Steely Dan – Reelin’ in the Years

Album: Can’t Buy a Thrill

Writer: Walter Becker, Donald Fagen

Producer: Gary Katz

Released: 1973

Genre: Rock, jazz fusion, country rock

Length: 4:37

Steely Dan is kind of like the Harlem Globetrotters of pop music. Their insane musicianship and virtuosity shines through while still making a fun listening experience for their fans. “Reelin’ in the Years” is a jam song that encompasses all these things and the funniest part is that they don’t even like it themselves.

Before you read on I highly recommend checking out their website(especially their FAQ) where their quirky personalities shine through.

Chords and song structure

Even though the song structure itself is pretty straightforward, it is the incredible musicianship and chord progressions that make the song.

The song is in the key of G, with some jazziness 😉

  • Intro
    • G – A
  • Verse – vocal steps up
    • D               A/C#            Bm7                 A  x 2
    • C#/E                          C/Eb          B/D           A/C#
    •  D                     A/C#            Bm7            A
  • Chorus
    • Gmaj9                    A x 3
    • Gmaj9                         F#m7
  • Verse
  • Chorus
  • Breakdown Bridge Instrumental
    • G – A
  • Solo
    • G – A
  • Verse
  • Chorus
  • Breakdown Bridge

Outro solo

Now even though these chords don’t look extremely complicated, it’s the instrumentation and interplay between the guitars, bass and piano that make these chords come to life.

Arrangements

The song kicks off with one of the more memorable Steely Dan intros of their career with the whole arrangement playing backup. As we get into the verse the rhythm and lead guitar stop playing with the drums and bass keeping the rhythm steady (if not pretty jamtastic) while the piano stabs out the chord arrangement.

The vocal melody is interesting as it repeats the same melody for the first two bars, transposes the same melody for the third bar and then comes back to resolve the chord progression before going into the chorus.

The chorus has the full band enter again with the addition of backup vocals doubling and harmonizing the sing-along chorus. Every chorus in the song is essentially a double chorus, with the second pass introducing the lead guitar that plays contrast to the vocal melody.

The arrangement slims down again into the second verse with only the piano and rhythm section playing with the lead vocals. What I like about the verse arrangement is the fast-paced chord changes that still sound fluid. It’s easy to make frequent chord changes sound choppy but (obviously) Steely Dan pulls it off perfectly.

The second chorus is exactly the same as before with the exception of the guitar lead lines. To be honest, some of the lead lines could’ve been constructed better but it was all one take and they liked it. In fact, Elliot Randall was quoted in Guitar Player Magazine as saying, “They played the song for me once – the changes are not very complex. Then we took two passes. The first pass, which some of us to this day say was better, wasn’t recorded. It was a run-through and we all went, Whoah! Then we looked at the assistant engineer who had turned ghostly white, and he said, ‘Oh, sorry, I didn’t press the button’. So my second pass was what you hear on the record – it was completely unedited. It was just from top-to-bottom all the way through. And it worked – we all just laughed afterwards.” (http://elliott-randall.com/2012/06/guitarist-magazine-interview-june-2012/)

That story just reinforces the notion that you should always be recording! That advice wasn’t made for no reason. It was made from experience.

The breakdown part is pretty cool with a chugging bass and drum section playing underneath the guitar lead line. After one pass the piano and rhythm guitar enter to help the rhythm section enhance the breakdown with some well done hits to accent and add a variation to the breakdown part. if that’s not enough, the lead line is doubled and harmonized for even more creativity.

Then we have the all-important solo, a solo even Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin counts as one of his all-time favorites.

From the solo we go into a third verse, which might sound like an odd choice of song structure at this point but it’s Steely Dan so who cares. It’s like a nice breather between the scorching solo and the third chorus.

From the chorus we go into the second breakdown section and then finally into the outro solo that finishes off the song.

The Production

The mix has the lead guitar panned slightly right with the groovy drums in the background not taking up too much space in the mix. The rhythm guitar fits well on the left out of the way of the vocals. The piano seems to be panned left and right over the whole stereo spectrum.

The vocal sound is very dry with no noticeable reverb tail so it’s hard to tell the exact space that was used if anything other than just the room they recorded in. The backup vocals have a little more space to them.

The rhythm guitar has a slightly distorted, nasally guitar sound that doesn’t seem to have much reverb on it either, at best a small room sound.

The bass is very present in the midrange and you can hear all the groovy and jazzy lines from the bass player supporting the performances of the lead instruments. In fact, the bass is basically playing lead in the background, alternating from walking bass lines to straight lead lines a la Jack Bruce that really complements the production.

But the biggest interest in the whole production is the lead guitar sound.

The session guitarist Elliot Randall played lead on this song and this guitar sound wasn’t necessarily his sound of choice, but rather the only thing around in the studio that day.

He told Guitarist Magazine a while back that they got the solo sound with his ’63 Stratocaster outfitted with Gibson hum bucker pickups through an Ampeg SVT bass amp with a single AKG 414 aimed at the sweet spot. They cranked up the gain of the amp until they got that distorted sound, which according to them was “all the way to 11.”(http://elliott-randall.com/2012/06/guitarist-magazine-interview-june-2012/)

Key Take Aways

Make do with what you got and make it interesting – The lead guitar sound on this song is a simple exercise in making do with what you got while still being creative. You don’t have to have access to all the guitars, amps and pedals in the world to make a unique sound. Try to figure something out with what you already have at your disposal and challenge yourself to make it interesting.  

Keep Recording – Or rather, record before anybody starts playing. Even though the lead guitar performance is now the stuff of legends, wouldn’t you want to know what the first pass sounded like? Take that to heart and never let a musician play to a song without pushing the record button.