Steely Dan: A Deep Dive focuses on the music of Steely Dan: consisting of Donald Fagen, Walter Becker and anyone else they wish to play with. From Can’t Buy A Thrill through Everything Must Go, join me for a trip through every Steely Dan album, as I break down the wit, wisdom and wizardry of Steely Dan!
If you’d like to support my channel, please visit:
Can’t Buy A Thrill: the album that started it all. Many Steely Dan fans–and Fagan and Becker themselves–felt the band hadn’t hit their stride yet on this LP, as they would on later Steely Dan albums. But I still marvel at the songwriting, which repeatedly rises above its execution:
Katy Lied is currently my favorite Steely Dan album (my fave changes week to week!):
Countdown To Ecstasy was NO sophomore slump. In fact, it’s got several of my all-time favorite Steely Dan songs such as Bodhisattva, The Boston Rag and… well, ALL of side two!:
Pretzel Logic cemented Steely Dan’s reputation as ingenious purveyors of thinking-person’s pop music, and it’s hard to find a better collection of songs on one album in 1974:
Where did I get my awesome T-shirt inspired by the title track of Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly?
Submitted for your bemusement, here’s Donny and Marie massacring Reelin’ in the Years. Don’t say I didn’t warn you:
Check out the opening to Horace Silver’s Song for my Father, and tell me that you don’t want to launch into the lyrics to Rikki Don’t Lose That Number:
Here’s the soundtrack to You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It (Or You’ll Lose That Beat), featuring some great early Becker/Fagen songs:
Here’s the earliest Steely Dan release, the single Dallas:
Dallas was covered by the band Poco, and the song fit them like a glove:
Here’s the B-side to Dallas, Sail the Waterway:
Here’s Denny Doherty (of the Mamas and the Papas) covering Sail the Waterway. Denny recorded this demo (along with another Becker/Fagen song, Giles of the River) in the hopes of receiving a solo record deal. He didn’t get one at the time, but Denny did a fine job:
You tell me… Doesn’t this synth solo sound like it could blend perfectly into the old “In Search Of” theme?
And here is the “In Search Of” theme:
Finally, here’s the ending to the Bad Brains song that I have always suspected was “inspired” by the very end of Bodhisattva. You’ve gotta want to hear it, but I think it’s there:
Jump to your favorite album:
00:00 Intro
02:20 You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It (Or You’ll Lose That Beat)
03:22 Dallas/Sail The Waterway
04:06 Can’t Buy A Thrill
12:09 Countdown To Ecstasy
16:33 Pretzel Logic
23:48 Katy Lied
28:51 Outro
#SteelyDan #DonaldFagen #WalterBecker
source