Posted on 03/09/2022 12:46:42 PM PST by Bullish
Like many of the biggest groups of the early 1970s, Steely Dan grew up under the shadow of The Beatles. When Donald Fagen and Walter Becker came together in 1971, the pioneering group had already been broken up for more than a year. They may have wondered if they had somehow absorbed the ghost of ‘The Fab Four’ and that it was their responsibility to carry the flame in their absence. Indeed, Fagen and Becker intentionally modelled themselves off The Beatles, choosing to emphasise writing and recording than relentless touring. However, Steely Dan could also be highly critical of The Beatles’ former members at times, as the song ‘Only A Fool Would Say’ makes devastatingly clear.
By the mid-1970s, Steely Dan was less of a band and more of a musical operation with Becker and Fagen in the directorial chair. When the pair formed Steely Dan in 1971, they’d always dreamt of it being a space for them to showcase their “special material”. But for a long time, they were forced to write bubblegum pop tunes for artists like Tommy Roe or The Grass Roots. After Donald Fagen’s panic disorder made it impossible for him to front the group and money problems began making touring unfeasible, they decided to take a turn inwards and make their home in the studio, where they quietly honed their ecstatic brand of jazz-infused rock, relying on a stream of talented session musicians.
As time went by, Steely Dan garnered a huge fanbase and several notable fans, including Paul McCartney. However, Macca’s former bandmate, John Lennon, wasn’t so enamoured. The two artists likely crossed paths during Lennon’s time in New York, where Steely Dan had been based since their inception, but it’s unlikely they ever became particularly close. Not least because Steely Dan wrote a song mocking Lennon’s 1971 track ‘Imagine’.
One of the most intoxicating tracks from Steely Dan’s 1972 album Can’t Buy A Thrill, ‘Only A Fool Would Say’, opens with an upbeat bossa nova groove crafted from layers of conga, snare, strummed acoustic guitar, and undulating bass. Floating above mellow electric guitar lines, Donal Fagen paints a picture of Lennon as an ignorant aristo whose talk of world peace is completely at odds with the life of the poor and impoverished. “Our world become on/ Of salads and sun / Only a fool would say that,” he begins “A boy with a plan / A natural man /Wearing a white stetson hat”.
Fagen’s image of Lennon as the highfalutin elitist is quickly contrasted with another artfully rendered portrait: this time of the “man in the street” who doesn’t have the luxury of believing in some hippie’s utopian ideal. Fagen tells Lennon to have a little more empathy, to understand that asking somebody with nothing to abandon their worldly possessions and pursue a life of immaterialism is, at best, laughable, and at worst, dangerously insensitive. “You do his nine to five / Drag yourself home half alive / And there on the screen / A man with a dream,” Fagen sings.
The sentiment behind Steely Dan’s lyrics is likely quite familiar. When Gal Gadot organised a Hollywood singalong of Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ in the first month of the Covid-19 pandemic, she was immediately criticised for misreading the room. Far from sparking a surge in benevolent acts of kindness, listeners found a disconnect between Gadot and the gang’s call for the jobless to “imagine no possessions”, and that fact the various stars who contributed to the rendition were singing from multi-million dollar mansions. Clearly, Fagen was right to mock Lennon; his lyrics are still causing outcry to this day.
Hopefully you have a huge collection :)
“...he was known to dish it out too. “And Your Bird Can Sing” being one example.”
I forget who or what was he ridiculing.
I think I heard once, but forgot.
Michael McDonald and his massive ego destroyed every band he was ever a part of. I also can’t stand his singing voice.
Yeah. I was “trapped” in high school with all these horrible bands being so popular and ubiquitous.
One of the things I love best about Steely Dan is the music is so upbeat and happy and the lyrics are so dark. That cognitive dissonance is great.
Thanks...Listened and I just had to fingertip tap along with it.
“Well, you must like ziffer music or something then.”
Not particularly, but better than Steely Dan for sure.
And Ziffer isn’t even a musical instrument.
Do you mean a pan pipe or a zither?
“The Beatles were bad but they weren’t the worst.”
No. Steely Dan was.
Ask the Babylon Sisters. :)
I don’t know what’s wrong with you but enjoy your Lawrence Welk and I’ll stick to my roots.
Your story reminded me of my situation: initially I liked them, bought two of their albums. Then, while I college a very sexy woman moved into the apartment above me. She had two annoying habits. First, she was a cocktail waitress and got home each night shortly after midnight, usually not alone. I was invariably awakened by the steady drumming of her headboard against the wall. This succeeded in waking me up and getting me in the mood, IYKWIM. Unfortunately, it did not have the same effect on my wife. The second was she played Steely Dan endlessly. I must have heard Bodishatva 100 times. I have not played Steely Dan since.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you but enjoy your Lawrence Welk and I’ll stick to my roots.”
What’s wrong with Lawrence Welk?
What’s wrong with Steely Dan is they’re the Lawrence Welk of Rock when Lawrence Welk isn’t rock.
So...what do YOU like...?
I always find it interesting so many people have become so ingrained/ programmed into 1-4-5 music (basic blues type progressions). Such that anything outiside of that is either dismissed or relegated into jazz/ hybrid/ other music.
It is really unfortunate how homogenized/ generic/ packaged so much is these days.
It really seems all of these songs are pumped out of the same few writers, bought up and wrapped up as pop, rock, country, hip hop. The only thing changing is the instrumentation, and the accents.
“Ask the Babylon Sisters. :)”
Bzzzt. Fail.
Anything good.
I was listening to Cleoma Breaux last night.
“Lève tes fenêtres haut.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lgr27656hgU
“Ah one, and ah two, and ah…”
“ One of the most intellectual of all rock bands.”
Many many years ago I worked in record stores. Several of them, for years, before I went on to labels.
The majority of Steeley Dan purchasers were of a specific type, more so with the earlier stuff. The stoned pseudo-intellectual liberal arts major who thinks it’s jazzy enough to intoxicate the “natural” girls he tries to date. If he can actually get one into his shared studio apartment that is.
Yeah. Thanks.
Rolling Stones are kind of crappy but a lot better than Steely Dan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.