The Steely Dan bibliography is relatively small – ‘Quantum Criminals’, Donald Fagen’s fine ‘Eminent Hipsters’ memoir, Don Breithaupt’s excellent study of Aja and ‘Steely Dan FAQ’ loom large, plus of course the rather good Expanding Dan site on Substack.

But Jez Rowden’s ‘Steely Dan: Every Album, Every Song’ is a worthy addition, and completely different to those titles. Rowden was (he died tragically and unexpectedly in March) best known for his writing on the Progressive Aspect website and as such his take on the Dan is more rooted in rock and pop than jazz or swing, a highly personal track-by-track analysis from a fan’s – rather than a muso’s – perspective.

And yet he nails their essence better than many scribes, as per this excerpt from the book’s Foreword: ‘The songs sparkled and fizzed, but with their penchant for jazz, R’n’B, soul and doo-wop, the pop songs they wrote were always going to be different: pop songs played by a rock band underpinned with jazz. The Groove was always where it was at for them.’

As befitting many other titles in Sonicbond’s ‘on track’ book series, Rowden eschews musician interviews in favour of quite emotional, personal writing, and his analysis of Steely’s notoriously obtuse lyrics is sometimes revelatory, illuminating the meaning of many songs (without recourse to the wackier theories on the fascinating Fever Dreams site) this writer has heard thousands of times. His moving portrait of the two protagonists in ‘Charlie Freak’ is a case in point.

But if completism is your thing, Rowden also goes to great lengths to cover all of Becker and Fagen’s output, from the earliest Brill Building demos to the solo work and various compilations, outtakes and live albums that have emerged. ‘Steely Dan: Every Album, Every Song’ is highly recommended and a fine testament for a good writer and a nice guy.