CAN'T BUY A THRILL

This first album by Steely Dan has grown in stature for me over the years. Steely Dan is one of my top ten bands, without a doubt, and Can't Buy A Thrill has only a couple of weak songs. On that basis, I give Can't Buy A Thrill 4 stars. It's great, but not their best.

It's impressive what fine songwriters Becker and Fagen already were at this point. Becker was born in February of 1950, which would make him 22 at this point. "Dirty Work" is one of my favorite songs, by any musical group, ever. "Do It Again" takes the image of the Old West and turns it into a lyrically brilliant song. Later albums would become jazzier and more diverse; Aja is a perfect example. However, I believe few "bands" had a clearer concept of what they wanted to sound like from the beginning than Steely Dan. "Reelin In The Years" includes the first of many astounding guitar solos from Steely Dan.

There are reasons that Can't Buy A Thrill doesn't get the final star from me. As I stated, later albums fuse Steely Dan's jazz, R & B, and rock influences better than this one. I think "Only A Fool Would Say That" and, especially "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again", are weak songs. "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again" is so slick you could skate on it. I have to assume that Fagen's being ironic here - I know, not much of a stretch. If that's the case, I'm not getting the joke. However, the other eight songs on Can't Buy A Thrill are good - to - great. This four star album was to be followed by masterpieces in short order.