The Logic Of Steely Dan

I talked about Steely Dan back in 2009 and this is the post from it.  I saw Steely Dan three more times since this post. Since this post we also lost Walter Becker in 2017.  If you seen the Dan or love their style of music you understand how important Becker was with Donald Fagen.  It's also to be known how unique they were and the session musicians they used were the top of the tops.  When you see them live that top of the top is shown at their shows.  I have seen Dennis Chambers, Chris Potter, Bill Ware, Cornelius Bumpus and other greats.  You will read about that below Still a fan, and always will be.  They meant a lot to me and countless other fans.  

It's so hard to pick a Steely Dan album. I love them all. I mean who does not love the silk slick sounds of "the Dan' They are amazing talent. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are very good musicians. When I heard they was a reunion in 1993 I jumped at the chance to go. I had a friend who felt the same way. He told me that he felt that Steely Dan was the most different thing about Rock and Roll. He was right, they did things that no band could do. They perfected the studio sound.

So let me tell you briefly about Steely Dan. They were graduates of the prestigious Bard College in upstate New York. I never went to school there, but I did go up there for their annual Classical showcase on a specific composer. Every Year Bard does a two week festival on one specific composer. The years I did are 2001 and 2002. They did Debussy in 2001 and Mahler in 2002. Each is amazing. Well with that richness in music Becker and Fagen graduated from Bard and moved to New York City. They tried cutting their teeth in the city when they got noticed by Gary Katz. Gary Katz hired them to be song writers in Los Angeles. He found out that they were to complex for the ABC sound. They got them to form a band. Becker and Fagen were big fans of the Beat Generation and took their name from the dildo in Naked Lunch, and the rest as they say is history.

What makes Steely Dan fun to listen to is the fact that this slick sound is not like anything in the Classic Rock world. When you hear them you immediately know it's them. They are not afraid to show their alliance to Jazz, Rock, Funk, R&B and Pop. Each song has some kind of great influence to it. I picked an album that shows their roots as well as some great music.

I know that a few songs on Pretzel Logic are played to death on Classic Rock stations, but I don't get tired of them. I just wish with this album some of the other songs would be played too. Besides seeing them in 1993, Steely Dan is a monster to see live. They have the who's who of musicians. This album is so well played you wish that they would play some of the unheard songs on this album. The musicians could do it too. When I saw them in 1993. They had Chris Potter on sax and Dennis Chambers on drums. People like Jim Pugh and Cornelius Bumpus and Jim Beard and Tom Barney are amazing. When I saw them again they added Peter Erskine on Drums.

Steely Dan does not pull any punches when it comes to shows. They do pull out all the stops. Their length run on the two and half hour range. What makes it fun for me is to watch the band play with Becker and Fagen. They come out and get us in the mood by doing instrumental versions of the classics. This last a good ten minutes, and by then we are pumped.

If you want to go for sure awesomeness this is the album for you. Beside the hits like "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and the title track "Pretzel Logic." There are some really nice gems too. Some of those like "Any Major Dude Will Tell You" and "With a Gun" and the most sounding Jazz song with a country swing "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" is one of the best. The album is sadly short, but the shortness makes up for it's compact of greatness.

I may not have picked your favorite Steely Dan Album, but it's hard to pick just one. Please enjoy a classic album above all others. This album will make you sing and bop along in the car. It may even catch on with your friends, but this album will solidify your love for Steely Dan.