Steely Dan: The top 10 songs of jazz rock’s hipster heroes

In homage to Walter Becker, who died earlier this month, Graeme Ross chooses his top 10 Steely Dan compositions

Too cool for school: together with Donald Fagen, Walter Becker (above) produced a sumptuous back catalogue that prompted ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine to label them ‘the perfect music antiheroes for the Seventies’ (Rex)

The death of Walter Becker brings to an end one of the most successful and acclaimed songwriting partnerships of the rock era. Under the Steely Dan moniker Becker and Donald Fagen, a pair of cynical, jazz-loving perfectionists managed the rare feat of making their complex, idiosyncratic music a staple of FM radio and a hit with the critics also. Over a series of nine albums the duo applied their hipster cool jazz ideology to produce an outstanding body of work that stands tall in the pantheon of great popular music. This list is just a small selection of Steely Dan’s finest work.

10. ‘Reelin’ In the Years’ from Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972)

Steely Dan arrived fully formed with one of rock’s most assured and auspicious debut long players. Two terrific hit singles helped – the dense, sitar-laden “Do It Again”, and “Reelin’ In the Years” with its apparently effortless yet brilliant Fagen vocal, highly evocative lyrics and Becker’s throbbing bass underpinning guitarist Elliott Randall’s reputation-making solos.

9. ‘Green Earrings’ from The Royal Scam (1976)

For a band renowned for the complexity and inscrutability of their lyrics, Becker and Fagen could often be downright spare as on “Green Earrings”, the lyrics of which are merely a sidebar, a ploy for an irresistibly funky disco-pop groove. Was Nile Rodgers listening to this when he conceived Chic’s signature sound?

8. ‘Hey Nineteen’ from Gaucho (1980)

A regular theme for a Steely Dan song – that of a past-his-prime man taking up with a younger woman. A big hit single for the Dan, if we’re kind “Hey Nineteen” could be taken for a May-to-December romance, but this is uber-cynics Becker and Fagen on top jaundiced form. The girl in question doesn’t even know who Aretha Franklin is, for God’s sake.

7. ‘Cousin Dupree’ from Two Against Nature (2000)

After a 20-year recording hiatus Becker and Fagen regrouped for a Grammy award-winning album. It was as if they had never been away with all the familiar Dan tropes present and correct. The sleaze bar was raised high with this tale of a lascivious creep with designs on his own cousin in the perfect example of the duo’s black humour and deft word play. And it rocks too.

6. ‘Bad Sneakers’ from Katy Lied (1975)

By their fourth album it had become apparent that Steely Dan was more of a concept than a band – a vehicle for Becker and Fagen’s songs with guest musicians on the lion’s share of the tracks. Hell, from now on Walt and Don wouldn’t even play on some of the finished cuts. Fagen sits this one out but his vocal is a beauty and Becker contributes a lovely guitar solo on this beautifully crafted song also notable for our first introduction to the silky soul vocals of Michael McDonald.

5. ‘My Old School’ from Countdown To Ecstasy (1973)

Becker and Fagen’s bittersweet memories of their college days shouldn’t have meant much to my 14-year-old self in 1973 and should mean even less now, but I loved the bouncy piano led chorus, Jeff Baxter’s coruscating guitar licks and those swinging horns then and I love them even more 44 years later.

4. ‘Aja’ from Aja (1977)

With its extended instrumental passages utilising the cream of LA’s session musicians, Aja’s seven stunning songs left no doubt that the Dan were first and foremost a jazz band, none more so than the lustrous title track with Steve Gadd’s peerless drumming worth the admission price alone.

3. ‘Pretzel Logic’ from Pretzel Logic (1974)

After two albums in the shadows on bass, Becker finally got to show his considerable chops on lead guitar on the Dan’s third and arguably finest album. The title track, a dark and witty meditation on time travel, features superb Charlie Parker-inspired soloing from Becker, the coolest of vocals from Donald Fagen, and with its bluesy swing is the ultimate representation of the duo’s unique pop-rock/jazz vision.

2. ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’ from Pretzel Logic (1974)

The intro is a shameless yet reverential lift from Horace Silver’s Song For My Father, reflecting Becker and Fagen’s love of bebop, and it’s that rarest of beasts – a Steely Dan love song and a gorgeous one at that.

1. ‘Deacon Blues’ from Aja (1977)

Aja became the template for the endless possibilities of the studio, with Becker and Fagen’s impeccable production values and nth-degree perfectionism elevating the material to a whole new level. Top of this list is this meticulously crafted opus which may well be autobiographical about a misfit finding solace in jazz – the Deacon Blues of the title. It manages to be cynical, sad and uplifting all at the same time. In other words, the perfect Steely Dan song.