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Do It Again Back to Basics Steely Dan

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American rock band

Steely Dan
Steely Dan performing in 2007. Walter Becker (l) playing electric guitar, Donald Fagen (r) playing melodica.

Steely Dan performing in 2007. Walter Becker (l) playing electrical guitar, Donald Fagen (r) playing melodica.
Groundwork information
Origin Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, United states
Genres
  • Jazz rock
  • soft stone [one]
  • pop stone[two]
  • jazz fusion[3]
Years agile 1971–1981, 1993–present
Labels
  • ABC
  • MCA
  • Giant
  • Reprise
  • Warner Bros.
Associated acts
  • Jay and the Americans
  • Doobie Brothers
  • New York Rock and Soul Revue
  • Dukes of September Rhythm Revue
  • Toto[4]
  • Larry Carlton
Website steelydan.com
Members Donald Fagen
By members
  • Walter Becker
  • Jeff Baxter
  • Denny Dias
  • Jim Hodder
  • David Palmer
  • Royce Jones
  • Michael McDonald
  • Jeff Porcaro

Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in Los Angeles, California past core members Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Initially the band had a stable lineup, but in 1974, Becker and Fagen retired the band from live performances altogether to become a studio-merely band, opting to record with a revolving bandage of session musicians. Rolling Rock has called them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the Seventies".[5]

The two had been playing together in a diversity of bands from their fourth dimension together studying at Bard Higher in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The songwriting duo later moved to Los Angeles, gathered a full band of musicians, and began recording albums. From their showtime album, Tin can't Buy a Thrill, they established a template for their career, blending elements of rock, jazz, Latin music, R&B, blues[half-dozen] and sophisticated studio production with ambiguous and ironic lyrics. The band enjoyed critical and commercial success through seven studio albums, peaking with their summit selling anthology Aja, released in 1977.[6] After the group disbanded in 1981, Becker and Fagen worked sporadically on solo projects through the 1980s, though a cult following[vi] remained devoted to the group's work. Since reuniting in 1993, Steely Dan has toured steadily and released two albums of new material, the get-go of which, Two Against Nature, earned a Grammy Award for Anthology of the Year. Their terminal anthology of new studio material was 2003'south Everything Must Go, though the band has connected to release compilations, box sets, and live albums on a regular basis. Subsequently Becker's passing in 2017, Fagen reluctantly continued the group with himself every bit the sole official fellow member.

They have sold more than 40 one thousand thousand albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Whorl Hall of Fame in March 2001.[7] [8] [9] [ten] VH1 ranked Steely Dan at No. 82 on their listing of the 100 Greatest Musical Artists of All Time.[11] Rolling Stone ranked them No. fifteen on its list of the twenty Greatest Duos of All Fourth dimension.[12]

History [edit]

Formative and early years (1967–1972) [edit]

Becker and Fagen met in 1967 at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. As Fagen passed by a café, The Red Balloon, he heard Becker practicing the electrical guitar."[13] In an interview, Fagen recounted the feel: "I hear this guy practising, and it sounded very professional and contemporary. It sounded like, you know, like a black person, actually."[13] He introduced himself to Becker and asked, "Do yous want to be in a ring?"[13] Discovering that they enjoyed like music, the two began writing songs together.

Becker and Fagen began playing in local groups. 1 such grouping – known as the Don Fagen Jazz Trio, the Bad Rock Grouping and later the Leather Canary – included time to come one-act star Chevy Chase on drums. They played covers of songs by The Rolling Stones ("Dandelion"), Moby Grape ("Hey Grandma"), and Willie Dixon ("Spoonful"), also as some original compositions.[13] Terence Boylan, another Bard musician, remembered that Fagen took readily to the crackpot life while attending college: "They never came out of their room, they stayed upwards all night. They looked similar ghosts—black turtlenecks and pare so white that it looked similar yogurt. Absolutely no activeness, chain-smoking Lucky Strikes and dope."[13]

Later Fagen graduated in 1969, the two moved to Brooklyn and tried to peddle their tunes in the Brill Building in midtown Manhattan. Kenny Vance (of Jay and the Americans), who had a production role in the building, took an interest in their music, which led to piece of work on the soundtrack of the low-budget film (featuring Richard Pryor and Robert Downey Sr.) Yous've Got to Walk Information technology Similar You Talk It or You'll Lose That Crush. Becker after said frankly, "Nosotros did it for the money."[14] A series of demos from 1968 to 1971 are available in multiple different releases, not authorized by Becker and Fagen.[15] This collection features approximately 25 tracks and is notable for its thin arrangements (Fagen plays solo piano on many songs) and lo-fi production, a contrast with Steely Dan's later work. Although some of these songs ("Caves of Altamira", "Brooklyn", "Barrytown") were re-recorded for Steely Dan albums, most were never officially released.

Becker and Fagen joined the touring ring of Jay and the Americans for well-nigh a twelvemonth and a half.[16] They were at first paid $100 per show, but partway through their tenure the band's tour manager cut their salaries in half.[16] The group's lead vocalist, Jay Blackness, dubbed Becker and Fagen "the Manson and Starkweather of rock 'n' curlicue", referring to cult leader Charles Manson and spree killer Charles Starkweather.[16]

They had trivial success later on moving to Brooklyn, although Barbra Streisand recorded their song "I Mean To Shine" on her 1971 Barbra Joan Streisand album. Their fortunes inverse when one of Vance's assembly, Gary Katz, moved to Los Angeles to become a staff producer for ABC Records. He hired Becker and Fagen as staff songwriters; they flew to California. Katz would produce all their 1970s albums in collaboration with engineer Roger Nichols. Nichols would win six Grammy Awards for his work with the band from the 1970s to 2001.[17]

Also realizing that their songs were likewise complex for other ABC artists, at Katz'southward suggestion Becker and Fagen formed their ain ring with guitarists Denny Dias and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder and singer David Palmer, and Katz signed them to ABC as recording artists. Fans of Beat Generation literature, Fagen and Becker named the band after a "revolutionary" steam-powered dildo mentioned in the William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch.[eighteen] [19] [20] Palmer joined every bit a 2nd lead vocaliser because of Fagen's occasional phase fearfulness, his reluctance to sing in front end of an audition, and because the label believed that his voice was not "commercial" enough.

In 1972, ABC issued Steely Dan's first single, "Dallas", backed with "Canvass the Waterway". Distribution of "stock" copies bachelor to the general public was apparently extremely limited;[21] the single sold so poorly that promotional copies are much more readily available than stock copies in today's collectors market place. As of 2015, "Dallas" and "Sail the Waterway" are the but officially released Steely Dan tracks that have not been reissued on cassette or meaty disc. In an interview (1995), Becker and Fagen called the songs "stinko."[22] "Dallas" was later covered by Poco on their Head Over Heels anthology.

Can't Buy a Thrill and Countdown to Ecstasy (1972–1973) [edit]

Can't Buy a Thrill, Steely Dan'southward debut anthology, was released in 1972. Its hit singles "Exercise It Again" and "Reelin' In the Years" reached No. 6 and No. 11 respectively on the Billboard singles chart. Along with "Dirty Work" (sung past David Palmer), the songs became staples on radio.

Considering of Fagen'due south reluctance to sing alive, Palmer handled most of the vocal duties on stage. During the first tour, however, Katz and Becker decided that they preferred Fagen's interpretations of the band'southward songs, persuading him to have over. Palmer quietly left the grouping while it recorded its 2nd album; he later co-wrote the No. 2 hit "Jazzman" (1974) with Carole King.

Released in 1973, Countdown to Ecstasy was not as commercially successful as Steely Dan's first anthology. Becker and Fagen were unhappy with some of the performances on the record and believed that information technology sold poorly because information technology had been recorded hastily on bout. The album'south singles were "Evidence Biz Kids" and "My Old School", both of which stayed in the lower half of the Billboard charts (though "My Old Schoolhouse" and—to a lesser extent—"Bodhisattva" became FM Rock staples in time).

Pretzel Logic and Katy Lied (1974–1976) [edit]

Guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter left Steely Dan in 1974 when they ceased performing live and began working in the studio exclusively.

Pretzel Logic was released in early 1974. A diverse set up, information technology includes the group'south well-nigh successful single, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" (No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100), and a notation-for-notation rendition of Knuckles Ellington and James "Bubber" Miley's "E St. Louis Toodle-Oo".

During the previous album's bout, the ring had added vocalist-percussionist Royce Jones, vocaliser-keyboardist Michael McDonald, and session drummer Jeff Porcaro.[23] Porcaro played the sole pulsate rail on one song, "Night By Night" on Pretzel Logic (Jim Gordon played drums on all the remaining tracks, and he and Porcaro both played on "Parker'south Band"), reflecting Steely Dan's increasing reliance on session musicians (including Dean Parks and Rick Derringer). Jeff Porcaro and Katy Lied pianist David Paich would go on to form Toto. Striving for perfection, Becker and Fagen sometimes asked musicians to record as many as 40 takes of each track.[24]

Pretzel Logic was the first Steely Dan album to feature Walter Becker on guitar. "Once I met [session musician] Chuck Rainey", he explained, "I felt at that place really was no need for me to be bringing my bass guitar to the studio anymore".[24]

A rift began growing between Becker-Fagen and Steely Dan's other members (specially Baxter and Hodder), who wanted to bout. Becker and Fagen disliked constant touring and wanted to concentrate solely on writing and recording. The other members gradually left the ring, discouraged by this and by their diminishing roles in the studio. Yet, Dias remained with the group until 1980's Gaucho and Michael McDonald contributed vocals until the grouping'due south twenty-twelvemonth hiatus after Gaucho. Baxter and McDonald went on to join The Doobie Brothers. Steely Dan's last tour performance was on July five, 1974, a concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in California.[25]

Becker and Fagen recruited a diverse grouping of session players for Katy Lied (1975), including Porcaro, Paich, and McDonald, as well as guitarist Elliott Randall, jazz saxophonist Phil Wood, saxophonist/bass-guitarist Wilton Felder, percussionist/vibraphonist/keyboardist Victor Feldman, keyboardist (and later on producer) Michael Omartian, and guitarist Larry Carlton—Dias, Becker, and Fagen being Steely Dan's simply original members. The anthology went golden on the strength of "Blackness Friday" and "Bad Sneakers", but Becker and Fagen were so dissatisfied with the album's sound (compromised by a faulty DBX racket reduction system) that they publicly apologized for it (on the album'southward dorsum cover) and for years refused to listen to it in its final form.[26] Katy Lied also included "Doctor Wu" and "Chain Lightning".

The Royal Scam and Aja (1976–1978) [edit]

The Royal Scam was released in May 1976. Partly because of Carlton'southward prominent contributions, it is the band'due south almost guitar-oriented anthology. It also features performances by session drummer Bernard Purdie. The album sold well in the United States, though without the forcefulness of a striking single. In the Great britain the single "Haitian Divorce" (Top 20) drove anthology sales, becoming Steely Dan'southward offset major hit there.[27] Steely Dan'southward sixth album, the jazz-influenced Aja, was released in September 1977. Aja reached the Top Five in the U.Southward. charts inside three weeks, winning the Grammy award for "Engineer – Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical." It was likewise one of the first American LPs to be certified 'platinum' for sales of over 1 million albums.[28] [29]

Roger [Nichols] made those records sound like they did. He was boggling in his willingness and desire to brand records sound ameliorate.[30]

The records we did could not have been washed without Roger. He was but maniacal about making the sound of the records be what we liked... He e'er idea there was a meliorate style to exercise it, and he would discover a way to do what we needed to in ways that other people hadn't done still.[31]

~ Steely Dan producer Gary Katz regarding Roger Nichols' role in the ring'south recording legacy.

Featuring Michael McDonald'due south backing vocals, "Peg" (No. xi) was the album's first unmarried, followed by "Josie" (No. 26) and "Deacon Blues" (No. 19). Aja solidified Becker's and Fagen'southward reputations as songwriters and studio perfectionists. It features such jazz and fusion luminaries as guitarists Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour; bassist Chuck Rainey; saxophonists Wayne Shorter, Pete Christlieb, and Tom Scott; drummers Steve Gadd, Rick Marotta and Bernard Purdie; pianist Joe Sample and ex-Miles Davis pianist/vibraphonist Victor Feldman and Grammy award-winning producer/arranger Michael Omartian (piano).

Planning to tour in support of Aja, Steely Dan assembled a live band. Rehearsal ended and the tour was canceled when bankroll musicians began comparing pay.[32] The album's history was documented in an episode of the Telly and DVD series Archetype Albums.

Later Aja's success, Becker and Fagen were asked to write the title track for the movie FM. The moving-picture show was a box-office disaster, but the song was a striking, earning Steely Dan another engineering Grammy award. It was a pocket-sized hit in the UK and barely missed the Superlative twenty in the U.Southward.A.[27]

Gaucho and breakup (1978–1981) [edit]

Becker and Fagen took a break from songwriting for most of 1978 before starting work on Gaucho. The project would not go smoothly: technical, legal, and personal setbacks delayed the album's release and subsequently led Becker and Fagen to suspend their partnership for over a decade.[33]

Misfortune struck early when an assistant engineer accidentally erased most of "The 2d Arrangement", a favorite track of Katz and Nichols,[34] which was never recovered. More than trouble — this time legal — followed. In March 1979, MCA Records bought ABC, and for much of the next 2 years Steely Dan could not release an album. Becker and Fagen had planned on leaving ABC for Warner Bros. Records, but MCA claimed ownership of their music, preventing them from irresolute labels.

Turmoil in Becker's personal life also interfered. His girlfriend died of a drug overdose in their Upper Due west Side apartment, and he was sued for $17 1000000. Becker settled out of court, but he was shocked by the accusations and past the tabloid press coverage that followed. Soon after, Becker was struck by a taxi while crossing a Manhattan street, shattering his right leg in several places and forcing him to use crutches.

Still more legal trouble was to come. Jazz composer Keith Jarrett sued Steely Dan for copyright infringement, challenge that they had based Gaucho'due south title track on ane of his compositions, "Long As You Know You're Living Yours" (Fagen later admitted that he'd loved the song and that it had been a stiff influence).[35]

Gaucho was finally released in November 1980. Despite its tortured history, it was another major success. The anthology'south commencement unmarried, "Hey Nineteen", reached No. 10 on the popular chart in early 1981, and "Fourth dimension Out of Mind" (featuring guitarist Marking Knopfler of Dire Straits) was a moderate hit in the spring. "My Rival" was featured in John Huston's 1980 film Phobia. Roger Nichols won a third engineering Grammy award for his piece of work on the anthology.

Fourth dimension off (1981–1993) [edit]

Steely Dan disbanded in June 1981.[36] Becker moved to Maui, where he became an "avocado rancher and self-styled critic of the gimmicky scene."[37] He stopped using drugs, which he had used for most of his career.[38] [39] [40] Meanwhile, Fagen released a solo album, The Nightfly (1982), which went platinum in both the U.S. and the UK and yielded the Meridian Twenty hitting "I.Thousand.Y. (What a Beautiful World)." In 1988 Fagen wrote the score of Bright Lights, Big Metropolis and a vocal for its soundtrack, only otherwise recorded little. He occasionally did product work for other artists, as did Becker. The most prominent of these were 2 albums Becker produced for the British sophisti-pop group China Crisis, who were strongly influenced by Steely Dan.[41] Becker is listed every bit an official fellow member of People's republic of china Crisis on the first of these albums, 1985's Flaunt the Imperfection, and played keyboards on the band'south Meridian xx UK hit "Blackness Man Ray". For the second of the two albums, 1989'southward Diary of a Hollow Horse, Becker is just listed as a producer and not as a band member.

In 1986 Becker and Fagen performed on Zazu, an anthology past former model Rosie Vela produced past Gary Katz.[42] The ii rekindled their friendship and held songwriting sessions between 1986 and 1987, leaving the results unfinished.[43] On October 23, 1991, Becker attended a concert by New York Stone and Soul Revue, co-founded by Fagen and producer/singer Libby Titus (who was for many years the partner of Levon Helm of The Band and would later become Fagen's wife), and spontaneously performed with the group.

Becker produced Fagen's second solo anthology, Kamakiriad, in 1993. Fagen conceived the album as a sequel to The Nightfly.[ commendation needed ]

Reunion, Alive in America (1993–2000) [edit]

Steely Dan, shown here in 2007, toured oft after reforming in 1993.

Becker and Fagen reunited for an American tour to back up Kamakiriad, which sold poorly despite a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. With Becker playing lead and rhythm guitar, the pair assembled a band that included a 2nd keyboard player, 2d lead guitarist, bassist, drummer, vibraphonist, iii female backing singers, and four-piece saxophone section. Among the musicians from the live band, several would continue to work with Steely Dan over the next decade, including bassist Tom Barney and saxophone players Cornelius Bumpus and Chris Potter. During this tour, Fagen introduced himself as "Rick Strauss" and Becker equally "Frank Poulenc".

The side by side twelvemonth, MCA released Citizen Steely Dan, a boxed set featuring their entire catalog (except their debut single "Dallas"/"Canvass The Waterway") on iv CDs, plus four extra tracks: "Hither at the Western World" (originally released on 1978's "Greatest Hits"), "FM" (1978 single), a 1971 demo of "Everyone's Gone to the Movies" and "Bodhisattva (live)", the latter recorded on a cassette in 1974 and released as a B-side in 1980. That year Becker released his debut solo anthology, 11 Tracks of Whack, which Fagen co-produced.

Steely Dan toured again in back up of the boxed ready and Tracks. In 1995 they released a live CD, Alive in America, compiled from recordings of several 1993 and 1994 concerts. The Art Crimes Tour followed, including dates in the Usa, Japan, and their first European shows in 22 years. Later on this activity, Becker and Fagen returned to the studio to begin work on a new anthology.

2 Against Nature and Everything Must Go (2000–2003) [edit]

In 2000 Steely Dan released their commencement studio anthology in xx years: Two Against Nature. It won four Grammy Awards: Best Engineered Album – Non-Classical, Best Pop Vocal Album, All-time Pop Performance by Duo or Group with Song ("Cousin Dupree"), and Album of the Year (despite competition in this category from Eminem'due south The Marshall Mathers LP and Radiohead's Kid A). In the summer of 2000, they began another American tour, followed by an international tour later that year. The tour featured guitarist Jon Herington, who would go on to play with the band over the next two decades. The grouping released the Plush TV Jazz-Rock Political party DVD, documenting a alive-in-the-studio concert performance of popular songs from throughout Steely Dan's career. In March 2001, Steely Dan was inducted into the Rock and Coil Hall of Fame.[vii] [8]

In 2002 during the recording of Everything Must Go, Becker and Fagen fired their engineer Roger Nichols, who had worked with them for 30 years, without caption or notification, according to band biographer Brian Sugariness's 2018 revision of his book Reelin' in the Years. [44]

In 2003 Steely Dan released Everything Must Become. In contrast to their before work, they had tried to write music that captured a live feel. Becker sang lead vocals on a Steely Dan studio album for the outset time ("Slang of Ages" — he had sung lead on his own "Volume of Liars" on Alive in America). Fewer session musicians played on Everything Must Go than had become typical of Steely Dan albums: Becker played bass on every rail and lead guitar on five tracks; Fagen added piano, electric pianoforte, organ, synthesizers, and percussion on peak of his vocals; touring drummer Keith Carlock played on every rails.

Touring, solo activity (2003–2017) [edit]

To complete his Nightfly trilogy, Fagen issued Morph the Cat in 2006. Steely Dan returned to almanac touring that year with the Steelyard "Sugartooth" McDan and The Fab-Originees.com Bout.[45] Despite much fluctuation in membership, the live band featured mainstays Herington, Carlock, bassist Freddie Washington, the horn section of Michael Leonhart, Jim Pugh, Roger Rosenberg, and Walt Weiskopf, and bankroll vocalists Carolyn Leonhart and Cindy Mizelle. The 2007 Heavy Rollers Tour included dates in North America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, making it their most expansive tour.[46]

The smaller Think Fast Tour followed in 2008, with keyboardist Jim Beard joining the live band. That twelvemonth Becker released a 2nd album, Circus Coin, produced by Larry Klein and inspired by Jamaican music. In 2009 Steely Dan toured Europe and America extensively in their Left Bank Holiday and Rent Political party Tour, alternating between standard ane-date concerts at large venues and multi-night theater shows that featured performances of The Royal Scam, Aja, or Gaucho in their entirety on sure nights. The post-obit yr, Fagen formed the touring supergroup Dukes of September Rhythm Revue with McDonald, Boz Scaggs, and members of Steely Dan's live band, whose repertoire included songs by all three songwriters. Longtime studio engineer Roger Nichols died of pancreatic cancer on Apr 10, 2011.[47] Steely Dan'southward Shuffle Affairs Tour that year included an expanded set list and dates in Australia and New Zealand. Fagen released his quaternary album, Sunken Condos, in 2012. It was his showtime solo release unrelated to the Nightfly trilogy.

The Mood Swings: eight Miles to Pancake Solar day Bout began in July 2013 and featured an eight-dark run at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.[48] Jamalot Ever Afterward, their 2014 U.s.a. tour, ran from July ii in Portland, Oregon to September twenty in Port Chester, New York.[49] 2015's Rockabye Gollie Affections Tour included opening act Elvis Costello and the Imposters and dates at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The Dan Who Knew Too Much tour followed in 2016, with Steve Winwood opening. Steely Dan also performed at The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with an accompanying orchestra.

The ring played its final shows with Becker in 2017. In Apr, they played the 12-date Reelin' In the Chips residency in Las Vegas and Southern California.[50] Becker's final performance came on May 27 at the Greenwich Town Party in Greenwich, Connecticut.[51] Due to illness, Becker did not play Steely Dan'south two Classics East and West concerts at Dodger Stadium and Citi Field in July.[52] Fagen embarked on a tour that summertime with a new bankroll band, The Nightflyers.

Afterwards Becker'south death (2017–nowadays) [edit]

Becker died from complications of esophageal cancer on September 3, 2017.[53] In a annotation released to the media, Fagen remembered his longtime friend and bandmate, and promised to "keep the music we created together alive as long every bit I can with the Steely Dan band."[54] Later on Becker'due south death, Steely Dan honored commitments to perform a short North American tour in Oct 2017 and 3 concert dates in the U.k. and Ireland for Bluesfest on a double bill with the Doobie Brothers.[55] The band played its first concert post-obit Becker's death in Thackerville, Oklahoma, on October 13.[55] In tribute to Becker, they performed his solo vocal "Book of Liars", with Fagen singing the pb vocals, at several concerts on the tour.[56]

Becker's widow and manor sued Fagen later that year, arguing that the estate should command 50% of the ring's shares.[57] Fagen filed a counter suit, arguing that the band had fatigued up plans in 1972 stating that ring members leaving the ring or dying relinquish shares of the ring'southward output to the surviving members. In December, Fagen said that he would rather take retired the Steely Dan proper name after Becker'due south death, and would instead take toured with the current iteration of the group under some other name, only was persuaded not to by promoters for commercial reasons.[58]

In 2018, Steely Dan performed on a summer tour of the U.s.a. with The Doobie Brothers equally co-headliners.[59] The band too played a nine-show residency at the Beacon Theatre in New York Urban center that October.[60] In February 2019, the band embarked on a bout of Great Britain with Steve Winwood.[61] Guitarist Connor Kennedy of The Nightflyers joined the live band, starting time with a nine-dark residency at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas in April 2019.[62]

Musical and lyrical style [edit]

Music [edit]

Overall sound [edit]

Special attending is given to the private sound of each instrument. Recording is washed with the utmost fidelity and attention to sonic particular, and mixed and so that all the instruments are heard and none are given undue priority. Their albums are also notable for the characteristically 'warm' and 'dry' product sound, and the sparing use of echo and reverberation.

Backing vocals [edit]

Becker and Fagen favored a distinctly soul-influenced style of backing vocals, which after the first few albums were almost e'er performed by a female chorus (although Michael McDonald features prominently on several tracks, including the 1975 vocal "Black Friday" and the 1977 song "Peg"). Venetta Fields, Sherlie Matthews and Clydie King were the preferred trio for bankroll vocals on the grouping's late 1970s albums.[63] Other backing vocalists include Timothy B. Schmit, Tawatha Agee, Carolyn Leonhart, Janice Pendarvis, and Catherine Russell.[ commendation needed ] The band besides featured singers like Patti Austin and Valerie Simpson on afterward projects such as Gaucho.[ citation needed ]

Horns [edit]

Horn arrangements have been used on songs from all Steely Dan albums. They typically feature instruments such every bit trumpets, trombones and saxophones, although they accept also used other instruments such equally flutes and clarinets. The horn parts occasionally integrate simple synth lines to alter the tone quality of individual horn lines; for example in "Deacon Dejection" this was done to "thicken" 1 of the saxophone lines. On their before albums Steely Dan featured guest arrangers and on their after albums the system work is credited to Fagen.

Composition and chord use [edit]

Steely Dan is famous for their use of chord sequences and harmonies that explore the area of musical tension betwixt traditional pop sounds and jazz. In particular, they are known for their use of the add together 2 chord, a type of added tone chord, which they nicknamed the "mu major". The mu major chord differs from a suspended 2d (sus2) chord, equally suspended chords do not contain the major (or modest) 3rd.[64] [65] [66] In a 1989 interview, Walter Becker explained that the use of the chord developed from trying to enrich the sound of a major chord without making information technology into a "jazz chord".[67] In the Steely Dan Songbook, Becker and Donald Fagen state that "inversions of the mu major may be formed in the usual manner with one caveat: the voicing of the second and third scale tones, which is the essence of the chord's entreatment, should always occur equally a whole tone noise."[68] Other common chords used past Steely Dan include slash chords.[ commendation needed ]

Lyrics [edit]

Steely Dan's lyrical subjects are diverse, but in their bones approach they often create fictional personae that participate in a narrative or situation. The duo have said that in retrospect, well-nigh of their albums accept a "experience" of either Los Angeles or New York Metropolis, the 2 main cities where Becker and Fagen lived and worked. Characters appear in their songs that evoke these cities. Steely Dan'south lyrics are often puzzling to the listener,[69] with the truthful meaning of the song "uncoded" through repeated listening, and a richer agreement of the references within the lyrics. In the song "Everyone'due south Gone to the Movies," the line "I know you're used to sixteen or more, sorry we only have eight" refers not to the count of some article, but to 8 mm moving picture, which was lower quality than xvi mm or larger formats and often used for pornography, underscoring the illicitness of Mr. LaPage's movie parties.[70]

Thematically, Steely Dan creates a universe peopled past losers, creeps and failed dreamers, often victims of their own obsessions and delusions. These motifs are introduced in the Dan's first hit song, "Do It Over again," which contains a description of a murderous cowboy who beats the gallows, a human taken reward of past a cheating girlfriend, and an obsessive gambler, all of whom are unable to command their own destinies; similar themes of being trapped in a death spiral of one's ain making appear throughout their catalog. Other themes that they explore include prejudice, aging, poverty, and middle-form ennui.

Many would argue that Steely Dan never wrote a genuine dearest song, instead dealing with personal passion in the guise of a destructive obsession.[71] Many of their songs concern love, simply typical of Steely Dan songs is an ironic or disturbing twist in the lyrics that reveals a darker reality. For instance, expressed "love" is actually about prostitution ("Pearl of the Quarter"), incest ("Cousin Dupree"), pornography ("Everyone'south Gone to the Movies"), or some other socially unacceptable subject.[72] Nonetheless, some of their demo-era recordings testify Fagen and Becker expressing romance, including "This Seat's Been Taken", "Oh, Wow, It'south You" and "Come Dorsum Babe".

Steely Dan's lyrics contain subtle and encoded references, unusual (and sometimes original) slang expressions, a wide variety of "word games." The obscure and sometimes teasing lyrics have given rise to considerable efforts by fans to explicate the "inner significant" of certain songs.[73] [74] Jazz is a recurring theme, and there are numerous other movie, boob tube and literary references and allusions, such as "Home at Last" (from Aja), which was inspired by Homer's Odyssey.[75]

Some of their lyrics are notable for their unusual meter patterns; a prime number case of this is their 1972 hitting "Reelin' In the Years", which crams an unusually large number of words into each line, giving it a highly syncopated quality.

"Name dropping" is another Steely Dan lyrical device; references to real places and people grow in their songs. The song "My Old School" is an example, referring to Annandale (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, is domicile to Bard College, which both attended and where they met), and the Two Confronting Nature album (2000) contains numerous references to the duo's original region, the New York metro surface area, including the commune of Gramercy Park, the Strand Bookstore, and the upscale food store Dean & DeLuca. In the song "Glamour Profession" the decision of a drug bargain is celebrated with dumplings at Mr. Chow, a Chinese restaurant in Beverly Hills. The band even employed cocky-reference; in the song "Show Biz Kids," the titular subjects are sardonically portrayed equally owning "the Steely Dan T-shirt."

The band likewise ofttimes name-checks drinks, typically alcoholic, in their songs: rum and cokes ("Daddy Don't Alive in That New York City No More than"), piña coladas ("Bad Sneakers"), zombies ("Haitian Divorce"), black cows ("Black Cow"), Scotch whisky ("Deacon Blues"), retsina ("Home at Last"), grapefruit wine ("FM"), cherry wine ("Time Out of Mind"), Cuervo Aureate ("Hey Xix"), kirschwasser ("Babylon Sisters"), Tanqueray ("Dejeuner with Gina"), Cuban breeze (Fagen'due south solo rail "The Adieu Wait"), and margaritas ("Everything Must Go") are all mentioned in Steely Dan lyrics.[76]

Members [edit]

Current members

  • Donald Fagen – lead vocals, keyboards, saxophone (1972–1981, 1993–nowadays)

Former members

  • Walter Becker – guitar, bass, bankroll and atomic number 82 vocals (1972–1981, 1993–2017; his death)
  • Jeff "Skunk" Baxter – guitar, backing vocals (1972–1974)
  • Denny Dias – guitar (1972–1974, studio contributions until 1977)
  • Jim Hodder – drums, bankroll and pb vocals (1972–1974; died 1990)
  • David Palmer – backing and atomic number 82 vocals (1972–1973)
  • Royce Jones – backing vocals, percussion (1973–1974)
  • Michael McDonald – keyboards, backing vocals (1974, studio contributions until 1980)
  • Jeff Porcaro – drums (1974, studio contributions until 1980; died 1992)

Timeline [edit]

Discography [edit]

Studio albums

  • Can't Buy a Thrill (1972)
  • Inaugural to Ecstasy (1973)
  • Pretzel Logic (1974)
  • Katy Lied (1975)
  • The Royal Scam (1976)
  • Aja (1977)
  • Gaucho (1980)
  • Two Against Nature (2000)
  • Everything Must Become (2003)

See also [edit]

  • List of songwriter tandems

References [edit]

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External links [edit]

  • Official website Edit this at Wikidata

brinkjoiny1995.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steely_Dan

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