Steely Dan was an American rock band formed in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York in 1971 by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Originally having a traditional band lineup, Becker and Fagen chose to stop performing live by the end of 1974 and continued Steely Dan as a studio-only duo, using a revolving cast of session musicians. Rolling Stone magazine named them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the seventies". Becker and Fagen played together in a variety of bands from their time together studying at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. They later moved to Los Angeles, gathered a band of musicians and began recording music. Their debut album, Can't Buy a Thrill (1972), established a template for their career, blending elements of rock, jazz, Latin music, R&B, and blues with sophisticated studio production and cryptic, irony-infused lyrics. The band enjoyed critical and commercial success with seven studio albums, peaking with their top-selling album Aja, released in 1977. Steely Dan disbanded in 1981. Becker and Fagen worked sporadically on solo projects through the 1980s, although a cult following remained devoted to the group's...
Extract from Wikipedia: “Steely Dan” (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Vinyl
Members
12 people from MusicBrainz
- 1972–1973David Palmer
- —Cornelius Bumpus
- —Denny Dias
- —Donald Fagen
- —Jeff “Skunk” Baxter
- —Jeff Porcaro
- —Jim Hodder
- —Michael McDonald
- —Royce Jones
- until 2017Walter Becker — saxophone
- until 2017Walter Becker — bass
- until 2017Walter Becker — guitar
Discography
125 releases from MusicBrainz · ★ 3 in my collection
Albums (13)
- 1972Can’t Buy a Thrill
- 1973Countdown to Ecstasy
- 1974Pretzel Logic
- 1975Katy Lied
- 1976The Royal Scam
- 1977★Aja
- 1980Gaucho
- 2000Two Against Nature
- 2003Everything Must Go
- 2008In Concert
- 2021The Royal Scam Sessions
- 2023The Broadcast Collection 1974 – 1996
- —Magdalenian Pries: Katy Lied Demos and Outtakes
EPs (2)
- 1981Hazlo otra vez (Do It Again)
- 1982Reelin’ In the Years
Singles (33)
- 1972Dallas
- 1972Do It Again / Fire in the Hole
- 1972Reeling In the Years / Only a Fool
- 1973Dirty Work / Reeling In the Years
- 1973My Old School
- 1973Show Biz Kids
- 1974Pretzel Logic / Through With Buzz
- 1974Rikki Don’t Lose That Number / Any Major Dude Will Tell You
- 1975Bad Sneakers / Chain Lightning
- 1975Black Friday
- 1976Haitian Divorce
- 1976Kid Charlemagne / Green Earrings
- 1976The Fez / Sign in Stranger
- 1977★Aja
- 1977Deacon Blues
- 1977Josie
- 1977Peg / I Got the News
- 1978Do It Again / Rikki Don’t Lose That Number
- 1978FM (No Static at All)
- 1978La mejor musica de “FM”
- 1979Rikki Don’t Lose That Number / Pretzel Logic
- 1980Babylon Sisters
- 1980Hey Nineteen
- 1980Time Out of Mind / Bodhisattva
- 1992Gold
- 2000Cousin Dupree
- 2000Jack of Speed
- 2000Janie Runaway
- 2000What a Shame About Me
- 2003Blues Beach
- 2003Everything Must Go
- 2003The Last Mall
- 2003Things I Miss the Most
More: singles, compilations, live & other releases
Lives (34)
- 19741974‐03‐20: KMET – Live: The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- 1991Reeling Through the Years
- 1993Steely Dan Live at Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA 1993
- 1994Los Angeles 1974
- 1994Memphis Blues Again
- 1995Alive in America
- 1995Reelin’ In the Years / Peg
- 2000Two Against Nature: Steely Dan’s Plush TV Jazz‐Rock Party in Sensuous Surround Sound — Plush TV Jazz‐Rock Party
- 20032003‐10‐02: Universal Amphitheatre, Universal City, CA, USA
- 2005Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz
- 2012Toronto 2011
- 2013Going Mobile: Classic 1974 Live Radio Broadcast
- 20141974-04-30: Ellis Auditorium, Memphis, TN, USA
- 2015Doing It in California
- 2015Live at the Record Plant, LA, 1974
- 2016Transmission Impossible
- 2017The St. Louis Toodle‐oo – Missouri Broadcast 1993
- 2019King of the World (American radio broadcast)
- 2019Sweet Tour 2019
- 2020Aja vs the Scam
- 2020Chicago 2009 (radio broadcast)
- 2021Mobile Homes (Seattle 1974 Broadcast)
- 2021Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live!
- 2021Somebody Else’s Favorite Songs (The Broadcast Collection 1974–1993)
- 2022The London Boys
- 2022University of California, Irvine, CA (March 10, 1974)
- 2025Done Up Loose: Live London ’74
- —1993‐09‐01: Riverport Amphitheater, St. Louis, MO, USA
- —1994-09-17: Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA, USA
- —1996-07-21: Nissan Pavilion, Bristow, VA, USA
- —2000-01: Two Aginst Nature: Sony Studios, New York, USA
- —2003‐08‐11: DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston, MI, USA
- —2007‐08‐24, 2nd show: Billboard Live, Tokyo, Japan
- —Southland (live)
Compilations (41)
- 1977Four Tracks From Steely Dan
- 1978★Greatest Hits
- 1978Steely Dan
- 1979The Very Best of Steely Dan
- 1980The Gaucho Outtakes
- 1981Platinum Hits
- 1982Countdown to Ecstasy / Can’t Buy a Thrill
- 1982Gold
- 1982Katy Lied / The Royal Scam
- 1985A Decade of Steely Dan
- 1985Berry Town
- 1985Sun Mountain
- 1985The Very Best of Steely Dan: Reelin’ In the Years
- 1987Old Regime
- 1987The Very Best of Steely Dan
- 1988Stone Piano
- 1989You Go Where I Go
- 1993Citizen Steely Dan: 1972–1980
- 1993Remastered: The Best of Steely Dan (Then and Now)
- 1994Becker & Fagan From Steely Dan Collection
- 1994Roaring of the Lamb
- 1994Steely Dan: The Early Years
- 1994The Caves of Altamira
- 1996Art Crimes
- 1996Countdown to Ecstasy / Pretzel Logic
- 1998The Early Years
- 2000Showbiz Kids: The Steely Dan Story 1972–1980
- 2000Steely Dan
- 2000The Steely Dan Collection
- 2006The Definitive Collection
- 200720th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Steely Dan
- 2009Collected
- 2009The Very Best of Steely Dan
- 2010Can’t Buy a Thrill / Gaucho
- 2012Can’t Buy a Thrill / Aja
- 2015The Lost Gaucho and Outtakes
- 2023Ten Songs for You
- —Aja / The Nightfly
- —Android Warehouse
- —Android Warehouse (The Early Years)
- —Steely Dan featuring Walter Becker & Donald Fagan
Demos (1)
- 2025Katy Meets the Royals
Others (1)
- —Katy Lied Outtakes
Related artists
1 from MusicBrainz
Supporting musicians (1)
- Larry Carlton