Music Post: Two degrees of Steely Dan

Everybody who loves the music of Steely Dan knows that the group consists of two guys, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who write all the tunes and hire session musicians to fill out the band.

But until spending a couple of pleasant hours linking from their Wikipedia write-up to the pages of the many musicians who graced their notes, I never fully realized how many of these guys played on other tunes I admire.

Most session musicians can't resist the temptation to actually join a band from time to time - even Becker and Fagan themselves sometimes tour with whomever they're working with at the time, though they try not to make a habit of it. Let me give you a few examples (subject to correction in much the way Wikipedia is) of what other hits these same boys have been involved with.

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter played guitar on the first three Steely Dan albums and plays the solo on "Rikki, Don't Lose That Number." Later, with the Doobie Brothers, he played pedal steel guitar on "Black Water" and the guitar solo on "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)."

Michael McDonald sang back-up on "Katy Lied" and "The Royal Scam," and on "Aja" he can be heard on "Peg" and "I Got the News." By then he was with the Doobies, where he can be heard on "Takin' to the Streets," "It Keeps You Runnin'," and "What a Fool Believes," the 1978 Grammy Song of the Year.

David Palmer sang "Dirty Work" and "Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer)" on the first Steely Dan album "Can't Buy a Thrill," but was relegated to back-up vocals on the second album and then left the band. Never mind that: Palmer wrote the lyrics to the Carol King hit "Jazzman."

Denny Dias played the sitar part on "Do It Again." When Becker and Fagan broke up the original iteration of the band to use session musicians, Dias continued to be brought in, so that he played on all of the first six albums. In 2004 Dias recorded with Weather Report cofounder Wayne Shorter.

Jim Hodder played drums on the first three albums and sang "Midnight Cruiser." He played on "Silver Lady" during David Soul's 15-minute career as a pop singer. Hodder drowned in 1990 at the age of 42.

Jeff Porcaro succeeded Jim Hodder as Steely Dan's drummer on the fourth album, "Katy Lied." He was the drummer on Toto's "Rosanna" and Michael Jackson's "Beat It." Porcaro died of a heart attack at 38 in 1992 after inhaling insecticide while spraying his garden.

Ralph MacDonald, who played percussion on "Gaucho," has recorded with Aretha Franklin, Carole King and James Taylor. He's on Hubert Laws' "Romeo & Juliet" and "Morning Star." He wrote the Roberta Flack-Donny Hathaway hit "Where is the Love" and the Bill Withers hit "Just the Two of Us."

Paul Humphrey, who played drums on "Black Cow," worked with Charles Mingus and Wes Montgomery. He may be the only musician to have worked with both Frank Zappa and Lawrence Welk. Humphrey was the drummer on the Marvin Gaye album "Let's Get It On."

Victor Feldman, who played vibes and drums from the 1950s, joined Steely Dan on "The Royal Scam," "Aja," and "Gaucho." He recorded an album of jazzed-up Chopin in 1983. He recorded with Frank Zappa, Joe Walsh and Tom Waits.

Bernard Purdie was Aretha Franklin's music director from 1970 to 1975 and played with Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Larry Coryell in those same years before joining Steely Dan for selected tracks on "The Royal Scam," "Aja" and "Gaucho." That's him on "Babylon Sisters" and "Home at Last."

Elliott Randall played the guitar solo on "Reelin' in the Years," turned down a permanent role in the early Steely Dan band, but returned as a session musician to play on "Katy Lied" and "The Royal Scam." He went on to record with Carly Simon, Peter Frampton, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Rick Derringer, who was 17 when he topped with charts with "Hang on Sloopy" in 1965, played the guitar solo on "Chain Lightning" on "Katy Lied." In 1973 his solo album charted with "Rock and Roll, Hootchie Koo." Derringer wrote the entrance music for Hulk Hogan in World Wrestling Federation events.

Larry Carlton played guitar with Herb Alpert, Quincy Jones and Joni Mitchell (on "Court and Spark," the album that has "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris"). He played on "Katy Lied" - it's his solo on "Daddy Don't Live in That New York City No More" and on "The Royal Scam" - it's his guitar solo on "Kid Charlemagne" and on "Don't Take Me Alive." Carlton played on the theme to "Hill Street Blues."

Hugh McCracken played guitar on Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Makin' Love" and Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are." He played on the Paul McCartney album that includes "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" and Paul Simon's "Still Crazy" album. McCracken played on "Gaucho" and "Everything Must Go.'

David Sanborn played sax on "Gaucho." A frequent player in Paul Shaffer's Letterman band, Sanborn plays the famous sax solo in the theme to "L.A. Law" and scored three of the "Lethal Weapon" movies.

Wayne Shorter played with Maynard Ferguson and Miles Davis before cofounding Weather Report with Joe Zawinul. Weather Report lasted from 1971 to 1985, but in the same years he played with Joni Mitchell and blew the sax cri de coeur on "Aja."

Steve Khan, the son of lyricist Sammy Cahn ("All the Way," "High Hopes," "Love and Marriage"), has played guitar with James Brown, Billy Joel, Hubert Laws and Bob James. He and Donald Fagen contributed a piece to an all-star album of Thelonious Monk tunes. He played on "Aja."

Phil Woods plays the alto sax solo on the "Katy Lied" sort-of title tune "Dr. Wu." It's also his sax solo on Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are." He was active in the hard bop era and has composed classical music for saxophone quartet.

Paul Griffin plays the piano solo on the "Royal Scam" track "Sign in Stranger" and has a rare co-writing credit for "The Fez" because he improvised the melody line. Griffin played the gospel piano bits on Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," he's the keyboardist on the Isley Brothers' "Twist and Shout," he played on Dionne Warwick's "Walk on By," and he's the pianist on "American Pie."

Steve Gadd plays the drums on "Aja," reportedly on the first take, and is on four tracks on "Gaucho." A graduate of the Eastman School of Music who sat in with Dizzy Gillespie at the age of seven, Gadd played with Chuck Mangione and Chick Corea. It's him on Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" and on the Manhattan Transfer tune "On the Boulevard."

James Pugh played trombone on the album "Two Against Nature." Pugh, who toured with Woody Herman and was part of the "Return to Forever" band, and wrote the theme to public radio's "Performance Today."

Dean Parks played the guitar melody line on "Beat It" and the Talkbox bits on "Haitian Divorce." He's also on "Two Against Nature." He has played with such diverse musicians as B.B. King, America, and Dolly Parton.

Michael Leonhart played on "Two Against Nature" and "Everything Must Go." He has played with Henry Mancini, Busta Rhymes, Bonnie Raitt and Brian Eno.

This is an exhaustive list only insofar as I'm exhausted; otherwise it's woefully incomplete. But Becker and Fagan sure know how to collect talent.

Comments

[Patrick]

Props to Becker & Fagan. The ability to recognize and successfully recruit talented people in any field is a woefully undervalued ability.

[Reader]

Fascinating post, thank you!

Allmusic is also an excellent site for music info.

[AJ McWhorter]

Doesn't Walter Becker still reside on Maui? I remember when Steely Dan toured here, doing shows at the NBC and MACC circa 2003.

Love David Sanborn's sax work, he played on one of my favorite tunes, Carly Simon's "You Belong to Me", which was also a Doobie Broters song.