How do you know you’re getting old? For some, it’s the sight of their first grey hair. It could be that your knee aches a little more than usual after your once-effortless seven-mile jog. The real sign of the inexorable march of time, however, is that you’re slowly realizing how you’ve come to appreciate the smooth and sophisticated songcraft of 1970s jazz-rock outfit Steely Dan.
Why is this happening?
You’re not the first, and you won’t be the last. The superior musicianship and lyricism of Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker are impossible to resist. It happened to your dad, and now it’s happening to you. But good taste is nothing to be ashamed of. We’ll explain what makes Steely Dan so popular and why you’ve come to appreciate them.
And Every Word We Sang I Knew Was True
Attendees of the Hudson Valley’s highly select Bard College, the hyperliterate Fagen and Becker brought a decidedly intellectual sensibility to their lyrics. Songs like “Deacon Blues” captured the perspective of the “nerds and losers” who fall short in realizing their dreams, while “Home at Last” is a modern retelling of Homer’s Odyssey. Even their name is a reference to the classic Naked Lunch.
Throw Out the Hardware, Let’s Do It Right
It wasn’t just the words that were clever. By the release of 1975’s Katy Lied, Steely Dan was no longer a band in the sense that we would consider, say, the Beatles a band. Instead, Steely Dan was Fagen, Becker, and the finest session musicians the Los Angeles recording scene had to offer. Though the mercenary nature of these lineups may have made marketing difficult, entrusting increasingly complex music to no-nonsense professional musicians allowed the songwriting duo to realize ambitious works such as 1977’s Aja. Legendary jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter provided the solo on the title track, and on “Home at Last,” drummer Bernard Purdie laid down his notorious “Purdie Shuffle,” an intricate 12/8 pattern that simulates a fast tempo while ambling at a deliberate BPM.
While there’s something to be said for the spontaneity and raw passion of a garage band, we can’t deny the allure of musicianship at its very best. Not only did these musicians have legitimate chops, but Fagen and Becker insisted upon the highest production values. To this day, audiophiles will use their copy of Aja to test a new sound system.
Living Night by Night
While their seasoned session pros and immaculate sound engineering gave the Dan the reputation of a strictly studio outfit, Fagen and Becker took their act on the road in 1993 and have continued ever since, with Fagen continuing solo following Becker’s 2017 death. Part of what makes Steely Dan so popular is that they’re just as good live, a fact they owe to pianist Fagen’s insistence on a pickup system to amplify his piano rather than conventional mics. If you’re a pianist yourself or getting one ready for a concert, you could take a cue and use the same gear—there’s nothing dirty about that work.
