I am on day four of a four day headache where looking at my laptop or my phone for more than a little bit causes me to feel like a boa constrictor is wrapping itself around my head. (This weekend’s Evangelion post may also end up delayed for this reason.)
But, coincidentally, I had asked to explain Steely Dan to me, and the email he wrote was so charming I asked if I could reproduce it here so you could have something to read while I languish with a cool gel pack on my forehead. He agreed! So here you go.
He wants me to stress that I asked him to do this as trying to get your girlfriend into Steely Dan is a “classic boyfriend activity” (derogatory). But as I mentioned recently I really have very spotty knowledge of popular music, so I’m motivated more by generalized curiosity than anything else.
It’s turning into sort of a summer of fun playlists as I recently swapped some with a friend. What do we call these… they aren’t mix tapes… mixlists? Anyway.—BDM
caveat: i actually don’t know anything about Steely Dan
Phase 1: Austin & Greg1 Early Friendship
Dirty Work (Can’t Buy a Thrill, 1972)
Atypical in lots of ways. Early early, but their second-most streamed track on Spotify. Donald Fagen isn’t singing lead, instead it’s Some Guy. Most of all because it’s a simple, straightforwardly verse-chorus lyrics-driven song, as opposed to their later music-for-musicians studio stuff. But it retains its effect somehow, maybe because of the telling details that evoke the infidelity.
It has a saxophone solo, better get used to those.
Taylor Equivalent: “Illicit Affairs”
My Old School (Countdown to Ecstasy, 1973)
A bop. Source of lyrics on the t-shirt I received on my t-shirt. Many Steely Dan hallmarks surfacing here: the rueful-yet-hip tone; the fragmentary story built up out of telling if cryptic details, a sort of narrative pointillism. At 5:49 it is far from the longest song on this list, better get used to that, too.
Taylor Equivalent: “Tis the Damn Season”
Rikki Don’t Lose That Number (Pretzel Logic, 1974)
Probably top 3 in terms of non-fans knowing it, probably because of the the iconic bassline? Acrobatically melodic, maybe Donald Fagen trusting his singing chops a little more? Emotionally, finds a plaintive yet generously sympathetic tone. “When you get home”… where has she been?
Taylor Equivalent: hmmm, is there? A “someone left but they might come back” song?2
Phase 2: Austin Is Driving Around By Himself Crying
Bad Sneakers (Katy Lied, 1975)
Losing one’s shit far from home. Notable for Fagen’s verbal agility (how he skips through “fearsome excavation on Magnolia Boulevard” with aplomb). “You wear that white tuxedo how you gonna beat the heat?” = relatable.
Taylor Equivalent: First thought was “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart,” except this person clearly can’t.
Oof, doesn’t need much explanation. Another plain verse-chorus with Sentimental lyrics, but elevated (as in Bad Sneakers) by backup harmonies from Michael McDonald. Driving, crying, in the night.
Taylor Equivalent: “I Know Places”
Phase 3: Personae
Kid Charlemagne (The Royal Scam, 1976)
My gateway song but I think it holds up, a West Coast noir. My sister gave me this album on cassette tape with a track list in pencil. Never explained why.
Taylor Equivalent: “Getaway Car”
Included because everyone calls this the quintessential Dan song. Over-the-top Sad Dad in Margaritaville Energy, but I suppose it’s not truly bad. At 7:35 only the second longest track on the list.
Taylor Equivalent: John Mayer late night drunk-listening to “Dear John,” over and over.
Second of three Aja songs. Another loser song but more upbeat and sardonic.
Taylor Equivalent: “Clean,” or “Death by a Thousand Cuts” perhaps but Peg has a rarefied emotional rejection space all its own.
Included because it’s a take on the Odyssey. According to legend they spent six hours recording just the words “Well, the”—true or not, this one has all of their love-it-or-hate-it studio perfectionism on show. Many are the fans of the drum track—Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, whose solo on the title track is the GOAT.
Taylor Equivalent: “Last Great American Dynasty”
Phase 4: It’s Fucking Three in the Morning
Babylon Sisters (Gaucho, 1980)
Truly canonical yacht-rock beat, and everything about it feels like you own a yacht although a cheap one. Jaded sexuality is a not unfamiliar theme, but I think notable for its frankness, unsentimentality but also a certain emotional specificity.
Taylor Equivalent: Hopefully none
My favorite Dan song of course. The lyrics are written as one side of a two- (or three-?) sided conversation. They do it elsewhere (“Everything You Did”), but the greatness is in how lived-in the writing feels, I always feel like I get the whole relationship out from it. And the naturalist phrasing plays against the precise swaying framework of the song’s rhythm. I finally looked up what a “gaucho” is; that sort of works too.
Taylor Equivalent: “We Are Never Getting Back Together”
West of Hollywood (Two Against Nature, 2000)
Last song on what I thought at the time was their last album—note the twenty-year gap between this and Gaucho. Takes off like a freight train from a standing start, but then it’s sort of ruined by being eight minutes long but whatever, Dan’s gonna Dan at least they don’t back down.
Taylor Equivalent: none, but “I’m way deep into nothing special” has a certain resonance.
Also, obligatory plug from me: while the print version of Austin’s new book is only available in England, American readers can get both the ebook and the audiobook at Bezos Corp. It’s good!—BDM
Greg is Austin’s friend.—BDM
“Right Where You Left Me”?—BDM
slow hanging pitch down the middle of my strike zone
I have loved Steely Dan ever since (yes!) my boyfriend got me into them in 1979. Love them SO MUCH. Now I guess I have to compare all the Taylor Swift songs and see if I agree with the rough equivalencies.
One thing I have learned over the years, as Fagen has been more open to interviews, is that any reference or phrase that I don't quite understand is about drugs. Things that I thought were about love are actually about drugs. Things that I thought were simple declarative sentences with clear meaning are actually about drugs. I hope Taylor doesn't live in such a drug-saturated universe.