THE 30 GREATEST STEELY DAN SONGS
THE WISE GUYS
A 10-PAGE CELEBRATION
INTERVIEWS BY: Bill DeMain
WALK-ON PARTS FOR CHARLIE PARKER, THE opera singer Cathy Berberian, and a basketball player called Jungle Jim Loscutoff. Location visits to Annandale in upstate New York and the caves of Altamira in Spain. A drinks menu stocked with kirschwasser, retsina, Cuervo Gold tequila and Tanqueray gin. A ride on the Wolverine train out of New York. And, most delightful of all, a Japanese dildo invented by William Burroughs – the “Steely Dan III from Yokohama”.
The world that Walter Becker and Donald Fagen evoke in the songs of Steely Dan resembles a connoisseur’s take on the American 20th century, at once snarky and affectionate, cynical and surreptitiously moral. Their songs encapsulate high art and low lives; their albums have the wit, heft, erudition and resonance of Great American Novels; their chops, of course, are consummate. Over nine studio albums, Steely Dan provided the perfect soundtrack for upwardly-mobile lifestyles, while simultaneously skewering the venality and pretension that at least some of their listeners aspired to.
MAJOR DUDES: John Aizlewood, Martin Aston, Mike Barnes, Stevie Chick, Bill DeMain, Dave DiMartino, Danny Eccleston, Ian Harrison, Jim Irvin, Andrew Male, James McNair, John Mulvey, Michael Simmons, Mat Snow
A very smart trick, and few artists in MOJO’s pantheon have been smarter than Becker and Fagen. The pair met in 1967 in Annandale, students at Bard College who began playing with what Fagen called in his memoir “the funky grooves, the jazz chords and the sensibility of the lyrics which seemed to fall somewhere between Tom Lehrer and [Nabokov’s] Pale Fire.” Over the next half-century, with a vast supporting cast of gifted musicians and the odd solo hiatus,
Steely Dan parlayed that undergraduate vision into subversion on a multiplatinum scale. Complexity becomes them to this day – as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pretzel Logic and Fagen embarks on another season of touring with his current line-up – and consequently, the wisdom of ranking their songs seems a little gauche: one can imagine the late Becker’s droll contempt for such a folly. Nevertheless: “You say it’s a crazy scheme,” to pluck a little wisdom from Deacon Blues. “This one’s for real…”
Illustration by Del Gentleman and Mark Wagstaff, Getty
30 TRANS-ISLAND SKYWAY
(from Donald Fagen, Kamakiriad, 1993)
Speculative friction, and a serendipitous reunion.
The gleaming future that never arrived as promised has been a constant source of disappointment for boomers. Odd, then, that so much of notorious cynic Donald Fagen’s solo work has revisited his teenage fantasies. Exhibit A: the syncopated pulse of Kamakiriad’s opening track, a be-bop sophisticate’s ideal of the perfect car (“The frame is out of Glasgow/The tech is Balinese”). So far, so smoothly transporting. But nestling in Trans-Island Skyway’s credits is an old friend destined to thwart the idealism: Walter Becker, producing, back alongside Fagen 13 bumpy years after Gaucho.
JM
29 SIGN IN STRANGER
(from The Royal Scam, 1976)
A whole new identity, but at what price? Don and Walt aren’t saying.
In this futuristic crime saga, Fagen and Becker speak of reformative and escapist opportunities for an outlaw zombie. But what knocks this deep cut up to the Dan’s top shelf are the compelling zig-zagging melody, plus masterful accompaniment and solos by the late piano pro Paul Griffin and searing guitarist Elliott Randall. The latter’s modulated outro is utterly thrilling and kicked into the stratosphere by powerful horn charts, yet another example of Steely Dan’s singular musicality.
MSi
28 COUSIN DUPREE
(from Two Against Nature, 2000)
The kings of smut-rock take on another taboo.
No doubt the only pop song addressing intrafamily sex to win a Grammy Award. When the protagonist tries to seduce his cousin while watching her “wax her skis”, she slyly scorns him, nailing “the skeevy look in your eyes” and “the dreary architecture of your soul”. Walter shines on a slinky guitar and a funky bass, reminding us again what a terrific instrumentalist he was, while Fagen’s stepdaughter Amy Helm whistles during the bridge – appropriately keeping it in the family.
MSi
27 BOOK OF LIARS
(from 11 Tracks Of Whack, 1994)
Sung by Walter Becker, co-produced by Fagen. Sounds like…
Tellingly, after Becker died in 2017, Fagen paid tribute by introducing (or, more accurately, re-introducing) one solo Becker track into the Steely Dan live set. It’s easy to see why it was Book Of Liars. Like the rest of the Fagen co-produced 11 Tracks Of Whack, it’s unashamedly Dan-esque, although more spartan, but it’s the album’s highlight. It glides majestically, Becker adds a touch of cynicism (“There’s a star in the book of liars by your name”) and the rest glows, albeit while glowering.
JA
Ed Caraeff/Iconic Images
26 THINGS I MISS THE MOST
(from Everything Must Go, 2003)
More First World Problems from the poets of same.
Post-divorce, Fagen’s jaded avatar itemises the good things that have walked out the door (“the talk, the sex, somebody to trust…”) segueing drolly into the material losses (“the Audi TT, the house on the Vineyard…”) – superlative songcraft chops suggesting Cole Porter via Randy Newman in a tune as catchy as any the Dan ever wrote. In 2003, Fagen had been married to Libby Titus for a decade, and appears to remain so. Maybe he found his own song salutary.