Notes From D. R.

We remember so many things about the year 1972–the release of The Godfather, Richard Nixon’s landslide re-election, Diana Ross’ film debut in Lady Sings the Blues. Another event of tremendous cultural significance occurred 35 years ago–an event that still resonates with lovers of musical art to this very day.

In the fall of 1972, Can’t Buy A Thrill, the debut album from the pioneering rock group Steely Dan, was released; the album quickly became a pop-culture staple thanks to the hit singles "Do It Again" and "Reelin’ in the Years." Thrill is filled with grace notes from beginning to end: the elegant moodiness of "Dirty Work" and "Midnight Cruiser," the piercing loneliness of "Fire in the Hole," the humorous chaos of "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again." Very few artists are lucky to create a masterwork right out of the gate: with Thrill, Dan joined that rarefied company.

Less than a year later, Dan managed to exceed their previous excellence with Countdown To Ecstasy, another top-to-bottom flawless album. Every song on the album would merit inclusion on a greatest-hits disc: the manic "Bodhisattva," the jazzy "Your Gold Teeth," the sarcastic "My Old School" and "Show Biz Kids," the romantic "Pearl of the Quarter," the ferocious "Boston Rag." Ecstasy wasn’t as commercially successful as Thrill, but the album is one of the most creatively inspired musical works of all-time.

In 1974, Dan released Pretzel Logic, a commercial success thanks to the subversively edgy hit "Rikki Don’t Lose That Number." It’s a testament to the brilliance of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen that even the putatively depressing tracks on the album (the prejudice allegory "Barrytown" and the drug-addiction chronicle "Charlie Freak") are, in their own way, uplifting. "With a Gun," "Night by Night," "Pretzel Logic", "Through with Buzz" and the Charlie Parker tribute "Parker’s Band" are works without flaw or peer.

By 1975, Dan had become a studio-only band; the technical and business complications of touring had become far too enervating for both men. Before the bicentennial, they released Katy Lied, yet another outstanding achievement. Katy Lied depicts an America flirting with derangement: one cannot listen to such brilliant tracks as "Bad Sneakers," "Black Friday," "Any World That I’m Welcome To," and "Everyone’s Gone to the Movies" without envisioning a populace "going insane/and… laughing in the frozen rain." "Throw Back the Little Ones" evokes the loneliness of "Fire in the Hole," "Your Gold Teeth II" represents a moment of calm in the midst of a cultural hurricane, and "Daddy Don’t Live in That New York City No More" outdoes "My Old School" and "Show Biz Kids" in its sardonic look at life.

Extreme cynicism also defined 1976’s The Royal Scam, which would be considered Steely Dan’s greatest work were it not for the album Becker and Fagen released the next year. "Everything You Did," "Sign in Stranger," "Haitian Divorce," "Kid Charlemagne" and "Don’t Take Me Alive" are harsh, bitter, brutally funny examinations of the worst elements of the human condition. "The Royal Scam" is a furious, expertly crafted denunciation of the exploitation of ethnic immigrants in turn-of-the-century America; the song works because, unlike other "protest songs" by "socially conscious" musicians, it is absolutely free of pretense and self-consciousness. Just as "Your Gold Teeth II" provided a break from the turmoil on Katy Lied, Fagen and Becker supply a bit of emotional relief with the beautiful "Caves of Altamira," a meditation on lost childhood innocence that is perhaps their finest song.

After a year of production, Steely Dan released the iconic album Aja in the fall of 1977. The album can still inspire euphoria even if one has listened to it a hundred times. From the romantic aura of the lengthy title track to the barely concealed anger of "Deacon Blues," from the smooth, sharp cynicism of "Black Cow" to the sexual hilarity of "I Got the News," Aja was, is and always will be a work of genius. The album was a tremendous commercial success, powered by the hit single "Peg"; much like Prince’s Purple Rain, Aja represented one of the few times in modern musical history that an album’s success was warranted by its creative achievement.

After releasing a greatest-hits album in 1978, Becker and Fagen began work on their next album. The recording sessions were constantly interrupted by personal tragedies, legal disputes, and technical difficulties; for Becker and Fagen, the production of this album was essentially a minor version of the hell Francis Ford Coppola went through making Apocalypse Now. Gaucho was finally released in November 1980; thankfully, it was also a success due to the hit single "Hey Nineteen." The cynicism on Gaucho is far less distinct than it was on The Royal Scam or Katy Lied; songs such as "Glamour Profession," "Third World Man" and the title track have their share of pessimism, but the songs are hardly what one would call end-of-the-world visions. The standout track on this album is "Babylon Sisters," arguably the "sexiest" Steely Dan song ever.

Exhausted from the strife of producing Gaucho, and feeling that they had accomplished everything they possibly could as a unit, Becker and Fagen disbanded the group in the summer of 1981. Fagen immediately went into production on his solo debut, 1982’s The Nightfly, an outstanding work that can be considered Aja II in terms of quality; later in the decade, he would match his accomplishment with the musical score for the underrated 1988 Michael J. Fox film Bright Lights, Big City. Becker spent the 1980s producing albums for such artists as Rickie Lee Jones.

Steely Dan reunited in the early-1990s: Becker produced Fagen’s second solo album, 1993’s Kamakiriad, Fagen returned the favor on Becker’s 1994 solo album, 11 Tracks of Whack, and the two returned to touring after nearly two decades (highlights from their 1993 and 1994 tours appeared on the 1995 album Alive in America).

In the late-1990s, Steely Dan began work on their first post-Gaucho album. 2000’s Two Against Nature proved that Fagen and Becker had never lost what made them great: the album seemingly picks up exactly where Gaucho had left off, with muted cynicism ("What A Shame About Me," "Jack of Speed") and off-kilter humor ("Cousin Dupree," "Gaslighting Abbie," "Janie Runaway" and the title track). The album deservedly won a Grammy for Album of the Year, although Becker and Fagen should have earned the award for Aja 23 years earlier.

Steely Dan is still going strong today; they followed up Nature with 2003’s critically acclaimed Everything Must Go, and embarked on another well-received tour shortly after the 2006 release of Fagen’s third solo album, Morph the Cat. Steely Dan’s resurgence is one of the better musical developments of the last fifteen years. Considering the deterioration of popular music in the United States over the past decade and a half, it’s wonderful to know that Becker and Fagen are back, jack, and doing it again.