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What's the most underrated album of the rock era? Photo credit:
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No doubt, you are familiar with Rolling Stone’s series of Greatest Albums of the 70s, 80s, 90s, all
time, etc. However, have you ever stopped to think about what are the most
underrated rock ’n’ roll albums of all time? What would be on your list? Would
you pick Pink Floyd’s Meddle, the album
immediately preceding its commercial and artistic breakthrough on The Dark Side of
the Moon? Or would it be something signifying the closing of an era
such as Led Zeppelin’s In Through the
Outdoor, which turned out to be its studio swan song after the untimely
demise of drummer John Bonham?
While those may both be worthy finalists for the most
underrated rock ’n’ roll album of all time, they would both be a bit too
obvious. To get to the kernel of the idea, you have to think a bit more broadly
about rock ’n’ roll. Think about geniuses bringing together influences from Tin Pan Alley,
the greats of jazz and even the Beat poets.
The most underrated rock album would be from a ridiculously successful band
that shot out of the gate on their debut, striking gold—literally and figuratively.
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| Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstasy is the most underrated rock album of all time. Photo credit: Derek Handova |
The outfit of which I write is one Steely Dan, which debuted
in 1972 with their best selling LP Can’t Buy a Thrill
that was propelled by future FM radio staple “Reelin’ in the Years.” Of course,
Can’t Buy a Thrill cannot be the most
underrated album in rock ’n’ roll history given the foregoing. However, its
followup disc, Countdown to Ecstasy,
would be the song platter that is most underappreciated in the rock era.
As in many sophomore scenarios, Countdown to Ecstasy had the heavy burden of great expectations to
fulfill coming on the heels of Steely’s first effort. Add to that the fact that
Steely Dan constantly toured during its recording, which led to the
retrospective belief by band founders Walter Becker and Donald Fagen that their
studio sessions were rushed and the material suffered in the process. While
that sentiment is absurd it is true the compositions on Countdown to Ecstasy tended to be longer than average, with many of
them clocking in at more than five minutes apiece, making time-sensitive radio programmers
unfriendly toward them. Regardless of the length of these recordings, Becker
and Fagen are merely suffering the 20-20 hindsight of pop perfectionists never
satisfied and not familiar with Voltaire’s phrase “do
not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
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| Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were the brain trust behind Steely Dan. Photo credit: Marco Raaphorst / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) |
By way of comparison, Countdown
to Ecstasy also endured the Middle Child Syndrome coming out as it did
between Can’t Buy a Thrill and Steely’s
next album Pretzel Logic, which
charted at No. 8 in 1974 backed by No. 4 hit “Rikki Don’t Lose that Number.” Countdown to Ecstasy, despite having densely
cryptic lyrics and intricate jazz chord progressions, and its musical
masterpieces were outside of the rigid three-minute pop music ideal of the time.
But by bringing the touring band into the studio, Steely Dan caught all the energy
and tight precision of a group doing one-night stands across the country. All
the vibe of the live group is appropriately captured on Countdown to Ecstasy.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder that songs like “Bodhisattva,”
“Boston Rag,” “Your Gold Teeth” and “King of the World” off this 1973 album would
assume a large portion of Steely Dan’s live set over the next couple of years
before the brain trust behind Steely—Becker and Fagen—grew weary of the road
and broke up the original lineup in favor of working with professional sidemen
in the studio before they went on a nearly 15 year hiatus in 1981. The catalog
of music on Countdown was so
important to Steely as a live act that it has been described as having been the
Steely Dan album most recorded for performance. For example, “Bodhisattva” was
the only official live track available of Steely—and then only as a B-side—until
Becker and Fagen produced the full-length live album Alive in America in 1995.
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Steely Dan was not above targeting
themselves for derision, singing
about the "Show Biz Kids" with
the Steely Dan T-shirts who don't
give a f*** about anybody else.
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These same kids from 1973 with the Steely Dan T-shirts are
now the Baby Boomers who routinely pay close to a hundred dollars—if not hundreds
of dollars—for face-value tickets to see the Becker-Fagen duo in concert in
intimate venues across the country. Even though they had not toured for nearly
two decades, Steely Dan returned to the arena circuit without missing a beat,
their devoted fan base only having been stoked by the scarcity of a supply of
Steely. In the ensuing years, these people—shall we call them Steelheads?—only
grew in force and enthusiasm while their heroes worked on side projects and rested
and rejuvenated themselves.
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The kids from 1973 now regularly pay
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Fully recharged, Becker and Fagen now find the road most
inviting as a method to stave off creeping decrepitude, as a paraphrase of
their contemporary attitude toward touring. If you have never had the pleasure
of listening to Steely Dan—in particular Countdown
to Ecstasy—you should do yourself a favor and catch them
on tour or get
the album.
-Derek Handova
Appreciative Listener
Appreciative Listener
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