Steely Dan: How 'Royal Scam,' 'Aja' and 'Gaucho' stack up
Here are the albums Steely Dan will perform in concert Aug. 31 ("Aja"), Sept. 1 ("Gaucho") and Sept. 3 ("The Royal Scam") at the Chicago Theatre, with comments from Donald Fagen and Walter Becker on the creation of each:
“The Royal Scam” (1976)
Becker: “We had been recording in L.A. all along and decided to do this one in New York, looking for a more brash musical personality.”
Fagen: “We both had had it with L.A. by that point and we really wanted to play with certain people in New York, like [drummer] Bernard Purdie. We’re drummer freaks.”
“Aja” (1977)
Becker: “The harmonies became more overtly jazz derived. It didn’t seem like a formula for pop music, but it was the height of an era when the LP was a cutting-edge instrument. You could do anything.”
Fagen: “It was a surprise it was such a huge hit. I’m sure that our manager [Irving Azoff] had something to do with it. He was very good at promoting things that were difficult to promote. It had a kind of exclusivity about it that he helped make desirable.”
“Gaucho” (1980)
Fagen: “We were trying to do something that sounded as fresh as ‘Aja’ and of equal quality, and it didn’t feel as good, because we were working under that pressure. Some of the tracks sound a little too careful.”
Becker: “We broke up afterward, but I started breaking up in the middle of making it. The record has a really spooky quality for me, but that’s part of what we intended. We got caught up in that; it’s the risk you run of becoming captive of your own artistic vision.”
greg@gregkot.com
Greg:
Steely Dan is performing "The Royal Scam" in Chicago, not "Countdown to Ecstasy" as you note.
The quotes you use for "Countdown to Ecstasy" were actually made by Becker and Fagen in respect to "Gaucho", not "The Royal Scam". "Gaucho", not "Royal Scam", was their shift back to NYC. Bernard Purdie and "the Purdie Shuffle" most notably appeared as the opener to the album on "Babylon Sisters".
A couple of Chicago trivia connections for Steely Dan.
Started in 1993, one of the earliest music-oriented world-wide web sites is based here in Chicago and is all about Steely Dan. Dandom.com traces its roots back at the University of Illinois at Urbana when it was a demonstration protype for use of the Mosaic modern web browser project -- you know its results today as Internet Explorer, Foxfire, Netscape, etc.
Unrelated to all this is that Steely Dan's trombone player, Jim Pugh, is a professor in the University of Illinois at Urbana School of Music.
I had a chance to see some of these same shows in NYC a few weeks ago; the audience gives a standing ovation at the completion of each album.
Thanks for your column and the tweaks I expect that you will make.
Best wishes,
Jim McKay
Chicago, IL
Webmaster & Facilitator
dandom.com
Greg replies: Fixed the typo on the album title. But the comments are correct in relation to Royal Scam, their first New York album. Purdie plays on several tracks.
Posted by: JIm McKay | August 20, 2009 at 09:57 AM
the header says:
"Here are the albums Steely Dan will perform in concert Aug. 31 ("Aja"), Sept. 1 ("Gaucho") and Sept. 3 ("The Royal Scam") at the Chicago Theatre, with comments from Donald Fagen and Walter Becker on the creation of each"
Yet, the three albums discussed are "Aja", "Gaucho", and "Countdown to Ecstasy"
What happened to "The Royal Scam"?
Greg replies: Typo, which I fixed. They are performing Royal Scam.
Posted by: Rob S. | August 20, 2009 at 10:55 AM