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Home , ABC Records, Countdown to Ecstasy, Deacon Blues, Denny Dias, Donald Fagen, FM (No Static at All)

By Ashley Kahn hapsodically , and revealingly, Walter PBecker, ’s cofounder, recently perPormers described paradise: “It’s the club where all THE STEELY DAN ADVANCED PLACEMENT EXAM • the greats who are Explain the importance of each of the following in the far-reaching and fractured worldview of Steely Dan: l dead still play. Ellington (ANSWERS APPEAR AT END OF ESSAY.) l and Monk and Coltrane 1. Beat w riter W illiam S. Burroughs. 2. A root-beer float. ; and Parker, and it’s the 3. Annandale, . ; original music and the 4. Sixties LSD wizard Owsley. 5. Precious-metal dentures. l old and 6. Early jazz trumpeter Bubber Miley. 7. The University of Alabama football team. l the original styles, and 8. Nineteenth-century French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans. l there are beautiful wait- 9. Legendary saxophonist W ayne Shorter. l resses and cheap beer.” 10. October 25,1929. I Virtual as Becker’s venue l of choice may be, it l houses the stuff that l Steely Dan are made of.

Steely Dan: (lePt) and i

uRiNG t h e s e v e n t i e s , Building office of an era while searching for songwriting work. They given to outrageous gestures and were hired, first to compose songs (’s “I Mean to Shine” was a rare ear­ 4/4 thunder, Steely Dan taught rock ly sale) and then to perform with Jay and his to swing. With pointed wit, intelli­ oldies group. Becker and Fagen fit uncom­ fortably with the group; they insisted on be­ gence and saber-toothed sarcasm, ing introduced onstage as “Gus Mahler and d mey delivered shrewd, jazz-infused Tristan Fabriani.” Salary renegotiations has­ tened their departure. hits, rife with smooth, sophisticat­ Determined to be part of a group perform­ ed harmony and syncopated, finger­ ing its own songs, the duo responded to a Vil­ lage Voice ad (reading, “Must have jazz chops popping rhythms.“We want that ongoing flow, - no hang-ups,” Fagen recollected) placed by that lightness, that forward rush of jazz,” Becker . In short order, they consumed , with Fagen taking over vocal du­ announced in 1974. “Pm attracted to music that ties. All the original members but Dias fled as Fagen and Becker’s original material proved frightens me - like Coltrane’s tone on the saxo­ too demanding. Rehearsals, songwriting ses­ phone,” echoed cofounder Donald Fagen. sions and anonymity ensued. W hen Steely Dan arrived in 1972, horn- Then the phone rang. , a pro­ fronted bands (Blood, Sweat & Tears, ducer they’d worked with in New York, had Chicago) and fusion’s first wave (Miles recently been hired by ABC Records in Los Davis, Weather Report) had already Angeles. Were they interested in heading prospected the territorial overlap of rock west and joining the company as songwrit­ and jazz. But none did it like the Dan. No ers? (The fact that jazz legend other outfit sifted a wider range of influ­ had recorded for ABC could not have been ences nor elevated the music to a more liter­ lost on the two.) Katz’s plan was to use the ate level. They seemed to speak in code, staff positions to allow Becker and Fagen to coming on as rock’s English majors gone form a band, and they did. Dias followed, , penning dark, street-real songs of Katz hooked up the trio with guitarist Jeff dislocation (“Daddy Don’t Live in That New “Skunk” Baxter and drummer ; York City No More”) and condemnation the first incarnation of Steely Dan was bom. (“”). Their lyrics bounced In the waning months of 1972, Steely Dan’s from Bukowski realism (“Your black cards debut single, “Do It Again,” began to scale can make you money/So you hide them when the charts. ABC excitedly rushed the band you’re able”) to biblical parable (“In the land onto the road to open for the Beach Boys, of milk and honey/You must put them on the and (Zappa hailed table”). Their very name referenced a dy­ their “downer surrealism”). Hit followed nasty of dildos in that mystic bohemian Top Forty hit: “Reeling in the Years” in 1973. bible, . “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” in 1974. On Irreverent, ironic rockers humbled before their third platter - - the Dan the saints of jazz, Steely Dan have always em­ made their knowledge of and reverence for braced paradox. They were cynical New York jazz explicit. “Parker’s Band” was their natives whose well-crafted sound symbol­ homage to , the alto-sax pio­ ized Seventies California. Studio craftsmen who forsook the stage yet sought the impro­ vised charge of live performance. Songwrit­ ers who aspired to the pop tradition of Leiber and Stoller and Phil Spector yet glori­ fied social misfits and desperate malcon­ tents, faded hipsters and disposable messi- ahs. (Jerry Leiber once said their music reminded him of German art music.) “Our music scares me more than anybody else’s,” declared Fagen. “The combination of the words with the music - like a cheerful lyric and a sad or menacing , or vice versa - 1 find that irony frightening.” Keyboardist/singer Fagen and guitarist Becker are the double helix that defined Steely Dan. “When they’re in the same room at the same time,” noted longtime Dan guitarist Denny Dias, “it’s like one person on drums) and recognized a neer who sired ; “East St. Louis Too- with two brains. They usually finish each kindred spirit in each other. “We clicked on dle-Oo” was their faithful re-creation of other’s sentences.” every level,” Fagen recalled. “We listened to ’s early theme song. Years be­ Becker and Fagen shared much from the the same jazz stations. We liked the same fore sampling and other digital recycling outset, growing up in ’s ex­ books . . . the way we defined ourselves.” A techniques, they kicked off “Rikki” with a pansive suburbs (Westchester, New York, lasting partnership was bom. suave vamp borrowed wholesale from hard- and Passaic, New Jersey, respectively). They Following school - Fagen graduated (se­ bop man Horace Silver. first crossed paths at in upstate nior thesis: Herman Hesse) while Becker was But the more success - and their manage­ New York, where they became the core of a asked to leave (“I was on an accelerated pro­ ment and record companies - pushed Becker small group of musicians (including a young gram”) - the pair stumbled into the Brill and Fagen to tour, the more they resisted. In 1974, weary of constant travel and inconsis­ tent live-sound systems, they stepped on­ stage for the last time (that is, until 1993). Steely Dan became a full-time studio project. Over their next two - Katy Lied and - their perfectionist reputation began to build. They booked weeks in the studio, experimenting for days on just one track. Trying and retrying each tune with different blends of talent, they juggled L.A.’s best soloists and sessionmen: guitarists Lar­ ry Carlton and , vibraphonist , vocalist Michael McDonald, saxophonist , bassist , drummers Hal Blaine and Jeff Por- caro. Creating behind the studio glass suited them. “It wouldn’t bother me at all not to play on my own ,” commented Becker in 1977. “We just keep the quality up for our­ selves,” Fagen added. Their isolation proved their success. Aja was Steely Dan’s next, long-awaited release, a yearlong project that “was the best exam­ ple of what we were trying to do using stu­ dio bands,” remarked Becker. It hit in late 1977, as Debby Boone, the Bee Gees and Fleet- wood Mac sat atop the charts, and sounded like nothing else: a sophisticated fusion of R&B, jazz and , boasting intricate vocal harmonies and songs about rebel wanna­ be’s, Hollywood starlets and girls on the run. Steely Dan’s best-selling effort - widely imitated and career defining - Aja eventual- lb spent sixty weeks on the charts and yield­ ed three hit singles (“Peg,” “Deacon ” hoopla and welcome. This time, it made Opposite, top: Fagen (at and “Josie”), reached Number Three and sense and sounded right. They spent the piano) and Becker; bottom, was nominated for a Grammy. Looking back, next two years touring, after which Becker’s L to R: Jim Hodden Becker, Fagen notes, “When we first started, we first solo d istil Tracks of Whack, and the Denny Dias, JePP “Skunk” were more writing pop songs of the time... group’s first concert recording, Alive in Amer­ Baxter and Fagen; Above: but by the time we did Aja, we knew more of ica, were released. Fagen and Becker what we enjoyed doing - our stuff im­ In 1998 Steely Dan finally returned to the proved.” comfort of the studio. “Barely eighteen years As the Seventies ended, so did Steely go by,” quipped when Two Against Dan’s relationship with ABC and L.A. They Nature was released last year. To Dan fans released “FM,” a soundtrack single, then re­ new and old, the long-awaited return proved a n s w e r s : located to the East Coast and signed with the group’s enduring appeal and sound. The 1. Author of Naked Lunch, from which Fagen MCA, just as their songwriting had begun to music featured the familiar Steely Dan signa­ and Becker drew the name Steely Dan. orient itself in L.A. “By the time we moved ture: precise arrangements, swinging, jazz- 2. A.k.a. “Black Cow” in many diners, and the back to New York... we immediately start­ inflected rhythms, fluid solos and biting tide of a song on the album Aja. ed writing lyrics about California,” Becker lyrics. The album brought Becker and Fagen 3. Location of Bard College, attended by - remarked. In 1980, Steely Dan recorded what three Grammys, including best album. among others - Becker, Fagen, Chevy Chase seemed for many years to be their swan song: The tally so far: Since 1972, Steely Dan have and (now Mrs. Fagen), and of Gaucho, with its Top Ten ode to middle age, logged eleven Top Forty singles and ten con­ which Steely Dan sang in “”: secutive Top Forty albums (twelve including “California tumbles into the sea/That’U be the “.” One more hit arrived in 1981 day I go back to Annandale.” > (“Time Out of Mind”) and it appeared that Fagen’s solo efforts), their songs remain fix­ 4. Protagonist in the song “.” the Dan saga had reached its end. tures on most FM formats. Their timeless 5. A.k.a. gold teeth, as in “Your Gold Teeth,” a More than a decade of solo projects fol­ grooves have been sampled - and continue to song appearing on both lowed. Fagen recorded the well-received The inspire party anthems - by hip-hop artists and Katy Lied. Nightfly, tackled soundtrack projects and from De La Sotil' 3rd Bass and Ice Cube to 6. Co-composer with Duke Ellington of “East wrote about them in a tongue-in-cheek col­ Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz. St, Louis Toodle-Oo,” whose solo on the orig­ umn for Premiere magazine. Becjcer recovered More than thirty years of masterful music nal 1926 recording is replayed note for noté by from a debilitating accident and moved to making. More than thirty years of accolades, Denny Dias on Pretzel Logic. Hawaii. During their long separation, Fagen recognition and awards. Yet Steely Dan re­ 7. A.k.a. the Crimson Tide, as in the lyric from main modest before the music and lifestyle “”: “They call Alabama the stayed in touch by sending Becker cocktail Crimson Tide/Call me Deacon Blues.” napkins signed by their jazz heroes. that first inspired them. “I’ll learn to work 8. Author of the novel Against Nature, from In 1992 the pair reunited to work on the the ,” Fagen still sings, identify­ whence came the album title . New York Rode and Soul Revue (an all-star ing with the aspiring hepcat of “Deacon 9. Famed for bis years with and group performing classic rock and R&B Blues,” “I’ll play just what I feel....” For the Weather Report, but in this context, star numbers) and Fagen’s album. The caustic song-slingers from , a ro­ soloist on the tide track to the album Aja. next year, swept up by the undying demand mantic life of improvisation and one- 10. A.k.a. Black Friday, the day after the stock for Steely Dan, the two assembled the Citi­ nighters continues to call. market collapsed, leading to the Great zen Steely Dan Orchestra and uncharacteris­ “Drink Scotch whisky all night long Depression. Also the tide of Steely Dan’s tically returned to the stage amid universal And die behind the wheel— ” ® fourth Top Forty hit.