Anyway, "Do It Again" is a surprisingly strong single for a band that essentially was just getting started. Its undulating Latin funk makes it easy to mistake for a Santana song; even Denny Dias's fluid, surprisingly effective solo momentarily makes one wonder if Carlos Santana decided to pick up an electric sitar for s's and g's. But it's Donald Fagen's distinctive jazz-tinged vocals that really let you know it's Steely Dan and no one else. (Funny to think that Fagen initially was reluctant to be the band's lead singer. I can't picture what albums like Countdown to Ecstasy or Aja would have sounded like without his "yeah, I'm from South Jersey; what of it?" vocals.)
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
"Do It Again" (Steely Dan)
It's still amazing to me that Steely Dan pulled off the feat of having a hit album its first time out of the gate with Can't Buy a Thrill (1972). And had an instant #6 hit song with "Do It Again." Not that the album or the single aren't great; they are. It's just that, for a band named after a sex toy in the William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch and a quirky debut single that tells an odd tale of some junkie gambler who shoots a guy and then ends up on a debauched spree in Vegas, I'm surprised it fared as well as it did in the bubblegum musical landscape of 1972. After all, we're talking a period of time when a pubescent Donny Osmond was ruling the charts.
Anyway, "Do It Again" is a surprisingly strong single for a band that essentially was just getting started. Its undulating Latin funk makes it easy to mistake for a Santana song; even Denny Dias's fluid, surprisingly effective solo momentarily makes one wonder if Carlos Santana decided to pick up an electric sitar for s's and g's. But it's Donald Fagen's distinctive jazz-tinged vocals that really let you know it's Steely Dan and no one else. (Funny to think that Fagen initially was reluctant to be the band's lead singer. I can't picture what albums like Countdown to Ecstasy or Aja would have sounded like without his "yeah, I'm from South Jersey; what of it?" vocals.)
Anyway, "Do It Again" is a surprisingly strong single for a band that essentially was just getting started. Its undulating Latin funk makes it easy to mistake for a Santana song; even Denny Dias's fluid, surprisingly effective solo momentarily makes one wonder if Carlos Santana decided to pick up an electric sitar for s's and g's. But it's Donald Fagen's distinctive jazz-tinged vocals that really let you know it's Steely Dan and no one else. (Funny to think that Fagen initially was reluctant to be the band's lead singer. I can't picture what albums like Countdown to Ecstasy or Aja would have sounded like without his "yeah, I'm from South Jersey; what of it?" vocals.)
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