Steely Dan

Steely Dan is an American jazz rock band based around musicians and songwriters Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.

Trivia

• On 1976's "Everything You Did," a lyric says to "turn up The Eagles, the neighbors are listening." Interpreting the reference as a compliment (the actual intent was less positive), the next year the Eagles penned the lyrics, "They stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast" in their hit "Hotel California" as a nod back to Steely Dan for the free publicity. However, the "steely knives" could also be interpreted to mean hypodermic syringes stabbing "the beast" of drug addiction.
• The University of Alabama is mentioned in the chorus of "Deacon Blues":

:They've got a name for the winners in the world.

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:I want a name when I lose.

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:They call Alabama the Crimson Tide,

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:Call me "Deacon Blues".

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The song has been part of the school marching band's repertoire ever since.

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• The band's name (like a number of others) is derived from the works of William S. Burroughs: Steely Dan is the name of a giant flying steam-powered dildo that appeared in Burroughs' book Naked Lunch. Fagen once explained, "We just wanted to give the band a little more thrust than most other bands."