The 10 greatest Steely Dan songs ranked
Steely Dan remain one of the ultimate cult bands. Formed in 1971 by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen after meeting at New York’s Bard College in the 1960s, their rise was swift. Together the pair created an instantly recognisable sound that would continue to evolve for the better, despite many changes in lineups and a growing preference for increasingly complex pieces.
Fusing surreal black humour with a jazz sensibility, since they broke through with their 1972 debut album Can’t Buy a Thrill, Steely Dan have managed to appeal to the hipsters and the masses. This can be attributed to the fact that despite the highbrow leanings of their music, their hypnotic melodies and catchy choruses are hard to ignore, finding love with numerous generations.
One of the most notable facets of the band is that the two also bonded over a general disdain for hippiedom, the great social movement of their day. There’s an irony to this, as Steely Dan are widely categorised as a hippie group in the aesthetic and musical sense. However, after digging into their music more deeply by reading their lyrics, it’s made clear that Becker and Fagen’s band is actually best described as indefinable. After all, that was the whole point.
For this reason, they’ve retained a status that has never been doubted – even in the face of antithetical movements such as punk and grunge. Even former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones recently claimed that he’d rather listen to the group than his own.
Perhaps the best indication of Becker and Fagen’s outlook and style comes from Jay Black, the leader of one of their pre-Steely Dan groups, Jay & the Americans. He “disaffectionately” labelled them “the Manson and Starkweather of rock ‘n’ roll”, referring to cult leader Charles Manson and spree killer Charles Starkweather.
This account effectively outlines their slightly misanthropic outlook and their intent for music – to rip up the established norms and create something new. It’s safe to say that they succeeded in their quest and became one of the most influential groups of all time.
Duly, we’ve ranked the ten best Steely Dan tracks. Expect to revisit some classics.
The 10 best Steely Dan songs ranked:
10. ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’ – Pretzel Logic (1974)
One of the highlights of the band’s early chapter, ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’, features some classic elements of a Steely Dan song. A warm, funky bassline glues everything together, boosted by an uplifting chorus and some busy guitar work courtesy of future Doobie Brothers member Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter.
The opening track of their third record, Pretzel Logic, ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’ was the band refining the sound they’d laid out on their previous two whilst also starting to make a leap into the future with its expansive musicians and experimental dynamics.
9. ‘Show Biz Kids’ – Countdown to Ecstasy (1973)
Based on a famous sketch by the late comedian Lenny Bruce, ‘Show Biz Kids’ is one of the catchiest moments in Steely Dan’s back catalogue, thanks to that continued refrain “You go to Lost Wages, Lost Wages”, a clear demonstration of their form of humour.
An incredibly funky piece, wherein Fagen gets really soulful in his vocal delivery, this is the kind of track that will be stuck in your head for days, with it likened to Harry Nilsson’s timeless banger ‘Coconut’. It also boasts some swaggering slide guitar courtesy of Rick Derringer, which stops the song from being firmly placed in the humorous category.
8. ‘Black Friday’ – Katy Lied (1975)
Although Steely Dan are primarily known for their mesmerising arrangements found on albums such as Aja, people often forget that, before all else, they are a rock band. Whilst there are many signifiers of this, one of the greatest comes in the form of the rumbling single ‘Black Friday’, which had listeners eagerly awaiting their fourth album, Katy Lied.
Sounding like The Sensational Alex Harvey Band mixed with The Blues Brothers, it’s not hard to imagine crowds going wild for this masterpiece in 1975. As with many songs from this period, the track is carried by the guitar work. This time though, the pair didn’t draw on the help of an outside force. Instead, it was Becker who took the mantle, delivering a blistering solo that’s one of the best in their oeuvre. It makes you wonder why they ever enlisted anyone else.
7. ‘Peg’ – Aja (1977)
The lead single from Aja, ‘Peg’ marked the start of Steely Dan’s rise as masters of the yacht/jazz-rock genre. Espousing an exceptionally sunny essence, the production value here is astounding, with the many elements getting the attention they deserve without it feeling too crowded. Admittedly, this is something they always did well, with a penchant for augmenting their work with small hints of other instruments, creating a three-dimensional sound much ahead of its time.
Famously, the guitar solo was attempted by seven of the top session guitarists of the day, including Robben Ford and frequent collaborator Larry Carlton. However, Jay Graydon eventually became the “keeper” after he worked on it for six hours before the notoriously hard taskmasters Becker and Fagen were satisfied with the mere mortal’s efforts.
6. ‘My Old School’ – Countdown to Ecstasy (1973)
Despite Steely Dan having a penchant for writing about the fictional and the surreal, ‘My Old School’ is not in keeping with this trend. It harks back to their heady times at Bard College and a May 1969 drug bust that Fagen was caught in. The lyrics refer to how a female acquaintance had betrayed them to “Daddy Gee”, G. Gordon Liddy, the local prosecutor.
Interestingly, Liddy would become a national name only a few years later when he was caught up in the Watergate Scandal. Elsewhere, in 2014 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that 44 people were arrested in the bust, including Fagen, who then had his long hair cut off in Poughkeepsie jail.
There’s no wonder that in the song, Fagen sings that he is “never going back” until California, where they lived at the time of writing, “Tumbles into the sea”. An unapologetically joyous song, this is the sound of someone seeing their life flash before their eyes and subsequently moving to a place far away where they were free to smoke as much as they want “with the boys upstairs”. Another earworm, it’s a must-have on every summer playlist.
5. ‘Dirty Work’ – Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972)
One of the highlights of the band’s debut album, ‘Dirty Work’ is also one of Steely Dan’s finest tracks; a passionate piece about an affair between a man and woman. Sung from the man’s perspective, he knows that the woman is only using him, but he’s too transfixed with her to break it off. Not only does it feature one of the band’s most piercing choruses, but it also contains that iconic saxophone that carries the track to its climax, which is stunning.
This was Steely Dan recreating the love song for the modern era, warts and all.
4. ‘Deacon Blues’ – Aja (1977)
The impact that ‘Deacon Blues’ had on popular culture is perhaps best known because of the Scottish pop rock band Deacon Blue, who took their name from the title. However, the song is much more than this. A sonic bridge between the more straightforward ‘Peg’ and the album’s complex title track, it’s a mix of emotions.
It was primarily written at Fagen’s house in Malibu and is underpinned by his thought that “if a college football team like the University of Alabama could have a grandiose name like the ‘Crimson Tide’ the nerds and losers should be entitled to a grandiose name as well.”
Fagen later said that the “expanding man” of the first line “may have been inspired by Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man”. The protagonist, he explained, is relatively “autobiographical in that it reflected the dreams [Fagen and Becker had] about becoming jazz musicians while….living in the suburbs.”
Whether it be the various dynamics, the production or Fagen’s vocals, there’s no surprise that ‘Deacon Blues’ is hailed as one of the band’s most outstanding pieces. It boasts all of their stylistic hallmarks so well.
3. ‘Do It Again’ – Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972)
There is an argument that ‘Do It Again’ is Steely Dan’s best track, but because it is from their first album, and in the face of later cuts that fans cherish more, it was pipped to the top spot.
However, the stoned essence of this song is timeless, and whether listeners have had a toke on the sweet leaf or not, the quality of this song is clear to perceive by all. Bolstered by a hypnotic bassline and beat, it is the most psychedelic moment in their back catalogue, with it an embodiment of the band’s connection to the counterculture.
The track’s highlight is undoubtedly Denny Dias’ spiralling electric sitar solo which blew the minds of stoners everywhere when it was released in 1972. Augmenting the otherworldy vibe of the piece is the sprawling “plastic organ” solo that follows courtesy of Fagen, which isn’t dissimilar from something listeners would expect from Ray Manzarek, keyboardist of the ultimate hippie group, The Doors.
2. ‘Reelin’ In The Years’ – Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972)
‘Reelin’ In the Years’ is one of the greatest songs of the 1970s. Arguably the band’s most pop-oriented piece, it is virtually impossible not to be drawn in by their sugary vocal harmonies, the catchy piano and the chorus, which appeals to all of us with its narrative following a breakup.
A typically sarcastic goodbye to an ex mixed with a shuffle groove, the piece is a work of genius by Fagen and Becker. Despite this, the talking point does not come via the pair but rather from guitarist Elliott Randall.
His guitar work is exemplary throughout the track, with its high-gain sound piercing through the mix and providing a foil to the rest of the music. He then takes it up a notch at the solo, delivering a rip-roaring melody so good that Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page is said to deem it his favourite of all time.
1. ‘Aja’ – Aja (1977)
There really could be no other choice for the top spot. A jazz-fusion masterpiece with hints of prog, there is no wonder that a large segment of the band’s fans cites ‘Aja’ as their finest moment. Eight minutes of utter bliss, it might just be the most dream-like piece of the decade, even eclipsing the work of Pink Floyd on The Dark Side of the Moon. There’s a tonal and structural sophistication here that the band would never be able to surpass.
Lyrically, it’s composed as an internal monologue from a fictional man who runs towards the eponymous woman wanting to escape the trials of his life. Later, Fagen explained that the lyrics were inspired by a relative of one of his acquaintances, a married Korean woman named Aja. He said the song was mainly about the “tranquillity that can come of a quiet relationship with a beautiful woman.”
Musically the song is significant for two reasons. The first is that the guitar solo was the last appearance by Denny Dias on a Steely Dan record. It was a marvellous way to bow out and bring the curtain down on this chapter of the band.
However, the historic talking point is the astounding work of the band’s new drummer, Steve Gadd, which sent him on his way to becoming one of the most respected drummers in the industry. He recorded his part in only two takes, with his dynamic solos all improvised, meaning that even 45 years later, the song never fails to blow listeners away.
