How a misunderstood song from 1973 became a Steely Dan favourite
While Steely Dan are loved by their legions of fans, the band’s unique and caustic style has made them the ultimate outliers in popular music.
Their stark inversion of the norm is so extensive that the group’s material is frequently misunderstood by those unfamiliar with their work and, sometimes, even by their own fans. Whether this is regarding their surreal lyrics, the blend of musical styles or complex compositions, while there is a lot to love about Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s band, there are barriers in the way of the uninitiated.
The most confounding factors regarding Steely Dan are their sound and aesthetic, which are ostensibly hippie. However, their case is more complex than it appears at face value. Both the group’s founders, Fagen and Becker, were such hipsters that they had great disdain for the counterculture in college during the 1960s. Frequently tied to the scene by their long hair and heady music, they’ve always fought against the connection.
Noted misanthropes, Jay Black – who played in Jay and the Americans with the pair for a brief period – would later label them “the Manson and Starkweather of rock and roll”, referring to cult leader Charles Manson and spree killer Charles Starkweather. Despite being slightly over the top, this comparison outlines how Steely Dan would take an axe to established musical tropes and create something entirely new.
This disdain for conventions would also serve to scintillate and perplex listeners, with one of their best-loved pieces, ‘Bodhisattva’ from 1973’s Countdown to Ecstasy, indicative of this tendency. It was majorly misunderstood when first released. For context, a Bodhisattva is a Buddhist who has reached enlightenment, just as the religion’s founder, the Buddha, did too. They also have the ability to depart physical existence for a higher plane, yet choose to remain human to help others achieve freedom.
Whilst listeners believed that the track was a means of the band fully dedicating themselves to Buddhism with lines such as “Bodhisattva/ Would you take me by the hand” and “Bodhisattva/ I’m gonna sell my house in town”, the reality is very different. The root of their decision-making is actually one of the most sardonic pieces in their arsenal.
Fagen would later explain that the song is “sort of a parody on the way Western people look at Eastern religion – sort of oversimplify it. We thought it was rather amusing – most people didn’t get it.”
That tension between appearance and intention sat at the heart of Steely Dan’s entire identity during the 1970s. Their music borrowed from jazz, blues and psychedelic rock, genres closely tied to the fading ideals of the counterculture, but Becker and Fagen approached them with a detached cynicism that sharply contrasted with the earnestness of many of their peers.
Rather than preaching enlightenment or social change, Steely Dan often populated their songs with hustlers, failures and morally compromised characters drifting through modern America.
In that sense, ‘Bodhisattva’ works less as a spiritual anthem and more as a satire of Western fascination with Eastern philosophy during the era.
As Buddhism, transcendental meditation and other spiritual movements became increasingly fashionable among affluent young Americans, Becker and Fagen saw an opportunity to poke fun at the superficial way many people adopted those ideas. Beneath the song’s frantic piano lines and euphoric energy sits a deliberately exaggerated version of spiritual yearning, one that feels far more ironic than devotional.
Composer David Nichtern worked with Walter Becker on Krishna Das’ 2005 album, All One, and is a senior teacher of Shambhala Buddhism. Sitting down with Songfacts in 2015, he explained more about Bodhisattvas. He said: “Bodhisattvas are a certain aspect of Buddhism, and they’re a kind of compassionate beings. Their speciality is helping other beings. It’d be similar to the concept of a saint in Christian tradition. They really dedicate their lives towards the well-being of others.”
Interestingly, Steely Dan were the first to use the word “Bodhisattva” in popular music. Then, in 1992, rap-rock pioneers Beastie Boys joined them when they released ‘Bodhisattva Vow’ on Check Your Head. Notably, the song explored the trio’s spiritual side, with them having a newfound interest in Tibetan – Shambhala – Buddhism.
