“The standard”: Did Steely Dan change the sound of music?

There are others who are simply regarded as great artists – they’ve not done enough to be hailed as true game-changers, but their contributions to music shouldn’t be ignored, and their output is often just as worthy of adulation as those who receive the higher levels of praise. It isn’t through lack of trying to be the best in their field, but simply because they weren’t embraced to the same degree by either the general public or by their presumed audience.

But why is that? If an artist has impacted the lives of others around the world, are they not worthy of a place on the great podium of songsmiths? Yes, Lou Reed was punk long before anyone else was, and Miles Davis reinvented jazz once every few years to see if others could keep up with him, but these were major movements in music that are still followed avidly today. For better or worse, being the progenitors of yacht rock isn’t going to see the accolades come rolling in in quite the same way.

This is unfortunate for Steely Dan, the band who are often credited with having brought the style to mainstream attention, but while the term itself is regularly considered to be a tongue-in-cheek way of referring to a specific smooth and jazz-inflected incarnation of rock, they offered far more than just a smoothness. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were masters of composition and approached the art of songwriting in ways that so many other rock acts couldn’t come close to.

In essence, they were the blueprint for all other yacht rock acts in the future, from the Doobie Brothers to Boz Scaggs, and that in itself ought to constitute being an innovator. There’s certainly a case to be made for them having shaken things up with their new variant of soft rock, and former collaborator Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter firmly believes that they were responsible for changing the sound of music entirely, at least, another of their collaborators did.

In an interview with Mojo, Baxter claimed there were a number of elements that made the group stand out from their peers, stating that “the quality, sophistication and the cleverness of the songwriting was a major factor, and also the extremely high standard of care and perfection in the recording of the music.” However, he went on to state that the true genius behind this was not Fagen or Becker, but Roger Nichols, the recording engineer on most of their albums.

“His recording acumen still stands as the benchmark,” Baxter attested, “reflecting his brilliance as an engineer and his knowledge and application of cutting-edge recording technologies. Steely Dan albums have pretty much become the standard by which others try to measure the quality of their recording.”

While very few are going to be bringing the name Roger Nichols up in decades’ time, he can arguably be hailed as the man who helped create not only the yacht rock sound, but a sound that many other bands have tried to emulate in terms of the recording quality. They may not have changed musical history with the music itself, but the sheer polish of their records is second to none, and that’s a remarkable achievement.

from https://faroutmagazine.co.uk