I consider 11 Tracks of Whack an uneven record with several good moments and even a few brilliant ones. But it’s not until Track 5 where it takes its first real dip. “Lucky Henry” is of a handful of songs on Whack where Becker uses one harmonic idea in the verses and a completely unrelated one in the chorus. It’s this disjointedness that makes it hard for me to fully buy into these songs even if the clashing ideas sound good standing alone.
The song launches quickly, as Becker dives right into his lyrics, with an odd, circular rhythm. The poetry flows perfectly with the cadence of the song but don’t ask me to make sense of the words; he sailed right over my head this time. The refrain part is jazzier and softer, and could have been expanded out to a whole, nice tune on its own.
Save for that chorus, however, it is a rock guitar heavy song by Steely Dan standards, the hardest either Becker or Fagen has rocked since The Royal Scam. There’s not one by two guitar solos, the first by Adam Rogers and the second by longtime SD session stalwart Dean Parks. Both of these guys are more than up to the job and Parks even gets a little over the top on his turn. It’s also another instance where Becker could have easily taken the spotlight and did this himself, but he submerged his own ego in order to fit the best players for each part.
That’s not enough to make me like the song much, but even when Becker doesn’t succeed, it’s never for lack of trying.
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