THE STEELY DAN APPRECIATION THREAD Once upon a time, there were two boomers, Donald and Walter, who both grew up in slightly different parts of the Greater New York Metropolitan Area. That being said, the neighborhoods they were from should not be confused with the Manhattan of Broadway shows, Wall Street, Greenwich Village and Harlem. The streets of their youth, though just a few miles from these wonders, were for the most part, placid and suburban. Nevertheless, like many folks back then, they were afflicted with a needling agitation just below the surface of everyday reality. This was, at least in part, because of the Cold War and the constant, looming threat of a global, nuclear holocaust. Unlike many schoolboys of their place and time - the late 1950s and early 1960s - Donald and Walter liked to read literary novels and listen to jazz records. Sports, not so much. On the other hand, like many American boys of their time, they had a healthy enthusiasm for baseball, baseball players and Topps bubble gum, the gum that came with baseball cards in each package: Flip ‘em, scale ‘em. trade ‘em, collect ‘em. Music, though, was the thing. Before they were out of high school, Donald had taught himself jazz piano and Walter had become adept at both bass and guitar. After meeting as students at Bard College in upstate New York, they began writing songs together on the piano in the common room of Walter’s dormitory. By then, in addition to jazz music, they had independently become enamoured of Chicago blues, soul music and, to an extent, the vibrant subculture that embraced the British Invasion, Bob Dylan and, as the Coen brothers have put it, the “new freedoms”. All these things, plus, for good or ill, a natural, shared drollery, were already apparent in their music and lyrics. When classmate Terence (Boona) Boylan scored an album contract with Columbia Records, he asked the boys to join his session band at Jerry Ragovoy’s midtown Manhattan studio, the Hit Factory, where they got to work with the legendary drummer Herb Lovelle and listen to the “Ragman” tell funny stories about his life in the music business. In 1968, the duo found cheap digs in pre-gentrification Brooklyn, on President Street in Park Slope, where they sat around on ancient, shabby couches and plotted their assault on the music business. Amazingly, they soon got a gig touring as part of the backup band for early sixties hitmakers Jay and the Americans. The group had a production company, whatever that is, in the famous Brill Building, a once vibrant hive of songwriting talent that had now transitioned into a skeevy, decadent phase. Working with the group on the road and in the studio, the boys got to hear Jay and the fellows tell some even raunchier, funnier stories about the music business and also meet some actual gangsters. One of the Americans, Kenny Vance, managed to place one of their tunes on a Barbara Streisand album that featured songs by the new, groovy generation of writers. Donald and Walter also played sessions for Vance’s Brooklyn crony Gary Katz. By the early seventies, they had worked with many top NYC session pros including drummer Buddy Saltzman, bassist Chuck Rainey, pianists Paul Griffin and Artie Butler, and guitarists Elliot Randall, Dom Troiano, Ricky Zehringer (later Derringer) and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter. The boys had come a long way from lower middle class suburbia to an even lower, hustler-class existence in the now extinct and forgotten commercial studio culture of midtown. In 1971, with the city degenerating into a vile Gomorrah of debt and porn, the lads relocated to sunny Los Angeles where Gary Katz, now an A&R man for ABC/Dunhill Records, had secured them a sweet though under-paid job as staff songwriters for the label, one of the last to employ house writers to develop material for the artists on the roster. At that time, ABC was concentrating on “singles acts” aimed at the pre-teen and teen markets with artists such as Tommy Roe, The Grass Roots and Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds. Officially tasked with writing pop tunes for these artists, Donald and Walter secretly began to the assemble a band to act as a vehicle for their “special material”. With Katz’s help, they began to import players from the east coast. Early in 1972, the original Steely Dan group - guitarist Denny Dias, guitarist Jeff Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder, and with Donald and Walter on keyboards and bass respectively - started rehearsing in an unfinished wing of the ABC building. Several weeks later, the group began recording their first album at Village Recorders in West Hollywood with engineer Roger Nichols, whose previous job was as a “pile walker” at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. After being informed that ABC expected the group to tour extensively upon the album’s completion, Donald, whose intermittent panic disorder precluded him from fronting a band at that time, insisted on finding another singer/frontman, and David Palmer was added to the group. Can’t Buy A Thrill, released that November, hit right out of the box, yielding two hit singles, “Do It Again” and “Reelin’ In The Years”, which featured a notable solo by guest guitarist Elliot Randall. A third single, “Dirty Work”, with a vocal by David Palmer, also got a lot of airplay. Steely Dan was on its way to fame and, after a few more years of penury and forced servitude, fortune. Steely Dan toured behind Can’t Buy A Thrill and the following two albums, Countdown to Ecstasy and Pretzel Logic, both in the States and Britain. The band, now with Donald as the lead vocalist, expanded to include second drummer Jeff Porcaro, keyboardist/vocalist Michael McDonald and percussionist/vocalist Royce Jones. They were actually starting to sound pretty good. Nevertheless, by 1974, Donald and Walter decided they’d had enough of watching the more aggressive, dipsomaniacal band members lure intoxicated young ladies up to their motel rooms apres show, and enough of the road in general for the time being. They made a decision to retreat to the studio to concentrate on composing and recording. Naturally, the other band members wanted to work, and so departed for greener pastures. Donald and Walter, who had already started adding studio players on the Pretzel Logic sessions, began to write with certain musicians in mind. Over the next five years, four more albums were released: Katy Lied (’75), The Royal Scam (’76), Aja (’77) and Gaucho (’80). This last was completed after the boys, now heart-sick and drained by the shallow excesses of Tinsel Town, moved back home to New York City. Sadly, the harsh vicissitudes of the artist’s life had already taken its toll, and the boys decided to part ways. Walter moved to the island of Maui and became, in his words, “a gentleman avocado rancher and self-styled critic of the contemporary scene”. Donald wrote and recorded his first solo album, The Nightfly (1982), which was a critical and popular hit. Then, he more or less cracked up. But not for long. During the ‘80s, Donald worked on a variety of projects. He wrote tunes for artists including Diana Ross, the Yellowjackets, the Manhattan Transfer and Jennifer Warnes; co-produced the soundtrack album for Bob Telson's off-Broadway musical The Gospel At Colonus (1988); and composed, along with Rob Mounsey, the score for the film Bright Lights Big City (1988). He also began writing essays for various publications, including a regular column on film music for Premiere Magazine. Meanwhile, Walter produced albums for the China Crisis, Rickie Lee Jones (The Horses, 1989) and a number of jazz artists including Bob Sheppard, John Beasley, Andy Laverne, Jeff Beale, Marty Krystall, The Lost Tribe, LeeAnn Ledgerwood, and Dave Kikoski. In early 1991, Donald and his future wife Libby Titus created the New York Rock & Soul Revue, featuring a revolving group of artists including Charles Brown, Phoebe Snow, Chuck Jackson, Boz Scaggs, Cindy Lauper, Bob Dorough, Annie Ross, Michael McDonald and Rascals alumni Eddie & David Brigati. Walter, who had reunited with Donald in 1986, came along for the ’92 tour. He also produced, and performed on, Donald’s second solo album, Kamakiriad (1993), after which the boys went on tour with an all new, fabulous Steely Dan group featuring drummer Peter Erskine, bassist Tom Barney, guitarist Drew Zingg, pianist Warren Bernhardt, vibraphonist Bill Ware and an all-star horn section. A career retrospective boxed set entitled Citizen Steely Dan was released that Christmas. After the band completed a tour of Japan in ’94, Walter recorded his first solo album at his newly built studio, Hyperbolic Sound, on the slopes of Mt. Haleakala in Maui. Co-produced by Donald, 11 Tracks Of Whack was released in ‘94. The following year, a live album, Steely Dan: Alive In America, was released. Now one of the top international touring bands, Steely Dan’s first new album in twenty years was highly anticipated. 2001 was a banner year for the boys. Two Against Nature won four Grammys including the award for Album of the Year, a decision that apparently cheesed off some of the younger nominees. Then, in March, Steely Dan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Obviously. sending a case of gourmet honey-mustard to Hall of Fame founder Jann Wenner had paid off in spades. Finally, in May, Donald and Walter received honorary doctorates from the Berklee College of music. The album Everything Must Go was released in 2003, followed by a triumphant American tour. The band now boasted an all-star lineup: Keith Carlock on drums; “Ready” Freddie Washington on bass; Jim Beard, keyboards; Jon Herington, guitar; Walt Weiskopf and Roger Rosenberg, saxes; Michael Leonhart, trumpet; Jim Pugh, trombone; and vocalists Carolyn Leonhart, Catherine Russell, LaTanya Hall and Cindy Mizelle. In between Steely Dan tours, Donald toured with his old Rock & Soul mates Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs in a “supergroup” they called the Dukes of September. His solo albums Morph the Cat (2006) and Sunken Condos (2012) were both released to critical acclaim, as was Walter’s second solo effort, Circus Money, in 2008. Now concentrating on live appearances, the band began to offer evenings that featured performances of entire albums. Countdown to Ecstasy, The Royal Scam, Aja and Gaucho were each performed live, often at the band’s annual appearances at the Beacon Theater in New York, always fan favorites. Loyal to their roots in jazz, Walter and Donald made it a point to present major jazz artists as openers. Featured players have included Jimmy Cobb, Bill Charlap, Chris Potter, Sam Yahel, Julian Lage, Joey DeFrancesco, Joe Lovano, Peter Bernstein, Mike LeDonne, Bobby Broom and the Deep Blue Organ Trio. Recent partners on major tours have included Steve Winwood, Elvis Costello and the Imposters, The Eagles and the Doobie Brothers. In 2016, Donald toured with a quintet of terrific young musicians as Donald Fagen and the Nightflyers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I just had to start another thread about Steely Dan (The Beatles have a million threads, so why not?). How did you discover Steely Dan's music? Any favorite albums? What pieces do you think best represent their sound? I'd love to hear from all of you!
Seems like there is a renaissance in interest in Steely Dan lately! I had a strange entry point. I saw the videos from Donald Fagen's solo album Kamakiriad on VH-1 back in 1993. I was 17 years old. I immediately became obsessed with finding out who the guy was because his songs were so great. Kamakiriad was released in May 1993 and my sister bought me the CD for my 18th birthday the next month, in June. After that, I actually got the Citizen Steely Dan 4 CD box set that was released that December and just devoured the whole catalog all at once. Since then, I have never stopped being obsessed with Steely Dan. I also remember seeing a copy of The Nightfly on vinyl in September 1993 (my first year in undergrad) at the college radio station, but I didn't hear the actual album until a bit later. I really like the recent live album Northeast Corridor. It's really sad Walter's not on there, but it's still an essential release in my opinion.
Oh yeah, Fagen's Kamakiriad is fantastic, but so is The Nightfly and Sunken Condos. The Steely Dan Citizen box set is also top-notch. Last year, I acquired Steely Dan's albums from Can't Buy A Thrill to Gaucho on SHM-CDs and they sound superb, so I've been listening to these instead of the Citizen box set (as great as it is). I've been curious about how the Analogue Productions hybrid SACDs are going to sound. If I were to be honest, I don't really hear them being better than what I already own. What's your take on this?
I don't remember what the entry point was but I do remember seeing Aja at the record store and being super excited to get it home! I would stack all the Steely Dan albums I had and fall asleep to them. For some reason, the lyrics and music related to my high school years and the angst of my teens. Favorite albums seem to change yearly; sometimes its Aja, sometimes Gaucho, etc. Steely Dan is one of those bands where I've played them so much I sort of have to force myself to put them on, but once it starts playing its just a ride. I try to get one album in at least once a week. Fanboy for sure!
I first heard Steely Dan in 1976 (so far as I know) when Haitian Divorce was a hit in the U.K. My brother had the 7” and I heard it a lot at home or at youth clubs or on the radio. The same brother then borrowed or bought second hand Do It Again on 7” that had been reissued the previous year in the U.K. I remember hearing FM on the radio when that was a single in 1978 but didn’t buy it or know anyone else by that point that was likely to. Same with the reissued Rikki Don’t Lose That Number 7” in 1979. But the more songs of theirs I heard created a sense that I would like this band if I took a deeper interest in what they were doing. In the Summer of 1980 I saw a copy of Greatest Hits for £2.49 but I was spending what little money I had on a bunch of albums for my then g/f, so thought I’d get it next time I was in town. Sadly the album had gone when I returned a week later. Then in September I met a couple of new friends and both were into Steely Dan - one of them loaned me his copy of Gaucho LP and the other loaned me Greatest Hits and when he told he where he’d bought it I knew it was the copy I had passed on in the Summer! So having got to know their latest album and Greatest Hits it was in 1981 that I started to buy their stuff and by October I had them all. I think this was the order I got them in although over the same period I heard some of these before buying them from the same friend that loaned me Gaucho so my memory is a bit hazy. Gaucho Pretzel Logic Countdown to Ecstasy The Royal Scam Aja Katy Lied Can’t Buy a Thrill
My first exposure to Steely Dan started early. My father, who was in his late 20s and wasn't a big music guy, somehow bought Can't Buy A Thrill not long after it came out. I was roughly 7 years old and already hooked on the early Beatles and CCR when I first heard the Dan's debut. They were the third nail in my coffin of a lifelong obsession. I didn't understand their adult lyrics or elevated musicianship, but I was aware that Steely Dan was as capable or in the same league as my other two favorites. Fast forward 50 years and I still can't shake them. I've seen the Dan in concert more than any other artist. No other band in my experience has benefited from such a critical reappraisal so many years later. I couldn't be happier that Steely Dan is a regular topic of conversation in 2023.
I've always been a fan of Steely Dan over the years. Now that I've gotten back into vinyl I've slowly have been accumulating their records. My latest being the 180 gram Rhino re-release of Donald Fagen's Nightfly and the Universal edition of Can't Buy a Thrill. Great recordings, demo quality.
I agree with your assessment of them compared to material released by The Beatles. I only know a few CCR songs never having had the inclination to go further from those couple of hits. In terms of artists that have truly consistent back catalogues I would pick 6 standout artists. The Beatles Led Zeppelin Steely Dan Peter Gabriel Talking Heads Radiohead I suppose all of the above made the odd middling album but by and large these are the ones that for me produced 90% or more consistently great tracks.
Two thumbs up for Steely Dan, especially the original 7 albums (and The Nightfly!) My unpopular opinion is that Gaucho is their second best album, after Countdown to Ecstasy.
Messrs. Donald Jay Fagen & Walter Carl Becker, writing at The Brill Building, 1619 Broadway, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. You’re preaching to the choir here. From the first strains of "Do It Again", I was hooked although never, ever fan of their Solo efforts. They were the consummate perfectionists and that eventually led to their demise as a Band.
I love them too, but what do you mean by "critical reappraisal"? I know Christgau and Dave Marsh didn't much care for The Royal Scam, Gaucho and Aja, but it's not like that view was shared by most other critics. Look up the Village Voice Pazz & Jop polls for 1976, 1977 and 1980 and you'll see what I mean. Even Gaucho made #12 in 1980!
I was in the US Navy from '73 to '75. While I was aware of Reelin' In the Years and Do It Again from the radio, I was too "on the move" to investigate the source. Later, a friend loaned me Pretzel Logic, but it didn't sink in. Much of my listening at the time was the Grateful Dead, the Band, the Byrds, and other proto-Americana. Against that backdrop, I dismissed the Dan as being "too slick." At the early morning end of a party at a musician friend's house, someone put on Turn That Heartbeat Over Again. Suddenly, I got it. I immersed myself in their music. When the NY R&S Review toured, they did seven Steely Dan songs; the crowd went nuts for each. It occurred to me that they should do it again next year but call it Steely Dan and make buckets of money. They did. I saw them on the '93 tour. After an opening instrumental medley by the band, our heroes walked on stage to do Green Earrings. Second song was Bodhisattva and I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest. I've seen them multiple time since, including last August. I think of The Nightfly as part and parcel. I'm lukewarm on Kamakiriad but I enjoy 11 Tacks of Whack. I was less than thrilled with Two Against Nature at the time, but have come to appreciate it. Everything Must Go is very good, but not great. Circus Money, Morph the Cat, and Sunken Condos are lesser, but hey, where's the competition? My family teases me because of my reverence for SD. I continue to be amazed at their ability to reach mass popularity while using sophisticated jazz harmonies. I'm a pretty good singer and an adequate guitarist. For added appreciation of SD, try performing their songs. I have most of the catalog on vinyl and all of it on CD and as much as has been released on SACD. (So far some on SHM-SACD and one AP SACD.) Can't wait to compare Countdown To Ecstasy sacd from both sources. Being on a fixed income, I can't afford the $150 a pop LPs. They do sound great, though.
I very much enjoyed Steely Dan in the 70s, but I've had a difficult time revisiting them afterward. Much like XTC has been for me since the 80s. I guess, music sometimes gets wrapped up in an era and I have difficulty separating it from the evocation.
When I say the Dan has benefited from a critical reappraisal, I mean over the last several years. Remember when a couple of years ago Pitchfork offered a mea culpa with a handful of glowing reviews for their albums? Didn't Christgau later upgrade his letter grades for some of their records, too? The last few years have seen the release of three excellent books (four if you count the Thirty-three and a Third treatise on Aja), whereas there was but one biography in the forty years prior. To me, it feels like the rest of the world is finally catching up to the greatness of Steely Dan. BTW, the latest book, Quantum Criminals, is a really fun read and provides context for a modern assessment of Walt & Don's influence.
I wasn't aware of that--but I do know that in 2013 Christgau was still calling Gaucho "stillborn." Can you tell me where he reassessed some of their albums?
Love the first 5 albums with Countdown being my favorite. Lost me with Aja when they went to the more jazz influenced MOR stuff.
My entry point was similar to @Usagi75 - I saw a review in Q magazine for Kamakiriad when I was 16 or so, and that piqued my interest. I’d never heard of Steely Dan, but liked the review (four stars), thought the cover was cool, and was itching to expand my musical tastes. Loved the album, and Steely Dan’s Remastered compilation came out shortly after, so I got that too. And The Nightfly. I was quite happy with the compilation as all I’d need from the ‘Dan, but after ending up down a Wikipedia wormhole about 15 years after those purchases, I thought I’d buy Aja to see what the fuss was all about. After listening to that, within a week I had their entire back catalogue. I’ve been kicking myself for years for stopping at the compilation. Steely Dan are one of my favourite bands.
Being a child of the digital age, my entry point was listening to "Do It Again" on Youtube after randomly browsing the internet, probably. Fast foward to today and I have almost all of their classic albums on CD (missing only Katy Lied) and Donald Fagen's The Nightfly. It's also one of my favorite bands.
Dunno if these are reassessments or not, but perhaps his Consumer Guide reviews are of interest: Robert Christgau: CG: Artist 1312 And here’s his review of Gaucho - doesn’t say “stillborn” here, though. Gaucho [MCA, 1980] With Walter Becker down to composer credits and very occasional bass, Donald Fagen progresses toward the intellectual cocktail rock he's sought for almost a decade--followed, of course, by a cadre of top-drawer El Lay studio hacks, the only musicians in the world smart enough to play his ****. Even the song with Aretha in it lends credence to rumors that the LP was originally entitled Countdown to Lethargy. After half a dozen hearings, the most arcane harmonies and unlikely hooks sound comforting, like one of those electromassagers that relax the muscles with a low-voltage shock. Craftsmen this obsessive don't want to rule the world--they just want to make sure it doesn't get them. B- Here’s where the word appears: Robert Christgau: Doing It Again: Steely Dan And what he actually says is: “And in this new millennium the exegetes finally have something new to dissect, because for the first time since 1980's dispirited Gaucho Steely Dan has finalized some new material: an album called Two Against Nature, not a bad slogan for a matched pair of urban cynics. There's nothing expedient, rote, or stillborn about this return to the racks.” Village Voice, Mar. 14, 2000
AFAIK, B- has always been his grade for Gaucho. But it does seem like it should be a little lower, considering his opinion of the album--and that a B+ album is one he mostly likes. Unfortunately, I can't find the 1980 Consumer Guide column where he reviews Gaucho. For some reason, his 1980 columns after April don't appear on his website. And it's in those columns where you see his original grades, which he sometimes later changes. As far as his "stillborn" comment, it appears in the 11th paragraph of this article: Robert Christgau: The Cynic and the Bloke
Reelin' In The Years 1972 was my intro....the single was all over the radio in '72, and made for a great road song. Still a fave single and the album "Can't But A Thrill" is killer still today. Steely Dan recorded the album in August 1972[5] at the Village Recorder in Los Angeles.[6] Two songs recorded during the Can't Buy a Thrill sessions were left off the album and released as a single: "Dallas" b/w "Sail the Waterway".[7] This is the only Steely Dan album to include David Palmer as a lead vocalist, having been recruited after Donald Fagen expressed concerns over singing live.[citation needed] Drummer Jim Hodder contributes lead vocals on one song, "Midnite Cruiser" (sometimes spelled "Midnight Cruiser"); he also sang "Dallas". By the time recording of the next album began, the band and producer Gary Katz had convinced Fagen to assume the full lead vocalist role. -wiki
