‘Gaucho’: The Steely Dan album that went overboard

Countless musicians have driven themselves to madness while pursuing ideas of musical perfection. For hundreds of years, being able to play with more skill, poise, and knowledge than any of your contemporaries was a mark of genius, but that changed somewhat with the advent of pop and rock during the mid-20th century. Despite this shift in the musical landscape, artists like jazz fusion masters Steely Dan still struggled to grapple with the idea of musical perfection.

The core duo at the heart of Steely Dan was always Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who met while studying at Bard College in New York during the late 1960s. That period was particularly revolutionary within the context of American music, as the advent of the hippie counterculture and psychedelic rock aimed to tear down the boundaries of traditional music scenes. All of a sudden, an artist’s musical proficiency was almost second to their attitude, appearance, and activism. Steely Dan, on the other hand, was initially drawn together as a result of Becker’s polished professionalism, which impressed a young Donald Fagen.

As the Steely Dan story progressed, the band became more and more experimental in their approach, gaining a name for themselves as a result of their unique brand of jazz-pop fusion. Very few other bands of the time were attempting the same sound as Steely Dan, and the duo amassed a dedicated following as a result. Of course, nobody was listening to Steely Dan for their intense technical skill; their appeal lay within the originality of their material and the organic nature of their existence.

Nevertheless, the duo were constantly striving to improve themselves as musicians, endlessly chasing the dragon of perfection. In the end, though, this fruitless pursuit caused more damage to the foundations of Steely Dan than Fagen or Becker expected. Inevitably, when you are focused on an all-encompassing quest for perfection, you can lose sight of what is truly important: making funky jazz fusion records for the masses.

According to the duo, these difficulties came to a head during the production of their 1980 album Gaucho. Speaking to The Los Angeles Times back in 1991, Fagen recalled the thought process behind the album and the struggle that it entailed. “We were both locked into the idea that you have to surpass what you just did or else it’s no good,” he shared.

“Not only surpass it, but do something completely different. I think on Gaucho we finally went overboard on that,” he added. “We were trying to realise a technical perfection that started to deaden the material.”

It should be noted, at this point, that Gaucho is a very strong album, speaking to the tireless artistry of Steely Dan and representing a band who were maturing at an incredibly fast pace. However, it was at risk of not being a Steely Dan album.

From the very beginning, the duo were influenced by the jazz world above anything else, but their needless pursuit of flawless performances meant that they lost the organic improvisational quality which is an essential aspect of the jazz sound.

Without improvisation, experimentation, and a degree of trial and error, jazz music would be incredibly boring. So, it stands to reason that the jazz fusion of Steely Dan would be equally as dull with all its inherent improvisation and playfulness removed. Thankfully, on later records, Steely Dan aimed to rectify this, returning to the jazz-inspired playing style which had first endeared the group to millions of fans.

from https://faroutmagazine.co.uk