Maps of Music

Can't Buy a Thrill (1972)

Where the lyrics of Can't Buy a Thrill take you, and where it was really made.

The debut album's lead singer was brought in a week after the offer, when most of the record was already finished.

Key places

Recorded at the Village Recorder (1972)

Recording site Village Recorders — Steely Dan recorded Can't Buy a Thrill in August 1972 at the Village Recorder in Los Angeles, with producer Gary Katz. The point marks the studio itself. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Street in Rouen behind the rejected cover collage (1972)

Album cover Rue du Gros-Horloge — Robert Lockart's photomontage, the third cover attempt, included a line of prostitutes standing in Rue du Gros-Horloge in Rouen, France. The band disliked it, but it was chosen anyway. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Can't Buy a Thrill: debut studio album by American rock band Steely Dan
• Released in November 1972 by ABC Records
• All songs written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen
• Recorded in August 1972 at the Village Recorder in Los Angeles with producer Gary Katz
• Among the band's most stylistically eclectic albums
• Blends soft rock, pop rock and jazz rock with philosophical, elliptical lyrics

Background

• ABC Records decided to go ahead with the first album sessions after the debut single "Dallas" was withdrawn
• Sessions planned for summer 1972 were postponed until engineer Roger Nichols could return from vacation
• The band considered Nichols a key part of the project
• A&R man Steve Barri persuaded ABC president Jay Lasker that the band was worth the time and expense
• Older songs written before the move to Los Angeles included "Midnite Cruiser", "Fire in the Hole" and "Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)"
• Four songs from the sessions were left off: "Running Child", "Sacajawea", "Megashine City (Talkin' About My Home)" and "Gullywater"
• During the sessions ABC began discussing a tour, which surprised Becker and Fagen
• Fagen was terrified of singing lead live
• David Palmer was recruited as lead vocalist despite producer Gary Katz's objections

Recording

• Drummer Jim Hodder offered to sing lead on "Midnite Cruiser", and Becker and Fagen agreed
• Palmer arrived at the studio a week after receiving the offer, when most of the album was already recorded
• Palmer sang lead on "Dirty Work" and "Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)" and added secondary vocals on several other tracks
• Roger Nichols engineered the album; Tim Weston was assistant engineer; Doug Sax mastered it

Cover

• The first idea was a photo of a young girl looking into a pornography shop; the photo shoot was held but the idea was rejected
• The second choice, a still from Irma la Douce (1963), could not clear copyright issues
• The third attempt, a photomontage by Robert Lockart, was chosen for lack of a better alternative

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1971 by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.
• Becker and Fagen met in 1967 at Bard College and began writing songs together.
• They moved to Los Angeles after producer Gary Katz hired them as staff songwriters for ABC Records.
• The band takes its name from a dildo mentioned in William S. Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch.

Members

• Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals) were the core duo.
• Early band members included Denny Dias, Jeff Baxter, and Jim Hodder.
• Fagen reluctantly took on lead vocals after the search for a suitable singer failed.

Career

• Debut album Can't Buy a Thrill (1972) produced the hits "Do It Again" and "Reelin' in the Years".
• After 1974 the band stopped touring and continued as a studio project using session musicians.
• Aja (1977) became the band's top-selling album and won a Grammy for engineering.
• The band disbanded in 1981 and reunited in 1993.
• Two Against Nature (2000) won the Grammy for Album of the Year.
• Becker died in 2017; Fagen continued the band until 2024 and retired in 2026.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001; has sold over 40 million records.

Reception

At release

• James Isaacs in Rolling Stone (November 1972): album "distinguished by three top-level cuts and scattered moments of inspiration", though the band sometimes sounded "limp"
• Robert Christgau in Creem: the package deemed "A hit single with a good album attached"
• Christgau praised the lyrics as "oblique, even philosophical"

Reappraisal

• Christgau's Record Guide (1981): praised the chord changes and lyrics that defy expectations
• Paul Lester in a retrospective BBC Music review: album "fully-formed", hard to believe as a debut
• Stephen Thomas Erlewine in AllMusic: songs "subvert traditional conventions", but criticized Palmer for oversinging
• Rob Sheffield in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004): "mellow folk rock" softened by Palmer

Records

• Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart: peaked at number 17
• RIAA Gold on May 31, 1973 (500,000 copies shipped in the US)
• RIAA Platinum on September 7, 1993 (1,000,000 copies shipped)
• Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000): number 207
• Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 238 (2003), 240 (2012), 168 (2020)
• Included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The liner notes credit "Do It Again" as a traditional song, which the source calls a fabrication.
• The cover was banned in Francoist Spain and replaced by a photo of the band playing in concert.
• "Running Child", one of the four songs left off the album, was later covered by Christopher Kearney on his 1975 album Sweet Water.
• The debut single "Dallas" was withdrawn shortly after release because it was unrepresentative of the band's style.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

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