STEELY DAN
Jeff Porcaro worked with Steely Dan for years. Right after he played with Sonny & Cher, and then Seals and Crofts, he worked with Steely Dan:
"Steely Dan was my favorite group even before I knew who they were. I thought they were a bunch of bikers from up north (California). They looked so mean and bad on the inside jacket of their album, Can't Buy A Thrill. But I thought they were it . . . harmonic-ally, the lyrics, man, Becker and Fagen blow my mind. And still to this day, they are it, they are what should be happening now." (Downbeat, 1977)
"They were my favorite band long before I ever joined the group. The
feelings and themes in their music are all moments that I feel I've been
part of. The themes themselves are all applicable to a wide spectrum of
human existence and emotion. Things that you feel in your gut. [...]
"Becker and Fagen are where contemporary music should be today. They're
pure musicians of the same caliber as the players they pay homage to.
They listen to Bill Evans, Miles, and Mr. Parker and I think that's
reflected in the quality of the things they do." (Hitmen, vol.1., nr.1, 1982)
In 1983 he explained to Modern Drummer how he joined this band:
"If I hadn't played at
Dantes one night with this guy I couldn't stand, Fagen and Becker
[Steely Dan] would never have seen me play when they happened to walk
into that club that night to get a drink. [...]
It was the end of 1973, when, while still with => Sonny & Cher and doing an occasional stint with => Seals & Crofts, Porcaro was playing at Dantes, a small L.A. club. He had just turned 19 and was earning $1,500 a week. But he quit Sonny & Cher without a moment's hesitation when Steely Dan offered him only $400. (making him the best paid member in Steely Dan, as the other band members, including Fagen and Becker, only got $250)
"When I went with Steely Dan, that was my first taste of being in what
I thought was a so-called hip, cult rock 'n' roll band. It was my
first taste of being on the road with a band that I thought was cool.
I was totally in love with the fact that I was playing with those
guys." Although he admits that recording with Steely Dan is a
grueling experience, it is a creative environment in which Porcaro
thrives.
"Two years ago (1981) with Steely on Gaucho, I went to New York to cut the
tune 'The Gaucho.' It was Steve Khan, Anthony Jackson on bass, Rob
Mousey on keyboards and Fagen, and I think that was all who were
there. The plan was to rehearse the tune in the studio because Fagen
and these guys are meticulous. You rehearse from 2:00 to 6:00, take a
dinner break, and at 7:00 you come back to the studio, start the tape
rolling and start doing takes. Well, this stuff is rehearsed so heavy
that some of the spontaneity is gone maybe. They demand perfect time,
and it's too nervewracking. Yet, I love it, and I guess there are
some of us who love it. That kind of pressure with those guys is cool
because from my point of view, their music is the most prestigious
music that's ever existed and it's great to hear, no matter what.
Some people can't stand the perfection, though. So we started doing 'The Gaucho' and they went through every musician's part so it was perfect. All they were going to keep at the end was the drum track, but most of the other musicians didn't know that. I just knew it from experience. Their idea is to get everybody else in the band and put them through all the shit in the world to make sure they play perfect, just to get the perfect drum track. And these guys are sweating-- beads of sweat rolling down their foreheads--nerves, shaking while they're playing and they don't know what they're playing is never going to be used. We went to 3:00 in the morning and I don't know how many takes we did. Fagen walked out in the studio and it was something like, 'Guys, does eerybody know what this tune is supposed to sound like?' We're all looking at each other going, 'Yeah!' He says, 'Good. You guys know what it should sound like, I know what it's supposed to sound like, then that's all that matters. We're done.' And he splits. So we're all sitting there in the studio like, 'What?' So we all got pissed and said, 'Screw it, we're going to work on this track and get it!' So just Gary Katz [Steely's producer] was there and we continued to do five or six more takes. The final product on that album came from those takes. That's the kind of shit where most people would have packed up and split, but we just sat there feeling we had to get it, and we did."
In december 1992, the Jeff Porcaro Tribute concert was being put on at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. All the Toto members there were joined by fellow musicians to pay tribute to Jeff. Mitch Tobias was also there and he briefly asked Donald Fagen about working with Jeff:
So they're all there; Steve Porcaro, Lukather, Crosby, McDonald, Henley, Boz, Simon Phillips and way in
the corner, behind dark shades, hoping nobody calls his name, Donald Fagen. Questions were being thrown at all
the guys - left and right. Nobody did call Donald's name - except of course for me.
A strange silence for about five seconds caused me to raise my hand up in the air and say loudly, "DONALD FAGEN, THE
FIRST TIME YOU WORKED WITH JEFF PORCARRO WAS ON THE KATY LIED ALBUM. CAN YOU TELL US WHAT IT WAS LIKE WORKING WITH HIM
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE STUDIO."
After shaking off the intense shock of being addressed (and having been found
in the corner of the room behind his glasses) he looked at me and answered my question. I had my compact tape recorder
with me and got it all.
"Uh. . . Jeff was. . . uh. . . like a lightning rod in the. . . studio. And. . . uh. . . I think it may have been the
first time we met. . . well. . . there may have been one other time. . . maybe. I think. . . that was the only record. . .
where one drummer was able to. . . he was such a virtuoso he could play on. . . all of the. . . varieties of. . . uh. . .
of grooves that we were interested. . . in . . . uh, at the time. He was a great drummer and his personality came out in his
drumming. He. . . really changed the way people. . .played drums."
Steve Lukather considers Steely Dan to be one of the bands aspiring musicians should study:
Steely Dan is THE example how a band should be. Their songs are like little, timeless juwels. I like their songs as much
now as when they were just released. You can learn so much from their music. I'd advise everyone to really study every Steely
guitar solo from EVERY guitarist who played in Steely Dan. There's a couple of years worth of studying in those solo's. Your
eyes and ears will open!"(Gitaarnet, 2002)
Related Pages
Steve LukatherDavid Paich
Jeff Porcaro