I love Steely Dan, and I have also not tried to understand/unpack all of their lyrics -- the sense of private meaning is part of their charm.
Also, a different article told a story which I hadn't heard before and which is sort of heartbreaking.
... As Fagen told Crowe in 1977, "We're just sitting out the Seventies, waiting for better times."
The better times didn't come. Becker crashed out, drifted away during the making of Gaucho, lost touch with Fagen, retreated to Hawaii to deal with his addictions, or as he called them, "social ills." They went years without seeing each other. Back in New York, Fagen would go to jazz clubs, ask the musicians to autograph napkins "To Walter" and drop them in the mail to his long-lost friend. "Just to keep him going. Or so I thought."
Also, this (from Donald Fagen):
Walter had a very rough childhood - I'll spare you the details. Luckily, he was smart as a whip, an excellent guitarist and a great songwriter. He was cynical about human nature, including his own, and hysterically funny. Like a lot of kids from fractured families, he had the knack of creative mimicry, reading people's hidden psychology and transforming what he saw into bubbly, incisive art. He used to write letters (never meant to be sent) in my wife Libby's singular voice that made the three of us collapse with laughter.
Pretend I know nothing about music, which is mostly true. What Steely Dan have I likely heard without knowing it? On normal radio stations, for example.
If you worked in an Italian restaurant in Upper Arlington, Ohio, during the early 90s, you would have heard it every night while cleaning after closing. The head cook really liked it.
What Steely Dan have I likely heard without knowing it? On normal radio stations, for example.
"Realin' In The Years" or "Deacon Blues" (link goes to a NerdWriter video in which he tries to break down the song).
Great tribute. Over the years I've heard elevator-music versions of "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," "Deacon Blues," "Dirty Work," and "Parker's Band" on, errr, elevators and at the grocery store. Parker's Band is obscure so I did a double take when I heard it in the produce aisle.
"Hey 19" is what comes to mind as Steely Dan I've heard enough to recognize without ever meaning to.
De-lurking to pour one out for Walter Becker. What a loss.
Confession: I only found out how to spell the name of the album with "Deacon Blues" on it quite recently. Guess that's what growing up on radio will do.
I know we discussed the Dan at length in some long-ago thread.
I'm happy to have learned that there is/was a prominent session trombonist named Slyde Hyde. His given name is Dick Hyde, which may be even better.
That's the best since Holden McGroin invented the athletic supporter.
If you play guitar, Steely Dan are a ubiquitous fixture in 'greatest guitar solos' lists. Which is OK, because, i) the solos are pretty great, and ii) the songs are great, too.
I sometimes think Steely Dan are the last great flowering of that period when basically all pop records were made by shit hot jazz or jazz-adjacent musicians. Except ... they were their own production and writing svengalis.
The outpouring of Steely Dan retrospectives has introduced me to the term "yacht rock", which I somehow missed up to now.
that period when basically all pop records were made by shit hot jazz or jazz-adjacent musicians
On topic because of session musicians -- two awesome videos of Glenn Campbell playing the Lone Ranger theme (aka The William Tell Overture).
1) From 1974 played on an acoustic guitar, and done as a bit of a show-off piece. It's a little faster than it needs to be; but really impressive guitar work.
2) From 2001 on an electric guitar (which the comments say was what he normally used. It's not quite as flashy (though a really slick performance with a hot orchestra), but I think it has just the right amount of cheesiness to the performance. It's just fun.
I confess I'm surprised and bewildered by the outpouring of love for Steely Dan. I am barely aware of their music except for a couple of songs ("Peg," "Reelin' in the Years") which I have always considered literally repulsive.
Peg is truly one of my favorites.
I confess I'm surprised and bewildered by the outpouring of love for Steely Dan.
I'd be curious whether the linked article seems bewildering -- I thought she did a good job of conveying affection for Steely Dan (and Walter Becker) and putting them in context.
Also, just FYI, a nice Youtube video which has the Rickie Lee Jones cover of "Show Biz Kids" with a video of driving around in the snow at night.
14: If it makes you feel less isolated, in the last few days I've read 2 people saying that they were always creeped out by Donald Fagen's singing voice for some reason.
Since the news of Becker's death put Steely Dan back in the news, I've had Kid Charlemagne running through my head. I'm not sure why, it's hardly their best song.
Peg is truly one of my favorites.
The making of Peg -- gives you a sense of how they worked with the studio musicians (for example they mention that they had 6 different people play the guitar solo before they found the performance that they liked).
One more who loves Steely Dan and is saddened here.
14: I've never felt really strongly about any musician or music. At least not strong positive emotions. I think I've mentioned this before.
I never liked the voice, or the keyboards. Not antipathy, just indifference (and I definitely did not recognize the guy's name, as news of his passing spread).
I'm sorry for the loss of those who feel it, though.
For Becker, rather than for steely Dan as a whole, there's a2006 convert video on you tube where he has some wonderful solos. I mean, it's a steely Dan concert but with lots of wb guitar
I could have written 14, but I recently came across the phrase "don't yuck my yum," which I find charming enough to try to live by.
Did you hit your head hard on something?
I agree. A distinctly yucky turn of phrase.
Moby has been making me delighted enough all day to not pull the trigger on writing an ATM about dealing with situational depression but 24 (and the Jeff Sessions joke) go so far above and beyond even Hick standards that I'm just stunned.
"Don't yum my yuck" would be a good slogan to remind the purity-ring people that oral counts.
14 really resonates with me.
Maybe I just don't appreciate the genre of jazz rock, or something? But Steely Dan (I even hate the name of this band) makes me think of rainy-day Saturday afternoons, all bored and restless -- should I go to the library? or maybe make a batch of chocolate chip cookies? and o God, the universe really is random and meaningless, isn't it? -- but too tired and lazy to even change the damn radio station. Which is why I'm now listening to "Rikki Don't Lose the Number," which is already retro, already a greatest hit of all time. Somebody please shoot me now.
No disrespect to Walter Becker, of course, and may his soul rest in peace, and etc.
I totally get why people don't like Steely Dan. I like them quite a bit, but it doesn't take much for their stuff to slide into the kind of thing I don't generally like. Although I do like 'yacht rock' sort of stuff, if/when it's undercut by humour or some darkness.
A lot of their biggest hits ("Reelin' in the years", etc) do nothing for me. Although I liked "Royal Scam" enough to hunt down my original vinyl copy and buy it back when I sold it as part of a job lot clearance to a record shop.
re: 13
Yeah. It's almost literally everything good up until the late 70s when you think about it.
Wrecking Crew; Funk Brothers (Motown); Muscle Shoals/FAME/Memphis Boys; Stax;
I was given a home copy of "Two Against Nature" by the opinionated academic just after I meant her and disliked it so much I semideliberately left it in a university PC lab.
Later, though, I was convinced by "Katy Lied".
Maybe this has already been mentioned, but NMM to John Ashbery.
He looks sort of like Jim Broadbent, who is still alive, if that's a your thing.
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Also NMM2 Shelley Berman apparently.
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I came late to being a fan of the Dan, assuming on vaguely punk-inflected grounds that songs with a smooth West Coast had to lack point or bite. Boy, was I wrong. Not only were they interesting, they were at least as punk-rock in attitude as the Velvets.
I've read 2 people saying that they were always creeped out by Donald Fagen's singing voice for some reason.
For some of us the vocal creepiness is part of the fascination of the narratorial voice in the songs. E.g. the spectacularly arch skeeviness of the "say it agaeeein" in "Hey Nineteen". Sort of like that Seinfeld joke: I see a parasite. A sexually depraved miscreant who is seeking only to gratify his basest and most immediate urges. He is ... loathesome, offensive... Yet I can't look away. Some of Nabokov has a similar effect.
39: Right. It's interesting how often the narrators of their songs turn out to be sketchy or pathetic characters once you actually pay attention to the lyrics.
Something rather wonderful not mentioned so far is the not very smooth Walter Becker solo album, 11 Tracks of Whack, which describes an arc from the fucked up tenderness of "Junkie Girl" to the rather differently fucked up tenderness of the 12th track, Little Kawai.
In between, I adore "Lucky Henry", and the very strange Surf and/or Die.
A game: who is the skeeviest narrator of a Dan song. I would go for the voice of Gaucho, but the competition is hot.
A game: who is the skeeviest narrator of a Dan song.
The narrator of "Everyone's Gone to the Movies"?
The two lines that I know from "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" have been playing in my head nearly continually all day. I blame you.
I like 39. Fagan's voice and the seemingly Musak-inspired instrumentation invokes a frat-boy sensibility no matter what the song is about.
But Fagan's voice is great, and I love the music. It's a paradox.
42: My nominee for skeeviest narrator is Babylon Sisters.
The narrator of "Everyone's Gone to the Movies"?
Definitely a prime contender, but I feel like there should be points deducted for being too obvious.
So I just noticed that the lead of the band I probably listened to most in high school died about 3 months ago. This serves to indicate the extent to which I subscribe to 20.
My nominee for skeeviest narrator is the singer of "No Scrubs." Like a guy shouldn't even carpool with his friend because global warming isn't fast enough?
I love "Gaucho" and "Babylon Sisters" so much. (Unlike my wife - she hates the Dan.) They are fine choices. As is "Everyone's Gone to the Movies". But I first paid attention to the band's lyrics via the unlikely avenue of the Two Against Nature album, so for me "Janie Runaway" will always be the song that made me stop in my tracks and think man, that's gross... And honorable mention to "Cousin Dupree", who even gets called 'skeevy' in the song.
Oh, I agree about Cousin Dupree -- "Oh honey, how you've grown / like a rose" is about the most desperate pickup stanza in history, but it's almost too obvious.
I thought for the longest time that Annandale in "My Old School" was about Annandale, VA.
I second the nomination of "Janie Runaway."
The actual creepiest narrator is in Rikki Don't Lose That Number. The narrator has clearly done something awful to his new acquaintance Rikki, such that she had to leave precipitously, and he is both in denial about his offense and subtextually remorseful about it. I assume he raped her.
I thought our little wild time had just begun.
[shudder]
You might use it if you feel better
When you get home
Jesus.
Apparently, Rikki herself says it was all in their heads. If that's really the right Rikki.
54: Did she say whether or not she lost that number?
Seriously:
You tell yourself you're not my kind
But you don't even know your mind
I mean, how rapey is that?
56 is amusing me because I'm picturing Ina Garten saying it.
57: I had to consult Standpipe's other blog to determine that you weren't suggesting that Ms. Garten said "you don't even know your mind."
I totally agree with 39, as well.
My nominee for skeeviest narrator is the singer of "No Scrubs." Like a guy shouldn't even carpool with his friend because global warming isn't fast enough?
Also she wins the tautology definition club.
You tell yourself you're not my kind
But you don't even know your mind
I always thought it was "you don't even know you're mine", which does not decrease the creepiness.
To Young Heebie, creepy grown ups were part of the adrenaline of being an adult, if that makes sense. Perhaps it's a testament to my overarching sense of security.
"Rikki Don't Lose That Number" is interesting to me because of the lyric that advises the addressee to "send it off in a letter to yourself." Did people do that before e-mail?
I mean I send myself reminders all the time by email. But I didn't think people did that when they needed an envelope and a stamp and all.
I mean I send myself reminders all the time by email. But I didn't think people did that when they needed an envelope and a stamp and all.
I remember it as a classroom/summer camp gimmick: Let's walk these kids through a heartfelt activity, and then we'll seal up the answers and drop it in the mail to ourselves. Or save it for a time when you've got a big hurt, and then drop it in the mail for yourself.
I double post reminders not to double post.
I double post reminders not to double post.
I've only heard of sending a letter to oneself as a means of providing provenance of an idea or invention. Well, a date certain, anyway.
Here's this: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/authphoto_330/7517_ducornet_rikki.jpg
Perhaps it's a testament to my overarching sense of security.
That sure was great while it lasted, huh?
69.2 (ick ick ick): When I was 16, shortly before my overarching sense of security ended, I read Rikki Ducornet's Phosphor in Dreamland. I thought it was okay, but a bit overwrought; I suspecct I wouldn't get more than two sentences in now. I had no idea of the Steely Dan connection. I cannot tell you how completely this thread has convinced me not to give them a second chance, despite the heroic efforts of 39. I'm in the subset of us for whom Holger Czukay's passing is a considerably bigger deal.
This is a nice tribute, from a friendquaintance who knew Becker from elementary school on. Mostly more about the guy than the music, but interesting how the music fits the guy. As for the music, I loved Steely Dan for whatever reason in college and my 20s but now don't listen to it at all and find it generally meh for whatever other reason. I guess I'm just not even a little attracted to the worldly/cynical sophistication pose, however smart, anymore. They got some absolutely insane session performances though and also Becker was himself a great player.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/remembering-walter-becker-1950-2017/
Should say the author is a friendquaintance of mine, but was a for-real friend of Becker.
The other 70s pop-rock band with some seriously skeevy stuff happening in the lyrics: Cheap Trick. Although I suppose it's sonically a bit more obvious what they are going for and the punk is closer to the surface.
The other 70s pop-rock band with some seriously skeevy stuff happening in the lyrics is nearly every other 70s pop-rock band.
74 is true. And heebie, I realize 70.2 sounded menacing. (In my life there was a definite reduction in that sense of security when I moved away to college, which is straightforward enough. I didn't mean anything more shocking or traumatic in my own case.)
re: 74
That is true.
I guess I mean, 'bands with self-aware and deliberate skeeviness'.
I mean, I assume Cheap Trick weren't actually horrible in the way that, say, Led Zeppelin were.
You pwned my Led Zeppelin joke because I had to pause to google which one hid away the child.
I'm in the subset of us for whom Holger Czukay's passing is a considerably bigger deal.
Very much the same. Can is one of my favorite bands.The kind of space they opened up, the sense of freedom and possibility. And the groove.
But now the talk of the creepiness of Steely Dan's lyrics has me intrigued. Do you all picture the narrators with a 70s pornstache?
Yes to all the comments about creepiness. I also think the Steely Dan discography could have been a rich seam for the dingus who compiled this widely-mocked list of conservative rock songs. Consider:
For those untutored in the ways of smooth music: the complete Yacht Rock
42: Thanks for the pointer to the Becker solo album. Hadn't heard it before - I've now got on heavy rotation. Fave tracks so far - "Hard Up Case" and, yes, "Junkie Girl" (which reminds me a bit of Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros' "Coma Girl".)
32, 70, 80: Separated at birth: Holger Czukay and Heidegger
Do you all picture the narrators with a 70s pornstache?
