Funny how Steely Dan seems to stay in the general music conversation. The whole thing pretty much revolves around love-'em-or-hate-'em. I've written about this before — called it the "Steely Dan Divide" — and it's mostly generational. There are some music heads, usually younger, who don't get the Dan on any level. They think the music's antiseptic and precious. They hear Donald Fagen's voice and want to pick up a gun and put him out of his misery. I don't get those folks, and they don't get me, because I think Steely Dan made a truly inspired string of albums in the '70s that deftly combined sophisticated jazz harmony with upscale pop songcraft, top-shelf (albeit highly edited) instrumental solos and elliptical, thought-provoking lyrics. (And I like Fagen's singing.) The Dan's more recent studio albums have been much less satisfying to my ears, but, to their credit, the duo don't skimp on the older material in concert. And it hardly gets better than seeing Fagen, Walter Becker and their big, brilliant band at Ruth Eckerd.
Steely Dan, 8 p.m. Mon., June 9, $135, $85.50, $75.50. rutheckerdhall.com.
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2008.