Steely Dan was founded by Donald Fagen (10-01-1948) and Walter Becker (20-02-1950 | 03-09-2017). They both studied at Bard College and discovered a shared love for jazz, pop, blues, and R&B. They began writing songs together and performing them with various bands. In 1969 they decided to professionally promote their songs.
They eventually ended up in the band of Jay And The Americans and toured the US. In 1971 they started working as songwriters in Los Angeles. They wrote pop songs but also tried to form their own band. This succeeded, and in 1972 the band released the album Can't Buy A Thrill. The band named themselves Steely Dan, the name of a vibrator from the book 'Naked Lunch' by William Burroughs.
Touring
Besides Fagen and Becker, the band consisted of guitarists Denny Dias and Skunk Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder, and keyboardist/singer David Palmer. The album sold well, but the band received much criticism for their performances. They were not used to playing live, and the audience quickly turned against the band. The follow-up, Countdown To Ecstasy, received good reviews but sales were disappointing.
Rikki Don't Lose That Number
Drummer Hodder was replaced by Jeff Porcaro and just before recording the album Pretzel Logic, keyboardist Michael McDonald joined the band. The album produced the single ‘Rikki Don't Lose That Number’ which reached the top 20 in the Netherlands. After the promotional tour for Pretzel Logic, the band decided to stop touring and become a studio-only band.
Albums
For the album Katy Lied, the group used a number of different studio musicians. The Royal Scam followed Katy Lied and brought no surprises. Both records sold well, but Steely Dan did not fall into repetition. In 1977 the album Aja was released. The band incorporated many jazz influences on this record and the reactions were very good. The album became Steely Dan's best-selling album. Subsequently, due to some problems with the record company, the band went quiet, and only at the end of 1980 did they release a new album, Gaucho. This album also proved successful. In 1981 the group split up, Fagen and Becker released solo albums and also performed together. In 2000 a new album, Two Against Nature, was released and they toured again for the first time in years. In 2003 the last album Everything Must Go was released.
The last performances with Walter Becker were in April 2017. Due to his illness, he could no longer participate in the last concerts and Walter Becker died in September 2017 from oesophageal cancer. Donald Fagen then started with a new backing band, The Nightflyers.
Top 2000
In the 23rd edition of the Top 2000, Steely Dan is listed with only one entry:
Sunday Morning Classics: Can't Buy A Thrill
On Sunday 23 January 2022, the men of Steely Dan were our guests as Sunday Morning Classics with their debut album Can't Buy A Thrill.
What an unadulterated bundle of joy, this debut album from Steely Dan. It lives, it bubbles, and above all; it is so irresistibly catchy. The chord progressions while the solos overlap, sometimes it seems so simple but it is so expertly crafted. It feels like 'from point A to point B' songs, but a careful listen proves otherwise. The lyrics and vibes on the album are injected with an introspective optimism (which is not always so obvious if you only go by the lyrics) and with that Becker and Fagen capture something unique. The men also breathe music, which is very evident in the fade-outs where they often jam away and suddenly you hear a whole new hook in the distance.
Although Fagen provided lead vocals for most of the songs on the album, he had no confidence in his live performance. So the band brought in David Palmer to be the “frontman” live and Palmer also sang lead on some songs on the album. After a short time, however, Fagen and Becker became dissatisfied with Palmer's interpretation of the songs and this, combined with the fact that the big hits of the album had Fagen on lead vocals, led to Palmer leaving the band in 1973, with Fagen taking over lead vocals for the rest of Steely Dan's career.
"Do It Again" was released as a single in November 1972 and reached number six on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it the band's biggest hit in their home country after the number 4 hit "Rikki Don't Lose That Number". In the Netherlands, the single reached fifteenth place in the Top 40 and tenth place in the Daverende Dertig.
"Do It Again" has been covered by several artists over the years. Waylon Jennings included it on his 1980 album Music Man. The Italian group Club House released "Do It Again Medley with Billie Jean" in 1983, in which the song was performed in a medley with Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". In 1988, Austrian singer Falco released a cover on his album Wiener Blut, which he later released as a single. In 1997, Paul Hardcastle covered the song on his album Cover to Cover. In 2017, Lydia Lunch and Cypress Grove included their version on the album Under the Covers.
This is a rare good debut album, but it was actually just a prelude to what was to come. A 14th place in the 100 Greatest Albums of 1972 and in the current chart of best ever albums of that year seems well deserved to me.
Source: NPO and various websites
