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Steely Dan Do It Again Lyrics Meaning

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American rock ring

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 electric guitar, Donald Fagen (r) playing melodica.
Background information
Origin Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, United States
Genres
  • Jazz rock
  • soft rock [1]
  • popular rock[ii]
  • jazz fusion[iii]
Years agile 1971–1981, 1993–present
Labels
  • ABC
  • MCA
  • Behemothic
  • 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
Past 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 at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York past core members Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Blending elements of rock, jazz, Latin music, R&B, blues[v] and sophisticated studio production with cryptic and ironic lyrics, the band enjoyed critical and commercial success starting from the early on 1970s until breaking upward in 1981.[5] Initially the band had a stable lineup, merely in 1974, Becker and Fagen retired the band from live performances altogether to become a studio-only band, opting to record with a revolving bandage of session musicians. Rolling Rock has called them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the Seventies".[half dozen]

After the grouping disbanded in 1981, Becker and Fagen were less active throughout nigh of the side by side decade, though a cult following[5] remained devoted to the group. Since reuniting in 1993, Steely Dan has toured steadily and released two albums of new cloth, the get-go of which, 2 Against Nature, earned a Grammy Award for Anthology of the Year. They take sold more forty million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Curl Hall of Fame in March 2001.[vii] [8] [9] [ten] VH1 ranked Steely Dan at No. 82 on their list of the 100 Greatest Musical Artists of All Time.[11] Rolling Stone ranked them No. fifteen on its list of the xx Greatest Duos of All Fourth dimension.[12] Founding member Walter Becker died on September 3, 2017, leaving Fagen as the sole official member.

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 Airship, he heard Becker practicing the electric guitar."[thirteen] In an interview, Fagen recounted the experience: "I hear this guy practising, and it sounded very professional person and gimmicky. It sounded similar, you know, like a black person, really."[thirteen] He introduced himself to Becker and asked, "Do yous want to exist in a ring?"[xiii] Discovering that they enjoyed like music, the two began writing songs together.

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

After 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 product office in the building, took an involvement in their music, which led to work on the soundtrack of the low-upkeep Richard Pryor film You've Got to Walk Information technology Like You lot Talk It or You'll Lose That Vanquish. Becker later said bluntly, "We did information technology for the money."[xiv] 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 pianoforte on many songs) and lo-fi production, a contrast with Steely Dan's afterwards 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 about a twelvemonth and a one-half.[16] They were at kickoff paid $100 per show, but partway through their tenure the band'southward bout manager cut their salaries in half.[16] The group'due south lead vocaliser, Jay Blackness, dubbed Becker and Fagen "the Manson and Starkweather of rock 'due north' coil", referring to cult leader Charles Manson and spree killer Charles Starkweather.[16]

They had little success afterward moving to Brooklyn, although Barbra Streisand recorded their vocal "I Mean To Shine" on her 1971 Barbra Joan Streisand anthology. Their fortunes changed when 1 of Vance'southward associates, 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 too circuitous for other ABC artists, at Katz'due south proffer 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 equally 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.[18] [19] [20] Palmer joined as a second lead vocaliser considering of Fagen's occasional phase fearfulness, his reluctance to sing in front of an audience, and because the label believed that his vox was not "commercial" enough.

In 1972, ABC issued Steely Dan's first unmarried, "Dallas", backed with "Sail the Waterway". Distribution of "stock" copies available to the full general public was manifestly extremely express;[21] the single sold so poorly that promotional copies are much more readily bachelor than stock copies in today'due south collectors market. As of 2015, "Dallas" and "Canvas the Waterway" are the just officially released Steely Dan tracks that have non been reissued on cassette or meaty disc. In an interview (1995), Becker and Fagen chosen the songs "stinko."[22] "Dallas" was later on covered by Poco on their Head Over Heels album.

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

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

Because of Fagen'southward reluctance to sing alive, Palmer handled most of the song duties on phase. During the kickoff bout, however, Katz and Becker decided that they preferred Fagen's interpretations of the band's songs, persuading him to take over. Palmer quietly left the grouping while it recorded its second 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'southward first album. Becker and Fagen were unhappy with some of the performances on the tape and believed that it sold poorly because it had been recorded hastily on tour. The anthology's singles were "Bear witness Biz Kids" and "My Old School", both of which stayed in the lower half of the Billboard charts (though "My Old School" 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 alive and began working in the studio exclusively.

Pretzel Logic was released in early on 1974. A various prepare, it includes the group'due south near successful unmarried, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" (No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100), and a annotation-for-annotation rendition of Duke Ellington and James "Bubber" Miley's "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo".

During the previous album's tour, the band had added vocalist-percussionist Royce Jones, vocalizer-keyboardist Michael McDonald, and session drummer Jeff Porcaro.[23] Porcaro played the sole pulsate track on ane song, "Night By Night" on Pretzel Logic (Jim Gordon played drums on all the remaining tracks, and he and Porcaro both played on "Parker's 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 become on to class Toto. Striving for perfection, Becker and Fagen sometimes asked musicians to record as many equally forty takes of each rail.[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 there 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 (especially 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 past this and by their diminishing roles in the studio. Still, Dias remained with the grouping until 1980's Gaucho and Michael McDonald contributed vocals until the group's twenty-twelvemonth hiatus after Gaucho. Baxter and McDonald went on to bring together The Doobie Brothers. Steely Dan'due south terminal tour operation was on July 5, 1974, a concert at the Santa Monica Borough Auditorium in California.[25]

Becker and Fagen recruited a diverse group of session players for Katy Lied (1975), including Porcaro, Paich, and McDonald, besides as guitarist Elliott Randall, jazz saxophonist Phil Woods, saxophonist/bass-guitarist Wilton Felder, percussionist/vibraphonist/keyboardist Victor Feldman, keyboardist (and later producer) Michael Omartian, and guitarist Larry Carlton—Dias, Becker, and Fagen existence Steely Dan's simply original members. The album went golden on the strength of "Black Friday" and "Bad Sneakers", only Becker and Fagen were so dissatisfied with the album's sound (compromised past a faulty DBX dissonance reduction organisation) that they publicly apologized for it (on the album's back encompass) and for years refused to listen to it in its terminal course.[26] Katy Lied besides included "Doctor Wu" and "Chain Lightning".

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

The Imperial Scam was released in May 1976. Partly because of Carlton's prominent contributions, it is the band's most guitar-oriented album. It also features performances past session drummer Bernard Purdie. The album sold well in the U.s.a., though without the strength of a hit single. In the UK the single "Haitian Divorce" (Top twenty) drove album sales, condign Steely Dan's first major hit there.[27] Steely Dan's 6th album, the jazz-influenced Aja, was released in September 1977. Aja reached the Top Five in the U.South. charts within iii weeks, winning the Grammy accolade for "Engineer – Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical." It was also one of the showtime 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 extraordinary in his willingness and desire to make records sound meliorate.[thirty]

The records we did could not take been washed without Roger. He was but maniacal almost making the sound of the records be what we liked... He ever thought there was a amend mode to practise it, and he would find a way to do what nosotros needed to in means that other people hadn't done yet.[31]

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

Featuring Michael McDonald'due south backing vocals, "Peg" (No. 11) was the album's offset single, followed past "Josie" (No. 26) and "Deacon Dejection" (No. 19). Aja solidified Becker's and Fagen's reputations as songwriters and studio perfectionists. It features such jazz and fusion luminaries equally 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 (pianoforte).

Planning to tour in support of Aja, Steely Dan assembled a alive ring. 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 Goggle box and DVD series Archetype Albums.

Later on Aja's success, Becker and Fagen were asked to write the title track for the movie FM. The movie was a box-function disaster, simply the song was a hit, earning Steely Dan another applied science Grammy award. It was a minor striking in the Britain and barely missed the Top 20 in the U.s.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 projection would not go smoothly: technical, legal, and personal setbacks delayed the album'south release and afterward led Becker and Fagen to suspend their partnership for over a decade.[33]

Misfortune struck early when an banana engineer accidentally erased most of "The Second 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 two years Steely Dan could not release an album. Becker and Fagen had planned on leaving ABC for Warner Bros. Records, merely MCA claimed ownership of their music, preventing them from changing labels.

Turmoil in Becker's personal life besides interfered. His girlfriend died of a drug overdose in their Upper West Side apartment, and he was sued for $17 one thousand thousand. Becker settled out of court, only he was shocked past the accusations and by the tabloid press coverage that followed. Soon later on, Becker was struck by a taxi while crossing a Manhattan street, shattering his right leg in several places and forcing him to apply crutches.

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

Gaucho was finally released in Nov 1980. Despite its tortured history, information technology was another major success. The album's first unmarried, "Hey Nineteen", reached No. ten on the pop nautical chart in early 1981, and "Time Out of Mind" (featuring guitarist Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits) was a moderate hit in the leap. "My Rival" was featured in John Huston's 1980 pic Phobia. Roger Nichols won a third engineering Grammy award for his work on the album.

Fourth dimension off (1981–1993) [edit]

Steely Dan disbanded in June 1981.[36] Becker moved to Maui, where he became an "avocado rancher and cocky-styled critic of the gimmicky scene."[37] He stopped using drugs, which he had used for well-nigh of his career.[38] [39] [xl] Meanwhile, Fagen released a solo album, The Nightfly (1982), which went platinum in both the U.S. and the UK and yielded the Top Twenty striking "I.G.Y. (What a Cute Globe)." In 1988 Fagen wrote the score of Bright Lights, Big City and a song for its soundtrack, just otherwise recorded fiddling. He occasionally did production piece of work for other artists, as did Becker. The near prominent of these were two albums Becker produced for the British sophisti-pop grouping Mainland china Crisis, who were strongly influenced by Steely Dan.[41] Becker is listed as an official member of People's republic of china Crisis on the offset of these albums, 1985's Flaunt the Imperfection, and played keyboards on the band's Top xx Uk hit "Black Man Ray". For the second of the two albums, 1989's Diary of a Hollow Horse, Becker is only listed as a producer and non equally a ring member.

In 1986 Becker and Fagen performed on Zazu, an album by onetime model Rosie Vela produced by Gary Katz.[42] The two rekindled their friendship and held songwriting sessions between 1986 and 1987, leaving the results unfinished.[43] On October 23, 1991, Becker attended a concert past New York Rock and Soul Revue, co-founded past Fagen and producer/singer Libby Titus (who was for many years the partner of Levon Helm of The Ring and would after go Fagen'due south married woman), and spontaneously performed with the group.

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

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

Steely Dan, shown here in 2007, toured oftentimes afterwards reforming in 1993.

Becker and Fagen reunited for an American tour to support Kamakiriad, which sold poorly despite a Grammy nomination for Album of the Yr. With Becker playing pb and rhythm guitar, the pair assembled a band that included a second keyboard role player, 2nd lead guitarist, bassist, drummer, vibraphonist, three female backing singers, and 4-piece saxophone department. 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 bout, Fagen introduced himself as "Rick Strauss" and Becker as "Frank Poulenc".

The next yr, MCA released Citizen Steely Dan, a boxed set featuring their entire itemize (except their debut unmarried "Dallas"/"Sail The Waterway") on four CDs, plus 4 extra tracks: "Hither at the Western World" (originally released on 1978'south "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 over again in support of the boxed ready and Tracks. In 1995 they released a alive CD, Live in America, compiled from recordings of several 1993 and 1994 concerts. The Art Crimes Bout followed, including dates in the United States, Japan, and their outset European shows in 22 years. Later on this action, Becker and Fagen returned to the studio to begin work on a new album.

Two Against Nature and Everything Must Get (2000–2003) [edit]

In 2000 Steely Dan released their first studio album in 20 years: Two Against Nature. It won 4 Grammy Awards: Best Engineered Album – Non-Classical, Best Pop Vocal Anthology, Best Popular Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal ("Cousin Dupree"), and Album of the Yr (despite competition in this category from Eminem'south The Marshall Mathers LP and Radiohead's Kid A). In the summer of 2000, they began another American bout, followed by an international bout subsequently that year. The tour featured guitarist Jon Herington, who would go on to play with the band over the adjacent 2 decades. The group released the Plush Tv Jazz-Rock Political party DVD, documenting a live-in-the-studio concert performance of pop songs from throughout Steely Dan's career. In March 2001, Steely Dan was inducted into the Rock and Ringlet Hall of Fame.[seven] [eight]

In 2003 Steely Dan released Everything Must Get. In contrast to their earlier work, they had tried to write music that captured a live experience. Becker sang lead vocals on a Steely Dan studio anthology for the first time ("Slang of Ages" — he had sung lead on his ain "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 pb guitar on 5 tracks; Fagen added piano, electric piano, organ, synthesizers, and percussion on summit of his vocals; touring drummer Keith Carlock played on every rails.

Firing of Roger Nichols [edit]

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 explanation or notification, according to band biographer Brian Sweet's 2018 revision of his volume Reelin' in the Years. [44]

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

To complete his Nightfly trilogy, Fagen issued Morph the Cat in 2006. Steely Dan returned to annual 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 backing vocalists Carolyn Leonhart and Cindy Mizelle. The 2007 Heavy Rollers Tour included dates in N America, Europe, Nippon, Australia, and New Zealand, making it their most expansive bout.[46]

The smaller Think Fast Tour followed in 2008, with keyboardist Jim Beard joining the live ring. That year Becker released a second album, Circus Money, produced past Larry Klein and inspired by Jamaican music. In 2009 Steely Dan toured Europe and America extensively in their Left Bank Holiday and Rent Party Tour, alternating betwixt 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 certain nights. The post-obit year, 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 April x, 2011.[47] Steely Dan'south Shuffle Diplomacy Tour that year included an expanded ready listing and dates in Australia and New Zealand. Fagen released his fourth album, Sunken Condos, in 2012. It was his first solo release unrelated to the Nightfly trilogy.

The Mood Swings: 8 Miles to Pancake Day Tour began in July 2013 and featured an viii-dark run at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.[48] Jamalot Ever After, their 2014 United States tour, ran from July two in Portland, Oregon to September 20 in Port Chester, New York.[49] 2015's Rockabye Gollie Angel 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 likewise performed at The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with an accompanying orchestra.

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

After Becker's decease (2017–present) [edit]

Becker died from complications of esophageal cancer on September 3, 2017.[53] In a note released to the media, Fagen remembered his longtime friend and bandmate, and promised to "keep the music nosotros created together live as long as I tin can with the Steely Dan band."[54] After Becker'southward death, Steely Dan honored commitments to perform a brusque North American bout in Oct 2017 and three concert dates in the United Kingdom and Ireland for Bluesfest on a double bill with the Doobie Brothers.[55] The band played its get-go concert following Becker's death in Thackerville, Oklahoma, on October 13.[55] In tribute to Becker, they performed his solo song "Book of Liars", with Fagen singing the lead vocals, at several concerts on the tour.[56]

Becker'southward widow and estate sued Fagen later on that year, arguing that the manor should control l% of the band's shares.[57] Fagen filed a counter arrange, arguing that the band had drawn up plans in 1972 stating that band members leaving the band or dying relinquish shares of the ring'south output to the surviving members. In Dec, Fagen said that he would rather have retired the Steely Dan name afterwards Becker's death, and would instead have toured with the electric current iteration of the group under another name, but was persuaded non to by promoters for commercial reasons.[58]

In 2018, Steely Dan performed on a summer bout of the United States with The Doobie Brothers as co-headliners.[59] The ring also played a ix-show residency at the Beacon Theatre in New York City that October.[lx] In February 2019, the band embarked on a tour of United kingdom with Steve Winwood.[61] Guitarist Connor Kennedy of The Nightflyers joined the live ring, beginning with a ix-nighttime residency at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas in April 2019.[62]

Musical and lyrical style [edit]

Music [edit]

Overall audio [edit]

Special attention is given to the individual sound of each instrument. Recording is done with the utmost fidelity and attention to sonic detail, and mixed and then that all the instruments are heard and none are given undue priority. Their albums are also notable for the characteristically 'warm' and 'dry' production audio, and the sparing employ of echo and reverberation.

Backing vocals [edit]

Becker and Fagen favored a distinctly soul-influenced style of backing vocals, which after the showtime few albums were near always performed by a female person chorus (although Michael McDonald features prominently on several tracks, including the 1975 song "Black Friday" and the 1977 song "Peg"). Venetta Fields, Sherlie Matthews and Clydie King were the preferred trio for bankroll vocals on the group's late 1970s albums.[63] Other bankroll vocalists include Timothy B. Schmit, Tawatha Agee, Brenda White-King, Carolyn Leonhart, Janice Pendarvis, Catherine Russell, Cynthia Calhoun, Victoria Cavern, Cindy Mizelle, and Jeff Young. The band also featured singers like Patti Austin and Valerie Simpson on later projects such as Gaucho.

Horns [edit]

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

Limerick and chord use [edit]

Steely Dan is famous for their use of chord sequences and harmonies that explore the area of musical tension between traditional popular sounds and jazz. In particular, they are known for their use of the add ii chord, a blazon of added tone chord, which they nicknamed the mu major.[64] [65] [66] Other common chords used by Steely Dan include slash chords.

Lyrics [edit]

Steely Dan's lyrical subjects are diverse, but in their basic approach they ofttimes create fictional personae that participate in a narrative or situation. The duo take said that in retrospect, most of their albums have a "experience" of either Los Angeles or New York City, the two master cities where Becker and Fagen lived and worked. Characters appear in their songs that evoke these cities. Steely Dan's lyrics are oftentimes puzzling to the listener,[67] with the true meaning of the song "uncoded" through repeated listening, and a richer agreement of the references within the lyrics. In the song "Everyone's Gone to the Movies," the line "I know you're used to 16 or more, sorry nosotros only have eight" refers non to the count of some article, but to eight mm picture show, which was lower quality than sixteen mm or larger formats and often used for pornography, underscoring the illicitness of Mr. LaPage's film parties.[68]

Thematically, Steely Dan creates a universe peopled by losers, creeps and failed dreamers, often victims of their ain obsessions and delusions. These motifs are introduced in the Dan'southward first hitting song, "Do It Again," which contains a description of a murderous cowboy who beats the gallows, a homo taken advantage of by a cheating girlfriend, and an obsessive gambler, all of whom are unable to command their own destinies; like themes of existence trapped in a expiry spiral of one's ain making appear throughout their catalog. Other themes that they explore include prejudice, aging, poverty, and middle-class 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.[69] Many of their songs business organisation love, merely typical of Steely Dan songs is an ironic or disturbing twist in the lyrics that reveals a darker reality. For instance, expressed "beloved" is actually about prostitution ("Pearl of the Quarter"), incest ("Cousin Dupree"), pornography ("Everyone'south Gone to the Movies"), or some other socially unacceptable subject.[seventy] Notwithstanding, some of their demo-era recordings show Fagen and Becker expressing romance, including "This Seat's Been Taken", "Oh, Wow, It's You" and "Come up Dorsum Infant".

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 take given rise to considerable efforts by fans to explicate the "inner pregnant" of certain songs.[71] [72] Jazz is a recurring theme, and there are numerous other film, tv set and literary references and allusions, such every bit "Dwelling at Concluding" (from Aja), which was inspired by Homer'south Odyssey.[73]

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

"Name dropping" is some other Steely Dan lyrical device; references to real places and people abound in their songs. The song "My Quondam Schoolhouse" is an example, referring to Annandale (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, is home to Bard Higher, which both attended and where they met), and the 2 Against Nature album (2000) contains numerous references to the duo's original region, the New York metro area, including the district of Gramercy Park, the Strand Bookstore, and the upscale food shop Dean & DeLuca. In the song "Glamour Profession" the decision of a drug deal is celebrated with dumplings at Mr. Chow, a Chinese eating house in Beverly Hills. The band fifty-fifty employed cocky-reference; in the song "Show Biz Kids," the titular subjects are sardonically portrayed as owning "the Steely Dan T-shirt."

The band also often name-checks drinks, typically alcoholic, in their songs: rum and cokes ("Daddy Don't Live in That New York Urban center No More"), piña coladas ("Bad Sneakers"), zombies ("Haitian Divorce"), black cows ("Black Moo-cow"), Scotch whisky ("Deacon Blues"), retsina ("Home at Last"), grapefruit wine ("FM"), ruby wine ("Time Out of Listen"), Cuervo Aureate ("Hey Nineteen"), kirschwasser ("Babylon Sisters"), Tanqueray ("Lunch with Gina"), Cuban cakewalk (Fagen's solo rail "The Goodbye Look"), and margaritas ("Everything Must Go") are all mentioned in Steely Dan lyrics.[74]

Members [edit]

Current members

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

Onetime members

  • Walter Becker – guitar, bass, backing and lead 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 lead 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

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

See also [edit]

  • List of songwriter tandems

References [edit]

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External links [edit]

  • Official website Edit this at Wikidata

carterdaithis1970.blogspot.com

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

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