For the Dan Fans out there I highly recommend the new book “Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, an Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan” by Alex Pappademas. You will never find better writing about the songs, music, and history of Steely Dan. It’s a must have for the hardcore Steely Dan fans.
Excellent piece, as always. Since being a Danfan includes a large dollop of pedantry, allow me to correct you: "My Old School" is about Bard, where they went to college, not high school. It's "Can't Buy a Thrill," not "can't buy me a thrill.
And to your point about raw, optimistic dreamer Lennon vs slick, professional cynics Becker and Fagen, did you know that "Only a Fool Would Say That" is a direct response to Lennon's "Imagine"? Some creepy foreshadowing in it as well, "Everybody on the street has murder in his eyes, You feel no pain, And you're younger than you realize," John.
Get yourself a copy of Quantum Criminals, and interview Alex Pappademus. I had him on my podcast, and he's definitely a major dude.
I am a big fan of "outside" music. Mid-to-late Coltrane. Late-60s to "hiatus" Miles Davis. Obscure European prog rock and RIO bands. Lots of classical. South Asian music. Etc. So what did I listen to while I was cooking dinner last night? Countdown to Ecstasy. What guitar solo did I pride myself on learning recently? "Reelin' In the Years." And when I attended a pre-concert talk before Wayne Shorter's gig with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Big Band a few years ago, what tune did I non-shamefacedly say I loved when everyone was mentioning their Art Blakey and Miles (and Wayne solo) favorites? "Aja."
I was a 10-year-old kid in Birmingham, Alabama, when "Deacon Blues" hit the FM band. Even though my tribe was the Auburn Tigers, I thought it was pretty special that someone was singing about Alabama on the radio.
Then I actually started *listening* to the song. Growing up in the South as a child of immigrants, I was too young to understand it, but the words "this brother is free...I'll be what I want to be" became my mantra. I was going to do my own things, in my own way.
And then, when I listened to that whole record and heard "Home At Last" for the first time...well, all I can say is my heartbeat has sounded like the Purdy Shuffle ever since.
Being a huge SD fan- this piece makes me happy. I have often wondered what you thought of their music- happy to know you’re a fan too. To me they sort of opened a door that led to jazz. I took piano lessons a few years back and the teacher ask me what bands I liked. I mentioned Steely Dan and he said “oh yeah those guys who stole that riff from Horace Silver”. I said “Horace who?” Then he played me “Song for my Father” and I was blown away. Like a hip hop fan hearing the original sample. I learned to play (poorly) “Song for my Father” and other jazz standards after that and my appreciation for jazz has grown quite a bit over the years. I then really dove deep into the whole SD catalog and read everything I could find about Don and Walter and their music. They were jazz heads. Beside the chord changes, instrumentation and soloing there are all kinds of jazz references in their songs too. “Parker’s Band” is basically a love letter to Charlie Parker. “Gaucho” lifts directly from a Keith Jarrett tune. I think Don and Walter worshipped many jazz players and it all comes out in their music- I’m forever grateful that their music led me to Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan and others
Interesting song, Dr. Wu. As a Millennial, I can confirm that it helps to listen to Steely Dan without the baggage of an earlier time. There is a strange, ethereal quality to them that seems to know how to operate by itself on the airwaves. Even with their hits: I couldn't begin to count the number of times I've heard Do It Again on the radio, but I could hear it played tomorrow and I'd dig it. Can't say the same about many famous songs by "cooler" bands.
Great article. Your trajectory with Steely Dan was similar to my own. I must correct you, however. "My Old School" was not about high school but was about a drug bust at Bard College, set up by G. Gordon Liddy (Daddy G) while Becker and Fagen were students there. Also, jazz artists started flocking to studio work after the breakup of the big bands in the late forties and top 40 radio was always more about pop, its just that during the 1960s and 1970s they couldn't ignore the immense popularity of rock.
Steely Dan wasn't the Sex Pistols or Black Sabbath so I was having nothing to do with them...until I got to college. I was 19 or 20 and waiting in an empty office parking lot for a friend. I was in coastal Georgia and it was a pleasantly warm night. FM radio was still good and Gaucho came on. That was the moment I got Steely Dan. Wonderful writing.
In high school in the early to mid ‘70s, I played in a rock band. Unlike Ted, I had no music education, though I started playing guitar when I was nine. I grew up in Indianola, Mississippi, a white kid in a town that was 65-70 percent Black. My family dosed me early on bluegrass and country, then I discovered the Stones and Creedence, then I discovered Clapton and from Clapton I discovered B.B. and learned that he was from Indianola, which the white folks did not want their children to know. Then along came Steely Dan. I loved them immediately, but because I couldn’t play anything that had more than the 1, 2, 4 and 5 chords and the relative minor, my love of their music puzzled me up until I gravitated back toward bluegrass in graduate school, went to jazz from bluegrass, and to classical from jazz, at which point Steely Dan made all the sense in the world. They were just playing music that drew from everything they knew. And they had always known a lot more than I did. I love them beyond measure.
I've been playing a lot of Dan lately on the piano lately, getting them ready to play in public. Haven't heard the tunes in years but they're in my head. I struggled, because that pop perfection or whatever label one affixes, some of their stuff is as complex and difficult to play as anything out there. I was relieved when I read up on them and found out the guys helping them out in the studio are like the who's who of any rock band. The ones Ted named aren't the only jazz heavyweights that contributed.
Couple theories- there are two sides to their songwriting. I need to delve into what was written when and see if I can put the puzzle together. One is rather complex with funky jazz chord progressions you never find in rock/pop. The other is rather simple like Rikki or Reelin', basic chords. But almost everything with an interesting rhythm that keeps you on your toes. I don't think it's a Fagen/Becker thing.
Also I hear a lot of Dead influence in those more complex tunes. The Dead also used some interesting jazzy chords and rhythms in some of their songs. I'm just assuming it was a huge influence ala the tune Kid Charlemagne. Also I'm playing a bunch of Brian Wilson stuff from the Pet Sounds/Smile material. I hear the influence there too. I know which ones came first, and good artists copy great ones steal.
Lastly, commercial? Nahh, but Ted comes around at the end to refute that angle. I suspect the difficulty of a lot of their material is part of the reason they never toured, until they did. But there's a dark side to those lyrics which are the opposite of commercial. Drugs, hookers, hedonism. The Dead did a fair bit of that as well. Brilliant lyrics combined with brilliant music. I don't know if they were just geniuses or whether they really really paid attention to any music theory/composition classes they might have taken at Bard, but you can teach a songwriting class around their tunes.
It might be a generational thing, but my lifelong dislike of the Dan had to do with them being such obvious musos, and as such antithetical to my punk ethos. I never saw them as pop, as much as jazzbo weirdos holed up in LA studios burning through record company budgets. Which I still do, though that's turned into a feature, not a bug, with time.
As a child of the ‘70s who has seen musical styles and tastes come and go, Steely Dan is the only band that I have listened to throughout and without a pause. Too timeless to be bound by the decade, the music of Donald and Walter has managed to find an audience with each succeeding generation. Love songs are always in bloom, but Steely Dan’s satiric take on those who move in life’s shadows only grows sharper as the culture moves towards its ethos and seeks its embrace.
We were old rockers as well, and Steely Dan never felt like slick pop. Complex, well played music that was inexplicably popular. And the guitar solos on My Old School, played by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, are some of the most sublime, interesting bits of improv to ever appear on the radio.
For the Dan Fans out there I highly recommend the new book “Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, an Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan” by Alex Pappademas. You will never find better writing about the songs, music, and history of Steely Dan. It’s a must have for the hardcore Steely Dan fans.
Excellent piece, as always. Since being a Danfan includes a large dollop of pedantry, allow me to correct you: "My Old School" is about Bard, where they went to college, not high school. It's "Can't Buy a Thrill," not "can't buy me a thrill.
And to your point about raw, optimistic dreamer Lennon vs slick, professional cynics Becker and Fagen, did you know that "Only a Fool Would Say That" is a direct response to Lennon's "Imagine"? Some creepy foreshadowing in it as well, "Everybody on the street has murder in his eyes, You feel no pain, And you're younger than you realize," John.
Get yourself a copy of Quantum Criminals, and interview Alex Pappademus. I had him on my podcast, and he's definitely a major dude.
Hah.
I am a big fan of "outside" music. Mid-to-late Coltrane. Late-60s to "hiatus" Miles Davis. Obscure European prog rock and RIO bands. Lots of classical. South Asian music. Etc. So what did I listen to while I was cooking dinner last night? Countdown to Ecstasy. What guitar solo did I pride myself on learning recently? "Reelin' In the Years." And when I attended a pre-concert talk before Wayne Shorter's gig with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Big Band a few years ago, what tune did I non-shamefacedly say I loved when everyone was mentioning their Art Blakey and Miles (and Wayne solo) favorites? "Aja."
The Dan just cannot be denied.
I was a 10-year-old kid in Birmingham, Alabama, when "Deacon Blues" hit the FM band. Even though my tribe was the Auburn Tigers, I thought it was pretty special that someone was singing about Alabama on the radio.
Then I actually started *listening* to the song. Growing up in the South as a child of immigrants, I was too young to understand it, but the words "this brother is free...I'll be what I want to be" became my mantra. I was going to do my own things, in my own way.
And then, when I listened to that whole record and heard "Home At Last" for the first time...well, all I can say is my heartbeat has sounded like the Purdy Shuffle ever since.
Thanks for this, Ted.
Being a huge SD fan- this piece makes me happy. I have often wondered what you thought of their music- happy to know you’re a fan too. To me they sort of opened a door that led to jazz. I took piano lessons a few years back and the teacher ask me what bands I liked. I mentioned Steely Dan and he said “oh yeah those guys who stole that riff from Horace Silver”. I said “Horace who?” Then he played me “Song for my Father” and I was blown away. Like a hip hop fan hearing the original sample. I learned to play (poorly) “Song for my Father” and other jazz standards after that and my appreciation for jazz has grown quite a bit over the years. I then really dove deep into the whole SD catalog and read everything I could find about Don and Walter and their music. They were jazz heads. Beside the chord changes, instrumentation and soloing there are all kinds of jazz references in their songs too. “Parker’s Band” is basically a love letter to Charlie Parker. “Gaucho” lifts directly from a Keith Jarrett tune. I think Don and Walter worshipped many jazz players and it all comes out in their music- I’m forever grateful that their music led me to Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan and others
Interesting song, Dr. Wu. As a Millennial, I can confirm that it helps to listen to Steely Dan without the baggage of an earlier time. There is a strange, ethereal quality to them that seems to know how to operate by itself on the airwaves. Even with their hits: I couldn't begin to count the number of times I've heard Do It Again on the radio, but I could hear it played tomorrow and I'd dig it. Can't say the same about many famous songs by "cooler" bands.
(raises hand)
I've come around on Jackson Browne too, which would horrify my 16-year-old self.
Great article. Your trajectory with Steely Dan was similar to my own. I must correct you, however. "My Old School" was not about high school but was about a drug bust at Bard College, set up by G. Gordon Liddy (Daddy G) while Becker and Fagen were students there. Also, jazz artists started flocking to studio work after the breakup of the big bands in the late forties and top 40 radio was always more about pop, its just that during the 1960s and 1970s they couldn't ignore the immense popularity of rock.
I highly recommend this:
https://vimeo.com/238144755
Celebrates Donald and Walter's recording obsession and the hardworking studio musicians that pulled this off. Steely Dan: Aja. Classic Albums
Steely Dan wasn't the Sex Pistols or Black Sabbath so I was having nothing to do with them...until I got to college. I was 19 or 20 and waiting in an empty office parking lot for a friend. I was in coastal Georgia and it was a pleasantly warm night. FM radio was still good and Gaucho came on. That was the moment I got Steely Dan. Wonderful writing.
In high school in the early to mid ‘70s, I played in a rock band. Unlike Ted, I had no music education, though I started playing guitar when I was nine. I grew up in Indianola, Mississippi, a white kid in a town that was 65-70 percent Black. My family dosed me early on bluegrass and country, then I discovered the Stones and Creedence, then I discovered Clapton and from Clapton I discovered B.B. and learned that he was from Indianola, which the white folks did not want their children to know. Then along came Steely Dan. I loved them immediately, but because I couldn’t play anything that had more than the 1, 2, 4 and 5 chords and the relative minor, my love of their music puzzled me up until I gravitated back toward bluegrass in graduate school, went to jazz from bluegrass, and to classical from jazz, at which point Steely Dan made all the sense in the world. They were just playing music that drew from everything they knew. And they had always known a lot more than I did. I love them beyond measure.
Ted hits it out of the ballpark again.
I've been playing a lot of Dan lately on the piano lately, getting them ready to play in public. Haven't heard the tunes in years but they're in my head. I struggled, because that pop perfection or whatever label one affixes, some of their stuff is as complex and difficult to play as anything out there. I was relieved when I read up on them and found out the guys helping them out in the studio are like the who's who of any rock band. The ones Ted named aren't the only jazz heavyweights that contributed.
Couple theories- there are two sides to their songwriting. I need to delve into what was written when and see if I can put the puzzle together. One is rather complex with funky jazz chord progressions you never find in rock/pop. The other is rather simple like Rikki or Reelin', basic chords. But almost everything with an interesting rhythm that keeps you on your toes. I don't think it's a Fagen/Becker thing.
Also I hear a lot of Dead influence in those more complex tunes. The Dead also used some interesting jazzy chords and rhythms in some of their songs. I'm just assuming it was a huge influence ala the tune Kid Charlemagne. Also I'm playing a bunch of Brian Wilson stuff from the Pet Sounds/Smile material. I hear the influence there too. I know which ones came first, and good artists copy great ones steal.
Lastly, commercial? Nahh, but Ted comes around at the end to refute that angle. I suspect the difficulty of a lot of their material is part of the reason they never toured, until they did. But there's a dark side to those lyrics which are the opposite of commercial. Drugs, hookers, hedonism. The Dead did a fair bit of that as well. Brilliant lyrics combined with brilliant music. I don't know if they were just geniuses or whether they really really paid attention to any music theory/composition classes they might have taken at Bard, but you can teach a songwriting class around their tunes.
It might be a generational thing, but my lifelong dislike of the Dan had to do with them being such obvious musos, and as such antithetical to my punk ethos. I never saw them as pop, as much as jazzbo weirdos holed up in LA studios burning through record company budgets. Which I still do, though that's turned into a feature, not a bug, with time.
As a child of the ‘70s who has seen musical styles and tastes come and go, Steely Dan is the only band that I have listened to throughout and without a pause. Too timeless to be bound by the decade, the music of Donald and Walter has managed to find an audience with each succeeding generation. Love songs are always in bloom, but Steely Dan’s satiric take on those who move in life’s shadows only grows sharper as the culture moves towards its ethos and seeks its embrace.
We were old rockers as well, and Steely Dan never felt like slick pop. Complex, well played music that was inexplicably popular. And the guitar solos on My Old School, played by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, are some of the most sublime, interesting bits of improv to ever appear on the radio.
All of their recordings are superb listening experiences. They took great care in the studio to make them like that, and it shows.