50 Fun Facts About Steely Dan

Walter Becker and Donald Fagen met in 1967 at which school in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York?

Fagen heard Becker practising electric guitar at a campus café and asked, 'Do you want to be in a band?'

Steely Dan took its name from an object in which William S. Burroughs novel?

The object in question is a dildo; the pair, Beat-literature fans, had already name-checked it in an unreleased demo called 'Soul Ram'.

Which future comedy star played drums in one of Becker and Fagen's college bands?

The group went by names including the Don Fagen Jazz Trio, the Bad Rock Group and the Leather Canary.

What was the title of Steely Dan's 1972 debut album?

Its singles 'Do It Again' and 'Reelin' In the Years' reached No. 6 and No. 11 on the Hot 100.

Steely Dan's top-selling album, released in 1977, was titled what?

It reached the US top five within three weeks and was one of the first American LPs certified platinum by the RIAA.

Which 1974 single was Steely Dan's most successful, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100?

It came from Pretzel Logic, which also included a rendition of Duke Ellington's 'East St. Louis Toodle-Oo'.

Steely Dan's Two Against Nature won the Album of the Year Grammy over which two heavyweights?

It beat The Marshall Mathers LP and Kid A, and was the band's first studio album in twenty years.

Two Steely Dan alumni, Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter and Michael McDonald, went on to join which band?

McDonald kept contributing backing vocals to Steely Dan records right up to Gaucho, but Baxter never worked with them again.

Steely Dan session players Jeff Porcaro and David Paich went on to form which band?

Porcaro's first Steely Dan drum track was 'Night By Night' on Pretzel Logic.

Steely Dan stopped touring after a July 1974 show at which venue?

Becker and Fagen disliked constant touring and dismissed the other three members to concentrate on writing and recording.

Who produced all of Steely Dan's 1970s albums, having hired Becker and Fagen at ABC?

His engineer, Roger Nichols, would win six Grammys for his work with the band.

Before Steely Dan, Becker and Fagen toured in the band of which 1960s vocal group?

Singer Jay Black dubbed them 'the Manson and Starkweather of rock 'n' roll'.

Which star recorded the Becker/Fagen song 'I Mean to Shine' on a 1971 album?

A shelved 1970 album of the same name by Linda Hoover, featuring five of their songs, finally came out 52 years later.

Steely Dan's withdrawn 1972 debut single, later called 'stinko' by its writers, was titled what?

ABC pulled it for sounding too country; it and its B-side 'Sail the Waterway' have never been reissued on CD.

Which original Steely Dan lead vocalist was fired in April 1973?

He sang 'Dirty Work' on the debut and later co-wrote Carole King's hit 'Jazzman'.

Steely Dan once recorded a jingle, rejected and never aired, for which beer brand?

Long thought lost, the 1-minute-50 recording was rediscovered in Roger Nichols's archive in 2023, complete with a helium-voiced Spanish intro by Baxter.

'My Old School', from Countdown to Ecstasy, is a direct homage to events at which institution?

The single stalled in the lower half of the charts but became an FM rock staple.

Striving for perfection, Becker and Fagen sometimes asked musicians to record how many takes of a track?

Becker himself still ended up playing bass on more Steely Dan songs than any hired hand, with Chuck Rainey second.

Which 1975 Steely Dan album's sound was compromised by a faulty DBX noise-reduction system?

It went gold anyway on the strength of 'Black Friday' and 'Bad Sneakers'.

Which guitarist's prominent playing makes 1976's The Royal Scam the band's most guitar-driven album?

Session drummer Bernard Purdie also appears; in the UK, 'Haitian Divorce' became the band's first major hit.

Which Aja single, with Michael McDonald on backing vocals, was released first and hit No. 11?

'Josie' and 'Deacon Blues' followed, peaking at No. 26 and No. 19.

Why was the planned tour supporting Aja cancelled?

The rehearsals simply ended; Becker's leg was shattered years later, by a Manhattan taxi during the Gaucho sessions.

Steely Dan wrote the title song for which 1978 film, a flop that still yielded a hit single?

The song earned the band another engineering Grammy and just missed the US top 20.

Which Gaucho track, a favourite of Katz and Nichols, was accidentally erased by an assistant engineer?

A recording of it was finally discovered in 2020.

Which jazz composer sued Steely Dan over Gaucho's title track and was added as co-writer?

Fagen admitted he loved 'Long As You Know You're Living Yours' and that it had been a strong influence.

Which Dire Straits guitarist played on Gaucho's 'Time Out of Mind'?

'Hey Nineteen', the album's first single, reached No. 10 in early 1981.

After Steely Dan disbanded in 1981, Becker moved to Maui and described himself as what?

He also quit the drugs he had used for most of his career.

Fagen's 1982 solo debut, which yielded the hit 'I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World)', was titled what?

It went platinum in the US and UK and became the first of a trilogy completed by Kamakiriad and Morph the Cat.

Becker produced two 1980s albums for which British sophisti-pop band, and was listed as a member on the first?

The album was 1985's Flaunt the Imperfection; on 1989's Diary of a Hollow Horse he was credited only as producer.

On the 1993 reunion tour, what composer-inspired pseudonyms did Fagen use for himself and Becker?

The tour supported Kamakiriad, which earned an Album of the Year nomination despite poor sales.

Becker's 1994 solo debut, co-produced by Fagen, was titled what?

His second, Circus Money, did not arrive until 2008 and was inspired by Jamaican music.

Which guitarist joined Steely Dan on 'Do It Again' at their 2001 Rock Hall induction?

They also played 'Black Friday' at the ceremony.

Which 2003 album was Steely Dan's final studio release of new material?

Becker sang lead on a studio track for the first time, on 'Slang of Ages', and played bass on every song.

Fagen's touring supergroup with Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs, formed in 2010, was called what?

Its repertoire mixed songs by all three songwriters; Fagen had co-founded the New York Rock and Soul Revue back in the early 1990s.

Walter Becker died in September 2017 from complications of which illness?

Fagen promised to keep the music alive with the Steely Dan band, though he later said he would rather have toured under another name.

Steely Dan's late-2023 concerts were as special guest on the farewell tour of which band?

Fagen was hospitalised in October 2023 and Sheryl Crow and the Steve Miller Band stepped in for missed dates.

Steely Dan nicknamed their favourite added-tone chord, an add 2, what?

Becker said it grew from trying to enrich a major chord without turning it into a 'jazz chord'.

Which trio of singers was Steely Dan's preferred backing-vocal group on their late-1970s albums?

Becker and Fagen favoured a soul-influenced female chorus after the first few albums.

'Home at Last', from Aja, was inspired by which classical work?

Steely Dan's lyrics are dense with film, television and literary references, and jazz is a recurring theme.

Rolling Stone called Steely Dan the perfect musical antiheroes for which decade?

Billboard later called Aja the 'sophisticated high-water mark' of yacht rock, a genre label coined only in 2005.

Long-time engineer Roger Nichols won how many Grammys for his work with Steely Dan?

He was fired without explanation during the 2002 sessions after thirty years with the band, and died in 2011.

Where did Becker and Fagen try to peddle their songs after leaving college in 1969?

Kenny Vance had a production office there and got them soundtrack work on a low-budget Richard Pryor film.

Which jazz saxophonist first refused to play on the title track until a colleague vouched for the band?

The track also carries solos from drummer Steve Gadd, guitarist Denny Dias and Walter Becker.

Becker and Fagen hired Pete Christlieb for 'Deacon Blues' after hearing him in which TV programme's house band?

They did not know which saxophonist they had heard, so Gary Katz auditioned one after another until they found him.

Aja's 'Black Cow' is named after a popular term for what?

Fagen said the song's central scene, a woman downing one in a luncheonette, marked the end of a relationship.

Which Japanese model is photographed on the cover of Aja?

Hideki Fujii took the photograph; the album is pronounced like 'Asia'.

Which Eagles manager did Gary Katz bring in to raise the duo's profile before Aja's release?

Fagen said they had been 'ready to go blissfully through life without a manager'; the album became their fastest seller.

What reward did Fagen and Becker offer in 1999 for Aja's missing multitrack masters?

The tapes for 'Black Cow' and the title track vanished, scuppering a planned surround-sound mix.

Which 1989 hip-hop album that sampled Aja entered the National Recording Registry the same year as Aja?

Both were added by the Library of Congress in 2010 as 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'.

Which guitarist produced the take of the 'Peg' solo that finally made the album after many rejects?

The 1999 Classic Albums documentary lets Becker and Fagen play back several of the rejected attempts.