The Best Band Named After a Sex Toy

This is a very substantial retrospective entitled Showbiz Kids, The Steely Dan Story 1972 - 1980. A two cd pack, well over two and a half hours of music comprising 33 tracks and covering the seven albums that were the sum of the band's output until after a hiatus of almost twenty years. The selections are wisely made, maybe a few favourites are omitted but the span and development of the band's early career is well represented. The first three albums appear to be those of an integrated rock band before it became clear that "Steely Dan" was in fact a project and the protagonists were Becker and Fagan. In fact in the early days a lot of the attention fell on guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, now somewhat unexpectedly a congessional missile defence expert. Even in those early days however, it was clear that there was a certain musical and lyrical sophistication about the band and even when seeming to rock out on a track like Bodhisattva or on a blues based riff like Pretzel Logic, there was always a jazzy arranged feel. If the first three albums seemed to be the work of a superior rock band, Becker and Fagan moved the project on by working exclusively with session musicians from Katy Lied onwards. That album and The Royal Scam had more of a reined in pop feel before the epic jazz based work on Aja and Gaucho. Rock purists ( for such there be ) may categorise Steely Dan as being too clever by half but there is much to appreciate in the way that they honour certain American musical traditions that the rock world mainly overlooks, such as jazz and show tunes. Not to mention the New York "smarts" of the lyrics.