“Every single song is spectacular”: Joey Kramer once picked Steely Dan’s most faultless album
Any great rock and roll producer knows to build an entire track out with the drums first. No one can manage to play the right guitar lick without having the pocket in there beforehand, and every single Aerosmith song was usually driven by Joey Kramer playing the right drum fill to lead the band back in every time a section breaks. But for all of the reliance on feel and groove, Kramer never forgot about the real technician side of what rock and roll was all about.
Then again, Kramer’s disciple on the drums came from within the band before he even picked up the sticks. Steven Tyler had already put in time as a drummer years before Kramer had started, and while he may have been a massive presence behind the kit in his older outfits, Kramer admitted that Tyler was responsible for the nervous twitch in his eye once he started working on their new material.
But that was always done in service to the song. Tyler may not have needed to yell at him in the same way that Terrence Fletcher did in Whiplash, but listening back to how the entire band grooves on a song like ‘Sweet Emotion’ and ‘Walk This Way’, the drums may as well be the lead instrument alongside Joe Perry’s guitar. For any true drum track, though, it was important to reference the studio legends.
Ringo Starr may be the archetype of how to serve the song, but everyone from Jim Keltner to Hal Blaine of The Wrecking Crew were instrumental in how rock and roll drums were supposed to sound. So when there are those drummers out there that are strictly technicians, it was a no-brainer for Steely Dan to come calling for all of them when making some of their classic records.
“Even though this record was done in the late ’70s, it still stands up really well.”
Joey Kramer
For all of their efforts over the years to get that massive drum sound, though, there’s no touching an album like Aja. The Royal Scam may have a bit more edge to the production, and Gaucho has a far more pristine sound to it, but nothing is out of place on this record, especially when looking at the way that Bernard Purdie leaned into his signature shuffle on some of the deep cuts.
Although Kramer was far more in line with what Aerosmith was doing by this point, he wasn’t even going to begin to argue with Steely Dan making a phenomenal record, saying, “It’s one of my all-time favourite albums. Every single song on that record is spectacular. And, of course, it’s got a very famous drum solo on it [during the song ‘Aja’] done by the wonderful Mr. Steve Gadd. Even though this record was done in the late ’70s, it still stands up really well.”
Granted, any musician who’s mildly interested in production can get something out of this record. If you’re not in the mood for drum production, any guitar on this record is played to perfection as well, even when Walter Becker manages to break his vows of silence and hold the spotlight for a brief second.
A lot of people might look at Steely Dan as the passable dad rock outfit from yesteryear, but if they have any sense of taste when it comes to performances, there’s really no arguing with any of the performances here. There are different ways of approaching how the drums are played, but anyone who denies themselves ‘The Purdie Shuffle’ should probably be checked to see if they still have a soul.
