Steely Dan Album: “Pretzel Logic [Remaster]”

I have grown to love Steely Dan's eclectic music. When I was 20 years younger, and mainly buying and listening to hard rock outfits like Aerosmith, Rush, Led Zeppelin, etc., the only Dan music I was familier with was the few "hits" being played on the local Rock radio. They played Rikki Don't Lose that Number and Peg. And I remember Josie off the Aja album.

The first Steely Dan cd I bought was the debut, Can't Buy a Thrill. I must have bought it because my favorite song is Do It Again. Later, in the heyday of original compact disc releases (vs. re-issues of former vinyl albums) Steely Dan's A Decade of Steely Dan came out. It was a popular cd. Great songs and great sound.

Years went by. I was still just a casual fan. Had maybe purchased just a couple of other titles on MCA records. They were a bargain in price, but not in quality. So-so sound quality, No liner notes. etc. Finally, in the last few years, major musical acts of any "significance" have had their early albums/cd's remastered and re-released. All this at a very reasonable price! That's when I started replacing old discs and buying some that I did not own before by the Dan. Wow, did I discover some great music that I had never heard on the radio!

Night By Night is one of my all-time favorite Dan songs. Really smooth and jazzy. The title track, Pretzel logic is also one I had never heard. Great stuff. I have now purchased all of their early albums. One at a time.

If you are just starting out. Try either their first album or the great Aja from 1977. If you like what you hear (and you will) then just keep picking them up. Some are only $8 apeice. You can't go wrong.

...They excised the beginning of Rikki Don't Lose That Number on this "remastered" reissue. "Rikki" opens with a really cool marimba part. Very moody and mysterious; since it's the opening cut on the album, it really sets the tone. Why the powers that be decided to remove it, tamper with a classic peice of work, is mind boggling. That Donald Fagen and Walter Becker would allow it, or would not catch it, is pathetic.

Having got that off my chest, this is a truly classic album, and different from any other album S.D. released. First and foremost, it is short...short songs, short running time. If you are thinking that means your getting shortchanged, think again. One tight catchy songs after another, the album ends with you wanting more, which is exactly how it should be. Too many albums of the CD age go on so long you want to quit listening before the album wants to quit playing. Not so here. Eleven songs, 34 minutes and you're done, and actually ready to hear it again. I can see why some Dan fans don't rate this album as the classic it is. This is the kind of catchy pop (done Dan style, of course) that many Dan-lovers might disdain.

Each song is a scrumptuous morsel that can be digested again and again with no ill side effects. Even the Duke Ellington song seems at home here.

If you can appreciate your Steely Dan short and sweet, this album brings innumberable pleasures. However, I suggest that you find the earlier version that has the opening. It is not at all sonically inferior to this one, you just might have to turn your volume up a bit more, as this one is mastered hotter. But I can assure you, if you equalize the volume settings, there is no discernable difference in the sound quality.

Steely Dan Phase I came to an end soon after the release of 'Pretzel Logic' in early 1974. By the end of a long tour that took them to London Steely Dan , the band, was no more. Original members Hodder and Baxter were kicked out not to be replaced and Steely Dan's 1975 tour was scratched. But the music..ah yes the music. 'Pretzel Logic' represented the culmination of the young Becker/Fagen persona; laced with old jazz riffs and black and white New York imagery, sorta of like noire meets Ellington, 'Logic is perfect pop for now people. It even had throw backs to the early country western 'Dan ("With A Gun' which featured Poco member Tim Schmit; soon to be an Eagle) and put Steely Dan at the top of the pop charts with 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number' (#2 in August right when the band imploded). All of Steely Dan's albums are great...but this one has a special shine to it....go figure! Steve O'Rourke stevev@jps.net END

I really can't explain why this one hits me the way it does, but I just love it. From the vibe trills that quietly open 'Rikki...', to the last twang of 'Monkey In Your Soul', it's a total classic. You've gotta love the radio memory that is 'Rikki...' -- I smile whenever I hear it. And of course 'Night By Night' contains one of my favorite Dan lyrics: "Yes, I'm cashing in this 10-cent life for another one". Perhaps others felt weird like I did about always wanting to skip 'East St. Louis Toodle-oo', but eventually even that one grew on me. The disc marks a point in Dan history where they were starting to use session men rather than just the touring band -- very interesting sound. It seriously sits in my top 10 of all time.

Perhaps the most astonishing thing that can be said about this album is the breadth of opinions it generates. Some rock critics of yesterday and today deride this album, others consider it their masterpiece.

One thing that is certain, this album leaves no one indifferent -- the deliberately ambiguous "Rikki Don't Lose That Number", their second-highest charting hit, set the tone of an inspired collection of witty ("Parker's Band"), oblique ("Pretzel Logic", "Though With Buzz"), acerbic ("With A Gun", "Monkey in Your Soul"), paranoid ("Night By Night"), social commentary ("Barrytown", "Charlie Freak"), even tempered optimism ("Any Major Dude") songs.

Although there are still solid doses of rock and blues in these songs, it's the jazz ethic in both "Parker's Band", and "East St-Louis Toodle-oo" that frame the album in the context of serious musical cross-pollenization. Steely Dan never sounded blusier than on these tracks, and Donald Fagen's voice displayed an incredible emotional resonance rarely repeated in later albums.

Indeed, this was a transition album, but also a reversion from the five to seven minute jam-flavoured "Countdown to Ecstacy" songs they momentarily lost the taste of playing. Some view these varying themes as scattershot, but it's the eclectic nature of this album that makes it their most important album, if not their best.