Steely Dan

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker meet at the Bard College in New York in 1967. Fagen, a piano player, hears someone playing blues guitar in the student lounge and decides he must introduce himself. He discovers Becker playing a red Epiphone guitar and finds that they share the same interests in music and ironic senses of humor. A partnership is born.

They form several college bands including “The Leather Canary” (which fellow Bard student Chevy Chase sat in with a couple of times) and “The Don Fagen Trio.” Fagen and Becker also start to write songs together.

Fagen graduates Bard in 1969 with an English degree. Becker also leaves Annandale. The two of them move to Brooklyn, New York and decide to peddle their songs at the famous Brill Building in Manhattan. They don’t meet with much success, but they make an important early connection with Kenny Vance of Jay and the Americans. Vance helps them record some demos of their early material and gets them some odd jobs including doing the soundtrack for the low-budget Richard Pryor film “You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It.” Vance also gets Becker and Fagen gigs as back-up musicians on Jay and the Americans’ 1970-71 tour. Jay Black disaffectionately labels Donald and Walter as “Starkweather and Manson.”

Fagen and Becker also meet another aspiring producer, Gary Katz, in New York. Shortly afterward, Katz gets a job as staff producer at ABC Records in Los Angeles and also secures two staff songwriter positions for Fagen and Becker. With the hopes of making it big as songwriters, Donald and Walter move to L.A. in November 1971.

But their songs are too sophisticated for the other bands on the label, such as Three Dog Night, and Dusty Springfield, so they secretly put together their own band a long with an other guitarist, Danny Dias.

But what to call them?

Well, having a sense of humor, they decided to name the band “Steely Dan”, after a dildo in William S. Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch“.

Hey Nineteen

“Hey Nineteen” is a song by American jazz rock band Steely Dan, written by members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, and released on their 1980 album Gaucho.

According to one reviewer’s interpretation, the song “was about a middle-aged man’s disappointment with a young lover (“Hey Nineteen, that’s ‘Retha Franklin / She don’t remember the Queen of Soul / It’s hard times befallen the sole survivors / She thinks I’m crazy but I’m just growing old / hey nineteen / no, we can’t dance together / no, we can’t talk at all”).” Other reviews felt that the song struck a nerve with the aging baby boomer generation transition from the freewheeling 60′s and 70′s to the conservative 1980′s.

Beginning with their 1993-1994 performances, the phrase “Hey Nineteen/That’s Aretha Franklin/She don’t remember/Queen of Soul” was replaced with “Hey Nineteen/That’s Otis Redding/She don’t remember/King of Soul.” While singing the song in the Two Against Nature tour of 2000, Fagen often left the name attribution blank for the singing-along audiences to fill in, and when most of them sang “Aretha Franklin,” he corrected them by saying, “No, that’s Otis Redding.” In the 2007 Heavy Rollers tour, Fagen has reverted to the Aretha Franklin reference, presumably for comic effect, since the veteran fans have by now been trained to shout, “Otis Redding.”

This song marked one of the first appearances of product placement in rock music, with its prominent featuring of “Cuervo Gold®” brand tequila.

Way back when
In Sixty-seven
I was the dandy
Of Gamma Chi
Sweet things from Boston
So young and willing
Moved down to Scarsdale
Where the hell am I
Hey Nineteen
No we can’t dance together
No we can’t talk at all
Please take me along
When you slide on down

Hey Nineteen
That’s ‘Retha Franklin
She don’t remember
The Queen of Soul
Hard times have befallen
The Soul Survivors
She thinks I’m crazy
But I’m just growing old

Hey Nineteen
No we got nothing in common
No we can’t talk at all
Please take me along
When you slide on down

The Cuervo Gold®
The fine Columbian
Make tonight a wonderful thing

No we can’t dance together
No we can’t talk at all

• Audio from the 1980 album, Gaucho:

Tagged as: Steely Dan

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Donald Fagen and Walter Becker meet at the Bard College in New York in 1967. Fagen, a piano player, hears someone playing blues guitar in the student lounge and decides he must introduce himself. He discovers Becker playing a red Epiphone guitar and finds that they share the same interests in music and ironic senses of humor. A partnership is born.

They form several college bands including “The Leather Canary” (which fellow Bard student Chevy Chase sat in with a couple of times) and “The Don Fagen Trio.” Fagen and Becker also start to write songs together.

Fagen graduates Bard in 1969 with an English degree. Becker also leaves Annandale. The two of them move to Brooklyn, New York and decide to peddle their songs at the famous Brill Building in Manhattan. They don’t meet with much success, but they make an important early connection with Kenny Vance of Jay and the Americans. Vance helps them record some demos of their early material and gets them some odd jobs including doing the soundtrack for the low-budget Richard Pryor film “You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It.” Vance also gets Becker and Fagen gigs as back-up musicians on Jay and the Americans’ 1970-71 tour. Jay Black disaffectionately labels Donald and Walter as “Starkweather and Manson.”

Fagen and Becker also meet another aspiring producer, Gary Katz, in New York. Shortly afterward, Katz gets a job as staff producer at ABC Records in Los Angeles and also secures two staff songwriter positions for Fagen and Becker. With the hopes of making it big as songwriters, Donald and Walter move to L.A. in November 1971.

But their songs are too sophisticated for the other bands on the label, such as Three Dog Night, and Dusty Springfield, so they secretly put together their own band a long with an other guitarist, Danny Dias.

But what to call them?

Well, having a sense of humor, they decided to name the band “Steely Dan”, after a dildo in William S. Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch“.

Rikki Don’t Lose That Number

In the March 24, 2006 (2006-03-24) issue of Entertainment Weekly, in an article titled “Back to Annandale“, it was revealed that Rikki Ducornet was the apparent inspiration for the song due to a friendship songwriter Donald Fagen had with Ducornet while he attended Bard College. Ducornet was pregnant and married at the time, but recalls Fagen did give her his phone number at a college party while attending Bard and said that she believed she was the subject of the song. Fagen would not confirm the story.

We hear you’re leaving, that’s OK
I thought our little wild time had just begun
I guess you kind of scared yourself, you turn and run
But if you have a change of heart:

Rikki Don’t Lose That Number
You don’t wanna call nobody else
Send it off in a letter to yourself
Rikki don’t lose that number
It’s the only one you own
You might use it if you feel better
When you get home

I have a friend in town, he’s heard your name
We can go out driving on Slow Hand Row
We could stay inside and play games, I don’t know
And you could have a change of heart

Rikki Don’t Lose That Number
You don’t wanna call nobody else
Send it off in a letter to yourself
Rikki don’t lose that number
It’s the only one you own
You might use it if you feel better
When you get home

You tell yourself you’re not my kind
But you don’t even know your mind
And you could have a change of heart

Rikki Don’t Lose That Number
You don’t wanna call nobody else
Send it off in a letter to yourself
Rikki don’t lose that number
It’s the only one you own
You might use it if you feel better
When you get home

• Audio from the 1974 album, Pretzel Logic:

Tagged as: Steely Dan

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Donald Fagen and Walter Becker meet at the Bard College in New York in 1967. Fagen, a piano player, hears someone playing blues guitar in the student lounge and decides he must introduce himself. He discovers Becker playing a red Epiphone guitar and finds that they share the same interests in music and ironic senses of humor. A partnership is born.

They form several college bands including “The Leather Canary” (which fellow Bard student Chevy Chase sat in with a couple of times) and “The Don Fagen Trio.” Fagen and Becker also start to write songs together.

Fagen graduates Bard in 1969 with an English degree. Becker also leaves Annandale. The two of them move to Brooklyn, New York and decide to peddle their songs at the famous Brill Building in Manhattan. They don’t meet with much success, but they make an important early connection with Kenny Vance of Jay and the Americans. Vance helps them record some demos of their early material and gets them some odd jobs including doing the soundtrack for the low-budget Richard Pryor film “You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It.” Vance also gets Becker and Fagen gigs as back-up musicians on Jay and the Americans’ 1970-71 tour. Jay Black disaffectionately labels Donald and Walter as “Starkweather and Manson.”

Fagen and Becker also meet another aspiring producer, Gary Katz, in New York. Shortly afterward, Katz gets a job as staff producer at ABC Records in Los Angeles and also secures two staff songwriter positions for Fagen and Becker. With the hopes of making it big as songwriters, Donald and Walter move to L.A. in November 1971.

But their songs are too sophisticated for the other bands on the label, such as Three Dog Night, and Dusty Springfield, so they secretly put together their own band a long with an other guitarist, Danny Dias.

But what to call them?

Well, having a sense of humor, they decided to name the band “Steely Dan”, after a dildo in William S. Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch“.

Peg

“Peg” is a song by rock group Steely Dan, which was released as a single from their 1977 album Aja.

The guitar solo on the track was attempted by seven top session guitarists before Jay Graydon’s version became the “keeper”. He worked on the song for about 6 hours before they were satisfied.[1] Rick Marotta played drums on the track.

Michael McDonald can be heard providing backup vocals in the choruses; keyboardist Paul Griffin can also be heard improvising background vocals in the final chorus and fadeout.

I’ve seen your picture
Your name in lights above it
This is your big debut
It’s like a dream come true
So won’t you smile for the camera
I know they’re gonna love it

I like your pin shot
I keep it with your letter
Done up in blueprint blue
It sure looks good on you
And when you smile for the camera
I know I’ll love you better

Peg
It will come back to you
Peg
It will come back to you
Then the shutter falls
You see it all in 3-D
It’s your favorite foreign movie

• Audio from the 1977 album,  Aja:

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Donald Fagen and Walter Becker meet at the Bard College in New York in 1967. Fagen, a piano player, hears someone playing blues guitar in the student lounge and decides he must introduce himself. He discovers Becker playing a red Epiphone guitar and finds that they share the same interests in music and ironic senses of humor. A partnership is born.

They form several college bands including “The Leather Canary” (which fellow Bard student Chevy Chase sat in with a couple of times) and “The Don Fagen Trio.” Fagen and Becker also start to write songs together.

Fagen graduates Bard in 1969 with an English degree. Becker also leaves Annandale. The two of them move to Brooklyn, New York and decide to peddle their songs at the famous Brill Building in Manhattan. They don’t meet with much success, but they make an important early connection with Kenny Vance of Jay and the Americans. Vance helps them record some demos of their early material and gets them some odd jobs including doing the soundtrack for the low-budget Richard Pryor film “You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It.” Vance also gets Becker and Fagen gigs as back-up musicians on Jay and the Americans’ 1970-71 tour. Jay Black disaffectionately labels Donald and Walter as “Starkweather and Manson.”

Fagen and Becker also meet another aspiring producer, Gary Katz, in New York. Shortly afterward, Katz gets a job as staff producer at ABC Records in Los Angeles and also secures two staff songwriter positions for Fagen and Becker. With the hopes of making it big as songwriters, Donald and Walter move to L.A. in November 1971.

But their songs are too sophisticated for the other bands on the label, such as Three Dog Night, and Dusty Springfield, so they secretly put together their own band a long with an other guitarist, Danny Dias.

But what to call them?

Well, having a sense of humor, they decided to name the band “Steely Dan”, after a dildo in William S. Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch“.

Reelin’ in the Years

Your everlasting summer
You can see it fading fast
So you grab a piece of something
That you think is gonna last
Well you wouldn’t even know a diamond
If you held it in your hand
The things you think are precious
I can’t understand

Are you reelin’ in the years
Stowin’ away the time
Are you gatherin’ up the tears
Have you had enough of mine

You been tellin’ me you’re a genius
Since you were seventeen
In all the time I’ve known you
I still don’t know what you mean
The weekend at the college
Didn’t turn out like you planned
The things that pass for knowledge
I can’t understand

Are you reelin’ in the years
Stowin’ away the time
Are you gatherin’ up the tears
Have you had enough of mine

I spend a lot of money
And I spent a lot of time
The trip we made to Hollywood
Is etched upon my mind
After all the things we’ve done and seen
You find another man
The things you think are useless
I can’t understand

Are you reelin’ in the years
Stowin’ away the time
Are you gatherin’ up the tears
Have you had enough of mine

• Audio from the 1972 album, Can’t Buy a Thrill:

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