CAN'T BUY A THRILL

It was March or April of 1973, and my mother, sister, and I were on a brief trip on Highway 90 out of New Orleans to Fort Pike in the Rigolets. During this journey, courtesy of WTIX-AM, I first heard Reeling in the Years. This song has had a place in my imagination ever since.

I was pleased recently to learn of the inclusion of Steely Dan on ProgArchives.com Whether Prog Related, Crossover Prog, or Jazz/Rock Fusion, the compositions of Becker and Fagen and the varied musical lineups through which these pieces have been realized have advanced the cause of progress. The readership of this site holds a special place for the album Argus of Wishbone Ash; Can't Buy a Thrill occupies a similar position.

We often refer to the Spirit of the Times. In 1972, the Times were busy: Close to the Edge, Thick as a Brick, Foxtrot, Trilogy, and, in the process of conception, composition, and recording, to some degree, Selling England by the Pound, Dark Side of the Moon, and Larks' Tongues in Aspic. Through Argus, Wishbone Ash delivered a musical realization of the symmetry of harmony lead guitar coupled with overall musical intensity. On Can't Buy a Thrill, Elliott Randall, Jeff, Skunk, Baxter, Denny Dias, Walter Becker, and Donald Fagen parallel this intensity.

Further, on the album Close to the Edge, Steve Howe introduced us to his steel guitar. From And You and I, to the Ancient, to the Gates of Delirium, to Going for the One, indeed, through In the Presence of . . ., Howe has employed the steel guitar for accentuation of the truly sublime moments of the music of Yes. And, through the agency of Skunk Baxter, the steel guitar makes a synchronous appearance in 1972 on the first Steely Dan album. Nothing may remain in the Hole for combustion, but the fire endures.

Becker, Fagen, and company's first effort is replete with virtuosity. One prime example is Do It Again. Fagen and Dias solo to great effect, but on plastic organ and electric sitar? Although Fagen is the lead vocalist, he memorably turns over these duties to guest vocalist David Palmer on Dirty Work and Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer under Me) and to drummer Jim Hodder on Midnight Cruiser. Perhaps it is only right that the memory expresses itself in an unstructured fashion that the lead guitar of Elliott Randall defies in its precision on Reeling in the Years. As the Seventies wore on, Walter Becker grew more interested in the guitar, but I am fond of his bass playing here. Can't Buy a Thrill is not only a masterful first album, but also a grand cooperative realization of composition and execution.

Later on, Becker and Fagen would introduce us to the Caves of Altamira on the Royal Scam. And the lyric unfolds: Before the Fall,when they wrote it on the wall, when there wasn't even any Hollywood . . . . To some extent, recollection refurbishes the important musical year of 1972. What is the Paradise lost to humanity? I submit that, in the endurance in our imaginations of music such as the great products of 1972, we obtain suggestions of just what that Paradise might be.