Why is this record so popular?
It’s not often that a rock band admits they’ve run out of ideas. Simply explained after seven successful years, we were there long enough, exhausted creative potential, sorry, that’s it!
Nevertheless, this crazy band is one of my favorites because they have a great sound made up of rock, funk and soul and you can hear the songs over and over again like in the Beatles or other big bands. Just cool, timeless music. That’s why the records of the US rock band have achieved cult status to this day and reach prices of up to 260 USD as a UHQR / MoFi high-end recording pressing. Even used records by the New York band are not easy to find.
Choosing the most sensible solution without much hesitation, 1980 was a typical end for the band, which had started furiously in 1972. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen met at college in New York in the late ’60s and formed Steely Dan in the early ’70s with guitarists Dennis Dias and Jeff Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder and singer David Palmer.
The Band in 70`s
An iron dildo from William S. Burrough’s cult novel „The Naked Lunch“ was the inspiration for the naming and signaled the skeptical, distanced attitude of the band. The two top ten hits from the debut album „Do it Again“ and „Reelin‘ in the Years“ contained sophisticated, sometimes gripping pop melodies with jazzy arrangements and surprising changes in tempo, melody and harmony with a brisk southern rhythmic mood.
The music full of suspense (between the jazzman Fagen and the bluesman Becker) and the nasally performed, sometimes ironic, sometimes sarcastic texts, in which, as in „A Message Cha-Cha“, sometimes even the attempt at an interpretation was forbidden, quickly found friends in the pre-punk era, when the only thing you still didn’t get over from all the hippie fuss was the LSD. In 1974, the highly acclaimed „Pretzel Logic“ with the hit „Rikki Don’t Lose That Number“ was released. After the following albums, disappointed fans complained about the band’s disco sound becoming smoother.
After a few more or less successful attempts as a solo musician/avocado farmer, Becker and Fagen performed together again for the first time in 1995, followed by the official reunion with „Two Against Nature“ in 2000. Perhaps the ‚post-modern backing band‘ that has never wallowed in rock ’n‘ roll dirt fits in well with our times.
In the „Everything Must Go“ that followed in 2003, you can almost hear that Fagan and Becker now spend part of their time in Hawaii. The atmosphere in the recording studio seems to have been so relaxed that even Walter Becker ventured into the mic (which he had never done before).
In 2007, Steely Dan went on their last big world tour, but even after that they were always closed live hear.
In the summer of 2017, they canceled some concert dates because of Becker’s illness. European dates were actually planned for autumn, but with the death of Walter Becker, the story of Steely Dan ends on September 3, 2017.
Their Best Albums
1977 – Can`t buy a Thrill
1973 – Countdown to Extasy
1974 – Pretzel Logic
1975 – Katy Lied
1976 – The Royal Scam
1977 – Aja
1980 – Gaucho
2000 – Two Against Nature
2000 – Everything Must Go
