Major Dudes: A love letter

The first time I had ever listened to Steely Dan was back in my youth when Rockband 2 was in its heyday. I was 13, discovering classic rock and obsessing over the game and it's tracks: Teen Age Riot, Ace of Spades, Bad Reputation, Spoonman, the list of fantastic songs goes on. My dad raised me on Led Zeppelin, Rage Against the Machine and 90's grunge. My mom's playlists consisted of 80's Pop, Quiet Storm radio and whatever was on the radio at the time. Amongst the list of amazing tracks on Rockband was Bodhisattva; it certainly wasn't the most memorable song of the bunch but it still ended up on my iPod. The guitar solos were fun to play in the game and it was a fast paced, bluesy song. Shortly after adding it to my library of music and playing it a couple of times, I didn't intentionally seek out or search up any music by Steely Dan for many years.

My next encounter with the Dan came almost 14 years later. I was living with roommates in Portland, Oregon and beginning to explore the wonderful world of vinyl and high-fidelity audio. My collection began as a cheap combination turntable and a few record-store day purchases alongside some antique store rarities that didn't sound all that good. I really had no idea what I was doing but I fell in love with owning a physical, unique copy of my favorite albums. I was exploring a local church-owned secondhand store on a random weekend when I came across a copy of Cant Buy a Thrill on the record shelf. I remember the album art captivating me; alongside the copies of well worn classical, Christmas, oldies and folk records, this one LP stood out. At the time I hadn't even made the connection back to my Bodhisattva days, but I figured for a couple bucks I could give Steely Dan a shot. For a couple bucks why not?

Now, at the time of writing this, I have well over a hundred records in my awesome collection. I've inherited an old Harmon-Kardon stereo system from my dad, hooked up to a Fluance RT85 with a Ortofon 2M Blue Cartridge, two 301 Series III Bose speakers and a subwoofer that, if I so desired, could rattle my entire apartment complex and probably damage the building foundation. Among the collection of records is *almost* every Steely Dan album on analog-mastered pressings from original 70's and 80's releases.

What the hell happened? Is this what mental illness looks like?

If anything, my love for Steely Dan has not only helped me in times of great sorrow, but it has also elevated my musical experience and set me on a journey of discovering new artists and genres. Their music helped me understand what was possible with vinyl and what you should look for when purchasing a record. They train you to stop and read the production credits on every album to see if there's any names you recognize. It's smooth and easy on the ears, but if you choose to listen closely you'll unlock a whole world of hidden treasures. But God forbid you read along with the lyrics, for that is the point of no return when going down the Donald and Walter rabbit hole.

For me, the plunge into their music began with their song Midnite Cruiser off that record I found at the secondhand store. My jazz background was extremely sparse, but the reference to Thelonius Monk intrigued me. A quick search on the Genius lyrics website told me that Monk was one of Doanld Fagen's heroes and that much of Steely Dan's music incorporated jazz elements and complex chords. Midnite Cruiser was a cryptic love letter to a time that was long gone by 1972, from someone who calls themselves a "gentleman loser" which is an oddly fitting description for a snobby-jazz elitist. The gatefold on Can't Buy a Thrill had all the other songs' lyrics printed on the inside, and therein was the black hole that sucked me in.

The next turning point in my Steely Dan deep dive came when I first listened to their 1974 masterpiece Katy Lied. It was 3:00 PM, I had just gotten off work, a record-hot summer was just around the corner and I was stuck in rush hour traffic on Airport Way. With time in traffic to kill, I decided to blast to this weird looking album with the bug on the cover. Up to this point, based on what I'd seen online and on Spotify, Katy Lied was one of Steely Dan's less popular albums. The blurry album cover photo of a grasshopper wasn't the most inviting art of all time, either. What followed after I hit "play" was, what felt like at the time, the best 40 minutes of music I had ever heard in my life. I couldn't believe my ears.

Katy Lied saw the Dan venture into a full time studio band, no longer touring and focusing on capturing magic in the booth. They recruited some fresh, young talent to help them record their new album including greats like Rick Derrigner, Jeff Porcaro, Michael McDonald and Larry Carlton. It was this insane lineup of musicians that deepened the Steely Dan rabbit hole for me; looking at the records I already owned and seeing familiar names pop up over and over again. Bernard Purdie, Steve Gadd, Tom Scott, Lee Ritenour, Keith Carlock. In combination with the internet and Spotify, the pit of of music history seems endless.

Perhaps the most influential of these Steely Dan features was Wayne Shorter and his brief but mighty appearance on the title track to their masterpiece album, Aja. This discovery, along with the knowledge of Thelonius Monk from Midnite Cruiser, began a journey for me through the jazz iceberg that still barely even begins to scratch the surface. The world of jazz is immense and it's difficult to say where the right place is to start with it. I'm glad I let it happen naturally for me through Steely Dan's music, and in a way their way of recording music is reflective of how jazz was recorded too: ensembles of various musicians, brought in for rhythms and solos that fit the songs's style, recorded and mastered to capture the warmth and magnitude of the music.

Even now, I still find it hard to believe that in their time, Steely Dan were making pop music. They set a new lyrical and sonic standard for popular music, all the while singing about drugs, infidelity, criminals and pedophiles. In their heyday, they weren't as popular as other bands on the radio but they squeezed in a hit single every now and then. My generation is just now discovering the brilliance of their music and with this discovery, a resurgance in Steely Dan's music has come about. The great thing about streaming services is how easy they make it to discover new artists and music, and by the same measure discover old artists for the first time and catch up with what's been around.

Good for you, Morgan! But what's the point of all this? Why should I go out of my way and listen to Steely Dan?

So much of music history, theory and appreciation can be found in Steely Dan. Although their lyrics are cynical and their worldview as a creative duo is apparent, it is also very clear that Donald and Walter have a serious passion and love for music. This same love and passion Steely Dan puts into their music has rubbed off on me in an amazing way, and it's my hope that anyone reading this might be inspired to check out Steely Dan for themselves and allow that passion to engulf them as well.

-morgan