The Steely Dan gift guide
Special deliveries for the Hoops McCanns in your life
Puzzled about what to get a fellow Danfan who seems to have everything? Are you the jazz-rock obsessive who’s impossible to shop for during the holidays? Expanding Dan is here to help. You’ll find the following list mercilessly free of Aja-branded sweatpants, Double Wonderful T-shirts, and suspect “vintage” reprints. You can always head over to Steely Dan’s official website for the basics—licensed apparel, accessories, and music. And don’t forget to give the most precious last-minute gift of all: a subscription to Expanding Dan, naturally.
Artwork from Quantum Criminals
Hang it high in the Custerdome.
In the 2023 book Quantum Criminals, artist Joan LeMay bravely put faces to the many fabled fools named in Steely Dan’s songs. She also illustrated a multitude of longhairs and beardos who collaborated with Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. LeMay has put up for sale much of the original artwork that she created to accompany the writing of her coauthor Alex Pappademas. Portraits of Becker, Fagen, and Michael McDonald have already been snapped up, but Denny Dias, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Gary Katz, and others are still available, as are Jive Miguel, Kid Charlemagne, Third World Man, and many more of our favorite luckless pedestrians.
Joan LeMay Fine Art. $575–$3,100.
Steely Dan Lakers T-shirt
A tee with brut and charisma.
Since 2020, Jokermen Podcast hosts Ian Grant and Evan Laffer have blessed listeners with countless hours of scintillating conversation about what they like to call “Good Music”—Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, John Cale, Van Morrison, Warren Zevon, and their current object of study, the Beach Boys (everybody chug-a-lug!). They have also shown plenty of love for Steely Dan, including a series of shows during the summer of 2023 that included yours truly discussing Can’t Buy a Thrill and “The Second Arrangement.” Along the way, these crowd-pleasing men have also created a slew of dandy Dan-related apparel, from a WJAZ baseball cap to this shirt inspired by “Glamour Profession.”
Jokermen Podcast via Hello Merch. $35.
Steely Dan UHQR reissues
Vinyl that looks good under the tree.
Over the past couple years, Analogue Productions has been steadily releasing Steely Dan’s first seven records in Ultra High-Quality Record form. The reissue program from the audiophile in-house label of Kansas-based Acoustic Sounds was approved by Donald Fagen himself. Each consists of a pair of 200-gram 45 rpm LPs pressed on translucent so-called Clarity Vinyl. (On the UHQR edition of Aja, “Deacon Blues” is given the entire Side B to luxuriate in its own mythic loserdom.) While I personally believe the UHQRs won’t sound significantly better to the average listener than the original pressings or the more affordable 180-gram reissues, they do make for better presents, if only because these limited pressings come individually numbered and packaged in a hefty brown slipcase that is more easily gift-wrapped. Katy Lied is scheduled to be out at the tail end of January 2025; The Royal Scam release date is TBA; the other five titles are currently available.
Acoustic Sounds. $150.
Donald Fagen cardboard cutouts
A fine addition to any Dancave.
The company Celebrity Cutouts traffics in paper face masks and cardboard standees of a constellation of stars, including your favorite yacht rock icons Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins (to whom the site refers curiously as “Kennenth,” presumably for legal reasons). While Walter Becker is available only in mask form, full-body Donald Fagen comes in two variations: “Casual” Don in spectacles and a track jacket, and “Blue” Don in a cobalt button-down and dark shades. (Notice the New Balance sneaks in both.)
Celebrity Cutouts. $19.97 (mini); $79.97 (lifesize).
‘I’d Rather Be Listening to Steely Dan’ hat
A cap that does the dirty work.
Forbidden Canvas, original purveyor of the cult-favorite “I’d Rather Be Listening to Steely Dan” ball cap, collaborated with Old School Hats to offer a mass-market snapback version in eye-popping teal and highlighter yellow colorways.
Old School Hats. $35.95.
Steely Dan pinback button set
Jazz up the stocking stuffer.
Among the wares of the Georgia-based Etsy seller known as Music Wiz, there are a bunch of Steely Dan live bootlegs on CD. Those are tempting until you realize they’re available for free on YouTube in remastered quality thanks to superfan Dan Belcher. But don’t overlook this set of seven pinback buttons, which features pleasantly DIY images taken from the bootleg covers.
Music Wiz via Etsy. $7.99.
Wendel beach towel
An accessory for the everlasting summer.
The late Steely Dan recording engineer Roger Nichols was an avid scuba diver. He trained John Denver to dive, and even managed to lure landlubbers Becker, Fagen, and producer Gary Katz out of the studio and into the water. So among the sundry products the Nichols estate is offering up, this towel patterned with the groundbreaking Wendel drum machine and sampler Roger invented during the making of Gaucho seems an appropriate nod to the man known as “the Immortal.” Take it to the beach or the pool—or throw it over the towel rack at home, hop in the bathtub, and cue up Nichols’s meditative 80-minute recording of ocean waves along the shores of Maui.
Immortal Goods via Threadless. $39.95 (30" x 60"); $47.95 (36" x 72").
Walter Becker Ampeg Dan Armstrong bass
For the Major Dude who was extremely nice this year.
Three Becker-owned lucite Ampeg Dan Armstrong bass guitars were gaveled off in a 2019 estate auction, which makes it difficult to know for sure which of them he played when Steely Dan appeared on The Midnight Special in August 1973. This one, from 1970, sold at auction for $2,240; it’s now splurge-priced at more than five times that amount.
Brilliant Yuletide post! So much STUFF to covet...!