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Track List
01) Do It Again
02) Dirty Work
03) Kings
04) Midnite Cruiser
05) Only a Fool Would Say That
06) Reelin' in the Years
07) Fire in the Hole
08) Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)
09) Change of the Guard
10) Turn That Heartbeat Over Again
01) Do It Again
02) Dirty Work
03) Kings
04) Midnite Cruiser
05) Only a Fool Would Say That
06) Reelin' in the Years
07) Fire in the Hole
08) Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)
09) Change of the Guard
10) Turn That Heartbeat Over Again
5:56
3:08
3:45
4:08
2:57
4:37
3:28
4:21
3:39
4:58
Data Complete
70%
Total Rating
70%Total Rating
(2 users)
Back Cover
CD Art
3D Case
3D Thumb
3D Flat
3D Face
3D Spine
First Released
1972
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Good Natured
Rock/Pop
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Album
0 copies
Album Description
Available in:
Can't Buy a Thrill is the first album by Steely Dan, released in 1972. It peaked at #17 on the Billboard chart and has been certified gold (1973) and platinum (1993) in the U.S. In 2003, the album was ranked number 238 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
The album was originally released in two-channel stereo and also in a special four-channel quadrophonic mix. There are some significant musical differences between the two mixes, such as extra lead guitar fills in the quad mix of "Reelin' in the Years".
The album cover features a line of prostitutes standing in a red light area waiting for clients, an image which was chosen because of its relevance to the album title. The cover was banned in Francisco Franco's Spain and was replaced with a photograph of the band playing in concert. The title is taken from a lyric in the Bob Dylan song "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" on Highway 61 Revisited. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen themselves commented on the album art in their liner notes to the reissued The Royal Scam, saying that album possessed "the most hideous album cover of the seventies, bar none (excepting perhaps Can't Buy a Thrill)."
Two songs recorded during the Can't Buy a Thrill sessions were left off the album and released as a single ("Dallas" and "Sail the Waterway"). This is the only Steely Dan album to include David Palmer as a lead vocalist, having been recruited after Donald Fagen expressed concerns over singing live. Drummer Jim Hodder also chips in lead vocals on one song, as well as singing the "Dallas" single. By the time recording of the next album began, the band and producer Gary Katz had convinced Fagen to assume the full lead vocalist role.
User Album Review
The title of Steely Dan’s debut album may come from Bob Dylan's It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry, and the band’s name a dildo in William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, but Can’t Buy a Thrill, recorded in Los Angeles with the best session musicians money could buy, seems somehow only distantly related to rock’n’roll.
Cock a cursory ear to this melange of mambo muzak, Latin, swing and jazz and you could be listening to a lounge band on the Catskills circuit - mainmen Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were briefly in pop harmony group Jay & the Americans and even penned a song for Barbra Streisand. But beneath the charming melodies and sublime grooves are lyrics every bit as acrid if oblique as, well, Dylan’s, while the music packs a gorgeous, subtle punch.
It became clearer as time went on, but even at this early stage you can tell that Steely Dan, the titans of 70s studio pop along with 10cc, were less a band and more a pair of transplanted New Yorkers - so sharp they’ve been called the Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld of pop - whose job it was to conduct their many players. They appeared to have it all worked out to the nth degree - not one percussive break or dab of flugelhorn is out of place. As with all of Steely Dan’s albums up to 1980’s Gaucho, much credit for this attention to detail must go to producer Gary Katz.
So fully-formed is Can’t Buy a Thrill that you would scarcely believe that it’s their debut. Fagen’s acerbic, nasal croon is not the only vocal here - David Palmer’s dulcet tenor can be heard for the first and last time on a Steely Dan album, taking the lead on Dirty Work and the exquisite Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me). Drummer Jim Hodder and Fagen duet on Midnight Cruiser - the very definition of bittersweet - but elsewhere Fagen dominates, and so the Steely Dan model is in place: tightly constructed songs with dazzling hooks, clever, cryptic lyrics, and vocals that offer teasing critiques for those that want them.
The singles Do It Again and Reelin' In the Years are as beautifully crafted as any AM radio staple, while Only a Fool Would Say That is quintessential Dan: mellifluous yet mordant, easy on the ear but as caustic as any dissection of the American dream.
Paul Lester 2010-02-19
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User Comments
Available in:
Can't Buy a Thrill is the first album by Steely Dan, released in 1972. It peaked at #17 on the Billboard chart and has been certified gold (1973) and platinum (1993) in the U.S. In 2003, the album was ranked number 238 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
The album was originally released in two-channel stereo and also in a special four-channel quadrophonic mix. There are some significant musical differences between the two mixes, such as extra lead guitar fills in the quad mix of "Reelin' in the Years".
The album cover features a line of prostitutes standing in a red light area waiting for clients, an image which was chosen because of its relevance to the album title. The cover was banned in Francisco Franco's Spain and was replaced with a photograph of the band playing in concert. The title is taken from a lyric in the Bob Dylan song "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" on Highway 61 Revisited. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen themselves commented on the album art in their liner notes to the reissued The Royal Scam, saying that album possessed "the most hideous album cover of the seventies, bar none (excepting perhaps Can't Buy a Thrill)."
Two songs recorded during the Can't Buy a Thrill sessions were left off the album and released as a single ("Dallas" and "Sail the Waterway"). This is the only Steely Dan album to include David Palmer as a lead vocalist, having been recruited after Donald Fagen expressed concerns over singing live. Drummer Jim Hodder also chips in lead vocals on one song, as well as singing the "Dallas" single. By the time recording of the next album began, the band and producer Gary Katz had convinced Fagen to assume the full lead vocalist role.
User Album Review
The title of Steely Dan’s debut album may come from Bob Dylan's It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry, and the band’s name a dildo in William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, but Can’t Buy a Thrill, recorded in Los Angeles with the best session musicians money could buy, seems somehow only distantly related to rock’n’roll.
Cock a cursory ear to this melange of mambo muzak, Latin, swing and jazz and you could be listening to a lounge band on the Catskills circuit - mainmen Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were briefly in pop harmony group Jay & the Americans and even penned a song for Barbra Streisand. But beneath the charming melodies and sublime grooves are lyrics every bit as acrid if oblique as, well, Dylan’s, while the music packs a gorgeous, subtle punch.
It became clearer as time went on, but even at this early stage you can tell that Steely Dan, the titans of 70s studio pop along with 10cc, were less a band and more a pair of transplanted New Yorkers - so sharp they’ve been called the Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld of pop - whose job it was to conduct their many players. They appeared to have it all worked out to the nth degree - not one percussive break or dab of flugelhorn is out of place. As with all of Steely Dan’s albums up to 1980’s Gaucho, much credit for this attention to detail must go to producer Gary Katz.
So fully-formed is Can’t Buy a Thrill that you would scarcely believe that it’s their debut. Fagen’s acerbic, nasal croon is not the only vocal here - David Palmer’s dulcet tenor can be heard for the first and last time on a Steely Dan album, taking the lead on Dirty Work and the exquisite Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me). Drummer Jim Hodder and Fagen duet on Midnight Cruiser - the very definition of bittersweet - but elsewhere Fagen dominates, and so the Steely Dan model is in place: tightly constructed songs with dazzling hooks, clever, cryptic lyrics, and vocals that offer teasing critiques for those that want them.
The singles Do It Again and Reelin' In the Years are as beautifully crafted as any AM radio staple, while Only a Fool Would Say That is quintessential Dan: mellifluous yet mordant, easy on the ear but as caustic as any dissection of the American dream.
Paul Lester 2010-02-19
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