Of all the words one might use to describe Steely Dan, “sentimental” would probably show up way down near the bottom of the list. If anything, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker went the other direction in most of their songs, depicting life as a dog-eat-dog affair kinder to schemers than lovers.
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But these guys provided a body of work that refused to be easily pigeonholed. Otherwise, it wouldn’t contain a sensitive song of support such as “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”, a gem from the 1974 Steely Dan album Pretzel Logic.
“Dude” Abides
By the time Steely Dan reached the making of their third LP, leaders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were slowly moving away from the way that most bands did things. They were leaving behind live shows to concentrate on the studio. And they were about to jettison all regular members of the band besides themselves in favor of a rotating cast of studio musicians.
Pretzel Logic also represented another tactical change by the band. Their previous album, Countdown To Ecstasy, featured mostly longer tracks that allowed for sprawling instrumental sections. The new LP tightened things up in terms of the running times without losing the recording precision that was Steely Dan’s hallmark even then.
In other words, Steely Dan was making their own version of pop music. The tactic worked, as the single “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” became a major hit. On the B-side lurked “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”, a mellow track that featured intricate, interweaving guitar work from Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and Denny Dias.
Becker and Fagen wrote the song, at least to start, in jest. Spending time on the West Coast while making the record, they found it amusing how the people from that area tended to rely on the word “Dude” as a catch-all term for everyone they addressed. From that comical beginning sprung a song of profound empathy.
Exploring the Lyrics of “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”
Throughout “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”, the narrator indulges in plenty of hippy-ish terminology. “I never seen you looking so bad, my funky one,” Fagen sings. “They tell me that your super fine mind has come undone.”
But at no point does the support and advice that the narrator doles out seem anything but genuine. That’s true even in the second verse when he mentions a “squonk’s tears,” referring to a mythical creature that can cry itself into utter dissolution. He follows that up by trying to get the girl he’s addressing to see the big picture: “The people on the street have all seen better times.”
In the middle eight, he explains that he can only do so much to ease her pain. “I can tell you all I know, the ‘where-to-go,’ the ‘what-to-do,’ he says. “You can try to run, but you can’t hide from what’s inside of you.”
The chorus implores her to find the bright side. “Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you, my friend,” Fagen sings. “Any minor world that breaks apart, falls together again.” Notice the double meaning of the slang “major,” as well as the unusual phrase “falls together.” They might have been courting pop fans, but these guys weren’t going to dumb anything down in the process.
“When the demon is at your door,” Fagen promises. “In the morning it won’t be there no more.” Steely Dan didn’t often offer such earnest advice. But they proved in “Any Major Dude Will Tell You” that there wasn’t anything minor about their sentimental side.
Photo by BSR Agency/Gentle Look via Getty Images
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