicians with the recording of their albums. From the old band, only Denny Dias was occasionally used as a paid studio musician. McDonald and Porcaro were also occasionally involved. McDonald therefore followed Baxter to the Doobie Brothers , Porcaro became one of the co-founders of Toto in 1977 alongside David Paich , who had also recorded Steely Dan songs . From 1975 to 1980, Steely Dan produced four critically acclaimed albums. After the album "Gaucho" was released in 1980, Becker and Fagen Steely Dan broke up for the time being.
separation
Fagens and Becker's work on Gaucho was overshadowed by serious problems. Beckers' friend died of a drug overdose , which he was charged with, and he too was struggling with his heroin addiction. Becker also had a serious traffic accident in which he broke his legs several times and was dependent on crutches for weeks. Walter Becker moved to Hawaii , where he was able to get rid of his drug problems over the next few years.
In addition, the two intended to change the record company, which their old music label prevented legally. Donald Fagen therefore began with solo recordings.
reunion
In 1993 Steely Dan were reunited and toured the United States (Alive In America) . In 1996 the first world tour followed, which also took her to Germany (Alive in Germany) . In 2000 Steely Dan released their first studio album in twenty years. Two Against Nature received four Grammys in February 2001 , making it a surprise success. It won in the categories “Best engineered album non-classical” , “Best pop vocal album” , “Best performance by a duo or group with vocal” for the song Cousin Dupree , and “Best album of the year” .
In 2001 Steely Dan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . In June 2003, the album Everything Must Go was finally released . In 2006 Steely Dan toured the United States with Michael McDonald . In 2007, for the first time since 2000, there was another major world tour through America, Europe and Japan. Walter Becker died on September 3, 2017; the band had been on tour until shortly before his death. On October 13, 2017, Fagen continued the tour of Steely Dan with his live band.
Production style
In the television series Classic Albums, the guitarist Dean Parks described the production style of Steely Dan's Aja album as "one step beyond perfection" : You arrange a track to absolute perfection, and then play it all over again to loosen it up a little ("To loosen it up a little bit") . It was not uncommon for guest musicians, also due to the often harsh criticism from Becker and Fagen, to leave the studio unnerved. All Steely Dan albums from 1972 to 1980 were produced together with producer Gary Katz .
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1972 | Can't Buy a Thrill | - |
UK38  (1 week)UK |
US17th  (59 weeks)US |
First published: October 1972
Chart entry in UK only in September 1975 Producer: Gary Katz |
| 1973 | Countdown to Ecstasy | - | - |
US35  (34 weeks)US |
First published: July 1973
Producer: Gary Katz |
| 1974 | Pretzel Logic | - |
UK37 (2 weeks)UK |
US8th (36 weeks)US |
First published: March 1974
Producer: Gary Katz |
| 1975 | Katy song | - |
UK13 (6 weeks)UK |
US13 (26 weeks)US |
First published: March 1975
Producer: Gary Katz |
| 1976 | The Royal Scam | - |
UK11 (13 weeks) UK |
US15th (29 weeks)US |
First published: May 1976
Producer: Gary Katz |
| 1977 | Aye | - |
UK5 (10 weeks)UK |
US3 × 2
(60 weeks)US |
First published: September 1977
Producer: Gary Katz |
| 1980 | Gaucho |
DE57 (2 weeks) DE |
UK27 (12 weeks) UK |
US9 (36 weeks)US |
First published: November 21, 1980
Producer: Gary Katz |
| 2000 | Two Against Nature |
DE11 (8 weeks) DE |
UK11 (6 weeks)UK |
US6th (30 weeks)US |
First release: February 29, 2000
Grammys (Album of the Year + Best Pop Album) Producers: Donald Fagen , Walter Becker |
| 2003 | Everything must go |
DE29 (7 weeks) DE |
UK21 (3 weeks) UK |
US9 (12 weeks) US |
First published: June 10, 2003
Producers: Donald Fagen, Walter Becker |
Trivia
- Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are two of the main characters in the ten-part comedy video series "Yacht Rock", which is about " Smooth Rock " from the 1980s such as Toto , Hall & Oates , Michael McDonald , Michael Jackson , Kenny Loggins and others.
- The British author Ricky Rooksby has included a short quote from Fagen in his songwriting textbook How to write a song on guitar (also published in German), in which Fagen himself comments on a type of chord that bears the band name: the “Steely- Dan chord ". This chord consists of the root note, the minor seventh and two fourths layered over them - for example EDGC. Only very few chords in the history of music were given names of their own, including the "So-What-Akkord" by Miles Davis of the jazz standard of the same name, " Tristan-Akkord " from Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde and the "Prometheus-Akkord" (also mystical Called chord ) by the composer Aleksandr Skrijabin . The name "Steely-Dan-Akkord" is neither generally known nor has a musical background. It only represents a chord sound image (so-called voicing ) that Donald Fagen preferred to use. With a chromatic sequence and this voicing at every other position, two pieces on the album Aja begin : Peg and Deacon Blues .
- In 1978 Steely Dan's longtime sound engineer Roger Nichols developed the WENDEL, a digital drum computer especially for the production of Gaucho - it is considered the first sampler ever to be immortalized on a record. The trigger for this was Becker and Fagen's urge for perfection, who were not satisfied with the precision of human drummers. The device is a one-off and never officially went on sale. However, there was a further developed version, which was launched as a small series and is now achieving high prices.
- In episode 4 of the second season of Breaking Bad , it becomes clear that the main character Walter White is a big Steely Dan fan.
- In the Rest in Peace Department in the comedy film of the same name (2013), Steely Dan is always playing as background music “because it relaxes people”.
swell
- ↑ a b c d Stephen Thomas Erlewine: All Music Guide - Steely Dan: Biography. Retrieved May 10, 2011 .
- ↑ Steely Dan - laut.de - Band
- ↑ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Inductees
- ↑ Critically acclaimed albums Allmusic, January 29, 2012
- ↑ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame : Steely Dan in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- ↑ Steely Dan Announce Tour Following Walter Becker's Death on rollingstone.com, accessed October 18, 2017
- ↑ Chart sources: DE UK US
- ↑ Yacht Rock on channel101.com
- ↑ Wendel: The Amazing Drum Machine
literature
- Irwin Stambler: The Encyclopedia Of Pop, Rock And Soul. 3rd revised edition, St. Martin's Press, New York 1989, ISBN 0-312-02573-4 , pp. 643-645.
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Steely Dan Archive (English)
- The Steely Dan Reader (English)
- Steely Dan at laut.de