STEELY DAN

The most cynical and ferociously intelligent songwriting partnership in rock, Walter Becker (bass/guitar) and Donald Fagen (vocals/keyboards) met at Bard College, New York State, in 1967. Discovering a shared interest in jazz and Dylan lyrics, the geeky duo struggled for years, trying to sell their early songwriting efforts to Brill Building publishers and recording demos with jazzy guitarist Denny Dias . After a stint in Jay and the Americans, they were rescued by producer Gary Katz and whisked off to LA as staff writers for ABC-Dunhill records. Setting these two New York cynics loose on the laid-back, ditzy Californian scene was a masterstroke.

With Katz they assembled a band to showcase their compositions, including Dias, Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter (guitars), David Palmer (vocals) and Jim Hodder (drums), and named the outfit Steely Dan after a piece of ‘intimate hardware’ in William Burroughs’ cult novel The Naked Lunch . Their first single, “Dallas”, aroused little interest, but in early 1973 the album CAN’T BUY A THRILL had the critics falling over themselves with superlatives, as the sitar-and-percussion-driven single “Do It Again” tore up the US charts.

The songs on the album bore the Steely Dan hallmarks of bitter, world-weary or impenetrable lyrics, jazz- and Latin-tinged melodies and immaculate musicianship. Despite having a band that could play the ass off most of their competition, Becker and Fagen were already starting to bring in top-flight session musicians to get the precise sound they wanted, a trend that would intensify on future albums. Palmer left after this album – Fagen’s New Jersey sneer was much better suited to the material anyway.

The second album, COUNTDOWN TO ECSTASY (1973), hit new heights of musicianship and textual obscurity, and consolidated their popularity with critics and album-buyers while mysteriously failing to produce any hit singles. And that despite the presence of “My Old School”, with its gorgeous guitar break. Still, the situation was soon remedied by the more radio-friendly PRETZEL LOGIC (1974), which yielded the irresistibly pretty “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”, their biggest hit single.

By this time Becker and Fagen, hating life on the road and afflicted by stage fright, were sick of touring – and happy to stay home writing and occasionally recording. This left the rest of the band without much to do. In 1974 Baxter left to join THE DOOBIE BROTHERS, and Hodder also departed. Dias left after the next album, KATY LIED (1974), a less focused set which nevertheless sold well in the US and the UK.

From now on Steely Dan was essentially Becker and Fagen. Their next two albums, THE ROYAL SCAM (1976), which spawned their white-reggae UK hit “Haitian Divorce”, and AJA (1977), saw them refine the Dan formula of smooth, funky rock songs topped off with solos by top jazz players who were allowed no room for self-indulgence. Despite the duo’s legendary studio perfectionism (often demanding as many as thirty takes), the music was so good that top-flight session musicians queued up to work with them. AJA was perhaps the best-produced and one of the best-written albums of the whole decade.

After a jazzy, slick but somewhat soulless follow-up, GAUCHO (1981), drugs, depression and boredom led the pair to call it a day. Becker retreated to Hawaii, occasionally producing albums for other artists, while Fagen released a dazzling solo album, THE NIGHTFLY (1982), and a rather over-refined follow-up, KAMAKIRIAD, a mere twelve years later.

In 1993, the Dan re-formed for a triumphant comeback tour of the US, raising hopes of a new album – although, if they continue to bring out ‘solo’ efforts as good as Becker’s Fagen-produced world-weary masterpiece 11 TRACKS OF WHACK (1994), we could bear to wait indefinitely. Meantime, the duo put out a live record of their American dates, ALIVE IN AMERICA (1995), an album of sometimes perverse arrangements which nonetheless allowed the old songs to breathe again.

Following another reunion tour in 1999 Steely Dan released TWO AGAINST NATURE – their first new studio album together in nearly twenty years. Sly and – given time to grow – engrossing, this isn’t quite the full strength Dan of AJA but it’s insidious and slick enough to be going on with.

CD - Can’t Buy A Thrill
1973; ABC

Immaculately conceived, Latin-tinged pop perfection – and perhaps the best debut since ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? Check out Elliot Randall’s incendiary lead guitar on “Reelin’ In The Years”.

CD - Countdown To Ecstasy
1973; ABC

Finds the band’s regular guitarists at the height of their powers, from Dias’ effortless fluidity on “Bodhisattva” to the icy kiss of the Skunk’s pedal steel on “Razor Boy”.

CD - Pretzel Logic
1974; ABC

In which they show off their versatility by covering Duke Ellington’s “East St. Louis Toodle-oo” and dressing up the songs with increasingly sophisticated arrangements. Jazzy, tuneful and fresh.

CD - Aja
1977; ABC

The quintessential Dan album, with a pervading after-hours feel. Gorgeous jazz arrangements and impossibly difficult chord changes coax career-best performances from their sessioneers.

CD - The Nightfly
1982; Warners

Fagen’s first solo album is just about perfect. From a party in his dad’s fallout shelter to the glittering graphite Utopia of the future, he evokes the new-frontier optimism of the late 50s and early 60s. Buttoned-down and immaculate.

CD - 11 Tracks Of Whack
1994; Giant

Musically simpler and tougher than the later-period group albums, Becker’s solo album is the work of a man who’s been through it and come out the other side. His lyrics make most other rock writers seem sophomoric, and his bruised vocals pack a genuine emotional whack.