They're known as studio musicians because they record and re-record dozens of times to get the sound they want. Gaucho has only seven songs on the album, but they went through 11 sound engineers and more than forty musicians to record it.
I've read that in the past, they did a lot of studio work because it was a way to stay close to their drug suppliers.
Many of their songs are about or reference drugs. Dr. Wu is a real doctor who helped them kick drugs. Kid Charlemagne is about chemist Owsley Stanley. Time Out of Mind is about shooting heroin. And so on.
I agree that they are great live, though.
I attended their first concert on their Second Tour in Minneapolis early 2000s, and read the writeup on it in the Minneapolis Star. Highlights:
* They were a studio band to back up the 3 chord wonders who had hit songs. They decided they could do better.
* They took their name from the book “Naked Lunch”, written by journalists who were jealous of money and fame gained by those writing “trashy novels” like “Valley of the Dolls.” The lead character of one chapter named her vibrator “Steely Dan”.
* They started their first tour in Minneapolis in the 90s with warm up band “Taj Mahal”. Taj was great. Steely Dan couldn’t get their sound right, and they stunk. They cancelled the rest of the tour.
* They eventually learned how to make their sound on tour. They started their Second Tour in Minneapolis to “redeem their honor”.
* They played to a sold out crowd. They started with a comment: “What’s going on? Most of you weren’t even born when we first recorded most of our songs.”
* They were a hit.
Very interesting - thanks for that