Steely Dan: Reelin' In The Years

Brian Sweet

Nov 2009 · Omnibus Press

About this ebook

The definitive biography of Steely Dan, the multi-million selling group of the Seventies whose hi-tech recordings took them into the super-league. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, together with eminent session musicians, crafted a unique blend of pop, jazz and soul. Author Brian Sweet, editor of the Steely Dan magazine Metal Leg, tells the extraordinary story of Fagen and Becker's life and music. He has researched in the USA and has undertaken numerous interviews with musical associates of the group. New 2000 edition.

Ratings and reviews

I learned a little more about the beautiful minds of steely dan. This band is totally underrated.

About the author

Reelin' In The Years is the acclaimed biography of Steely Dan, now updated to include details of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen's work during the Nineties and beyond, including the latest Steely Dan masterpiece 'Everything Must Go'.

The only book ever to have been published on Steely Dan, it tells the strange tale of how Becker and Fagen, a couple of cynical New York jazz fans, wormed their way into a record contract and astonished critics with their superb debut, Can't Buy A Thrill in 1973. Seven albums later, after Aja had topped charts everywhere, they are among the biggest selling acts in the world. Then they quit, only to reform in 1993 more popular than ever.

But Steely Dan were different from the rest of rock's super-sellers. They rarely gave interviews. After some early bad experiences on the road, they refused to tour. They didn't have their photographs taken. Few people even knew what they looked like. Steely Dan weren't even a proper group; it was two musicians and their producer, yet every top notch player in the world lined up to appear on their albums. They were perfectionists. They were enigmatic. They were very rich. Their music was the coolest around.

In Reelin' In The Years, Brian Sweet, editor and publisher of Metal Leg, the UK based Steely Dan fanzine, draws back the veil of secrecy that has surrounded Becker and Fagen. Here at last is the true story of how they made their music and lived their lives.