Steely Dan
After meeting as students at Bard College in upstate New York, Walter Becker and Donald Fagenthey began writing songs together on the piano in the common room of Walter’s dormitory. By then, in addition to jazz music, they had independently become enamoured of Chicago blues, soul music and, to an extent, the vibrant subculture that embraced the British Invasion, Bob Dylan and, as the Coen brothers have put it, the “new freedoms”. All these things, plus, for good or ill, a natural, shared drollery, were already apparent in their music and lyrics.
Becker and Fagen began playing in local groups. One such group—known as the Don Fagen Jazz Trio, the Bad Rock Group and later the Leather Canary—included future comedy star Chevy Chase on drums.
Becker and Fagen joined the touring band of Jay and the Americans for about a year and a half. They were at first paid $100 per show, but partway through their tenure the band’s tour manager cut their salaries in half. The group’s lead singer, Jay Black, dubbed Becker and Fagen “the Manson and Starkweather of rock ‘n’ roll”, referring to cult leader Charles Manson and spree killer Charles Starkweather.
Barbra Streisand recorded their song “I Mean to Shine” on her 1971 Barbra Joan Streisand album. Their fortunes changed when Gary Katz, moved to Los Angeles to become a staff producer for ABC Records and hired Becker and Fagen as staff songwriters.
Early in 1972, the original Steely Dan group – guitarist Denny Dias, guitarist Jeff Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder, and with Donald and Walter on keyboards and bass respectively – started rehearsing in an unfinished wing of the ABC building. Several weeks later, the group began recording their first album at Village Recorders in West Hollywood with engineer Roger Nichol.
Their first, Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972), established a template for their career, blending elements of rock, jazz, Latin music, R&B, blues and sophisticated studio production with cryptic and ironic lyrics. The title of the album is a reference to the opening line of the Bob Dylan song “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”. Its hit singles “Do It Again” and “Reelin’ In the Years” reached No. 6 and No. 11 respectively on the Billboard singles chart. Along with “Dirty Work” (sung by David Palmer), the songs became staples on US radio.
The guitar solo by Elliott Randall on the original recorded version “Reelin’ In the Years” was recorded in one take. It has been rated by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page as his favourite solo of all time.
The follow up album Countdown to Ecstasy was not as commercially successful as Steely Dan’s first album. Becker and Fagen were unhappy with some of the performances on the record and believed that it sold poorly because it had been recorded hastily on tour.
Pretzel Logic their third studio album was a commercial and critical success, the album’s hit single, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”, (with Jim Gordon on drums), helped restore Steely Dan’s radio presence. The album’s cover photo featuring a New York pretzel vendor was taken by Raeanne Rubenstein on the west side of Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, just above the 79th Street Transverse (the road through Central Park), at the park entrance called “Miners’ Gate”.
In between Steely Dan tours, Donald toured with his old Rock & Soul mates Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs in a “supergroup” they called the Dukes of September. His solo albums Morph the Cat (2006) and Sunken Condos (2012) were both released to critical acclaim, as was Walter’s second solo effort, Circus Money, in 2008.
Katy Lied the fourth studio album was released in March 1975 and the first album the group made after they stopped touring, as well as their first to feature backing vocals by Michael McDonald, (the Doobie Brothers) and drummer Jeff Porcaro, then only 20 years old, Porcaro played drums on every track on the album except “Any World (That I’m Welcome To)”, which features session drummer Hal Blaine.
Aja (1977), peaked at number three on the Billboard chart, and number five on the UK Albums Chart, ultimately becoming Steely Dan’s most commercially successful release. It spawned the hit singles “Peg”, “Deacon Blues”, and “Josie”. At the 20th Annual Grammy Awards, Aja won Best Engineered Recording and was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
After Steely Dan disbanded in 1981, Becker and Fagen worked sporadically on solo projects through the 1980s, although a cult following remained devoted to the group’s work.
Fagen released his debut solo album, The Nightfly, in October 1982 which reached number 11 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The first single, “I.G.Y.”, released in September 1982, peaked at number 26 on the Hot 100. The follow-up single, “New Frontier” released January 1983 peaked at number 70.
Since reuniting in 1993, Steely Dan toured steadily and released two albums of new material, the first of which, Two Against Nature (2000), earned a Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 43rd Grammy Awards and peaked at number six on the Billboard chart and sold more than one million copies. Their final album of new studio material was 2003’s Everything Must Go.
In the spring of 2017, Becker was diagnosed with “an aggressive form of esophageal cancer” during an annual medical checkup. Despite vigorous treatment, the cancer rapidly worsened and Becker was unable to perform at Steely Dan’s concerts in the months that followed. He died from the disease at his home in Manhattan, New York City on September 3, 2017, at the age of 67.
