Looking back on Steely Dan’s immense success and impact, it’s hard to envision a time when the supremely honed and highly original jazz-rock group weren’t at the top of their game. But when the core duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were starting out, recognition for their talent and approach would take some time – and some getting used to.
Keyboard player Fagen had stumbled across Becker practising guitar in the campus cafe at New York’s liberal arts school Bard College in 1967. Fagen wanted to start a band, but he’d struggled to find a guitarist who could play jazz and blues the way he wanted to, not “like Dick Dale”, as was the trend, he said. Becker was playing a wild blues-based style, and Fagen had “never really heard anything like that”.
The duo soon started writing together and played in various musical configurations. They found incongruous employment as part of the touring band for doo-wop crooners Jay & The Americans, whose lead singer Jay Black recalled his impression of the pair as “yoghurt-skinned” beatniks who seemed to surface only at night. “The Manson and Starkweather of rock’n’roll,” he called them.
Graduating in 1969, Fagen took the duo’s songs to Manhattan’s legendary Brill Building, the hub for popular songwriters and publishers of every stripe, from Burt Bacharach to Lou Reed, Carole King to Ellie Greenwich.
This story is from the July 2023 edition of Classic Rock.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 2023 edition of Classic Rock.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
CREATURES OF HABITS
In the late 80s, FM seemed poised for huge success. By the mid-90s the dream, and the band, was effectively over. Then almost 20 years later a one-off gig offer changed everything...
AHEAD OF THE GAME
Too punk for punk in the late 70s, Oi! elder statesmen in the early 80s, living-legend role models in the early 90s, Cock Sparrer never got credit for what they started. Today, after all these years, they're as strong as they've ever been.
BAD BLOOD AND BURIED HATCHES
After a slow start, by the end of the 70s Canadian trio Triumph were living up to their name. Then came the falling-out, the split, and 20 years of toxicity before they shared a stage again.
REALITY BITES
Chris Goss lit the fuse on the 90s stoner revolution, and worked with bands including Kyuss and QOTSA. Meanwhile, his band Masters Of Reality remain hardly known despite having made some truly great records.
JON BON JOVI
\"There was no Plan B in my life, ever,\" he says. Luckily he didn't need one. He started in covers bands, got the breaks, went on to mastermind one of the biggest and biggest-selling bands of his era, and became one of its biggest rock stars. And there's more - much more...
THE RESURRECTION SHUFFLE
Dio was out, Gillan was gone, Geezer had given up. And Ozzy? Ozzy had declared war... Into the blackness surrounding Black Sabbath came light in the shape of singer Tony Martin, and the next chapter in the band's ever eventful story began.
Chris Spedding
The legendary sideman and session guitarist on a \"naughty\" 70s, discovering the Sex Pistols and being an honorary Beatle.
David Bowie-Absolute Beginners
Taken from an idea through to a finished song in time left over after David Bowie recorded a clandestine demo, it led to a \"functional\" guitarist working with Bowie for the next 10 years.
The Karma Effect
Meet the young classic rock revivalists with a stadium-style approach to shows and songs.
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats
After six years without a new record, they return with one inspired by 70s Italian murder-mystery cinema.