Steely Dan

A

lthough Diskery lists them as pop, in fact Steely Dan is a fusion of jazz, pop and rock. Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker (guitars/bass/backing vocals; R.I.P) and Donald Fagen (keyboards/lead vocals). Initially the band had a stable lineup, but in 1974 Becker and Fagen retired from live performances to become a studio-only band, opting to record with a revolving cast of session musicians.

As for the membership, let's cover that history with Walter Becker (guitar/bass/backing/occasional lead vocals (1972-1981, 1993-2017; his death)), Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (guitar/backing vocals (1972-1974)), Denny Dias (guitar (1972-1974/studio contributions until 1977)), Jim Hodder (drums/backing and lead vocals (1972-1974; died 1990)), David Palmer (backing and lead vocals (1972-1973)), Royce Jones (backing vocals/percussion (1973-1974)), Michael McDonald (keyboards/backing vocals (1974/studio contributions until 1980)) and Jeff Porcaro (drums (1974/studio contributions until 1980; died 1992)), this does not include numerous live musicians.

Becker and Fagen played together in a variety of bands from their time together studying at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. They later moved to Los Angeles, gathered a band of musicians, and began recording albums. Their first album, Can't Buy a Thrill (1972), established a template for their career, blending elements of rock, jazz, Latin music, R&B, blues, and sophisticated studio production with cryptic and ironic lyrics. The band enjoyed critical and commercial success through the studio albums in the form of Countdown to Ecstasy (1973), Pretzel Logic (1974), Katy Lied (1975), The Royal Scam (1976) culminating their best hit album Aja (1977).