(Credits: Far Out / Steely Dan / Shockwaves Records)
Wed 8 October 2025 21:00, UK
The art of songwriting is something that people have devoted their lives to understanding, with Steely Dan even giving up life on the road in a bid to pursue perfect songs.
There has always been a problem imposed on musicians by the live show. When artists are writing songs, they limit what they can do with the knowledge that they’re going to have to take the songs on the road with them eventually. As such, they can’t be too adventurous with what they lay down in the studio because they know that they won’t be able to play that same music live.
For example, when The Beatles were touring, their live shows consisted of songs from their first few albums, comprised using just the instruments the members could play, and while well-crafted were relatively unadventurous. When they decided to stop playing live, the collective realisation that they could push themselves more as songwriters to incorporate complex themes as well as string sections to layer their sounds made the whole move worthwhile and their output more cinematic.
Naturally, when you decide to become more adventurous with your music, you need to ensure you have the right people on hand to guide that vision to successful life. The Beatles were already set to win in this regard, as they had their engineer and producer George Martin, who could put together beautiful string sections.
“The writing of the parts is me, and the requirements is them,” said Martin when discussing the writing process, “It varied between John and Paul. Paul was generally quite articulate with what he wanted. Mostly we would sit down at the piano together and play it through and work out how it would sound. Paul still doesn’t know how to orchestrate, but he knew what he wanted and would give me ideas, and I would say, ‘You can’t do that’, or ‘You can do this’. We’d talk about it, talk it through.”
Thus, when Steely Dan decided to stop touring in a similar bid to stretch their creative legs, the two original members, who were great musicians in their own right, were keen to have the slickest guitar players on hand who could lend a fret, depending on whatever kind of song they were writing.
“We began to prepare fairly detailed charts before going into the studio, sometimes with the help of one of the musicians on the date,” recalled Donald Fagen, “The players would run down the tune a few times and then we’d start recording. With luck, we’d get an early take. More often we’d do quite a few.”
With this process, the band worked with some truly exceptional musicians, but one of the greatest Fagen recalled playing with them was Larry Carlton. “Larry Carlton played on quite a few of our records,” he said, “He’s a real virtuoso. In my opinion, he can get around his instrument better than any other studio guitarist.”
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