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Charted: March 30, 1974


Rating: 4.561 (average of 14 ratings)


Genre: jazz rock


Quotable: --


Album Tracks:

  1. Rikki Don’t Lose That Number
  2. Night by Night
  3. Any Major Dude Will Tell You
  4. Barrytown
  5. East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
  6. Parker’s Band
  7. Through with Buzz
  8. Pretzel Logic
  9. With a Gun
  10. Charlie Freak
  11. Monkey in Your Soul


Sales:

sales in U.S. only 1 million
sales in U.K. only - estimated --
sales in all of Europe as determined by IFPI – click here to go to their site. --
sales worldwide - estimated 1 million


Peak:

peak on U.S. Billboard album chart 8
peak on U.K. album chart 37


Singles/Hit Songs:

  • Rikki Don’t Lose That Number (5/11/74) #4 US, #58 UK, #15 AC
  • Pretzel Logic (10/12/74) #57 US


Awards:

Rated one of the top 1000 albums of all time by Dave’s Music Database. Click to learn more.


Pretzel Logic
Steely Dan
Review:
Countdown to Ecstasy wasn’t half the hit that Can’t Buy a Thrill was, and Steely Dan responded by trimming the lengthy instrumental jams that were scattered across Countdown and concentrating on concise songs for Pretzel Logic. While the shorter songs usually indicate a tendency toward pop conventions, that’s not the case with Pretzel Logic. Instead of relying on easy hooks, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen assembled their most complex and cynical set of songs to date. Dense with harmonics, countermelodies, and bop phrasing, Pretzel Logic is vibrant with unpredictable musical juxtapositions and snide, but very funny, wordplay. Listen to how the album’s hit single, Rikki Don’t Lose That Number, opens with a syncopated piano line that evolves into a graceful pop melody, or how the title track winds from a blues to a jazzy chorus – Becker and Fagen’s craft has become seamless while remaining idiosyncratic and thrillingly accessible. Since the songs are now paramount, it makes sense that Pretzel Logic is less of a band-oriented album than Countdown to Ecstasy, yet it is the richest album in their catalog, one where the backhanded Dylan tribute Barrytown can sit comfortably next to the gorgeous Any Major Dude Will Tell You. Steely Dan made more accomplished albums than Pretzel Logic, but they never made a better one” (Erlewine).


Review Source(s):


Related DMDB Links:

previous album: Countdown to Ecstasy (1973) next album: Katy Lied (1975)


Last updated April 3, 2008.