While Steely Dan’s debut album, Can’t Buy A Thrill, was an enormous hit and options a few of their most beloved songs, their second album, Countdown To Ecstasy, was the purpose the place the band actually established an id. The jazz and blues influences that Walter Becker and Donald Fagen initially bonded over are felt extra keenly and the performances hit heavier and swing tougher than earlier than.
The success of Can’t Buy A Thrill put strain on Steely Dan to tour. The band had initially been a studio-based proposition and, when it got here to taking part in the exhibits, they have been under-rehearsed. What’s extra, issues weren’t figuring out with vocalist David Palmer. The singer had joined throughout the recording of the debut, most notably taking lead vocals on “Dirty Work” and the plan was that he’d sing lead vocals stay, as Donald Fagen had been reticent to take the mic. Over the course of the tour, Becker and producer Gary Katz persuaded Fagen to step into the highlight and Palmer left the group.
Buy the vinyl model of Steely Dan’s Countdown to Ecstasy now.
On the entire, touring wasn’t a contented expertise, as Becker instructed MOJO, “We did our first record, boom, they threw us out touring… it was a money-losing proposition, and we were beating our brains out. We felt if we kept on doing this, we would burn out very soon.” Still, it did affect their following album; when it got here time to put in writing and file Countdown To Ecstasy, Becker and Fagen have been way more attuned to the musical skills of their band, and the fabric was written with the strengths of particular person members in thoughts. “That was the only album where the songs were developed on the road, in rehearsal, and onstage,” Fagen instructed MOJO in 1995. “We were playing them before the album was recorded, so it had a more live, blowing feel about it.”
The blistering blues of opening observe “Bodhisattva” exhibits the good thing about this method. There’s a uncooked pleasure and urgency to the taking part in, not least in Denny Dias’ fluid and thrilling guitar solo. The lyrics take care of Western makes an attempt to co-opt Eastern faith, and Fagen’s supply suggests he’s removed from impressed by the development. The extra sedate “Razor Boy” follows, its tight groove underpinning a deft, mortality-informed lyric (the title refers back to the Grim Reaper). “The Boston Rag” gives guitarists Diaz and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter an opportunity to unleash some dextrous interaction, whereas lyrics seem to reference a tragedy amongst a bunch of faculty pals. The melodic hooks of Can’t Buy A Thrill hadn’t gone away, however right here the choruses have been indirect, uncomfortable even (“Bring back The Boston Rag”; “You throw out your gold teeth, do you see how they roll”).
One of Steely Dan’s signature tunes, “Show Biz Kids” is given momentum by a heavy, repetitive groove that provides Dias, Baxter, and Rick Derringer ample alternative to showcase their bluesy guitar licks. Lyrically, Fagen is at his cynical finest, skewering the privilege of the Los Angeles leisure elite. The vitality is maintained by the infectious “My Old School,” an up-tempo boogie with lyrics that inform the story of a drug bust again in Fagen and Becker’s faculty days. Like “Show Biz Kids” it advantages massively from the backing vocals of Sherlie Matthews, Myrna Matthews, Patricia Hall, and Royce Jones. Countdown To Ecstasy is rounded off in fashion by the beautiful mid-tempo “Pearl Of The Quarter” and the edgy story of a post-apocalyptic land, “King Of The World.”
Though the album was Steely Dan’s first masterpiece, it underperformed after the runaway success of their debut, solely reaching No. 35 on the Billboard 200. In time it has change into certainly one of their most well-regarded albums. The following years would see Becker and Fagen’s perfectionist streak took maintain and – after their subsequent album, 1974’s Pretzel Logic – the unique line-up was disbanded as touring ceased. Steely Dan wouldn’t sound fairly like this once more, another excuse to treasure Countdown To Ecstasy.
Buy the vinyl model of Steely Dan’s Countdown to Ecstasy now.