For the die hard fans of Steely Dan, at least those who savored and enshrined Becker and Fagan's stature as paradoxical hitmaking anti-heroes of the 1970's, seeing them back on tour is a mixed blessing. As good as the songs were, they were an essentially studio creature - legendarily so, notorious for maddening precision and driving producers and record company execs to the point of befuddled frustration. Seeing these songs staged, thirty years hence, throws a lot of sunlight on musty iconography, and that's usually a recipe for disappointment.
In fairness, of course, the band has now been a traveling road show on and off for 16 years, a lot longer than they were a studio-only enterprise, and to their credit, their live shows do come off as plausible expressions of respect for their material - not an easy nor common feat for near-40 year veterans whose heyday was during the Ford and Carter years.
Their "Rent Party" tour swung through a few days ago. I had dithered a bit about going - wife was out of town, work and other matters had driven me into a bit of a hole and, to top everything off, Denver got hit the day before with a massive, ensnarling snowstorm, threatening to make the highway-stretch 30 mile drive from Boulder a royal pain in the ass...which it was.
The tour had the 13-piece band alternating "Royal Scam +" and "Aja +" setlists - playing one or the other album all the way through, with other tunes. Denver was Aja night.
After a good but indifferently received set by opener Sam Yahel's trio - a NY-based B3 player vaguely evocative of Charles Earland and Jimmy Smith, and while a terrific player, comically out of place in a large arena setting - the band took the stage and leaned straight into the quizzical funk of "Black Cow", kicking off the entirety of Aja . The crowd, predictably, went off the grid.
The Aja portion seemed to fly past quickly, Fagan up front did not address the audience once during the 7-song stretch. Probably our favorite was the under-appreciated "I Got The News", with its slick backbeat, hard breaks and gorgeous vocal arrangements, one of the two or three tunes all night that really seemed to stretch the band toward its capabilities. "Peg" was also a highlight, rendered somewhat faster than we would have expected and featuring some of lead guitarist Jon Herrington's best soloing all night.
The centerpiece of the album, of course, is the elegant and beguiling title track (which I had forgotten was sequenced as the middle track of side one). In all honesty, we've seen them stage it three times now (in 1994, 95 and this past week), and I remain convinced that, while a fan favorite and probably near to the top of their 70's-era repertoire, they haven't yet managed to recreate the loft and grace of the studio version. It was great to hear it, and wicked fan fun to watch now-longtime drummer Keith Carlock re-interpret Steve Gadd's galloping breaks near the end of each instrumental movement, but none of the live versions just don't seem to tease and pirouette like the sublime studio version. "Aja" is a coy mistress, who does not seem to travel well. They'll keep playing it, bless 'em, and they should; maybe one of these days they'll absolutely nail it. I hope they have a tape running that night.
Fagan loosened up a bit after the Aja section, chatting up the audience, mugging at the band, waving madly at the song codas. Now in their early sixties, both he and Becker bear the demeanor of a couple of retired literature professors - graying, a little awkward and stiff, almost doddering, incongruous to the lanky, smart-assed, jazz-obsessed shut-ins that cranked this shit out way back when.
Some of our favorites: "Time Out of Mind", which I always found one of Gaucho's low spots, came across crisp and sharp. Herrington saved this one with incisive, serrated lead guitar accents, weaving in and out of Mark Knopfler's original lines. "Bodhisattva", breakneck fast and all hyper-caffeinated snark, one of Steely Dan's most subversively weird post-bop concoctions. "Show Biz Kids", surprising entry here, good clean mean-spirited fun; not the cleanest arrangement, but surprisingly more toxic than the original. Fagan seemed to relish this one - one can only hope he never loses his rageful disdain of pretense. "Don't Take Me Alive", personal favorite, Herrington on overdrive, trying to out-Carlton Carlton. "Kid Charlemagne", loopy and a bit of a wreck, but too good a song to screw up, Herrington teasing at the fringes of Carlton's iconic solo. "My Old School", set-ending rave-up, crowd pleaser. Put me on the Wolverine, ma.
Odd moments: Becker taking the lead vocal on "Daddy Don't Live in that NYC No More". Sorry, but the guy just can't sing; it was fun to hear one of the Dan's vintage low-life character studies, but it came across as a bit of a throwaway....one is tempted tto think it was always a throwaway The four-voice lady choir taking turns on lead for "Dirty Work", an oddly tender turn for an otherwise forgettable tune. Fagan gets props for mentioning original vocalist David Palmer (where is HE now? another 'Steely Dan alumnus', fossilized however fleetingly on Classic Rock radio.)
The mix was a little drum and lead guitar heavy, and horn and vocal poor I thought. Fagan's voice has lost a bit of its range and volume (the female choir neatly supported that second "is there gas the in car?" high note from "Kid Charlemagne" that Fagan probably hasn't hit since they recorded it in 1975.) Seemed to forget a couple of lyrics, too, but only the completists would have noticed, buried as it was in the mix.
Finally... we recall hearing the re-arranged "Reelin' In The Years" back in 94, on their second tour. Samba-esque, relaxed, almost wistful, a bit like an Aja outtake. But in Denver they delivered the straight, album-version arrangement , more rock-pop, and frankly, as fun as it was hearing Herrington copping Elliot Randall's legendary surf line, I liked the slower version better.
Which leads us into an observation. Little of the 70's era material was re-arranged, far less than what I remember from the two shows I saw in the nineties (capturing on the live CD Alive In America), which smacked a bit of blatant mass-appeal pandering, with the exception of Jim Beard uncorking a fantastic boogie-woogie piano solo intro to "My Old School" It's not as acute a complaint as it may seem - everything came across energetic and full throttle. The band is outstanding, and, hell, they can play their songs any way they want; questioning Becker and Fagan's arrangements is a dicey critic's conceit, and most of the originals were arranged just fine. The liturgy, though, holds up well to re-imagining, and it would have been fine with this listener had they stretched it a bit.
Maybe more troubling, the band performed none of their post-reunion studio work nor solo work - "no one wants to hear it" observed Fagan to the Boston Globe not long ago - and while I personally wasn't pining for "Cousin Dupree", it worried me that the band stuck strictly to fan faves (although no "FM", thankfully). It casts them into a role they can't possibly be happy with - recreating musty old gems from their past for stacks of glimmering nickels (did I hear Fagan say they make $400,000/show?). They DID look like they were having fun, as did everyone else (who paid $100 or more a seat), but the true believers get a little squirrely watching their heroes evolve into mere jukebots; a lot of serious musicians play to please themselves first, and leave the audience expectation game offstage. Is Fagan really happier playing "Reelin' In The Years" than "Green Flower Street"? Do these guys enjoy being retro pop heroes, after being scornful anti-heroes for the bulk of their careers?
If they tour again (and they certainly don't have to, on that kind of wage), I'm perfectly fine letting them play some from Two Against Nature or Everything Must Go, The Nightfly or Morph The Cat or 11 Tracks of Whack. That shit counts, too, in my book, and much of it is outstanding.
Makes us listen, guys. You haven't forgotten how to that, have ya?
