What a Fool Believes by Michael McDonald review – the soul singer with a nature as sweet as his voice
From falling foul of Ray Charles to writing with Burt Bacharach and singing with Steely Dan, McDonald has led a fascinating, if addiction-fuelled, life, but his memoir errs on the side of cliche
March 2024
Jim Beard, keyboardist for Steely Dan, dies aged 63
Beard was known for collaborations with jazz legends including Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin and Wayne Shorter
December 2023
Full Story
Full Story revisited: Steely Dan’s holy grail
The family of recording engineer Roger Nichols have found a never-before-heard version of The Second Arrangement – and the Steely Dan community is ‘freaking out’
July 2023
Full Story
‘The most important cassette on the planet’: Steely Dan’s holy grail – Full Story podcast
The family of recording engineer Roger Nichols have found a never-before-heard version of The Second Arrangement – and the Steely Dan community is ‘freaking out’
June 2023
‘The most important cassette on the planet’: how Steely Dan fans uncovered their holy grail
Queer sounds: our writers on their favourite LGBTQ+ songs
March 2023
Wayne Shorter, icon of jazz saxophone, dies aged 89
Composer and performer traversed numerous phases of jazz history, and fused his playing with the likes of Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell and Carlos Santana
October 2022
Listening diary
Jeremy Greenspan of Junior Boys’ listening diary: ‘I’ve played Steely Dan once a day since I was 12’
Ranked
Steely Dan’s 20 greatest songs – ranked!
August 2022
Mo Ostin, US record exec who signed Jimi Hendrix and the Kinks, dies aged 95
Headhunted by Frank Sinatra, the head of Warner/Reprise oversaw classic releases by the likes of Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac and Prince
July 2022
‘I was on the high of highs, and suddenly it was over’: Linda Hoover on her great lost LP with Steely Dan
At the age of 71, singer-songwriter Hoover is finally releasing her debut album – 50 years after she made it. She explains how Becker and Fagen lent a hand to a must-have record for Dan fans
June 2022
Honest playlist
‘Nine Inch Nails is inappropriate for a Christmas party’: St Vincent’s honest playlist
The art-pop star was raised on Pearl Jam, wants Jacques Brel played at her funeral and thinks Iggy is sexy. But which song would she interrupt a haircut for?
December 2021
Japanese gems, maligned boybands and ‘the Dan’: the best old music Guardian writers discovered this year
In a good year for rummaging through back catalogues, our writers have been delighted by everything from a A1’s embrace of soft rock to the Marvelettes’ ageless glee
April 2021
G Gordon Liddy obituary
Instigator of the 1972 Watergate office burglary that led to Richard Nixon’s downfall, he went on to become a rightwing shock jock
August 2019
It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track review – essays from a star rock writer
Prince, Steely Dan, Frank Sinatra and others are assessed with verve in a superb collection by the renowned critic Ian Penman
June 2019
I can go for that: five essential yacht rock classics
Katie Puckrick’s new TV doc reappraises the smooth, sad and seedy side of the maligned genre. Here she reveals the best tracks
February 2019
Steely Dan review – yacht rockers breezily reel in the years
While the band do occasionally go on a bit, the cliches about Steely Dan are proven wrong in this tremendously funky greatest-hits set
October 2017
Steely Dan review – smooth tunes with sharp little bones
Donald Fagen, now sole founding member after the death of Walter Becker, is the vocal grit in the oyster of Steely Dan’s sophisticated, frictionless grooves
I can go for that: how soft rock finally got cool
Once, the sound of 70s and 80s yacht rock was a musical punchline. Now Doobie Brother Michael McDonald is in demand from cutting-edge artists such as Thundercat, and hipster cratediggers are championing lost classics
Anthony Robustelli – The Steely Dan Songbook: Interpretations of Unrealized Classics review
