The biggest disaster Steely Dan had onstage: “Bled through the set”
During my time as a music journalist, the question I find myself most interested in asking is “how do you translate certain songs to a live show?”. Not because I view it as a failsafe question that’s certain to prompt a generic response but instead because I am genuinely curious how certain texturally dense songs can even begin to be tackled in a live show. While they may have rolled their eyes at me for doing so, if I was ever in the same room as Steely Dan, it would have been the first thing I asked.
Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had a fierce reputation for being perfectionists, to the point where several session musicians were shown the exit door of a studio if their take was anything but flawless. In fact, on their seminal record ‘Peg’ Fagan and Becker blitzed through seven different session musicians before landing on the performance of Jay Graydon as the one worthy of being recorded.
It’s that very essence of dorky perfectionism that has made the band a somewhat divisive figure in music history. Not because anybody questions their playing ability, but because their diligence was the antithesis of rock and roll coolness in the 1970s. Steely Dan weren’t the type to smash a guitar on the ground at the end of a set because, well, the guitar is a music instrument that has a purpose.
So while their contemporaries were out smashing up hotel rooms and sniffing any substance in sight, Steely Dan were holed away in the studio tirelessly working on music. As such, the live show was never their strong suit and they were no strangers to the perils of live unpredictability. But while you’d be right in thinking that unpredictability sounds like their nightmare, it wasn’t anything musical that offered up their darkest experience.
When asked what their worst show experience was by Harvey Kubernik, a rather surprising anecdote was revealed. Suitably, Becker’s first memory went to something that involved logistics, stating, “Our most disastrous show was somewhere in North Carolina. Remember the show you wanted to go home after, when the truck arrived 2 hours late?”
A two hour late truck doesn’t exactly scream rock and roll, which is probably why Fagan doesn’t remember it. But in response, he reminded Becker of a bizarre tale that even Ozzy Osbourne would be proud of.
“No, but I remember the one where I plunged a speaker screw about three inches into my skull getting onto the stage and bled through the set,” he explained. “It did give a sort of grand guignol effect” he recalled, before Becker remembered the moment, adding “They thought it was part of the show. And there was a show in Philadelphia once where a former lead singer of ours did sing an entire set a half-tone flat. And as if this weren’t enough, he did see fit to split his pants.”
You can’t help but giggle at this pair of music nerds swiftly bypassing a tale of blood-soaked trauma to instead remember the travesty of a show sung a half-tone flat.
