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Cultural legitimacy or ‘outsider hip’? Representational ambiguity and the significance of Steely Dan

2009; Routledge; Volume: 28; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02614360902769886

1466-4496

Paul Clements,

Musicology and Musical Analysis

Abstract Steely Dan, a rock band which has consistently produced high calibre songs but eschewed celebrity, embodies a particular idiosyncratic rock genre that contains originality, craftsmanship and a critical attitude to art and life. In many ways the core musicians can be regarded as intellectuals whose songs not only offer particular individualised and self‐driven 'outsider' identities for the fan but also claim cultural authority. This article explores the ambiguous socio‐cultural and musical space occupied by the band in relation to rock music and the 1970s context more generally. It examines techniques of production, lyrical content, fan attachment and broader signification with regard to individual style and cultural legitimisation. It also critically assesses theoretical arguments that consider the positioning of the music within modernist and postmodernist discourses. Keywords: alienationmanneristmiddle‐browpopular modernself‐styled distinction Notes 1. A tribute band (contra cover band) focuses on re‐creating an authentic sound sometimes including important visual effects (Bennett, 2006 Bennett, A. 2006. "Even better than the real thing? Understanding the tribute band phenomenon". In Access all eras tribute bands and global pop culture, Edited by: Homan, S. 19–31. Maidenhead: Open University Press. [Google Scholar], p. 21). There are presently at least eight Steely Dan tribute bands, five in America and three in the UK including Stealing Dan and Don, Nearly Dan and The Danny Steel Orchestra (Steely Dan Cover Bands, 2008 Steely Dan Cover Bands. 2008. Retrieved February 23, 2008, from http://guk.s.scandoo.com/Top/Arts/Music/Bands_and_Artists/S/St/Steely_Dan/Tribute_Bands. (Accessed February 23, 2008) [Google Scholar]). 2. There are many links between Steely Dan and the jazz world. Wayne Shorter (saxophone), who played with Weather Report which fused rock with jazz on its debut album (), was a regular session musician for Steely Dan. The Crusaders created in 1971 out of an experimental jazz combo (Stewart, 2000 Stewart, Z. 2000. The crusaders Retrieved September 15, 2006, from http://www.vervemusicgroup.com [Google Scholar]) produced its own brand of jazz‐funk, with both Larry Carlton (guitarist) and Joe Sample (keyboards) Steely Dan musicians. Similarly, the Brecker Brothers (saxophone and trumpet) formed the jazz‐rock outfit Dreams in 1970 later using a range of musicians including Don Grolnick (keyboards) and David Sanborn (saxophone), all of whom played for Steely Dan. 3. Mannerism was a style of European painting in the late sixteenth century and reaction to the perfection of renaissance art. A new wave of highly individual painters and sculptors such as El Greco, Parmigianino, Tintoretto and Zuccari questioned the masters of the previous generation. They wanted to be more inventive, complex and experimental 'by making their work less natural, less obvious, less simple and harmonious' (Gombrich, 1972 Gombrich, E. 1972. The story of art, Oxford: Phaidon. [Google Scholar], p. 278) using exaggeration and a psychological approach to their art. 4. This borrowed methods used by Duke Ellington and Count Basie to run their jazz orchestras in the 1940s and 1950s, stitching individual flare through soloing within specific pre‐conceived musical concepts. 5. Authenticity is contextual, and the criticism of studio bands in the 1970s can seem ridiculous today (just as the concept of authentic manufactured or tribute bands), which shows the complexity and multi‐valency of the term. 6. Arbus made everyday themes surreal. She had a documentary photographer's focus on detail and narrative with an interest in low life/outsider themes, for example psychiatric communities, prostitution and dysfunctionality within 'normal' New York society. 7. This 'uncool' beat style revolved around the individual loner, anti‐hero and misfit. Good examples are William Burroughs' (drug addiction and imprisonment) or Charlie Bukowski's (alcoholism) and their uncompromising writing, lifestyle and manner. 8. Their Fanzine Metal Leg produced from 1987–1994, was a pun on the band name (Granatino, 2003 Granatino, J. 2003. Metal Leg: The Steely Dan magazine Retrieved January 10, 2006, from http://www.granatino.com/sdresource [Google Scholar]). 9. The term flâneur defines the male urban wanderer with an ironic eye and disposition (Jenks, 1995 Jenks, C., ed. 1995. "Watching your step: The history and practice of the flâneur". In Visual cultures, 142–160. London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]). 10. Certain surrealist artists (notably Salvador Dali) displayed a similarly affected unintelligible mannerism when interviewed and in their writing. 11. For example, 'Yes I'm dying to be a star and make them laugh sound just like a record on the phonograph those days have gone forever over a long time ago' (Pretzel Logic [Steely Dan, ]). 12. Jazz and beat lifestyles have been conflated here to represent the individualistic flâneur. 13. There are continually class issues involved as the educated bourgeois consumer may be a cultural omnivore and choose to consume a diverse palette of popular as well as high culture, whereas the less educated or working‐class consumer may consume a more limited range of popular culture. 14. My observations of the reformed band playing live (Hammersmith Apollo, London, 10/09/00) was that the audience was over 80% male. 15. But Steely Dan may well have represented a more mainstream identity in the USA than in the UK due to associations with Jazz and Beat traditions. 16. 1976 in the UK witnessed the formation of Stiff Records and its stable of pioneering New Wave bands. These included, The Damned, Elvis Costello, Roogalator, Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Nick Lowe (Stiff Records, 2006 Stiff Records. 2006. The official discography Retrieved September 16, 2007, from http://www.stiff-records.com. (Accessed September 16, 2007) [Google Scholar]). 17. The term 'third stream' has also been utilised to refer to classical‐jazz fusion as epitomised by the Modern Jazz Quartet. 18. This checklist includes variables of time, melody, orchestration, tonality and texture, dynamics and acoustics, as well as electromusical and mechanical aspects. 19. Bourdieu (1990 Bourdieu, P. 1990. Photography: A middle‐brow art, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. [Google Scholar], pp. 95–98) who created this hierarchy of legitimate taste argued that middle‐brow culture competes for legitimisation into 'high' culture. Therefore, rock is not 'legitimate' culture although the music press may legitimise it, but arguably middle‐brow in relation to popular music. 20. Some Steely Dan songs are now treated as jazz 'standards'. For example, Fagen's The Goodbye Look () is included in the Real Book (Various, 1988 Various. 1988. The new real book, Vol. 1, Petaluma, CA: Sher Music Co. [Google Scholar], pp. 125–128), a formerly bootlegged now published collection of material respected in the genre. The tribute band Stealing Dan and Don play three tracks within different jazz idioms, Parker's Band (bop), Do It Again (cool) and Deacon Blues (swing [Bull's Head, London, 03/01/2006]). 21. This includes the technique of inverting the bass on the bridge, giving depth to the textures. 22. Besides the Live in America album () Steely Dan has produced Two Against Nature () and Everything Must Go (). More recently Fagen produced his third solo album Morph the Cat (). 23. This definition of popular modern seems more wide‐ranging than Paddison's, emphasising populism and inclusivity contra the avant‐garde dominance in early Zappa, Velvet Underground and Henry Cow, which balance better suits the music of Steely Dan. 24. Kitsch can be defined as sentimentalised pseudo‐art which lacks quality or is mass produced for commercial reasons (Greenberg, 1965 Greenberg, C. 1965. "Avant‐garde and kitsch". In Art and Culture, 3–21. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. [Google Scholar]). 25. This popular modern classification can arguably be recognised as a critical postmodernism, a term that is not used as it creates definitional confusion. 26. Pastiche is defined as empty parody or neutral mimicry without satire or biting humour (Jameson, 1998 Jameson, F. 1998. "Postmodernism and consumer society". In The cultural turn selected writings on the postmodern 1983–1998, 1–20. London: Verso. [Google Scholar], pp. 4–5). 27. Irony is considered central to postmodern debate by both its defenders and detractors (Hutcheon, 2002 Hutcheon, L. 2002. The politics of postmodernism, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 89). Jameson from the latter camp perhaps fails to accommodate its complexity and to question modernist assumptions regarding artistic originality, representation and autonomy. Postmodernism is confusing as it subverts and de‐contextualises alongside legitimising culture creating uncertainty. Its detractors also fail to recognise how musical consumption relates to wider audience cosmologies, conceptions, emotions and lifestyles. 28. A cool Fagen is dressed in 1950s garb behind a record deck and bulbous microphone mimicking a jazz presenter on night‐time radio. 29. A romantic psychological explanation would focus on the self‐critical natures of Becker and Fagen which denied them ever attaining perfection.