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On Track – Steely Dan/The Solo Beatles 1969-1980

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Author:Jez Rowden/ Andrew Wild

Two more titles in this excellent, fascinating series, covering Steely Dan, and the solo output of the ex-members of The Beatles up to 1980.

There aren’t, as far as I’m aware, too many books about the Dan, so this one is very welcome. As usual, it starts with a brief history of the very early pre-fame years, before moving on to give a track by track breakdown of each album. Personally, I’m a Pretzel Logic to Gaucho era fan, with an honourable mention for Two Against Nature, and the book gives some interesting insights into the songs and the often torturous recording process. It also rounds up rarities and unreleased tracks, although these are for the most part early songs, other than The Bear from the Aja sessions and The Second Arrangement from the Gaucho era. Also covered are the solo albums by Becker and Fagen – for me The Nightfly is by the best of the bunch, a superb album that Fagen never managed to consistently match with his subsequent releases. A very engaging if all too brief read.

Unlike Steely Dan, there are already a plethora of books on The Beatles and their post break up releases, the latter era being most notably represented by the excellent and very comprehensive Eight Arms To Hold You published around twenty years ago. This new book covers the period from the release of Give Peace A Chance in 1969 to the murder of John Lennon in 1980. There were some great albums in this period, all four band members achieving US number one singles in the early seventies, but there are many releases that are now largely forgotten and neglected, some deservedly so – when was the last time you played Sometime In New York City, Thirty Three and a Third, London Town and Goodnight Vienna for example? Again, there is a song by song analysis of each album, the good the bad and the ugly! The committed fan probably knows most of the stories already, but for the more casual listener of the big hit records such as Imagine, All Things Must Pass and Band On The Run, there’s lots to enjoy and learn – and if it inspires the reader to listen to some of these albums again, as it did me, then that’s all to the good – it’s a intriguing little game to put together an imaginary album containing the cream of each members releases

Length of Read:Short

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Other books in this series.

One thing you’ve learned

You never stop learning!

6

Comments

  1. It’s a decent little series of books. I love books about rock (and movies) you can just dip into.

    But… the covers are awful! They really need to do rethink the design. They just look cheap.

  2. Oh might put on the wish list (the Dan, that is). On DF, I played “The Nightfly” endlessly when it came out but I tend to play “Morph the Cat” and “Sunken Condos” more often than not these days. “Karmakeriad” never did it for me for some reason. Too “Gaucho”-y.

    • Question – I’m not really a Steely Dan fan, but I love Do It Again. It’s a brilliant song with a terrific groove to it. Is that song respected by Dan fans, or is it seen as one of those cheesy mainstream hits that true fans would scoff at? Is telling a Dan fan I like Do It Again equivalent to telling a Zep fan I like Stairway to Heaven or a Queen fan I like Bohemian Rhapsody?

      • Not for me. It was my introduction to SD back in the day, and it still sounds great to me. I don’t think it’s had anywhere near the (over)exposure of those 2 other tracks, at least in the UK.

        • Re: “Do it Again”

          “Now you swear and kick and beg us that you’re not a gamblin’ man;
          Then you find you’re back in Vegas with a handle in your hand
          Your black cards can make you money so you hide them when you’re able
          In the land of milk and honey you must put them on the table”

          Yeah, great song. Great song.

          • These lines have personal resonance for me 🙁 (sighs):

            “Then you love a little wild one, and she brings you only sorrow
            All the time you know she’s smilin’; you’ll be on your knees tomorrow”

        • Oh, I think I could live happily without ‘Parker’s Band’ from Pretzel Logic; reminds me of the Dan doing the New Vaudeville Band. Possibly ‘My Rival’ from Gaucho; just a bit dull. And ‘Aja’ (the track, not the the whole album) is another one I often skip; it’s a tad too over-polished for my taste and falls off the edge into extended gloopyness.

            • His drums are indeed a fine thing but are only a part of the whole track. Which, I still contend, tiptoes on the verge of being slightly too clever for its own good.

                • I’m not overly fond of the sax solo on Parker’s Band, because it sounds a bit too ’70s and the song is about a ’40s bebopper, but what I DO like are the references to bebop tunes they sneaked into the lyrics. “You’ll be Groovin’ High or Relaxing At Camarillo”.

                  • “Spend a dizzy weekend smacked in a trance” just like Bird. The opening guitar plays all the be-bop.

                    Jim Hodder was the band’s drummer but just sings backing vocals. Jim Gordon and Jeff Porcaro take his place. I wonder what he thought.

                    • Pretzel Logic was the point at which Becker and Fagen started to abandon the Steely Dan-as-a-band idea in favour of making recordings that sounded how they envisioned the songs.
                      Both previous albums had the occasional guest drafted in, Elliot Randall on “Can’t Buy a Thrill”, Rick Derringer and Ray Brown on “Countdown to Ecstasy”, but on “Pretzel Logic” it was wholesale. I think Jim Hodder and Skunk Baxter had already gone by the time the album was completed.

                • Yup. One of my favourites on my favourite Dan album. Parker’s Band is hymn of praise to their heroes and Fagen’s childhood. It’s a great reminder that despite how good they were, they would have preferred to have been different people playing different music – which I think adds to their interest.

      • I recall Do It Again being played quite often on daytime Radio 1. I have the feeling that it was a favourite of DLT’s. It possibly fit certain DJs idea of ‘proper music’, i.e. easy listening, soft rock. Despite that handicap their records really have a timelessness and sophistication that makes it hard to ruin them. Then again their stuff never really got overplayed.

        • I remember my sister telling me she heard Do It Again at a disco around the time of release and told the DJ to keep playing it – she then bought the LP and that was my first introduction to them….just to add that she was about 16 at the time! It is a marvellous song which never dates.

    • Sunken Condos was that classic “return to form” – I play it much more than Kamakiriad or Morph the Cat. I don’t need to play The Nightfly – I can just listen in my head I’ve played it so often.
      11 tracks of whack is better than Circus
      Money, but I listen to both more than MtC and K, or 2aN or ETMG

  6. Think I will have to investigate. I’m a recent Dan convert.

    “When was the last time you played London Town?” Well, yesterday. No pun intended.

          • Their own “Live In America” has a far worse cover, in my opinion. Also it’s a pretty duff album, apart from the extended version of “Green Earrings”, which is the one cover band Stanley Dee base their live version on.
            All those on @Twang‘s Spotify playlist are in Stanley’s repertoire except Razor Boy, Showbiz Kids, Your Gold Teeth II, Chain Lightning, Gaslighting Abbie, Almost Gothic, Godwhacker, Lunch With Gina, Green Book and Everything Must Go. But maybe I’m mistaken about Gaslighting Abbie and Lunch With Gina.
            The Donald Fagen complete solo albums box “Cheap Xmas” has a worse cover too (also the “10 Extras” bonus album in the box, which uses the same picture), but I suspect it was a deliberate decision on Donald’s part.

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