PRETZEL LOGIC

It was 1974 and the third Steely Dan album was upon us with jazz references all over it and even a Duke Ellington cover of his early classic East St Louis Toodle-Oo. Charlie Parker gets a mention with Parkers Band and a snip of a Horace Silver composition (Song For My Father) is used as the opening on Rikki Don't Lose That Number. Comprising eleven tracks and not a poor one with plenty of variety and an old time jazz influence which is predominate throughout the album.

The band has not changed from the previous album but there are no vibes as in the prevoius album Countdown to Ectasy but there are many extra session musicians on the album around 14 with the band, it was quite a big production. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are at the helm as usual with Gary Katz doing production. This would be the last album with the band in its entirety and after this they even stopped touring and became a studio band only.

The album commences with the big single Rikki Don't Lose That Number with that Horace Silver influence and would have been the first time the band started to gain regular airplay in Australia. Night by Night follows and is one little nice rocker with Any Major Dude to follow which is a bit down tempo to the prevoius number. There are two other tracks on side one of the record with the Ellington number being the last but over the years I really have grown to like the other side of the Album with the driving Parkers Band the quirky Through With Buzz to follow but the standout for me is the title track Pretzel Logic with that rolling melody underneath the tune. With a Gun the next track up is mainly accoustic driven but in a fairly quick time with a nice little story. It is not often that one says they like the 2nd last track on a record as usually they seem to be where the worst track is placed on many albums not so with poor unlucky in life Charlie Freak. Monkey in my Soul finishes off proceedings.

This would be there last great record for a while but the next two albums even though they are nothing to sneeze at things really hit the mark for the band with this release and it put them right on the map.

Absolutely essential for anyone who likes good music

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