Maps of Music

Everything Must Go (2003)

Where the lyrics of Everything Must Go take you, and where it was really made.

This was the last studio album Steely Dan made with Walter Becker, and it is the album fans most often rank at the bottom of the band's catalogue.

Key places

Recorded at Sear Sound (2003)

Recording site Sear Sound Studios — Discogs credits list Sear Sound as one of the studios where the album was recorded. The studio is in New York City. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Skyline Studios (2003)

Recording site Chung King Studios — Discogs credits list Skyline Studios among the recording studios for the album. The studio is in New York City. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Bearsville Studios (2003)

Recording site Bearsville Studios — Discogs credits list Bearsville Studios as a recording studio for the album. The studio is located in Woodstock. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Hyperbolic Sound, Maui (2003)

Recording site Plantation Mixing And Recording — Discogs credits list Hyperbolic Sound as a recording studio for the album. The point is placed at Maui city centre, not at the building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Everything Must Go: ninth and final studio album by American rock group Steely Dan
• Released 10 June 2003 by Reprise Records
• Songs written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who also produced the album
• Becker plays bass on all tracks
• Title means a closing-down sale
• Last album with founding member Walter Becker before his death in 2017

Background

• Followed the 2000 album Two Against Nature, which was welcomed after a gap of about twenty years
• The band kept touring after release, and Fagen continued the band until 2024
• Fagen retired in 2026

Recording

• Described as sounding more like a band playing together in one room than the fragmented recordings of earlier albums
• Discogs credits list Sear Sound, Skyline Studios, Bearsville Studios and Hyperbolic Sound as recording studios
• Mixed at Presence Studios; mastered at Sony Music Studios in New York City
• Elliot Scheiner mixed the album

Cover

• Photography by Danny Clinch; design by Carol Bobolts

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

• Critics gave the album generally favorable reviews on release
• The Guardian's Richard Williams gave the album 3/5 stars
• The Guardian wrote that the post-comeback band makes records that are more fun to read than to listen to
• BBC Music's Chris Jones called the album a collection of grooves that works for and against the band
• BBC Music's Chris Jones wrote there are at least three future classics on the album
• New York's Ethan Brown called the new album a failure at what the band does best
• New York's Ethan Brown wrote the jokes were stale and the music too often a bland boogie
• New York's Ethan Brown called the album a profound disappointment

Reappraisal

• Donald Fagen said at a Los Angeles Greek Theatre concert on 8 July 2011 that he felt the album was underrated
• Stereogum's Zach Schonfeld wrote in 2020 that the album seems to exist largely to mark the bottom rung of fans' rankings
• Stereogum, Classic Rock and Louder each put the album ninth, last place, in worst-to-best rankings of the band's discography
• The album is frequently placed last on ranked lists of Steely Dan albums

Records

• Billboard 200 peak: number 9
• Modest commercial success in the United States
• The only Steely Dan album without a RIAA Gold certification

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

Trivia

• The title means a closing-down sale, and the album was once taken as a possible final statement, yet the band kept touring after its release.
• The lyric of Godwhacker grew out of text Donald Fagen wrote days after his mother died of Alzheimer's disease.
• Donald Fagen called the album underrated at a 2011 Los Angeles concert.
• The album's cover and the band's photographs are credited to Danny Clinch and Carol Bobolts, with design by Bobolts.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · ja.wikipedia.org · ko.wikipedia.org

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