By Eugene Holley, Jr.New Music Box Originally published on Sept. 20, 2017 “We play rock & roll, but we swing when we play. We want that ongoing flow, that lightness, that forward rush of jazz.” – Walter Becker in 1974 The death of Walter Becker—the bespectacled and bearded guitarist, bassist, composer, lyricist, and one-half of the […]
Tag Archives | Analysis
Steely Dan’s Planet D’Sound Quality
SQ Logic: Our favorite audiophile-centric recording duo wax poetically on the necessary elements of great recordings. By Mike Mettler Sound+Vision Magazine With a score of dates set to go now on sale tomorrow today (4/26) for Steely Dan’s Mood Swings 2013: 8 Miles to Pancake Day summer/fall tour, I thought it only appropriate to revisit the time I’ve spent over the years with our […]
Glamour Profession: The Bassists of Donald Fagen’s Sunken Condos
By Chris Jisi Bass Player Magazine It remains one of the most exclusive and longest-running clubs in the sideman realm: cutting bass tracks for Walter Becker and Donald Fagen—either in their collective form, Steely Dan, or on their equally sophisticated solo CDs. What bassist wouldn’t want to join the likes of Chuck Rainey, Anthony Jackson, […]
No Static At All
By Donny Kutzbach ArtVoice.com BUFFALO — I was born in 1974, so the magic of Steely Dan was probably never really supposed to be for me. It seemed meant for those who had an inkling of the power of street-corner doo wop, had heard the early Motown singles and knew the studio-created perfection of the […]
Unlikely Then, Respected Now: Legend Intact for Steely Dan, Despite Signs of Wear
By JON M. GILBERTSON Special to the Journal Sentinel MILWAUKEE — When Steely Dan got on stage at the Marcus Amphitheater on Friday night, it quickly proved that, nearly 3 1/2 decades after its debut, it is still a gigantic incongruity in the history of the 1970s, of California music and of rock ‘n’ roll […]
Many Muses of Steely Dan
From Burroughs to Berry, duo has had wide range of influences By STEVE KNOPPER Special to the Journal Sentinel Trying to sum up Steely Dan’s 34 years of musical and literary influences is like trying to translate “Pretzel Logic.” It’s an overwhelming task. Even as Bard College students in the late 1960s, musicians Walter Becker […]
Riding the Weird Wavelength of Steely Dan
By Dan Moffett Palm Beach Post Many Steely Dan fans confess to a moment of epiphany during which they ascend through an unexplored portal to a higher level of quirky enlightenment. It is an experience like that of the monk on the mountain who chants his prayer each day, every day, when suddenly, one day, […]
Muzak for the Masses?
Radiohead and Steely Dan reach the limits of their experimentation By Bret McCabe Baltimore City Paper First off, forget everything you already think you know about Radiohead. Yeah, it’s a big task. The band has spent the past six years either being the biggest band on the planet or acting like it: fleeing the limelight […]
After reeling in four Grammies, Steely Dan takes rightful place
By John Timpane Philadelphia Inquirer I can hold my gloat no longer. I must exult. A couple of weeks ago, after 30 years, Steely Dan finally won a Grammy. Four of them. Frosting on one bizarre cake. Also a reminder that the Dan deserves to be remembered as one of the best American popular music […]
Eminem Ripped, Steely Dan Beats Rap
By Jon Pareles The New York Times In the furor that surrounded this year’s Grammy contenders for album of the year, it may surprise no one to hear that one of the nominated albums included a song whose narrator gloats over his affair with an underage girl and tries to pressure her into a threesome. […]
