STEELY DAN – CAN’T BUY A THRILL LP – Nr MINT A2/B3 UK DONALD FAGEN

Steely Dan – Can’t Buy A Thrill
(ABC Records  1978  ABCL5024)
Matrix No’s: A2/B3 – UK Pressing

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition

Sleeve in Nr MINT- condition
– some light rippling

Steely Dan is an American jazz rock band whose music also blends elements of funk, R&B, and pop. Founded by core members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen in 1972, the band enjoyed great critical and commercial success starting from the early 1970s until breaking up in 1981. Rolling Stone has called them “the perfect musical antiheroes for the Seventies”. Steely Dan reunited in 1993 and has toured steadily ever since.

Recorded with a revolving cast of session musicians, Steely Dan’s music is characterized by complex jazz-influenced structures and harmonies. Becker and Fagen are whimsical, often sarcastic lyricists, having written “cerebral, wry and eccentric” songs about drugs, love affairs, gambling, and crime. The pair is also known for their near-obsessive perfectionism in the recording studio: Over the year they took to record Gaucho (1980), an album of just seven songs, Becker and Fagen hired at least 42 studio musicians and 11 engineers.

Steely Dan toured from 1972 to 1974 before retiring from live performances, becoming a studio-only band. After the group disbanded in 1981, Becker and Fagen were less active throughout most of the next decade, though a cult following remained devoted to the group. Since reuniting in 1993 Steely Dan has released two albums of new material, the first of which, Two Against Nature, earned a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. They have sold more than 40 million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2001. Becker died on September 3, 2017, leaving Fagen as the only official member.

VH1 listed Steely Dan as one of the 100 greatest musical artists of all time.

Can’t Buy a Thrill is the first album by Steely Dan, released in 1972. It peaked at #17 on the Billboard chart and has been certified gold (1973) and platinum (1993) in the U.S. In 2003, the album was ranked number 238 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The album was originally released in two-channel stereo and also in a special four-channel quadrophonic mix. There are some significant musical differences between the two mixes, such as extra lead guitar fills in the quad mix of “Reelin’ in the Years“.

The album cover features a line of prostitutes standing in a red light area waiting for clients, an image which was chosen because of its relevance to the album title. The cover was banned in Francisco Franco’s Spain and was replaced with a photograph of the band playing in concert. The title is taken from a lyric in the Bob Dylan song “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” on Highway 61 Revisited. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen themselves commented on the album art in their liner notes to the reissued The Royal Scam, saying that album possessed “the most hideous album cover of the seventies, bar none (excepting perhaps Can’t Buy a Thrill).”

Two songs recorded during the Can’t Buy a Thrill sessions were left off the album and released as a single (“Dallas” and “Sail the Waterway”). This is the only Steely Dan album to include David Palmer as a lead vocalist, having been recruited after Donald Fagen expressed concerns over singing live. Drummer Jim Hodder also chips in lead vocals on one song, as well as singing the “Dallas” single. By the time recording of the next album began, the band and producer Gary Katz had convinced Fagen to assume the full lead vocalist role.

Track listing

All songs written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.

Side one

1. “Do It Again” – 5:56
   • Electric sitar solo by Denny Dias
   • Plastic organ solo by Donald Fagen
2. “Dirty Work” – 3:08
   • Saxophone solo by Jerome Richardson
3. “Kings” – 3:45
   • Guitar solo by Elliot Randall
4. “Midnite Cruiser” – 4:08
   • Guitar solo by Jeff Baxter
5. “Only a Fool Would Say That” – 2:57
   • Guitar solo by Jeff Baxter

Side two

6. “Reelin’ in the Years” – 4:37
   • Guitar solos by Elliot Randall
7. “Fire in the Hole” – 3:28
   • Piano solo by Donald Fagen
   • Steel guitar solo by Jeff Baxter
8. “Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)” – 4:21
   • Steel guitar solo by Jeff Baxter
9. “Change of the Guard” – 3:39
   • Guitar solo by Jeff Baxter
10. “Turn That Heartbeat Over Again” – 4:58

Personnel

Steely Dan

• Donald Fagen – acoustic and electric pianos, plastic organ, lead vocals (except on “Dirty Work”, “Midnite Cruiser”, and “Brooklyn”), backing vocals
• Walter Becker – electric bass, backing vocals, lead vocal on “Turn That Heartbeat Over Again”
• Jeff “Skunk” Baxter – guitar, pedal steel guitar, spoken word on “Only a Fool Would Say That”
• Denny Dias – guitar, electric sitar
• Jim Hodder – drums, percussion, lead vocal on “Midnite Cruiser”, backing vocals
• David Palmer – lead vocals on “Dirty Work” and “Brooklyn”, backing vocals

Session musicians

• Elliott Randall – guitar
• Jerome Richardson – tenor saxophone
• Snooky Young – flugelhorn
• Victor Feldman – percussion
• Venetta Fields – backing vocals on “Brooklyn” and “Kings”
• Clydie King – backing vocals on “Brooklyn” and “Kings”
• Sherlie Matthews – backing vocals on “Brooklyn” and “Kings”