Steely Dan Abums Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Steely Dan's debut album was "Can't Buy a Thrill", released in 1972. The group, consisting at that time of six: songwriters Donald Fagen (lead vocals, keyboards) and Walter Becker (guitar, bass) with Denny Dias, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Jim Hodder, and David Palmer, was supplemented by session musicians. Drummer Hodder and Palmer shared vocalist duties with Fagen. "Do It Again", featured an electric sitar solo played by Dias. "Dirty Work" featured vocals by Palmer. "Reelin' In the Years" had a notable guitar solo by session musician Elliott Randall.

By the time of the 1973 album "Countdown to Ecstasy", Palmer had left, and Fagen sang lead vocals on all the tracks. For the first single from the album, "Show Biz Kids", Rick Derringer guested on slide guitar. The second, "My Old School" was an autobiographical song about Becker and Fagen's experiences at Bard College, Annandale, in New York.

"Pretzel Logic" in 1974 was the last album to feature the five members, recording and performing live together, although Jim Hodder was replaced on all but one track by session player Jim Gordon. It featured the first cover song on a Steely Dan album, the instrumental "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo", which was written by Duke Ellington and James "Bubber" Miley. "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" was the best charting single for the group and included a guitar solo by Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, who shortly afterwards joined the Doobie Brothers.

Fagen and Becker became very averse to touring, and from 1975's "Katy Lied" on, the group became a recording act only, consisting of the duo supplemented by session musicians and working closely with producer Gary Katz and engineer Roger Nicholls. The title of the album came from standout track "Doctor Wu", an enigmatic song touching on drug use and therapy. "Katy lies, You can see it in her eyes, But imagine my surprise when I saw you".

On their next album, "The Royal Scam" (1976), "Kid Charlemagne", inspired by the rise of an LSD manufacturer, with a guitar solo by Larry Carlton, was a minor hit single. "Haitian Divorce", with "talk box" guitar by Dean Parks gave the group its biggest UK hit. "The Fez" is unusual in that Paul Griffin, who played keyboards on the album is also listed as a songwriter alongside Becker and Fagen.

Steely Dan's next album was 1977's "Aja". The album received critical praise and became a favourite for hi-fi aficionados to try out their equipment, due to its high-quality production. The title track was the longest the band had recorded up to that point, at around eight minutes in length. It featured solos by drummer Steve Gadd and saxophonist Wayne Shorter. "Peg" and "Deacon Blues" were released as singles.

The production of the 1980 album, "Gaucho" was a long-drawn-out process, involving more than 40 session musicians, and disputes between the band and its label. It was the last studio album Steely Dan released for twenty years. Becker and Fagen were accused of plagiarism on the title track by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett and had to give him a songwriting credit. The single "Hey Nineteen" was a chart success. After the release, the band split up in 1981.

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker started playing together again on solo projects in the studio and live in the early 1990s and toured as Steely Dan in 1993 and 1994. They released an album based on those concerts called "Alive in America" in 1995.

They returned to the studio as Steely Dan and released their eighth studio album, "Two Against Nature" in 2000. It was a critical and commercial success with a standout track "Cousin Dupree" winning a Grammy award.

The ninth and final studio album by Steely Dan was "Everything Must Go" (2003). Tracks included "Godwhacker", based on the loss of Becker's mother to Alzheimer's, and "Blues Beach".

The wrong album options were by two groups with a connection to Steely Dan. "Toulouse Street", "The Captain and Me", and" Brotherhood" were by the Doobie Brothers, who Jeff "Skunk" Baxter joined, and whose lead singer Michael McDonald frequently sang backing vocals for Steely Dan. "On the Border" and "The Long Run" were albums by Eagles about whom Steely Dan in "Everything You Did" from "The Royal Scam" sang "Turn up the Eagles the neighbours are listening". Timothy B. Schmidt, who later joined Eagles, sang backing vocals on a few Steely Dan tracks.