Steely Dan’s third long-player Pretzel Logic arrived on Feb. 20, 1974, as a pinnacle achievement for the premier jazz-pop rock band and one of those great classic rock albums of the ’70s. That’s worth some sort of review from the perspective of judging how well it’s aged over the years, but it’s been done a billion times already. Besides, we already dissected this album song-by-song, if that’s what you’re looking for.
Instead, why not explore Walter Becker and Donald Fagen’s masterpiece by picking out five sweet little moments from Pretzel Logic that sets Steely Dan apart from any other rock band of their time?
They actually did a lot more than what’s listed below to make Pretzel Logic a sophisticated rock ideal that ultimately became Steely Dan’s most daring and wide-ranging LP (and this is coming from a huge Aja fan). These are only a handful of examples of the genius they put into this album:
1. AN ELECTRIC MARIMBA INTRO
(‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’)
Steely Dan scored a radio hit with “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” but what 95 percent of listeners assumed is the beginning of this song is instead a famous lift from Horace Silver’s “Song For My Father.” Their radio edit removed a passage before that, this dark, eerie and dissonant solo electric marimba passage by Victor Feldman. So instead of the song – and Pretzel Logic – being ushered in by post-bop, it’s actually kicked off by avant-garde jazz. We already knew those guys listened to a lot of Blue Note records, but evidently, a few ESP-Disk LPs made it into their rotation, too.
2. A TIGHT SYNCOPATED GROOVE
(‘Night By Night’)
OK, so this isn’t so much a moment; it’s almost the entire song. Still, this syncopated clavinet groove bears pointing out. After Billy Preston dropped “Outa-Space” on us in 1972, the instrument became the most potent weapon for discharging funk over the next four or five years. Stevie Wonder (“Superstition”) and Herbie Hancock (“Chameleon”) did some wonderful things with the clavinet too, but a couple of white guys from New York City constructed this groove using it with Jeff Porcaro’s circular drum figure and Denny Dias’ rhythm guitar in contrapuntal perfection. The whole thing works together so well that the clavinet (played by Toto co-founder David Paich) only needs to play one chord over and over again. Less is more, in this case.
3. A REFERENCE TO AN OBSCURE, MYTHICAL CREATURE
(‘Any Major Dude Will Tell You’)
Plebeians talk about unicorns when they want to discuss imaginary animals. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen use a squonk. A squonk? Yeah, you know, an ugly forest creature that dissolves completely in its own tears when cornered. “Have you ever seen a squonk’s tears? Well, look at mine …”
4. AN ELECTRIC GUITAR MIMICKING A PLUNGED TRUMPET
(‘East St. Louis Toodle-Oo’)
On the only cover song ever included on a Steely Dan album, this also marks Walter Becker’s introduction on lead guitar. He makes his first impression with a dead-on impersonation of the song’s co-composer Bubber Miley’s plunged horn using a wah-wah pedal. Other aspiring rock guitarists in the ’60s were picking apart Jeff Beck’s and Eric Clapton’s solos. Meanwhile, Becker was following along to Duke Ellington records from the late 1920s. By looking way back, he was looking way forward.
Skunk Baxter’s turn on pedal steel is pretty damned cool, too.
5. THAT FUZZY, ORNERY BASS
(‘Monkey In Your Soul’)
On the one hand, this over-amped bass guitar from Becker might be a “love it or hate it” kind of thing. On the other, if it wasn’t for that growling noise raining down all of this frayed funk, the song would have sounded rather ordinary by Steely Dan standards. So kudos for going for the jugular in making “Monkey In Your Soul” a danceable ditty that stays in your cranium long after the final note is played and the needle traverses toward the runout groove of the vinyl. Or in whatever form you listen to Pretzel Logic today.
- Emily Remler – ‘Cookin’ At The Queens, Live In Las Vegas 1984 & 1988′ (2024) - December 9, 2024
- Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin – ‘SPIN’ (2024) - December 8, 2024
- Dan Blacksberg – ‘The Psychic/Body Sound System’ (2024) - December 1, 2024
Aja is their seminal jazz/rock record. Pretzel Logic is their seminal rock/jazz record. The Royal Scam is their seminal guitar record. Aja, however, is the recording honored and preserved by the Library of Congress.
Cheers Don and Walter!! My first Dan. Squonk. Oh. A forever fan! Even do some solo covers….