Steely Dan: Reeling In The Years
by Brian Sweet

Fat in content, thin on critique

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker approach their music with a fastidiousness bordering on obsession, so it’s perhaps fitting that a biography of their group should be equally single-minded and wrapped up in the most minute detail. The author is clearly an überfan, but sometimes his commitment to the cause gets in the way of a free-flowing read. Sweet relishes recounting how Fagen effortlessly spots even the smallest “soft” drum beat in a lengthy piece of elaborate music, awe-struck by the meticulously-crafted finished product. He lovingly dissects every note of Can’t Buy A Thrill or Aja, but largely at the expense of real human analysis of the musicians themselves. The fact that neither Fagen or Becker have spoken much about their craft in public undoubtedly makes the biographer’s job that much tougher, although if a little more attention was paid to their enigmatic personalities, it might have resulted in something less like a technical manual. Steely Dan’s off-the-wall idiosyncratic humour is at the heart of a great deal of their craft, both in their 70s heyday and in their work since reforming in the early 90s, but there’s little wit or warmth in Sweet’s otherwise admirably comprehensive assessments of some of the most accomplished and enduring music of modern times.

ISBN 9781846098819

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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