Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
The new book, Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and other Sole Survivors From the Songs of Steely Dan, is the delightful result of an author not only understanding their subject, but emotionally bonding with it. In this case, it’s the two co-authors, Alex Pappademas (who writes the words) and Joan LeMay (who paints the pictures), that unfold the “story” of Steely Dan by way of the flawed, often tragic characters depicted in the band’s discography.
Though the book dips in and out of biographical episodes of Steely Dan’s creative team and only permanent members (Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker), it’s the vivid characters they created—the miscreants, the heartbroken suicidal jazz fans, the famous San Francisco acid dealers—that provide the rhythm of Quantum Criminals.
The Dan were mostly a band of the ’70s, though they did win Album of the Year at the 2000 Grammy Awards for their surprisingly good comeback record, Two Against Nature—sparking an anti-Boomer furor that ranks slightly ahead of that time the lip-synching R&B duo Milli Vanilli won Best New Artist, as far as Grammy outrages go.