Word: fagen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Gaucho, its newest release, is typical Steely Dan. It sports a hit single, and Becker and Fagen once again play bass and sing, and co-write all the songs. The "finest studio musicians around," including Dire Straits' guitarist Mark Knopfler and veteran hornmen the Brecker Brothers, Tom Scott and David Sanborn again make appearances. Steely Dan isn't a band, it's a conglomerate. On one cut, sixteen musicians are listed. The result, which lacks the breadth of most big band music, sounds neither spontaneous nor energetic...
...held some promise of transcending everyday pop. But the Latin beat of "Do It Again," the tight guitar work on "Reeling in the Years," seems, in retrospect, contrived and commercial. Now, the band members change from cut to cut, but it doesn't matter. As long as Becker and Fagen are at the helm, everything meshes, sounding like a jamming session between George Benson and the Doobie Brothers (they're even guilty of spawning the new Doobie sound...
...took three years to make," the ads brag. The ads don't mention the contract dispute and auto accident that actually delayed the album. You're supposed to think Dan put more thought into Gaucho than the albums it churned out annually. Not so. When Becker and Fagen assemble an album, it's like a political party picking a presidential candidate: the question becomes one of riding the tide. Thus, they always come up with a hit single. Instead of going disco, they fill the niche perfectly for those golden-oldies stations. This is pop music you can play...
This, from the title song, is typical of the abundant half-finished thoughts which Dan fans call mysterious. Rather than make pronouncements about people outside their lifestyle, Becker and Fagen try to reveal life's secret through riddles about themselves. On "Time Out of Mind," an ode to drugs, they define being high: "It's the light in my eyes--it's perfection and grace--it's the smile on my face." Rock can live without such self-indulgent obscurism. "I was the whining stranger--a fool in love with time to kill," confesses Fagen in "My Rival...
Most bands get started by dedicating years to road work; Dan has toured only once. Becker and Fagen seem satisfied sitting in the studio, sipping Cuervo Gold, calling in friends for an occasional overdub, growing old and rich. And America eats it up. Easy rock with a pseudo-Latin chacha, the formula hits its peak. Even the fast songs sound slow, thanks to the preposterously uninspired dribble of the guitar solos...