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Steely Dan’s 1975 fourth album, “Katy Lied”, is a perfect example of a “sleeper”, but it’s not simply the passage of time that obscures its many-faceted brilliance. Here are Donald Fagen & the late Walter Becker interviewed.
The third Steely Dan album,”Pretzel Logic” in February 1974, has always served as a distinct demarcation line in the evolution of the eclectic band led by my guests, songwriting duo Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. “Pretzel Logic” by Steely Dan is significant because it contained the #4 Billboard hit, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”, with the album Top Ten in sales as well. Rolling Stone magazine ranks “Pretzel Logic” at #386 on their Top 500 Albums of All Time.
Though technically not appearing as Steely Dan on the 1991 return to the stage by Donald Fagen, the New York Rock’n’Soul Revue did include former Steely Dan background singer Michael McDonald, who sings the bridge part along with Fagen on this note perfect live version of “Pretzel Logic”, the title song to the third Steely Dan album.
So was Steely Dan’s debut success in 1972 with “Can’t Buy a Thrill”, spinning off two Top 15 hits and impressive Top 20 sales, a blessing or a curse when it came time less than a year later to follow it up with “Countdown to Ecstasy”? My guests Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker were too smart to get trapped into a simple binary answer here In the Studio.
“Can’t Buy a Thrill” in November 1972 from Steely Dan this first varied assortment of smart pop from the songwriters Donald Fagen and Walter Becker sounds the least like any Steely Dan album which would follow, but my guests Donald Fagen & the late Walter Becker explain why that’s the case In the Studio.
Two purveyors of progressive pop, rock, and jazz in Steely Dan, singer/piano player Fagen and the late guitarist Walter Becker, discuss “Aja” with Redbeard In the Studio.
In memoriam : the echoes In the Studio of Neil Peart of Rush, Walter Becker of Steely Dan, Ric Ocasek of The Cars, Paul Barrere of Little Feat, plus David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Chris Squire & Alan White of YES, Chris Cornell. Part two.
The fact that the Doobie Brothers reinvented themselves for their March 1976 album “Takin’ It to the Streets” is quite widely known, but the reasons for the musical shift, and the manner in which they made it work so successfully, is a fascinating back-story worthy of an HBO mini-series.. On the album’s 50th anniversary, Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, & Michael McDonald are all here In the Studio to recall how it really went down.
This one haunts me. Believe me, I am far from being alone in the admiration and appreciation of the obvious musical talent of singer/songwriter Kevin Gilbert, first demonstrated in Summer 1990 with the collaboration with pop producer Patrick Leonard as Toy Matinee. Gilbert had been a mainstay in the late ’80s singer/songwriter L.A. brat pack […]
“Hotel California” by The Eagles… impressive combination of cinematic vision, songcraft, and high tech production seemed to be coming from a place in the near future to which the rest of rock would have to catch up…Joe Walsh, Don Henley, & the late Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey are my guests In the Studio for “Hotel CA” .