The Wiseacre Duos: Steely Dan, Part IX (CONCLUSION)

"That wasn't long, was it?"


No, that isn't my quote, a comment on the amount of time that has elapsed since Part VIII of the SD WD Series. It is also not an attempt on my part to be funny, given the length of this entry. Rather, this typically cheeky inquiry greeted Steely Dan fans on their website in 2000 following the release of Two Against Nature, their first release in twenty years. Now, much had happened in that time: break-up, solo efforts, periods of mental blockage, periods of nary a peep from Donald or Walter. When the wiseacre duo reclaimed the Steely Dan tag in '92/'93 (a few years after Fagen had all but buried the name) and actually did what they swore they wouldn't ever again-touring-the whispers began almost immediately. The rumors were hot for new material. Not unfounded. The duo was writing.

Some of the new tracks were played live. Songs with titles like "Cash Only Island", "Wetside Story", and "Jack of Speed" made their way onto setlists. Only "Jack" (to date) would be recorded for an album. That album, the aforementioned Two Against Nature, was at once both a seamless continuation and new beginning. The continuation? When I first listened, the album sounded like it had been recorded mere days after Fagen's 1993 solo, Kamakiriad. The pristine production values rang in much the same vein. While Steely Dan's sound had transformed into a smoother array since 1977's Aja, the rush of technology had allowed exponential advances in the pursuit of perfection, and here it was. This new album was sonically flawless. Not a false note on the Wurlitzer to be heard. But this is old news. We're talkin' Donald and Walter here! Have you been paying attention, invisible audience??!!

Some wags said TAN sounded much like 1980's Gaucho, but to me, those older albums had a starker, more dangerous sound, crisply engineered as they were. Gaucho is an album that reflects a drug addled era of loneliness and defeat. Underneath the "perfect blandness" is a real cry of rancor and woundedness. TAN finds the boys older, wiser, happier. They were actually now enjoying this thing called show business. They were touring, for pete's sake. Undertaking, for years no less, that life they loathed, that "jock atmosphere" as they had once described.

TAN didn't wow me on the first few auditions, but it grew. Probably more than any other album I've ever heard. Over the months I began to become quite entranced, fixated even. Here we had more sordid tales of scheming lovers (the sinister "Gaslighting Abbie"), deviate older men ("Janie Runaway", "Cousin Dupree", uh, hell, probably every track, really), and of course, drug abusers ("Jack of Speed"). The good old twisted tales, possibly even more twisted than those recorded back in the 1970s. Time may have mellowed the hard lives, but not the art. The music was still smooth and groovy, the lyrics toxic. So far, anyway.

But more mature introspection was to be heard this time. "What a Shame About Me" is a highly effective story of two former classmates who find themsleves in the famous bookstore, The Strand, in NYC. The narrator, an apparent failed writer/substance abuser, is working there when his old companion, a famous actress/singer, happens in. They reminisce, laugh. She invites him back, but he's resigned his fate, realizing his failure has transcended any attempt at happiness (brief or otherwise). "Negative Girl" is arguably another in the "deviate older man" category, but this time the narrative is free of naughtiness, instead filled with real pain and loss. Musically, it's flat out gorgeous, possibly the most evocative track they've done. Dave Schenk's vibe work here just makes it so haunting and sad.

TAN was a big hit. All the Boomers trying to reclaim some faded glory, buying a Steely Dan album? A good slice of it, but many others were just as excited, and there were even some newly minted fans of Generation Y and beyond. Even stranger, Grammy took notice for the first time (aside from technical nods in the past), and awarded Donald & Walter Album of the Year! Eminem was shocked. Still the snarkiest of cats, our wiseacre duo wasted no time trying to sell/auction off the statue on their website.

The tours continued. Then, a really shocking development-another new album! In the span of only three years! Everything Must Go was an attempt at a departure from the tightly controlled arrangements of albums past. Much of the material was captured live, without an abundance of overdubs or ProTools post. "It's wild. It's wiggy. I love it," exclaimed Fagen in the press. The idea was to allow an improvisational, after hours feel, and the album somewhat reaches that, but not entirely. To me, it still feels rigid, at times, antiseptic. But it is fun.

The concept here is a bottoming out, an acknowledgment of the End of an Era. The 90s boom economically and otherwise, was history. The title track finds its narrator rather gloomily commenting on the meltdown all around. "It's high time for a walk on the real side, let's admit the bastards beat us. I move to dissolve the corporation in a pool of margaritas." Pretty straightforward for a Fagen/Becker composition. Little is subtle on this album.

"The Last Mall" is a cheery end of the world saga, perhaps a latter day attempt to evoke their 1973 apocalypse, "King of the World". Doesn't quite come off. "The Things I Miss the Most" is another downer, a divorced man's recounting of his failed marraige, and how is life is now. But it is the most honest (and amusing) track on this disc. Well, the stalker tale "Lunch with Gina" is also pretty entertaining. Oh, and "Pixeleen" has some really nice vocal work from Fagen and frequent background singer Carolyn Leonhart-Escoffery. But repeated listens did not convince me this was one for the ages. I feel much the same these days. Still, EMG is a listenable ride. A flashing of the goods for fans, but a lateral move, in my opinion. It did not sell as well as its predecessor but received some favorable reviews.

Incredibly, the tours continued. Then, in 2006, Fagen released his third solo album, Morph the Cat, a conclusion to some sort of trilogy. Nightfly was youth, Kamakiriad was middle age, Morph is death. Fagen, now almost sixty, was feeling the change. The largest shadow looming was not biological, however, but rather political, social. September 11, 2001 was a day that changed the entire world. Nary a soul unscathed by this utterly jaw dropping series of terrorist acts. Fagen's hometown, NYC, the center stage. Most every track on MTC bears the wounds, the fallout of this most awful of days. "The Night belongs to Mona" even describes a woman so traumatized by "the fire downtown" that she stays mostly confined to her high rise, in a blissful shock state best not disturbed.

Ray Charles, one of Fagen's heroes, gets a tribute with "What I Do", an imagining of a conversation between the two musicians. The backup singers on this one almost own the track, with their soulfully haunting chorus, the most effective on a Fagen/SD album since Gaucho. It would not be a Fagen affair without some sly humor to leaven the dread, and "Security Joan" attempts to poke fun at the new rules of airport protocol. This album also plateaued fairly early on for me. While generally successful, this album does not provide any progression, innovation. The formula sound is all there. For fans only.

After a few delays, Walter Becker released Circus Money, his follow-up to Eleven Tracks of Whack, in 2008. It is always telling to compare the solo works of our wiseacre duo, to delineate the attitudes as well as the composition. As expected, Becker delivers a good hour of snarky sass, again wrapped in lush production (though this time produced by Larry Klein, no Fagen involvement whatsoever). "Door Number Two" and the catchy, addictive "Somebody's Saturday Night" are filled with elegantly sordid come-ons and lyrical nonsense that works rhythmically. It's an enjoyable trek, much easier to get into than the earlier album. It's a wee bit too laid back, though. The insistence on generic raggae stylings infects several tracks, to no great effect. Is Becker coasting now? Having been clean for many years, he seems to be content, and the music reflects this. One has to ponder if the hard life was the driver that created better music.

So now we are at the close of the Steely Dan chapter. In 2009, I find no plans for a new album, still. Doubtless, another will come, when they're ready. I hope they take their time to create something more memorable, more fitting of their legacy. There will be more tours, more trotting out of the old faves. Word is that they throw in an obscure tune or two that never had the chance to be played during the non-touring days. Donald and Walter seem to be happy. I guess they've earned it. Perhaps stellar music and contentment can co-exist. We're waiting, guys.....