Top Steely Dan posts of 2024
Archival interviews, rare audio, and more of the most-read newsletters of the year
1. Donald Fagen: 'There is no more Steely Dan'
"I don’t see any real hope for the big revival tour with 'Rikki Don’t Lose That Number' every night," Fagen says in a never-published 1989 radio interview. "I'm just not ready for that."
We’ve had some megadeals proposed to us. But both Walter and I see it in its time, really, and as a part of its time, and I think if it was revived, it would be a parody of itself. Which, of course, would be a parody of a parody—which may be a tautology or something else like that.
2. Steely Dan's ‘micro moments’
Indexing the split seconds of pure bliss in the Becker-Fagen catalog
Recently I began taking note of my favorite Steely Dan “micro moments”—the little things I always find myself anticipating, the brief passages that make me lean in or crank the volume. To better grasp the concept, consider the example of “Kid Charlemagne.” Larry Carlton’s guitar solo is, of course, a classic Dan moment. But it’s his concluding fret tap, from 3:04 to 3:07, that is a prime micro moment—three seconds that make you go, Holy shit.
3. The pianist who gave Steely Dan a 'master class'
Paul Griffin on cowriting "The Fez," playing the solo on “Sign in Stranger,” singing on “Peg," and more
As a matter of fact, if it was possible for any younger musicians or writers to get a feel for or telescope into how they put something together, it would be an incredible clinic on research and listening and patience and not settling—just absolutely not compromising, not any one little thing. When it’s put together, it sounds like, “Yeah, sure, that’s right. That’s wonderful.” But if you ever tried to do it, you’d understand that they put a lot into it. That all these little things came to make the sum total. They add up to a style and production that’s overwhelming—and you hear it, and keep hearing it, and it just does things to you.
4. 'You'd die laughing': Michael Omartian on recording with Steely Dan
The pianist aided Becker and Fagen's studio-era transition—and found himself captivated by their comic double act.
There were so many people that you could poke fun at—this whole bubblegum genre was around. And Gary went right with it, and it got to be really silly and pretty funny. I had a running thing with Walter where I would always make a mistake and come in and say, “Man, I’m really sorry I shirked my responsibility as a musician to really practice and be prepared.” And it became the running gag between Walter and me: “You’re shirking again.”
5. The best Steely Dan stories from Michael McDonald’s memoir
Cocaine misadventures with Walter Becker and more from the forthcoming book What a Fool Believes
An entire chapter is given over to the tale of “Michael and Walter’s Not-So-Great Adventure.” “Our plan was simple: we would buy about a half ounce of some of that exceptionally pure cocaine from our old friend Roy and cut it in half, which would still be much better than most coke on the streets of L.A.—the idea being we would not only make some easy money (selling only to our friends, completely under the radar) but end up with a fair portion of blow for our own recreational consumption, free of charge,” McDonald writes. “What could possibly go wrong? Well, true to form, of course we snorted most of it before even getting around to cutting it, let alone selling anything.
6. Steely Dan's mystery man
Listen to a rare, never-published interview with Jim Hodder, the band's shadowy original drummer.
DiMartino: Before we get to that, you were talking about the tail end, it was the spring of ’74, and your last show, I suppose, was at that time.
Hodder: Right. And before that show everything was hunky dory. I mean, I had no idea that on that night, essentially—well, it was early the next morning, everybody took acid that night, to my knowledge, and I ended up at Walter’s house early in the morning, the next morning after that gig, and evidently I ended up at Walter’s and, well, first thing Walter says is, “There is no more band.” And the axe came down. That was it. It was news to me. Like I said, I knew it was a matter of time, I just didn’t know when, you know? I had no idea the Santa Monica gig was the last one. And that morning, early that morning, I sat down and I was pissed at first, and I made a settlement with Walter, a tentative settlement, you know, for a piece of the action for the next two records.
7. The greatest Steely Dan interview of all time
Listen to the exclusive audio of David Breskin's exceptional—and consequential—Gaucho-era conversation with Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.
Becker: Yeah, there were a lot of things where we were just doing the best we could. Fuck it, it wasn’t very good. It’s like looking at yourself in a mirror: it’s not how you look. You ever see a picture of yourself taken in a mirror? That’s not how you look. Left-handed people look weird. I don’t know whether it’s good or not, I really don’t.
Breskin: It would be good to the extent that you can see some growth.
Becker: Yeah, but whether it’s ultimately any good has been preying upon my mind since 1970.
Fagen: Have you ever seen pictures taken of yourself with groups or something like from 1969 or 1970 where the girls have miniskirts and uh—
Becker: Or you’d say, “What is that asshole doing with his arm around [inaudible],” or something like that. Or, “Why was I wearing a sweater with a shirt with a fake turtleneck in it?” or something like that. It’s just aged. But I don’t think that our stuff has aged that much. The stuff that is lousy was lousy then.
8. Donald Fagen narrates the songs of his life
An Eminent Hipsters mixtape
Eminent Hipsters is no ordinary music memoir. In his quest to avoid being “another rock-and-roll geezer making a last desperate bid for mainstream integrity by putting out a book of belles lettres,” Donald Fagen gives us what he calls an “art-o-biography”—a sort of guide to “how the stuff I read and heard when I was growing up affected (stretched, skewed, mangled) my little brain.”
9. Donald Fagen on The Nightfly in 1982
Listen to a never-before-published interview: jazz and conversation with the man at the controls of WJAZ.
Rosen: Are the songs on this album—could they have been done by Steely Dan? I mean, if the differences hadn’t have caused a split.
Fagen: Um, well, there weren’t really any differences. Could they have been done? Well, after working with Walter for so long, our styles sort of converged. So there’s no way for me to separate what I would’ve done by myself without him. So, in a sense, there will always be a little of that in the song. I’m sure if Walter does an album, it won’t sound much different from mine, stylistically.
10. Donald Fagen's mother on nurturing her son's love of music
In a 1993 interview, Elinor Fagen recalls the astonishing moment young Donald first played the piano: "He just knew what he was doing."
We thought he really had some talent, and we brought him into New Jersey’s New School of Music, and we thought possibly he’d wanna take lessons. He played “Exodus” for the teacher, and she thought it was quite unusual that he played such good chords. But she said, “We cannot teach him unless he learns to read notes,” and on the way home he said, “I don’t wanna learn to read notes, I just wanna play.” And that’s what he did—and he just played constantly. He’d come home from school, and he’d just play for hours and hours.
11. Art crimes: the making of three Steely Dan album covers
Photographer and art director Ed Caraeff shares his memories of working on Countdown to Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic, and The Royal Scam.
The photo that’s on the Pretzel Logic gatefold inside, where the band is arranged on an eagle statue—that was shot right in front of the door of my house in Coldwater Canyon. I can’t tell you how many famous people were photographed in and around that house: Elton John, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Tom Waits, Neil Diamond. I shot the Carpenters in the yard. One of the Runaways’ first photo sessions was done there; Joan Jet knocked over my fence with her bad driving. There are a lot of stories from up at that house.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Jake. Thanks for the SD podcast.