The backbone of Steely Dan's studio era
As Walter Becker and Donald Fagen cycled through session players, electric-bass master Chuck Rainey was often the only constant.
When I ask Donald Fagen about Chuck Rainey, the legendary bassist who anchored Steely Dan’s rhythm section during the group’s studio-based prime, he manages to call to mind the specific record that moved him and Walter Becker to hire Rainey in late 1973, as they assembled session players in Los Angeles to cut the album Pretzel Logic.