The two Beatles songs that changed Steely Dan’s mind about rock ‘n’ roll
Though Aimee Mann might have called Steely Dan the “American Beatles”, for a while, the sardonic duo would’ve seen that as an insult.
The group were wary of rock ‘n’ roll, eventually labelling anthems written to move arenas as inherently fascistic. In their youth, they were jazz heads. They adored jazz and soul and the sacred group where those two worlds met, in particular.
“He’s always been one of my favourites,” Donald Fagen said of Ray Charles. “He’s kind of legendary and the track I selected is basically a blues with a big band arrangement.” The track in question was ‘I’ve Got News For You’, and it epitomised the Dan’s taste: complexity, refinement, and a bit of a swaggering beat.
They didn’t hear much of that in the early rock ‘n’ roll that they heard. In fact, they thought that it was just the same three chords. Then, one day, Walter Becker was in a Woolworths of all bloody places, when he heard ‘No Reply’ over the shop’s speakers.
While the 1964 track is far from as complex as the harmonic Möbius strip that the Fab Four would deploy in ‘I am the Walrus’, it certainly wasn’t the conventional pop that Becker had once been wary of. Over the course of the song, John Lennon pretty much acts out the stages of grief, going from pleading in the first verse to denial and then anger.
That clever narrative structure, complete with cinematic imagery, might have been enough to perk up Becker’s ears alone, but then you’ve also got the dramatic shift of the bridge which almost acts as the intermission of an entirely different song. Finally, there’s the moody harmonies and the tension they create, and the slight wink in Lennon’s performance. It all amounts to more than mere fascistic charm.
While this offering might have edged Becker closer to rock, according to a 1974 interview with Steve Clarke (NB not the reticent human bulldog managing the Scottish football team), Fagen clung to his prejudice for another year. For the cantankerous captain of the Dan, it was actually ‘Ticket to Ride’ that softened his defences to the charms of the buzzing genre.
He had heard ‘Ticket to Ride’ on the radio, and it was enough to persuade him that there might be more possibilities in rock ‘n’ roll than he had first thought. Lennon himself would claim that it was the first heavy metal song, predating even The Beatles’ own, oft-cited, ‘Helter Skelter’. And much of this pioneering spirit comes from Ringo Starr’s drumbeat that lurches behind the melody.
Along with the chugging pacing, unusual verse placements, and the ‘pedal point’ technique deployed in the riff, this creates a track that – without trying to sound like a retired accountant – sounds awfully druggy. Evidently, Fagen admired it. Although since this ‘74 chat, both Steely Dan members have been reluctant to go on record with any praise for rock. In fact, Becker hasn’t even given an interview since he passed away in 2017.
With that in mind, it is difficult to overstate the importance of these two little ditties. Given that Steely Dan would choose to go on to disguise themselves as a rock ‘n’ roll band of sorts, clearly, these quirky gems by The Beatles eroded their resistance to some degree. Given that they still stand the test of time today, it is easy to see why, too.
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