Old music: Steely Dan – Dirty Work

Steely Dan's later jazz-flavoured works undeniably verged close to MOR. But in the mid-70s they turned out a series of records that stand comparison with any of their great releases. Here I'm turning to something from their first record, when they were still finding their way as a band.

Named after a dildo in Naked Lunch, Steely Dan was formed by two smart-ass college boys, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, from New York. After spending time as songwriters for hire – Barbra Steisand recorded one of their early efforts – they decided to branch out on their own. They hooked up with a bunch of session musicians – a pattern they would follow for the rest of their career – and turned out their first album, Can't Buy a Thrill, cherrypicking the best of their compositions to date.

Cynical was the word that was most used to describe their lyrics, and it's hard to really argue they weren't. Signs of their attitude were there, though it was not yet fully formed.

Fagen was initially reluctant to front up the songs himself, and David Palmer ended up sharing vocal duties on Can't Buy a Thrill (this arrangement didn't last beyond that album and Fagen soon took over full-time). The contrast between Fagen's sneering tone and Palmer's purer voice was striking, but, in many ways, Palmer's efforts were the more affecting. His almost angelic vocals concealed the cynicism within the lyrics, until the penny dropped: as you listened, you realised they were not as charming as you had first thought.

Dirty Work is a case in point. It first sounds like a radio-friendly stroll of a song, but tells the soap-operatic tale of a lover willing to debase himself for the woman of his affections. He comes running when she needs him, even though she is clearly in a relationship with someone else. He feels used, acting like an unpaid gigolo, but can't help himself. He clearly wants to end the arrangement, but you know he never will: "I foresee terrible trouble, but I stay here just the same."

Do It Again and Reelin' in the Years became the hits from their first album and began a career that continues to this day, with Becker and Fagen touring the world. But you do sometimes wonder what the cynical college-boys who wrote Dirty Work would have made of the grownup jazz-rockers they became.

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