BBC Review
Simply the most perfect band on the planet.
Chris Jones 2009-06-29
Emerging from New York's Brill building in the early 70s, songwriting duo Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were two smart Jewish kids raised on jazz and with a healthy cynicism about the so-called music 'business' and its attendant follies. Landing a deal as staff writers with Capitol they re-located to LA and proceeded to cast themselves as ironic outsiders. This double disc compilation charts their decade-long rise from ultra brainy pop technicians to ultra brainy jazz fusionists.
From the off theirs was no ordinary rock band although the employment of two major guitarists (Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter and Denny Dias) saw them appropriately kitted out to impress a public yearning for wailing axes. Albums Can't Buy A Thrill and Countdown To Ectasy match concise (if knotty) writing with musical dexterity. But still, naming yourselves after a mechanised dildo from a Burroughs' novel and writing songs about dissatisfied gigolos (Dirty Work), Buddhist philosophy (Bodhisattva), economic ruin (Black Friday), time travel (Pretzel Logic) and copious drug use (The Boston Rag) wasn't all that conventional for the times.
That's not to say that they couldn't write love songs (cf: Rikki Don't Lose That Number) but by album number three (Pretzel Logic) the pair had tired of touring and begun to employ session musicians to achieve the sonic idealism to match their acerbic, dark wit.
By The Royal Scam (1976) they'd found their modus operandi. Guitars were still the focus, but by now the players were mainly jazz adepts. Kid Charlemagne, in particular, beggars belief. Larry Carlton's solo is impeccable, especially when borne aloft by Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie's drum shuffle and matched by wry lyrics about an anti-hero at the chemical centre of the hippy dream.
By 1977's Aja obsessive compulsive tendencies had a monstrous grip; leading to soloists being wheeled in one after the other to nail the elusive takes that lived in their heads. Michael McDonald famously recalls how his backing vocals for Peg were recorded syllable by painful syllable. The icy gleam of jazz rock rubs up against tales of damaged lives lived in spoiled seclusion: a lifestyle the pair were themselves courting.
By 1980's Gaucho their material was impeccable (Third World Man, Time Out Of Mind: featuring a cruelly buried Mark Knopfler solo) but they now regarded the youthcentric West Coast as a living embodiment of civilization's last days (Babylon Sisters). They retired to lick their wounds.
Unfairly used as shorthand for worthy musos your dad would like, The Very Best Of, while joining a long line of Dan compilations, is a reminder that, for a period, they matched Zappa-esque smarts to 60s songcraft and were simply the most perfect band on the planet.
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Comments
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As a Steely Dan aficionado for more than 20 years and no doubt one of many I can't imagine that this 'Best Of' will find it's way into our collections. Anything that raises the profile of 'the most perfect band on the planet' has got to be good and I hope many new listeners are converted but it's time for a new, original album guys!
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"The most perfect band on the planet?" Anybody witnessing Wednesday's London gig would certainly agree.
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As a Steely Dan fan for many years I would always keep to the albums as they were,this is possibly the third best of to appear.Seeing them in concert is a costly buisness,saw them in New York(on hols) in 2000 and also in Glasgow that year but the recent Edinburgh show was 60 quid a go and the last seats left were-wait for it-
restricted legroom seats.! They will always be the coolest band on the planet and as Frank Zappa said-
music is the best-top tip for all check out Zappa plays
Zappa,son and fantastic band playing Franks music,americans would call it awesome
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F M always reminds me of my schoolyears in the seventys;steely dan are for me the sound of the seventys and memories just flood back as soon as i hear the first few seconds of certain tracks,great.
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I have been a "Dan Fan" for thirtyplus years, owning first vinyl and now cd copies of all of thier work. If the tracks listing is complete, this "best of" doesn't scratch the surface of one of the most important bands of the 70's/80's. Better compilations exsist "Gold" even has the hard to find "Here at the western world".
still it is good to know there is still interest.
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I have been a Steely Dan fan since the early 70's and managed to see them in concert at the Woodlands Pavillion in Houston Texas in the mid 90's when they made their comeback tour. They were as amazing live as they have always been on their albums. I have every album on CD and Vinyl including a few compilations so I dont think i will need another "greatest hits". It is hard to imagine that their music has been around for so long - timeless excellence with some of the greatest instrumental solo's that anyone could ever imagine hearing. A truly ground breaking band that changed the face of music.
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Steely Dan - a band with great credibiltiy and musical ability - and here they are squeezing out the cash with another 'Best of' album. All we need is a 'Xmas Songs with Steely Dan' album and we should have all the bases covered. Truly great songs but come on - time for new material guys. Donald Fagin can do it so why not the whole band ?
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The most perfect band on the Planet? Certainly. And like another person whose commented here I was at the London gig on Wednesday, and they were, literally the perfect band in concert - check out "Live in America" for that too. However, I have to say that Donald Fagen's first solo LP "The Nightfly" is possibly even more perfect than anything perfect that Steely Dan have done.
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At 46 I have 'lived' Dan for almost all of my life. From a time so small I listened to my elder brother play Dan to buying my own records to acquiring all their work on CD. My ultimate track from the entire Dan collection must be Dr Wu from Katie Lied - altho I admire and love all the music that this band has produced - long may the Dan continue... "You can see it in her eyes, but imagine my surprise when I saw you, Are you with me Dr Wu!"
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37 years since I heard Stuart Henry play 'Reelin' in the Years' for the first time. Rushed out to buy the album. Sheer quality since - Becker and Fagen one of the great partnerships-still dazzling and rocking them in the aisles in London last week.
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Agree with all the comments posted. Went to see the Dan at Birmingham, they were great ! There are not many bands that can produce so many good albums, don't bother with the greatest hits , get the original albums you don't know what your missing ! PS - if you get the chance to see "Nearly Dan" they do the real Dan proud.
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http://www.jasonwrightonline.com/streamingchannel3.html
and/or
http://www.granatino.com/sdresource/19becker.htm
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