Re: Donald Fagen Recalls Lennon's Murder

On 2024-10-11 11:22:34 +0000, Norbert said:

I iiked Two Against Nature a lot (with the exception of the title
track and one or two others).  A problem, however, is that Walter Becker
was allowed to play too much of the bass and lead guitar.  And the
drumming is too simple; it could almost be mistaken for a machine in
places.
      Steely Dan's oeuvre abounds in amazing guitar and bass -- but none
of it is Becker's.  The great basslines are Chuck Rainey's; the great
guitar is guys including Jon Herington, Jeff Baxter and Denny Dias.

Yes I've owned a "Making of Aja" DVD from Eagle Rock/Image Entertainment for several years and it shows them in the studio playing with all those great musicians from that era, also at the mixing board talking about the individual tracks.
I also own a "Two Against Nature" concert DVD that came out around the same time as the album and I've watched it several times over the years. Even though it's called Two Against Nature they only do a couple of numbers from that album and it's mostly their '70s hits. It was a great investment along with the Making of Aja DVD.
I did get to see them live once in 2006, with Michael McDonald as the opener and he also came out later and did some songs with them, particularly Steely Dan songs he sang back-up on.

      Becker was an entertaining wordsmith, but they should have left
the guitar and bass to the experts.
      Same with Fagen's solo album Kamakiriad.  Becker produced it and
played lead guitar and bass, both of which were noodly.  "Where's Chuck
Rainey?" was a 1-line review I recall, and could not have agreed with
more.

I think it all comes down to the quality of the songwriting, IMO it was never there after The Nightfly and the pre-Nightfly Steely Dan albums.