Music Banter - Jazz has one huge problem

Since I have all of Steely Dan's material and solo album by Donald ***en then I must be a fan. My favorite SD album is "The Royal Scam" although "Gaucho" and "Katy Lied" are up there. Of the original lineup, "Countdown to Ecstasy" is my favorite. During that time, Walter Becker was the bassist (although he is a terrific guitarist). By "The Royal Scam" the band was basically just Becker and ***en with various studio guys joining in as Victor Feldman, Chuck Rainey, Larry Carlton, Bernard Purdie (whose drumming was overlaid on Pete Best's tracks for the stuff the Silver Beatles recorded with Tony Sheridan), Timothy B. Schmit, Rick Marotta, etc. Although Denny Dias from the original lineup makes an appearance. By this time, Becker was finally playing guitar.

But I really enjoyed the groove they hit on "Hey, Nineteen" which features Becker back on the bass. Although Becker claimed Chuck Rainey was a cut or two above him as a bassist, I do enjoy the bass-playing of Becker after he returned to the instrument. Not that he wasn't good before but definitely he had learned something in that off-time. I guess you can't jam with Chuck Rainey and not learn a thing or two about the bass.

When I think of my favorite Dan songs, few are jazz. "Hey, Nineteen" was jazz but "You Won't Take Me Alive" is rock (with the lead solo at the beginning of the song), "Bodhisattva" is blues as is "Chain Lightning." "The Fez", well, I don't know what "The Fez" is. Their jazziest album is probably "Aja" and, to be honest, I don't care too much for it. It has some kick-ass bass work by Chuck Rainey but it just didn't move me the way "The Royal Scam" did. Yet, I do definitely regard as a fusion band for some reason.

In fact, the song "The Royal Scam" has the best lyrics of all their songs. I love the verse:

"And they are hounded down to the bottom of a bad town
Amidst the ruins
Where they learn to fear an angry race of fallen kings
Their dark companions
Where the memory of their southern sky
Was clouded by the savage winter
Where every patron saint hung on the wall
Shared the room with twenty sinners"

That was brilliant!

Factoids:
-***en and Becker were once members of Jay & the Americans.
-Steely Dan is the name of giant ***** in a Japanese sex contest in Burroughs' "Naked Lunch"
-***en and Becker are huge fans of Laura Nyro and claim her as a major songwriting influence.
-Chevy Chase was one of the band's very early drummers.