This double-album set features late-period performances by the Jazz Messengers found years after Art Blakey passed away.

More than any other track from their debut album, “Only a Fool Would Say That” points the way to what Steely Dan would evolve into.

A band suspended forever between the formalism of Dennis DeYoung’s Broadway pretensions and the harder-edged banalities of James Young and Tommy Shaw, Styx sounded different every time it came on the radio. Yet, critics insisted, somehow the same: Mediocre. You May Also Like: Inside the classic pre-Tommy Shaw moment thatRead More

Enough with the ‘Silk Degrees’ already. Let’s explore elsewhere in Boz Scaggs’ lengthy catalog.

Steely Dan’s “Midnite Cruiser” remains the song Jim Hodder is most remembered by. And it’s a fine way to be remembered.

Here’s an early indication that Steely Dan wasn’t going to dwell on romantic themes in their lyrics.

Emerson Lake and Palmer somehow went from selling 40 million records to becoming one of rock’s more reviled bands – all in the space of a single decade.

Some of the earlier Steely Dan tunes sound a little like they were meant for a different act. “Dirty Work” is like that.

Early fans could be forgiven for barely recognizing Chicago by the 1980s, as fussy power ballads eventually flushed out the band’s signature horn sound.

Steely Dan explore the idea of people succumbing to their worst tendencies again and again, a theme that will get many return visits.