- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Can’t Buy a Thrill covers the Steely Dan oeuvre: precision performances, sophisticated music, interlocking harmonies, enigmatic lyrics.
Steely Dan – Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972): Steely Dan took a different path from nearly every other rock band, being a studio creation from the beginning. Steely Dan also refrained from touring to support their albums after the first few years – their concerts in support of their debut album Can’t Buy a Thrill were disastrous, and that might have hastened this decision – and about the only other rock band that I know of who took that route was the Beatles. Songwriters Walter Becker and Donald Fagen form the core of the band, and they typically oversee a group of studio musicians and guest artists to craft their songs and albums. After playing in a variety of bands in their early years, Barbra Streisand included a song written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, “I Mean to Shine” on her album Barbra Joan Streisand (1971).
The two then met record producer Gary Katz, and he arranged for them to be hired as staff songwriters for ABC/Dunhill Records. He encouraged them to start a band as a vehicle for their songs, and in turn Gary Katz produced the Steely Dan albums during their main career – seven studio albums in all, through 1980. Their debut album, Can’t Buy a Thrill has all of the elements of the Steely Dan oeuvre: precision performances, sophisticated music, interlocking harmonies, enigmatic lyrics, sleek vocals, ugly album covers. Rock critics often describe Steely Dan songs as “jazz rock”, because they have to call them something; and while there are jazzy touches in their music, two of the chief characteristics of jazz as I understand it, instrumental solos and improvisation, are completely absent in Steely Dan music. In many ways, Steely Dan songs seem almost manufactured, yet there are enough textures and nuances to keep the music sounding fresh even after dozens of plays. When I finally bought Can’t Buy a Thrill – having been nudged into the purchase when I found it among the Asian albums in a Gulfport record store that I frequented – I hadn’t really thought that I liked Steely Dan particularly, only to find that I already knew several of these songs by heart from hearing them regularly on the radio. Steely Dan had two Top Ten singles from this album, “Do It Again” and one of their best-known songs, “Reelin’ in the Years”; other fine songs are “Dirty Work”, “Kings”, “Midnight Cruiser”, “Brooklyn”, and “Turn that Heartbeat over Again”.