It can be, and has been argued that Don Fagen and Walter Brecker’s band Steely Dan was to the 1970s what The Beatles were to the 1960s. In other words, Steely Dan was not only the best, but most important pop/rock band of its decade. They sure started out on the right foot on their 1972 debut, Can’t Buy A Thrill, reissued on vinyl, which is how we all took it in back then.
The band, always having one foot in jazz, included bopping guests such as Jerome Richardson/ts, Snooky Young/tp, Victor Feldman/perc and Elliot Randall/g. And at this early stage, David Palmer shared the vocals, leading on the classic “Dirty Work”. Along with Becker and Fagen, the team included studio studs such as Jim Hodder/dr, Denny Dias/g and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter/g.
Their rookie album was a portend of things to come, mixing sophisticated rock with swinging and infectious grooves. Tunes like “Do It Again” and “Reelin’ In The Years” are now pop standards, listed in every musicians Fake Book, and already the cleverly cryptic lyrics of Fagen are taking shape, as on “Midnight Cruiser” and “Turn That Heartbeat Over Again”. Like the best of wines, this album sounds better every year.