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Credit: Steely Dan \/ Shockwaves Records<\/p>\n
Sat 8 August 2026 20:30, UK <\/p>\n
Steely Dan<\/a> have constantly tried to push themselves creatively, and sometimes to the detriment of their live shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018How the hell are we going to pull this off live?\u2019 is a question a lot of bands ask when they find themselves getting carried away in the studio. Yes, all the bells and whistles are pretty tempting when you\u2019re first laying down a track, but you need to take into account how you\u2019re going to move something from the confines of a recording session to a stage in front of a paying audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n Steely Dan decided in 1974 that they were sick of facing the age-old question and so opted to stop performing altogether. It was a controversial move, sure, but without the limitations of a live show imposed, the band was free to go off and make some of their most complex and exciting music to date. The decision to stop playing live did hinder the band for a moment, though, as Jeff \u2018Skunk\u2019 Baxter decided to quit<\/a> once life on the road was no longer a possibility, as declared by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. <\/p>\n Baxter was very much a touring musician, so the idea of just writing and recording in a studio without ever taking these songs to crowds around the world didn\u2019t sit right with him. He explained, \u201cIt\u2019s a dichotomy: being a session rat and being a live performer. I was actually on tour with [The Doobie Brothers], in the band. At the time I was playing with three different bands: Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, and Linda Ronstadt, playing pedal steel [guitar].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This might not sound like a big deal, as the brains behind Steely Dan were always Becker and Fagan, but it can\u2019t be overstated just how much their session musicians contributed towards their sound. Baxter was a dynamo when it came to putting together exciting guitar solos<\/a>, and once the band reunited, there was a great emphasis placed on the rhythm section that was working in the studio with them because of the effective way they could hold a track down, regardless of how chaotic things seemed to become.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jon Herington joined the band in 1999, and he was one of the crucial components who helped hold the band\u2019s rhythm section together. It took a while to get right, but he said that once the comfort was there, there was no denying just how important the whole thing was to Steely Dan\u2019s sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe rhythm section and the horns have been stable since maybe \u201906 or \u201907, something like that,\u201d he said, \u201cAnd it\u2019s a super precise, fantastic rhythm section to play with. I mean, it came together really quickly this year because we played a lot last year, so it hadn\u2019t been that long, and it\u2019s all the same personnel. It feels like a great old custom shoe to put back on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter<\/p>\n