![\"Steely](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Steely-Dan-1974-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Steely Dan \/ Shockwaves Records)<\/p>\n
Tue 30 December 2025 21:30, UK <\/p>\n
Much like The Velvet Underground or Roxy Music, few bands rival Steely Dan<\/a> as arriving so fully realised from their studio debut.<\/p>\n Landing on the soft rock charts in 1972, Can\u2019t Buy a Thrill immediately established the Steely Dan duo\u2019s formula beloved by their devoted fanbase. Smartarse lyrics from core members Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, jazzy progressive songcraft fed through a piquant pop filter, and pioneering sonic polish eventually leading toward their studio-only operations a few years later, all seemed to waver precariously on the edges of the Eagles, yet pulled from the yacht brink via their idiosyncratic edge.<\/p>\n Helping Can\u2019t Buy a Thrill to respectable album sales was its second single. Following \u2018Do It Again\u2019, \u2018Reelin\u2019 In the Years\u2019 sunny but stinging jazz-rock send off to an old romantic flame would stand as Steely Dan\u2019s first classic cut, never seeming to be more than five minutes away on any given classic rock radio spin to this day.<\/p>\n While shining with Fagen and Becker\u2019s easy sophistication, Steely Dan\u2019s hit is afforded extra gleaming endurance by the guitar chops of session man Elliot Randall, laying down a solo so celebrated that even Jimmy Page reportedly named the cut as his favourite solo.<\/p>\n For such an electric take, next to nothing in the way of rehearsal or preparation was held during \u2018Reelin\u2019 In the Years\u2019 sessions. \u201cI never plan a solo in advance,\u201d he told Guitar Player in 2007. \u201cIf I did, it wouldn\u2019t be improvisation, which to me is one of the most exciting things about being a soloist. What you hear on the Steely Dan record is the first recorded take of my response to the track.\u201d<\/p>\n There had actually been one attempt beforehand. Plugging in his 1963 Fender Stratocaster into an Ampeg SVT amp \u2013 mainly used for the bass \u2013 in Santa Monica\u2019s The Village Recorder, Randall attempted to imitate a saxophone via his Strat and cut his intro, outro, and solo licks all in one take. However, the final version heard on Can\u2019t Buy a Thrill was the second recording due to an assistant engineer\u2019s studio error, much to the chagrin of producer Gary Katz<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI did an earlier run-through that many people in the studio felt was even better, but the tape machine hadn\u2019t been armed and put into record mode,\u201d Randall recalled. \u201cFrom then on, Katz never let a run-through go by without ensuring that it was being recorded.\u201d<\/p>\n