Steely Dan

Certain Songs #2459: Steely Dan – “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”

October 9, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Pretzel Logic
Year: 1974

The first, last and only time I ever purchased a Steely Dan vinyl (or any physical media, really) was when I bought the 7″ single of “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” in the spring of 1974.

Of course, at the time, I had no idea that Steely Dan were on their last legs as an actual group, as the original quintet dissolved after this album, but given the fact that the guitar hooks on “Reelin’ in the Years” and “Show Biz Kids” were played by ringers and that their founding drummer, Jim Hodder, didn’t even play on Pretzel Logic: except for a track where the future guy from Toto played drums, the tragically awesome (or awesomely tragic) Jim Gordon played in it.

Certain Songs #2458: Steely Dan – “Show Biz Kids”

October 8, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Countdown to Ecstasy
Year: 1973

. . .

Because it was a different time, even as “Do it Again” and “Reelin’ in the Years” were ascending the singles charts and Can’t Buy A Thrill the album charts — where it only made it to #17, but cry no tears for the Steely Dan, as it eventually went platinum — Steely Dan were already working on the follow-up, 1973’s Countdown to Ecstasy, which was released a scant eight months after the debut.

Certain Songs #2457: Steely Dan – “Reelin’ in the Years”

October 7, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Can’t Buy a Thrill
Year: 1972

. . .

Whereas Steely Dan had to cut “Do It Again” down to a playable size in order to get it on AM radio, they did no such thing for the follow-up, the utterly incandescent “Reelin’ in the Years,” which is my favorite Steely Dan song bar none. My guess is that I’m not alone in that assertion.

An utterly mean-spirited break-up song, “Reeling in the Years” comes storming out of the gate with a shit-hot guitar solo — which establishes the song’s massive hook — by one Elliott Randall, a lifelong session cat whose wikipedia page lists an insane amount of work in music, TV, film and stage shows. And while Randall was (and is) a long time-friend of Fagen, Becker and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter — who I guess was fine Elliott doing all of the leads — he had no desire to join Steely Dan on full-time basis, which somehow makes all of this even more immortal. (Though he played on other Steely Dan records after Fagen & Becker got rid of everybody else.)

Certain Songs #2456: Steely Dan – “Do It Again”

October 6, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Can’t Buy a Thrill
Year: 1972

. . .

I’m not gonna lie: it’s kinda weird that I’m doing two artists in a row that started out as a band and ended up as a duo. Though, obviously Donald Fagen and Walter Becker figured out how to stay together like after Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan went their separate ways.

I should also point out that outside of their early batch of singles, I have far more respect for Steely Dan than I have love, and so both lovers and haters should know that after 1974, they felt more of a menace than a pleasure, dominating the radio with incredibly high-quality songs that just didn’t do it for me.

Certain Songs #302: De La Soul – “Eye Know”

September 4, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: 3 Feet High & Rising
Year: 1989

Back in the mid-1980s, one of my favorite things in the world to do was to build commercials for various KFSR shows. Someone like The Three O’Clock would be coming to town, and I would spend hours at the KFSR production studio writing and recording commercials and promos and jokes.

This was all analog, of course, so everything I built was the result of splicing songs and words and noises together on a reel-to-reel tape tape using a razor blade, a grease pencil and dead reckoning. But I loved it. I loved the the hours spent rocking the reels back and forth over the tape head in order to determine the exact right place to make a splice.

And even though my voice wasn’t professional and my delivery even less so, the whole process was the perfect combination of creativity & discipline. (Kinda like using digital technology to build Medialoper Bebop 30 years later.)