Saturday Spins Vol. 3
Steely Dan's Can't Buy a Thrill
Every Saturday I use the Discogs Randomizer Gizmo to pick a record from my collection and write about it here.
If there was a soundtrack to my youth, it would probably contain a lot of Steely Dan. Not because I was in my youth when they were at the height of their powers, I was born well after they were no longer a band, but their songs were played a lot by my dad when I was a young man. I can remember instances where I was in the car with him and “Reelin’ In the Years”, with that iconic guitar, came blasting through the speakers.
As far as songwriting duos go, Fagen and Becker are right up there on Mt. Rushmore with Lennon/McCartney, Simon/Garfunkel, and the Glimmer Twins1 to name a few. Though their professional relationship broke down when they were at the height of their powers together, they still produced quite a body of work, and eventually kissed and made up.
Cant Buy a Thrill was Steely Dan’s debut LP. Like the band, it defies a specific description or genre. It mixes, rock, soft rock, pop, jazz, and a little folk. It has some of the busiest album art you’ll ever see. A fun fact about the cover art is that the fascist regime in Spain2 banned the original album cover and instead replaced it with a picture of the band. The Spanish release also doesn’t have “Dirty Work.” Something to keep any eye out for when digging in the used bins.
Retrospective reviews of this album do confirm the tightness of the arrangements and the discipline exuded by the personnel. All things that the original reviews noted. For a debut album, it is noticeably strong and, in my opinion, is timeless.
The first single, “Do it Again” is an all-time soft rock classic with some shades of Latin and jazz influences. It is a great lead track for this album that showed off the band’s chops as well as confounded critics with the genre-bending. In the early days of Steely Dan, Donald Fagen was a bit skittish about performing lead vocals live, so the band brought in David Palmer. Palmer sang “Do it Again” live in this early iteration of the band, while Fagen laid down the vocals for the album itself.
“Dirty Work” features lead vocals by David Palmer with Fagen as backup. They harmonize well together on this track as well as on “Reelin’ in the Years” and one of my favorite Steely Dan deep cuts, “Change of the Guard.” “Reelin in the Years” includes that iconic riff and legendary solo and is probably one of the most recognizable Steely Dan songs other than “Deacon Blues” from Aja. Other notable tracks are “Kings” and “Only a Fool Would Say That.” Both featuring Fagen’s trademark crooning.
As many readers probably know, Steely Dan is well-known for not only the aforementioned technical prowess, but also for their clever and cryptic lyrical content. Every Steely Dan track shows off the brilliant writing that Fagen and Becker are known for. Can’t Buy a Thrill is an excellent introduction to that.
What’s your favorite track from this LP? Let me know in the comments!
Richards/Jagger
In 1972!
This is a great idea! I honesty didn't realize Discogs had a randomizer feature.
Only a fool would say that, on that album. I bought all their albums as they came out. Love that band. Still have the vinyl. I’m probably about your Dad’s age.