Some fun facts about this track: 1. “East St. Louis Toodle-oo” is the only Steely Dan track in which Becker and Fagen are not in the songwriting credits. This one was written about fifty years earlier by Duke Ellington and his trumpet player, Bubber Miley. You May Also Like: FiveRead More

The popular line about “Barrytown” is that this is a song disparaging the Unification Church members and followers of its leader, Sun Myung Moon, or “moonies You May Also Like: Walter Becker, “Hard Up Case (Live at Slim’s 1995)” (2024): Steely Dan Sunday Walter Becker, “He Wants You (Out)” (1997):Read More

by Mark Saleski Vertical Vision would remind me of Weather Report even if it didn’t contain a smokin’ reading of “Boogie Woogie Waltz.” Honest!! You May Also Like: Gerry Gibbs & Thrasher People – Weather Or Not (2017) ‘Elegant People: A History of the Band Weather Report,’ by Curt Bianchi:Read More

One litmus test to tell if you’re a baby boomer or older is if you can remember when the term “dude” was only used by surfer dudes or stoners out in California. In those days, everyone was aware of the term, but most people outside those two groups generally stayedRead More

“Night By Night” falls right in the middle of the best three song sequence on any Steely Dan album. Last week we took the occasion of “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” to reflect on the genius of Jim Gordon. If Jim Gordon was the heir to Hal Blaine as theRead More

“Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” was a Top 5 hit in part because Steely Dan didn’t cut corners – especially when it came to the drummer.

It’s something we’ve visited before, but many Steely Dan songs touch on topics from Becker and Fagen’s youth in the 1960s (see “Boston Rag”, “My Old School”). Donald Fagen would later explicitly make an entire album recounting his aspirations and hopes from the late 1950s and early ’60s; I thinkRead More

A country love song delivered almost without any detectable irony is what follows “My Old School” on Countdown To Ecstasy. The charm of Countdown is it being full of styles and devices Becker and Fagen never visited again You May Also Like: Steely Dan, “Bodhisattva” from ‘Northeast Corridor’ (2021): SteelyRead More

Steely Dan’s “My Old School” features a boss, brassy Stax sound plopped right into a piano-driven hard shuffle – making this a fun, foot-stomping number.

Rick Derringer’s gloriously greasy slide guitar assured that “Show Biz Kids” would stand as one of Steely Dan’s better deep cuts.