CAN'T BUY A THRILL

I was only about 6 at the time the Dan broke on the American scene but I often wonder what music fans of the time must have thought: Who are these two weird-looking smart-asses playing this stuff? When most of the country were likely rocking out to Zeppelin and the Stones along came the acerbic tongued twins peddling a different sound. It was rock and roll for sure but it sounded different. Jazzy and a bit funky with great lyrics.dark to be sure but with a wicked sense of humor somewhere between Holden Caufield and Lenny Bruce perhaps? I simply have to quote this short section from the dreaded Wiki purely for entertainment value: "Fagen immediately took to the Beatnik lifestyle while attending college: They never came out of their room, they stayed up all night. They looked like ghosts - black turtlenecks and skin so white that it looked like yogurt. Absolutely no activity, chain-smoking Lucky Strikes and dope." Fagen himself would later remember it as probably the only time in my life that I actually had friends." I love that-I knew some people like that!

"In the land of milk and honey, you must put them on the table"

Musically the first album seems light years from the exquisite perfectionism of "Gaucho" but that's in no way a slam. "Thrill" is my favorite of the early Dan works and the one I play the most. I'll go against the grain and say that "Thrill" is the best of their pre-Aja albums to my ear-certainly not the most complex or chops-oriented, but the most pleasing to me on a personal level. I love the different vocalists on display here and think it adds. I don't care that much about "prog quotient" when it comes to this band because SD is not who I listen to when in the prog mood anyway. Dan is first and foremost a good rock band to me and this is a great collection of tracks with much flavour, mood, and snap. The album has so much personal sentimentality which is something I cherish rather than dread like some critics do. Coming out of their college years and sharing their personal histories and stories in these songs, it's almost twisted folk music lyrically put to inventive rock. I sense nostalgia here even if the boys would bristle at the charge-they can't fool me. There are so many little highlights throughout. Beyond the three big radio songs present here (all of which are really quality songs) there is one hell of a solo by Elliot Randall on "Kings." There is the simply sublime lament of "Midnight Cruiser" buoyed by the great melody. The feistiness in the funky piano of "Fire in the Hole." Some nice steel work by the Skunk on "Brooklyn" along with a nice vocal by Palmer with the harmonies behind him. I'm not sure what to make of "Turn that Heartbeat" but I think the looseness of this album, the humor, and the variety are what make the package work overall. The playing is tight and the arrangements already above the competition, yet the bottom line is that this album is not afraid to display the range of emotions and sentimentalities that some of their "cooler" upcoming work would lack. This album has the grit of the corner bar on its heel, the smell of stale beer and cigs, and the throb of a hangover. "Can't Buy a Thrill" is an American rock classic that works in its own way and really shouldn't be compared to something like "Aja." For a debut I think it holds up very well and will not disappoint any fan of the Dan. The next several albums would get more complex but in the process lose some of the charms and indeed.thrills..that the debut holds for me. The evolution was bound to happen but would not completely succeed for a few years.

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