Steely Dan Album Reviews

Go to:

You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It Or You’ll Lose That Beat (1971) - by Walter Becker & Donald Fagen

You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It Or You’ll Lose That Beat (1971) by Walter Becker & Donald Fagen

5

You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It / Flotsam and Jetsam / War and Peace / Roll Back the Meaning / You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It (reprise) / Dog Eat Dog / Red Giant/White Dwarf / If It Rains

About as rare as a Phil Collins fan without a few brain difficulties, but TWICE as cheesy, You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It offers a first intriguing peek into Steely Dan’s smart-ass universe of slickness, cashmere coats, Martinis and green olives. Well, they weren’t recording yet as a band, but it’s the first release that’s credited to Becker & Fagen, while also favorite sidekick/guitarist Denny Diaz adds his stylish two cents here and there. These jazz buffs had been bothering Kenny Vance of Jay and the Americans since the late ‘60’s - without much success by the way – and got their first proper chance with this release. Allegedly the movie, directed by Peter Locke and starring Zalman King and a still unknown Richard Pryor, was a disaster, but I can’t confirm that. What I DO know, however, is that they didn’t waste a good soundtrack on a shitty movie, since the album’s particularly unexciting. It’s quite obvious from the get-go that these guys were more than capable enough as musicians – I mean, DENNY DIAZ AND WALTER BECKER FER CHRISSAKES, GUITAR GODS OF THE ‘70’s! -, but there’s hardly anything that hints at the tasteful arrangements and intricate songwriting of Can’t Buy a Thrill (released a year later). What you get instead are four ‘pleasant’ (at best) songs, three insubstantial instrumentals and a useless reprise.

You could hardly call the title track a BAD song, I guess, but a pleasantly strutting piano-pop song only gets you so far. Predictable structure, nifty guitar solo, ragtime-ish rhythm, and hardly any imagination. “Roll Back the Meaning” is more interesting, because it comes off as collaboration between Todd Rundgren (syrupy piano stuff, done in a good way) and CSN&Y (hippie harmonies). No shit! In fact, it does sound similar to what they’d display on their first album (with a resemblance to “Midnight Cruiser”), only done in a less elaborate way. The most fully realized of these songs is probably “Dog Eat Dog”: Fagen’s vocals are already pretty confident (makes you wonder why they hired that Palmer dude on their debut album after all), the rhythm is tight and soulful, the harmonies pretty and Diaz delivers a solo that’s more fluid than a jar of maple syrup. But. BUT. The remainder of the album’s less interesting: “Flotsam and Jetsam” is a quite dull instrumental that probably only appeals to fans of Air and vintage keyboards, while the lengthy “Red Giant/White Dwarf” progresses smoothly, but also plays it so safe it’ll make you cringe. Unless you happen to be a fan of soft porn-soundtracks, of course. There’s also the closing piano ballad “If It Rains,” sung by Vance, but unless you even like James Taylor’s less inspired stuff, the last 5 out of 8 minutes will be a drag to listen to. In between the songs, there’s also the fart-disguised-as-chaotic-instrumental “War and Peace” and the reprise of the title track, but I guess it’s clear by now: a half hour of music, none of which is more than good, most of being ‘nice’, some of it being bollocks. Its best moments are an indication of what was yet to come, but luckily it also assures us that nobody has an effective bullshit detector right from the start. Check it out if you’re planning to find all the Dan stuff out there, if you’re a sucker for obscure soundtracks you can brag about to your friends (and good luck finding it – I only saw it once: in the Brussels library), or if you’re just being silly. Otherwise, don’t bother.