{"id":1344,"date":"2014-11-02T23:15:10","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T03:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelteager.com\/blog\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2014-11-02T23:21:11","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T03:21:11","slug":"mth-v-steely-dans-black-cow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelteager.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/02\/mth-v-steely-dans-black-cow\/","title":{"rendered":"MTH-V: Steely Dan’s “Black Cow”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the last several weeks I’ve gone down the Steely Dan<\/a> rabbit hole. (And you could arguably say that I’m still in it.) It started with the blind purchase of Gaucho<\/em><\/a>, followed quickly by Aja<\/em><\/a>, Katy Lied<\/em><\/a>, and Pretzel Logic<\/em><\/a>. And I’m sure that others will soon follow. For years Steely Dan has been little more than a George Carlin punchline for me, having only a peripheral knowledge of their music at best. It seemed that the closest I got was the deluxe edition of Elton John<\/a>‘s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy<\/em><\/a>, the full live performance of which (on disc 2) includes Jeff “Skunk” Baxter<\/a> sitting in.<\/p>\n

For whatever reason I decided to explore the band’s material, and I began with 1980’s Gaucho<\/em> simply because of the personnel, particularly: Tom Scott, the Brecker Brothers, David Sanborn, Hiram Bullock, Don Grolnick, Michael McDonald, and Steve Gadd. (Many of these are folks have been featured on the blog before: Tom Scott here<\/a> and here<\/a>, Breckers here<\/a>, and Sanborn\/Bullock\/Grolnick here<\/a>.) Honestly, my initial impression after one listen was: for a band (core members Donald Fagen<\/a> & Walter Becker<\/a>) so obsessed with production and studio perfection, you’d think Fagen would be a better singer… Anyway, that aside, I was immediately attracted to the songs and arrangements. I don’t know if I’d use “jazz rock” to describe Steely Dan, but it’s a close description. Interesting harmonies and melodies, catchy tunes, and solid players. There are some occasional misses (e.g., the rendition of “St. Louis Blues” on Pretzel Logic<\/em>…yuck), but overall I’m quite taken with the library.<\/p>\n

A song that quickly became one of my favorites is “Black Cow” from 1977’s Aja<\/em>. It features the aforementioned hooks and complexities, and the studio recording features an outro solo by Tom Scott. Here’s a very nice live version from possibly 2003 featuring solos by keyboardist Ted Baker<\/a> (whom I may have seen at Einstein on the Beach<\/em><\/a> – I’ll have to check my program) and saxophonist Cornelius Bumpus<\/a>.<\/p>\n