5 songs you need to hear by Steely Dan: "Like a lot of kids in the ’50s, we were looking for some kind of alternative culture, an escape from where we found ourselves"

Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, 1977

Few bands have inspired such cult-like adoration among musicians as Steely Dan, a band founded in 1971 by the songwriting duo of Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). From their first meeting in 1967 as students at Bard College in upstate New York, the two jazz-loving hipsters defied rock and roll convention, rejecting hippiedom and the slog of the live circuit, immersing themselves instead in the studio to craft sublimely cool and sophisticated music. 

In their early days, they were a tight, cohesive five-piece band, featuring the twin Telecaster attack of Denny Dias and Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter. But by their third album, Becker and Fagen were hiring a stellar array of session musicians, such as guitarists Larry Carlton and Elliott Randall; drummers Jeff Porcaro, Bernard Purdie and Steve Gadd; and horn players Wayne Shorter and Phil Woods.