By Chris Hovan
Cleveland Free Times
As sophisticated icons of contemporary pop music, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have secured a space among the landscape of modern mainstream culture. Beginning with 1974’s Pretzel Logic, the pair would lead Steely Dan through a number of quintessential albums that featured a slick blending of pop and jazz sensibilities. Even today songs like “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” “Black Friday” and “Hey Nineteen” ring true for fans from multiple generations.
And while at times they have been criticized for a clinical precision that puts their music on the lightweight side for some, their ability to stay true to a recognizable identity despite the changing fashions of the past 30 years is somewhat of a marvel.
Voracious literary hounds who count Nabokov and Vonnegut as their favorites, Fagen and Becker met as students at Bard College back in the ’60s, with an obvious inclination towards jazz and other musical styles proving another factor in their budding friendship. Through a colorful series of events that no doubt have provided fodder for bits and pieces of songs over the course of their careers, the pair eventually found themselves securing jobs as staff writers for ABC Records in the late ’60s. Although pretty much unheard of these days, that was a time when many labels had teams of talented composers churning out the hits for their top stars, most notably the threesome of Holland, Dozier and Holland at Motown, and David Porter and Isaac Hayes at Stax.
As fate would have it, Fagen and Becker’s musical sensibilities proved to be just a bit too far left of center to make their material viable for the usual cache of one hit wonders.
“Most days we were trying to get songs done by other artists,” explains Fagen in press materials accompanying the band’s latest disc, “Everything Must Go.” “Unfortunately, we didn’t get very many done, and we realized very quickly we couldn’t write pop songs very well. That’s when we took out our other book with the other songs in it, got a few musicians together, and formed a band.”
With a taste for the literary, it’s not surprising that musical endeavor would take the name Steely Dan, a wily reference to a vibrator as found in William Burroughs’ novel, “Naked Lunch.” Even with the success of their first album and a series of sold out shows under their belts, Fagen and Becker quickly decided to disband the group and quit live performances altogether.
“After that we started using a group of players both in New York and Los Angeles that we tried to adapt to our various styles,” says Fagen.
From then on, the studio become as much a member of what was still being called Steely Dan as the rotating cast of studio heavyweights who came through to contribute to the next six albums.
After 1980’s “Gaucho,” the Dan called it quits, aside from two solo albums by Fagen and one from Becker. As early as 1994, however, observant followers might have caught an inkling that a reunion was soon to be in the offing.
As Becker explains, “Donald had finished the “Kamakiriad” album, we had done the New York Rock and Soul Review for a few years, and we wanted to promote his record. Plus, we had seen the enthusiasm that was there to do Steely Dan songs, so we put two and two together.”
And so it was that in 2000 “Two Against Nature” appeared as the Dan’s first album of all-new material since 1979. It would also bring them four Grammy awards, including Album of the Year.
“We were household names for about three days across the country,” says Fagan. “But then after that, everything settled back into the usual grind.”
Based on their past track record, one had to assume that the hiatus before a follow-up to “Two Against Nature” would prove lengthy. But here we are a mere three years later with “Everything Must Go” and even though its predecessor is arguably a tough act to follow, the results are nothing short of spectacular. From the first notes of “The Last Mall,” that signature sound is omnipresent, however with a slight shift in modus operandi.
“We found ourselves working in a studio other than our usual studio and they didn’t have any digital machines,” Becker says. “They had a lot of great old vintage mikes and tube equipment and we just started working on these analog machines and we loved the way it sounded.”
And while the norm for most Dan albums involves the use of a rotating crew of studio musicians, this time around the duo decided to front a core group that stays in place for the majority of the tunes. “I think part of the reason that we had as much success getting things happening was that we had a whole rhythm section where everybody felt things the same way,” Becker explains.
Adding to their repertoire of distinguished characters, this time around we meet several new personalities. On “The Things I Miss the Most,” our leading man laments the loss of his woman, but then goes on to rave about a materialistic longing for his Audi TT, ’54 Stratocaster guitar, and houses “on the Vineyard” and “on the Gulf Coast.” There’s also clever use of the type of non-rhyming meter that was so sagaciously utilized on “West of Hollywood.” For “Godwhacker,” a funky groove akin to “Jack of Speed,” gets feet tapping, but tells a darker tale of a hired gun. Then there’s “Pixeleen,” a sordid tale of virtual sex, ending unexpectedly on pianist Bill Charlap’s ascending flourish.
As per usual with the Dan, it’s worth perusing the guys’ lyrics in and of themselves for a taste of literary genius. Crafty references abound and the message becomes more important than the flow of syllables. Take for instance a day in the sun as described in “Blues Beach,” where Fagen delivers the mouthful, “We could rent a paranymphic glider, my hypothetical friend.”
So, once again, life is good for Steely Dan, now on tour in support of the new album. But with the apocalyptic reference in the title “Everything Must Go,” the question as to the future of the duo hangs in the balance. Not ones to speculate one way or the other, Fagen finally admits, “Even if the worst happens, there’s always mutation.”
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