Maps of Music

Pretzel Logic (1974)

Where the lyrics of Pretzel Logic take you, and where it was really made.

The title was not planned. Becker and Fagen could not find a name with the seedy, sexual feel they wanted, so they named the album after one of its songs.

Key places

Recorded at the Village Recorder (1974)

Recording site Village Recorders — The album was recorded at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, California, with producer Gary Katz. Rising costs there later moved the project to Cherokee Studios. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Moved to Cherokee Studios (1974)

Recording site Cherokee Studios — After costs grew too high at the Village Recorder, the project moved to the new Cherokee Studios in Chatsworth, Los Angeles. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Cover photo location (1974)

Album cover Fifth Avenue at 79th Street — The cover photo of a New York pretzel vendor was taken by Raeanne Rubenstein on the west side of Fifth Avenue at 79th Street, at the Central Park entrance called Miners' Gate. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Pretzel Logic: third studio album by American rock band Steely Dan
• Released 20 February 1974 by ABC Records
• Produced by Gary Katz; written mainly by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen
• Lead single 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number' became the group's biggest hit, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot 100
• Last album the group made and released while still an active touring band
• Last album with the full five-member lineup, though many outside session musicians also played on it
• No single track uses all five members of Steely Dan

Background

• Released after the disappointing singles from Countdown to Ecstasy (1973), and it restored the group's radio presence
• Songs are shorter and more concise than on Countdown to Ecstasy
• The group aimed to make complete musical statements inside the three-minute pop-song format
• Becker and Fagen began working as the sole core members of Steely Dan on this album
• The tour that followed was extremely stressful for Becker and Fagen
• Afterwards Becker and Fagen retired Steely Dan as a touring act and dissolved the original quintet

Recording

• Recorded at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, California, with producer Gary Katz
• Rising costs at the Village Recorder moved the project to the new Cherokee Studios in Chatsworth, Los Angeles
• Jim Hodder, the founding drummer, was sidelined; Jim Gordon and Jeff Porcaro played drums on the album
• Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter played pedal steel guitar and percussion in addition to electric guitar

Cover

• Cover shows a New York pretzel vendor
• The idea came from Donald Fagen and Gary Katz
• The photo was taken by Raeanne Rubenstein
• The vendor refused to sign a release, but ABC found he was selling without a license and published the photo
• The inside band photo was taken by Ed Caraeff

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

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

• The album was critically praised at its release
• Bud Scoppa of Rolling Stone magazine praised the album's fluid ensemble sound as unprecedented in popular music
• Scoppa said the ambiguous lyrics create an emotionally charged atmosphere
• Down Beat wrote that there were no better rock recording groups in America
• Robert Christgau in Creem compared Fagen and Becker to Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead
• Noel Coppage of Stereo Review was impressed by the music but found the lyrics baffling, a mixed review
• NME named it album of the year at the end of 1974
• It was voted the second-best album of 1974 in the Pazz & Jop poll, and Christgau ranked it number one on his own list

Reappraisal

• Rick Clark gave the album five stars out of five in The All-Music Guide to Rock (1995)
• Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called it Steely Dan's richest album
• Patrick McKay of Stylus Magazine called the album superb
• Rob Sheffield wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) that the whole album is flawless
• Colin Larkin ranked it 67th in All Time Top 1000 Albums in 1994, falling to 292nd in the 2000 update
• Rolling Stone ranked it 385th among the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, and 386th in the 2012 update

Records

• In the United States it spent 36 weeks on the Billboard 200, topping out at number 8
• The single 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number' peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100
• It became Steely Dan's third album certified Gold by the RIAA
• On September 7, 1993 it was certified Platinum by the RIAA for one million copies shipped in the U.S.

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

Trivia

• The title came from a song: Becker and Fagen could not find a title with the seedy, sexual feel they wanted, so they named the album after one of its tracks.
• The bass pattern of 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number' is borrowed from Horace Silver's 1965 song 'Song for My Father'.
• Many fans assumed 'Parker's Band' was about a homosexual orgy, but it is an ode to jazz and a tribute to Charlie Parker.
• The flapamba intro that Victor Feldman played on 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number' was removed from the single on ABC Records' orders.
• The cover vendor was selling without a license, so ABC concluded it could publish the photo without fear of legal action.
• The UK leg of the tour was planned for 12 dates, but the last seven were cancelled because of Fagen's medical condition.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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