FEATURE:
Don’t Lose That Number
The Timeless Brilliance of Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic: Their Masterpiece Third Studio Album at Fifty
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DEBATE will rage…
IN THIS PHOTO: Steely Dan circa 1973
among Steely Dan as to their best album. I guess most would say 1977’s Aja. It would be hard to argue against, as it is a study in sublime and masterful musicianship and command. Such rich and deep songs. My favourite-ever track, Deacon Blues, is on that album. I know people who would plump for 1973’s Countdown to Ecstasy or even their debut, 1972’s Can’t Buy a Thrill. There is no doubt that Pretzel Logic ranks alongside the best. The third studio album from the band, it was the moment Steely Dan became Steely Dan. A version 2.0 where they focused. Where the songwriting shifted a gear and confidence grew. David Palmer, who had been lead vocalist on tracks on Can’t Buy a Thrill and did some backing vocals for songs on Countdown to Ecstasy, was replaced by now-full-time singer. Donald Fagen. He and Walter Becker were the core of Steely Dan and the only permanent members. With Fagen at the front and The Dan in peak form, they released a masterpiece on 2nd March, 1974. It is fifty very soon, so I wanted to highlight it. Everyone needs to buy this album on vinyl. I shall end with a feature that focused on the Steely Dan reissues from last year. I want to start out with Readers Digest on their investigation of an album they deem to be both pivotal and perfectionist:
“As Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic returns to vinyl for the first time in 30 years, we review the record that redefined the band's sound and songwriting
If any record embodies the definition of a make or break album, it’s Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic. Remembered for condensing the band’s noodling jazz rock into the radio-ready three minute format, it also sounded the death knell for the group’s original line-up.
As Walter Becker and Donald Fagen buried themselves deeper into the studio, adopting a perfectionist pursuit of new sonic worlds, their inclination for the live performances that their bandmates held dear drifted. Jeff Baxter and Michael McDonald eventually left to join The Doobie Brothers.
With the reissue of Pretzel Logic on vinyl—for the first time in three decades—we get to ask ourselves, was it worth it?
"It remains fascinatingly uncategorisable—too surreal to be pop, too psychedelic to be jazz"
“Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” at least is as irresistible as it was in 1974, setting up the band’s propensity for whimsy with a flapamba opening before launching into a cool piano hook.
“East St Louis Toodle-Oo” pays tribute to jazz maestro Duke Ellington, his free-flowing riff gaining psychedelic overtones from an electric guitar and talk box.
The title track meanwhile best manifests Steely Dan’s holy trinity—wit, storytelling and groove—in its time travel sequence, framed by a swaggering bluesy guitar.
It may not be their bestselling album (that spot is reserved for Aja, which perfected Steely Dan’s session musician format with an army of 40 artists), but it remains fascinatingly uncategorisable—too surreal to be pop, too psychedelic to be jazz, and yet managing to merge each into a cerebral funk.
Rikki, don't lose that cassette tape
For a demonstration of Steely Dan’s dogged commitment to the perfect take, look no further than the 1979 fiasco, when an assistant engineer accidentally wiped “The Second Arrangement” in the studio.
After some attempts to rescue the song, and one effort to rerecord, it was scrapped, and fans were left to scrape together a mythology around salvaged bootlegs.
"We knew that if we played it, it could be the last time anyone might hear it"
This summer, at last, that lost take has made its way onto the airwaves, after being discovered on a tape in engineer Roger Nichols’ cassette player.
Cassette tapes are thought to only be playable for 30 years, so Nichols’ daughters made sure to get a digital backup—“We knew that if we played it, it could be the last time anyone might hear it,” they told Expanding Dan”.
There is no doubt that Pretzel Logic was a turning point for Steely Dan. More fully-formed and defined, it was the start of a run of stunning albums. I really love its predecessor, Countdown to Ecstasy, though I feel Pretzel Logic is stronger. In terms of its material and the musicianship. Maybe one or two more memorable songs. Alongside the epic Rikki Don’t Lose That Number, Night By Night and the touching Any Major Dude Will Tell You, there is the magnificent title track, Charlie Freak and Parker’s Band. Such a diverse and fascinating album. This feature from last year highlighted the wonderful production (from Gary Katz and Steely Dan) on an album that was their first U.S. top ten:
“Their enigmatic lyrical imagery was part of the allure of Steely Dan, and they lived up to those expectations with the title of their third album Pretzel Logic, released on March 2, 1974.
Not all of their admirers would have known that the phrase meant “fallible or circular reasoning,” and not all of them would have cared. The important thing was that the band were back, and after the success of their first two records, Can’t Buy A Thrill and Countdown To Ecstasy, they were about to have their first US Top 10 album, and the biggest hit single of their career.
“Pretzel Logic” entered the Billboard 200 at the end of March that year and went on to reach No.8. It would later land at No. 385 in Rolling Stone’s all-time critics’ Top 500 chart of 2003. Produced as usual by Gary Katz, the album featured another selection of intelligent rock compositions by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, including such favorites as “Night By Night” and “Barrytown.”
The record also wore the duo’s jazz influences on its sleeve with a version of Duke Ellington’s “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” and the Charlie Parker tribute “Parker’s Band.” The band’s line-up of the time featured Becker and Fagen along with Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Denny Dias, and Jim Hodder. There were also contributions by such stellar players as Wilton Felder of the Crusaders, British percussionist Victor Feldman, and future Toto members David Paich and Jeff Porcaro.
The album opened with what turned into one of Steely Dan’s signature pieces, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” which outdid their previous best No.6 peak with “Do It Again,” reaching No.4. In the UK, the song inexplicably failed to chart, despite being a turntable hit. It made a modest showing, at No.58, as a reissue in 1979.
Nevertheless, “Pretzel Logic” did become the group‘s first UK chart album, albeit only at No.37 in a two-week run, and won critical approval. Wrote the British music weekly Melody Maker: “They have soul and fire, but leave nothing to chance, with superb productions and songs”.
I am going to end with some reviews for Pretzel Logic. Maybe not as revered and celebrated as Aja, Pretzel Logic is a supreme and astonishing album that sounds as oriignal and fresh fifty years later. It has not dated or lost any of its appeal. I first heard songs from it thirty years ago or so. It still moves me. Rolling Stone reviewed Pretzel Logic in 1974:
“Steely Dan is the most improbable hit-singles band to emerge in ages. On its three albums, the group has developed an impressionistic approach to rock & roll that all but abandons many musical conventions and literal lyrics for an unpredictable, free-roving style. While the group considered the first album, Can’t Buy a Thrill, a compromise for the sake of accessibility, and the second, Countdown To Ecstasy, to emphasize extended instrumental work, the new Pretzel Logic is an attempt to make complete musical statements within the narrow borders of the three-minute pop-song format.
Like the earlier LPs, Pretzel Logic makes its own kind of sense: On a typical track, rhythmic patterns that might have worked for Astrud Gilberto, elegant pop piano, double lead guitars, and nasal harmony voices singing obscure phrases converge into a coherent expression. When the band doesn’t undulate to samba rhythms (as it did on “Do It Again,” its first Top Ten single), it pushes itself to a full gallop (as it did on “Reelin’ in the Years,” its second). These two rhythmic preferences persist and sometimes intermingle, as on “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” which jumps in mid-chorus from “Hernando’s Hideaway” into “Honky Tonk Women.” Great transition.
Steely Dan’s five musicians seem to play single-mindedly, like freelancers, but each is actually contributing to a wonderfully fluid ensemble sound that has no obvious antecedent in pop. These five are so imaginative that their mistakes generally result from too much clever detail. This band is never conventional, never bland.
And neither is its material. Despite the almost arrogant impenetrability of the lyrics (co-written by the group’s songwriting team, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker), the words create an emotionally charged atmosphere, and the best are quite affecting. While it’s disconcerting to be stirred by language that resists comprehension, it’s still difficult not to admire the open-ended ambiguity of the lyrics.
But along with Pretzel Logic‘s private-joke obscurities (like the made-up jargon on “Any Major Dude Will Tell You” and “Through With Buzz”), there are concessions to the literal: “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” makes sense as a conventional lover’s plea, while “Barrytown” takes a satirical look at class prejudice. But each has an emotional cutting edge that can’t be attributed directly to its viewpoint or story. As writers, Fagen and Becker may be calculating, but they aren’t cold.
As the group’s two foremost members, Fagen sings, plays keyboards and leads the band; Jeff Baxter, a brilliant musician on guitar, pedal steel and hand drums, powers it.
As a vocalist, Fagen (who looks like a rock & roll version of Montgomery Clift) is as effective as he is unusual. With a peculiar nasal voice that seems richer at the top of its range than in the middle, Fagen stresses meter as well as sense, so much so that his singing becomes another of the group’s interlocked rhythmic elements. At the same time, there’s a plaintive aspect to his singing that expands the impact of even his most opaque lines.
Baxter, an expert electric guitarist with a broad background in rock & roll and jazz, draws on these influences with pragmatic shrewdness. Even on these short tracks he’s impressive. On one of the band’s more conventional songs, “Pretzel Logic” (a modified blues), he improvises on the standard patterns without referring to a single ready-made blues. And he does things with pedal steel that have nothing to do with country music. At one point — in the vintage “East St. Louis Toodle-oo” — he duplicates note-for-note a ragtime mute-trombone solo. His command of technique is impressive, but it’s his use of technique to heighten the dynamic and emotional range of the group’s songs that makes him Steely Dan’s central instrumental force.
When Fagen, Baxter and the rest can’t give a track the right touch, they send out for it. The exotic percussion, violin sections, bells and horns that augment certain cuts are woven tightly into the arrangements, each with a clear function. Producer Gary Katz provides a sound that’s vibrant without seeming artificial. The band uses additional instrumentation in its live sets as well as on record, traveling with a different array each time they tour. For the current one, they’ve added a second drummer, a second pianist (who also sings) and a vocalist, so that now there are four singers and every instrument but bass is doubled. I don’t think any of their records can equal this band on a good night”.
Let’s end with this feature from last year. They assessed and reviewed Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic. They felt that there is a fresh and exciting listening experience with a new, precision-pressed 180g L.P. edition from Geffen/Ume:
“Steely Dan and UMe have thrown fans of the band’s music a sweet-but-curious series of bones when it comes to their current vinyl reissue series. We all know about (and mostly love) the AAA 200g 2LP UHQR editions crafted by Analogue Productions that all have an admittedly steeper SRP entry fee of $150. But the hard reality is that many of us can only really afford the standard 180g 1LP editions being released under the Geffen/UMe label banner. What’s a budget-minded, audiophile-leaning Steely Dan fan to do?
Well, before I dig down into the pros and cons of hitchhiking your way ’round these twisty sonic streets to decide whether the latest entry in the series — February 1974’s Pretzel Logic — is one you need to get, let’s look at the key stats for these new standard-edition albums, courtesy of Steely Dan’s official press release: “All albums are being meticulously remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes. . . Lacquers for UMe’s standard 33 1/3 RPM 180-gram version will be cut by Alex Abrash at his renowned AA Mastering studio from high-resolution digital files of Grundman’s new masters and pressed at Precision. They will be housed in reproductions of the original artwork.”
The underlying DNA of these new standard-edition SD releases is certainly promising, especially given the $29.99 SRP, but the digital files notation may give some of you pause. I’m not going to discuss the AAA version of Pretzel Logic in this review, since AP editor Mike Mettler has already explored that edition quite in depth here. Besides, if you are reading this review, you are probably interested in knowing whether the lower-cost edition is worthy of your attention.
Ultimately, the answer to that question, and the final choice you make, will come down to setting and managing your individual priorities for sound and pressing quality, trueness to the original album design and packaging, and, of course, bottom-line cost.
First, let’s look at the going rate of NM original pressings of our review subject at hand, Pretzel Logic. Of the 14 copies currently on Discogs at the time of this posting, only one was less than $50 (a somewhat less-desirable record club version) and most were going for upwards of $100 (including several more club editions). The point is, finding truly clean original copies of any Steely Dan album is not an easy task these days.
These were popular party albums back in the day — especially among the college students of the times — so there are many “well-loved” VG/VG+ editions out there that do indeed play fine but come with a certain amount of ticks, pops, and inner-groove distortion from repeated play on those poorly aligned automatic changers that were a pretty popular thing back then. Add in the reality of the mid-’70s oil crisis (oil being a key ingredient in making vinyl), and you’ll find many of these original pressings weren’t the greatest to begin with, as far as the audiophile experience goes.
Of course, you can get some of the later editions on the rainbow-target ABC Records label — which can indeed sound quite good, if you are lucky to find one! — but you’ll probably want to avoid the MCA Records editions of the late-’70s and ’80s, some of which were often problematic on multiple levels (poor pressing quality, compromised cover art, etc.). I personally saw many returns of these MCA editions coming through the record store I worked in while attending college in the early ’80s.
Circling back to our initial premise, you are probably wondering by now whether this new UMe edition of Pretzel Logic is worth the 30 bucks. I think it is — albeit with caveats, of course! On the plus side, Pretzel Logic certainly sounds better than the last UMe reissue in this series, July 1973’s Countdown to Ecstasy, which had some pressing issues, as I noted in my review of it here. As for my new copy of Pretzel Logic, it is well-centered, and the vinyl is clean, dark, quiet, and solid. So, all those key factors line up just fine with this new edition.
However, the cover art is not entirely accurate to the original editions — which, unusually, put the album pocket on the left front part of the gatefold. So, this new edition is more of a standard gatefold-format scenario, placing the disc in the right-side pocket. And while they do use the original album art, the graphics are not quite as clear as my original pressings (see the above example of that) — even though it is a somewhat blurry black-and-white photo to begin with! The new edition veers toward a near-sepia-toned, higher-contrast image vs. being pure black-and-white with shades of gray. And, as I’ve mentioned in the past, UMe does not recreate the original ABC Records label design on the LP itself, but instead offers a more modern, and simple, Geffen Records logo in its place.
The sound of my new copy of Pretzel Logic wasn’t bad, all things considered. It sounds pretty good for the most part, if a bit rolled off at points. There was definitely some of that crisp digital feel going on, but after a while, I got used to it for what it is.
But, would I replace my originals with it? Well, no, because I have a nice condition black label original, and a decent condition white label promo copy, both of which sound quite good despite some rather significant surface noise — hey, it was the mid-’70s, and, like I said earlier, the oil crisis was on, impacting the quality of vinyl production at the time.
So, therein lies the rub when it comes to deciding what to do regarding these mid-70s Steely Dan albums. If you are willing and interested in trying to score an original pressing and don’t mind listening to used albums that will inevitably have some sort of anomaly on them — again, things like surface noise and perhaps a tick and pop here and there are very commonplace — then you’ll probably want to start looking around for one.
Personally, I don’t mind that sort of thing, as long as it isn’t a major distraction to the music. I find inner-groove distortion far more of an issue, as it’s something that does annoy my, shall we say, sonic sensibilities. I’ve gone through many copies of Pretzel Logic, looking for a copy that plays “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” — a rare Duke Ellington cover that ends Side A, and the first instrumental-only track the band had issued, just a month before the maestro passed away in 1974.
But for those of you who primarily and simply want that “new album” experience with vinyl that plays very quietly and offers a pretty solid representation of what the album is supposed to sound like, then this Geffen/UMe edition may well be appealing for you. The price is fair, and it is still cheaper than trying to buy a mint or near-mint original pressing of some sort. Yes, there are no doubt tradeoffs involved here, given the digital sourcing and your threshold for what that may entail in terms of your own listening experience preferences. But if that latter fact doesn’t deter you, and you do want a decent clean version of this album, then the new Geffen/UMe 180g 1LP edition of Pretzel Logic should serve you just fine”.
Turning fifty on 2nd March, the remarkable Pretzel Logic is one of Steely Dan’s most essential albums. I have loved it since I was a child. It remains my favourite from them. Establishing their sound and line-up – though Donald Fagen was the lead, they would rotate members through the years -, this is an album that everyone needs to hear. Fifty years from its release, there are few albums as majestic…
AS Pretzel Logic.