way through the summer of ‘72 found me killing an afternoon while avoiding the sweltering August heat with a couple of high school buddies in the dimly lit, air-conditioned interior of a neighborhood pool hall. We were in the middle of a game of three-way 8-ball, playing for sodas and as I leaned over the table, lining up a shot, a fresh 45 was loading up on the jukebox. I didn’t know it yet but the moment that needle hit vinyl, my life would change.
It started with just the beat. The intro featured a clean, crisp Latin percussion track, rich in conga drums, sparkling with gourds & shakers and all wrapped around a brisk but somehow relaxed tempo that had the drummer pumping out a solid rhythm in straight time. Eight bars in and a silky Rhodes piano joined the fray, accompanied by bass and guitars, all blocking out the changes while leaving plenty of room for a lead vocal. 16 bars later and the band executed a tight ten bar refrain, turning the tune around and setting the listener up for the first verse. And that’s when it happened.
His voice stopped me absolutely cold. I stood there leaning over the felt, my stick drawn back from the cue ball, but unable to focus on anything beyond that voice!
“In the morning you go gunnin’ for the man who stole your water.
And you fight till he is done in but they catch you at the border...”
The 1st verse & refrain, were followed by an intricate, meandering guitar solo (played by Denny Dias) on electric sitar and as the solo wound down, I realized that these guys had yet another surprise for me. As the sitar trailed off, the space was filled by an incredibly cheesy yet totally compelling Farfisa organ solo! I was completely hooked and the game of pool was now little more than an inconvenience.
“Are you gonna take the shot or not”, one of my friends asked.
I stood up slowly, turned to my left and with the wave of a hand as I walked toward the jukebox said, “nah, you guys go ahead and finish up without me. I gotta find out who this is.”
I reached the jukebox after stashing the cue stick in a nearby wall rack and leaning in with both hands against the curved glass dome started searching for the “now playing” window.
The rectangular white paper tag read, “Do It Again - Steely Dan”. And as I read it, I thought, “Steely Dan? Who the hell is Steely Dan?” The tune was backed by a number called “Fire In The Hole”, and after scanning the available song list, I found another single by the same guy... “Reelin’ In The Years” B/W “Only A Fool Would Say That”.
I dug a quarter out of my pocket and dropped it in the slot, punching up all three of the numbers I hadn’t yet heard. I stood there transfixed as the three songs played out over the next ten minutes or so and when all three had finished, I played all four a second time. As the replay ended I turned and headed for the door. I was a man on a mission and I had a record to buy!
It was a short drive over to College Records, (my favorite used record store) and striding up to the clerk I blurted out, “Do you have an album by some guy named Steely Dan?” He looked up from the copy of Rolling Stone he was reading and pointing towards the bins said, “I think the record is called “Can’t Buy A Thrill” and it should be over there, in rock under the letter S.”
Leafing through the row of LPs stacked neatly in the bin, I quickly found what I was looking for and in the space of a few heartbeats had the album out of the bin where I could examine it at leisure.
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| "Can't Buy A Thrill" - cover |
Arriving home I quickly fired up my trusty Nikko power amp and after slitting the shrink wrap, placed the slab of black vinyl carefully on the platter of my Garrard turntable. As side one began to play I settled in on the couch to soak it all in.
Lemme run down the rest of the side for you...
Do It Again (the opening track) is followed by “Dirty Work”, a bittersweet ballad whose lyric deals with a love affair in which one of the partners is using the other as a place holder for their regular relationship. The song is filled with the kind of beautifully vague imagery that would rapidly become SOP for the Dan. From verse #2:
“Light the candle, put the lock upon the door
You have sent the maid home early like a thousand times before
Like a castle in it’s corner, in a medieval game
I foresee terrible trouble, and I stay here just the same”
Instrumentation includes Rhodes & organ, guitars & bass, drums and a small brass section The lead vocal is by David Palmer and the sax solo is by Jerome Richardson.
Although at first listen the song seems to follow a traditional 4/4 time signature, there are some deceiving wrinkles built into the structure. The intro is 7 bars long with the vocal dropping on what would have been the two beat of bar #8. The verse consists of two halves, the first containing 3 bars of four followed by a bar of six and the second containing 3 bars of four and a bar of five. The chorus, like the intro, is 7 bars of four and the solo is 6 bars of 4 plus a bar of 3. All of this drops us into the outro which is straight bars of four through the fade. So in terms of both length and time, nothing in this song is quite what it seems!
Next up is “Kings”, a tune whose lyric, despite claims (by the band) to the contrary, seems more than vaguely political in nature. Led by a rolling piano and buttressed by clean, jazzy guitars, the tune features Donald Fagen back in the lead vocalist’s chair and a frantic guitar solo by Elliot Randall (who will reappear at the beginning of side B with another blistering solo). Also appearing for the first time on the album we have a section of backup singers that includes Venetta Fields, Clydie King and Shirlie Matthews. (These three girls formed the backbone of L.A. session back up vocalists throughout the 70's 80's 90's and into the 21st century!) The straight ahead drum beat is once again fortified by percussion in the form of a conga part by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter.
The song structure is unique in that the verses are six lines long (instead of the usual four or eight). But the rest of the tune (chorus, intro/outro & solo) stays ‘normal’ (composed of eight bar sections) right up until the fade which alternates between bars of four and six.
Following the almost frantic “Kings” is a more relaxed tune called “Midnight Cruiser”. At first, the lyric here reads like a conversation with a friend but on further examination seems more like a confession of drug abuse. From verse #1:
“Felonius my old friend, step on in and let me shake your hand
So glad that you're here again,
For one more time let your madness run with mine
The streets still unseen we'll find somehow that no time is better than now”
Along with a backing track of piano, guitar, bass & drums, instrumentation of note includes a guitar solo by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and a lead vocal by drummer Jim Hodder. Hodder is a fine drummer. His technique is clean and efficient with a delicate touch and a good sense of time. Unfortunately, he would ultimately be replaced (while preparing to record ‘Katy Lied’) when Fagen & Becker would decide to shift the paradigm by disassembling the fixed band in favor of an ever deepening pool of session musicians and other stellar players.
Structurally, the tune is almost “normal” with only a few wrinkles thrown in. The intro is 6 bars of four and the verses are 12 bars of four with an extra ½ measure (2 beats) tagged on at the end. The chorus’ are 8 bars of four and a bar of six and the guitar solo is 20 bars of four with an extra ½ measure (2 beats) tagged on at the end. The outro/fade is a pair of chorus’.
The side wraps up with “Only A Fool Would Say That”. A silky smooth Caribbean flavored number that features the first bridge on a Steely Dan record. Lyrically the song is about the futility of embracing the 60's utopian dream of peace and harmony on earth. From the chorus:
“I heard it was you
Talkin' 'bout a world where all is free
It just couldn't be
And only a fool would say that”
Musically the song bounces along at a brisk tempo backed by jazzy guitars, Rhodes piano, and about a ton of percussion! The bass player here (and on the rest of the album) is Fagen’s partner in crime, Walter Becker. An outstanding guitarist in his own right, Becker is also a brilliant bass player whose melodic style and classic technique are rooted in his love of American jazz (specifically BeBop). The guitar solo is again from Jeff “Skunk”Baxter who also supplies the Spanish spoken word at the very end of the song.
Structurally the song is the most traditional on the album yet! With 16 bar verses, 8 bar chorus’ and even a good old middle eight! The only wrinkles come with an extra 6 bar refrain that acts as a turn around between the bridge and the tight 8 bar solo and then again between final chorus and cold ending. ("Solamente un tanto dice ella” - “only a fool would say that”).
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