The Elusive Steely Dan 45 RPM Single They Don’t Want You to Hear

In October 1972, Steely Dan released their first album, Can’t Buy a Thrill. The following month, the album’s first single “Do It Again” made it onto the Billboard charts and eventually cracked the top 10. For the rest of the decade, Walter Becker and Donald Fagan — the heart and soul of Steely Dan — continued to release music that became increasingly ambitious, combining jazz and rock into a classy musical mix without being pretentious. By the time the ’80s rolled around, they had evolved from a proper group of steady members to just the two main guys with a bunch of session musicians. Numerous players would audition for various songs until they found the right ones who has the exact sound they were looking for. Calling these major dudes “control freaks” was an understatement.

Referring to Becker and Fagan as “control freaks” in the past tense is also an understatement. They still hold a lot of control over their recorded history, excepting for a couple of dozen demos that they recorded before Steely Dan officially became a recording entity and are currently available on innumerable grey-area releases.

This is why, even if you own every Steely Dan album and every greatest hits collection, there are two songs that they apparently will never allow to be reissued for mass consumption.

As mentioned earlier, “Do It Again” was their first single from their first album — but it wasn’t their first single! If you check a detailed Steely Dan discography, you’ll see their first single listing as:

“Dallas” / “Sail the Waterway” (ABC Records, ABC-11323)

The single came out earlier in 1972 to public indifference. When Can’t Buy a Thrill was released, neither side of the 45 was included on the album. It eventually disappeared into undeserved obscurity, which is where the Dan boys want it to stay. This is a pity, because it’s a lovely pairing of tunes.

Feeling adventurous? Let’s give these two tracks a second chance.

Let’s start by giving “Dallas” a spin:

“Dallas” has a nice countrified feel to it, which was certainly not out of place in 1972. What’s a little jarring is the vocal. If you’re familiar with just the hits, chances are you’ve only heard Donald Fagan as the lead vocalist. In the early days, Fagan wasn’t too keen on being the vocalist, so other singers shared the load on Can’t Buy a Thrill. “Dallas” features drummer Jim Hodder as lead vocalist. If you’re familiar with the Thrill album, you’ll also recognize him as the vocalist on “Midnite Cruiser.”

One could say the lyrics aren’t anything too deep. Here’s a guy who’s obviously down and out in Dallas, and needs to get out of Dodge. That’s it. Certainly not anywhere close to the sometimes disturbing and usually obscure references that would start popping up in their lyrics just a few months later. But there are some nifty lines here and there: “I drunk of no holy wine save Muscatel” and “Hot city and an empty pocket make a man think on” are two personal favorites.

But, okay. We’ll agree that the lyrics aren’t their best. Let’s check out the music itself. The sound is polished and smooth, with some really nice slide guitar. As for the vocals, Hodder does a good job — certainly as good as the track on Thrill — and the harmonies are terrific! Having all of those singers on the early Steely Dan tunes really gave them room to play with the vocals, and they deserve more credit than they get. Honestly, “Dallas” would fit right in next to anything on their first album!

So overall, “Dallas” is a nice little tune, certainly nothing to be ashamed of. Others felt the same way:

That’s Poco – a criminally underrated band – with their version of “Dallas,” recorded three years after the Steely Dan original for their LP Head Over Heels. Poco didn’t do covers very often, so they must have seen something of worth in the tune as well.

Now let’s flip the single over and check out “Sail the Waterway”:

Aha! There’s that familiar Fagan vocal that instantly screams Steely Dan. Hearing him sing “Waterway” automatically reminds me of his vocals on “Do It Again,” which is a good thing. I’ve always believed that the Dan’s Donald never gave himself enough credit as a vocalist.

Once again, I’ll admit that the lyrics aren’t their deepest. This time around the Dan are espousing the virtues of sailing. The singer’s old man taught him everything he needs to know about life — most of all the freedom of the open sea — and he simply must share this bit of wisdom with whoever will listen:

You can tell me you’re a man of means
And I wouldn’t believe it’s true
Today I seen you selling door to door
And I know it makes you blue

Well you’re bettin’ your dollar on the wind and the rain
When you put your money down
I say come on and sail the waterway
And turn your head around

This might be a good time to point out that the lyrics on both sides of this single are nothing to be ashamed of. Granted, they had been working on songwriting for a couple of years and would improve dramatically as the years progressed, but there are plenty of hits out there with words much worse than what these guys came up with on their debut.

As for the music, I have to admit that “Waterway” might not fit in quite as well on the first album as “Dallas” would have. Don’t take that to mean that it’s a bad tune, ‘cuz it certainly ain’t. The group sounds polished, and that guitar solo is as tasty as can be. To me, the music in “Waterway” sounds a little more like what they would go for on their second album, Countdown to Ecstasy. They weren’t quite at that level yet, but they were well on their way.

Having said that, if Can’t Buy a Thrill had been a 12-track album with “Dallas” and “Sail the Waterway” added on somewhere, both tunes would have fit in just fine and dandy. Hecksfire, at this point, if these tracks appeared anywhere, they would be welcomed with open arms and ears by this guy and by many others as well.

So… have they ever been reissued, you ask? Yes, but only one time as far as I know.

In 1977, the EP (extended play) Four Tracks from Steely Dan was released in Britain. Two of the tracks were “Dallas” and “Sail the Waterway,” giving the average fan a second chance at these elusive songs. Why they were reissued is a mystery to me, but it makes the search a little bit easier, because that original single is stupidly impossible to find nowadays.

Speaking of that very first single, how do messieurs Becker and Fagan feel about that debut single? “Stinko” is a direct quote from a 1995 interview. Why they harbor so much resentment for those two tracks doesn’t make any sense to me. Granted, they’re entitled to their opinion, but neither of those songs rank worse than anything they released on their first album, and they are more than willing to keep making money off of that release!

Hopefully, if you’re at least a casual fan of Steely Dan, you’ll find “Dallas” and “Sail the Waterway” to be much more than interesting curios, because there’s more there than those knuckleheads are willing to admit. Those are two pretty darned good performances, and while admittedly neither one of those songs would make a Dan top-10 list, they deserve much more recognition than they’ve gotten.

I’m not going to suggest that if you get the chance to see Steely Dan in concert, you should do anything like yell out “Play ‘Dallas’!” or something like that. I will suggest that, if you happen to bump into these guys somewhere, thank ‘em for the great music they’ve given us… then ask them to reconsider these two tracks. They deserve a better fate.

George Brandon

George Brandon is the office manager of a large bookstore in Tennessee. In his spare time, he lives, breathes, reads about, writes about, and listens to rock, pop, and soul music from the 1950s through the 1970s. He has more records and CDs than he probably needs, but he’s always looking for more musical treasures.