Can’t Buy a Thrill |
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Released: November 1972 Charted: December 2, 1972 Peak: 17 US, 38 UK, 4 CN, 46 AU, 14 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Genre: jazz rock |
Tracks:Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks)
All songs written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Total Running Time: 41:04 The Players:
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Rating: 4.363 out of 5.00 (average of 21 ratings)
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Album:The duo of “Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were remarkable craftsmen from the start, as Steely Dan’s debut, Can’t Buy a Thrill, illustrates.” AM BBC Music’s Paul Lester said the album is so “fully-formed…that you would scarcely believe that it’s their debut.” WK“Those that saw them as just another polished West Coast rock outfit were missing the point.” RD The album “brought the notion of the ‘intellectual’s rock record’ – an innovation which immediately attracted respect and a worldwide following.” WR It was “the first of a series of smart, listenable records which successfully carried Fagen’s jazz-honed sensibilities into rock – a rare achievement, and one which endears him to Jazz FM and its listeners to this day.” WR “While the vocal harmonies here are often suggestive of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, the arrangements reach new levels of sophistication.” RD “Each song is tightly constructed, with interlocking chords and gracefully interwoven melodies, buoyed by clever, cryptic lyrics. All of these are hallmarks of Steely Dan’s signature sound, but what is most remarkable about the record is the way it differs from their later albums.” AM Originally a five-piece band, Steely Dan would transition in later albums to a duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen supported by session musicians. Even here, Fagen handles most of the vocals although drummer Jim Hodder takes the lead on Midnite Cruiser. The album also features “vocalist David Palmer, a professional blue-eyed soul vocalist who oversings the handful of tracks where he takes the lead.” AM He was brought in as the lead vocalist when the studio executives insisted the group should tour to support the album. Fagen ‘expressed terror over the prospect of singing live.” WK he and Becker had seen the group as a “studio-only band.” WK “Palmer, who did not feature on any later albums, has his finest moments on Dirty Work even if he lacks Fagen’s snarl and bite.” RD It was the only track from the album to feature horn instruments. WK “Palmer’s very presence signals the one major flaw with the album – in an attempt to appeal to a wide audience, Becker and Fagen tempered their wildest impulses with mainstream pop techniques.” AM Consequently, there are very few of the jazz flourishes that came to distinguish their albums” AM However, “when Fagen’s vocals drop in after the exquisite Latin jazz intro to Do It Again, you know these guys were really on to something. When Denny Dias’ electric sitar solo comes in, you know they could really nail it.” RD Reelin’ in the Years was the second single from the album, although it has become the more iconic song. It “sounds like a classic hit single after just a few bars. Unforgettable buzzy guitar solos give way to indelible lush choruses propelled by Walter Becker’s bass. It’s foot-stomping fun but executed with a precious that was to become a Steely Dan trademark.” RD “The lyrics of Kings are about the death of King Richard I of England and the political turmoil that followed before his brother John ascended the throne. Elliott Randall has said that his guitar solo on the track was inspired by his emotions over the recent breakup of his first marriage.” WK “Fire in the Hole, which features ‘angry, strident piano’ by Fagen, takes its title from a phrase used by American soldiers in Vietnam, and alludes to the many students who evaded the draft in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Becker and Fagen included).” WK “Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me) was written about ‘President Street Pete,’ the tenant who lived under Fagen’s apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, and what Fagen and Becker imagined he was owed for.” WK “Turn That Heartbeat Over Again is an extended form piece with disparate sections and multiple key changes.” WK Denny Dias said that song and ‘Fire in the Hole’ were his two favorites on the album “because they were more ‘sophisticated’ than the others.” WK “Compositionally, these [songs] aren’t as innovative as their later work. Even so, the best moments…are wonderful pop songs that subvert traditional conventions and more than foreshadow the paths Steely Dan would later take.” AM |
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First posted 11/16/2010; last updated 8/27/2026. |
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