Can't Buy a Thrill

Background

The album was originally released in two-channel stereo and also in a special four-channel quadraphonic mix. There are some significant musical differences between the two mixes, such as extra lead guitar fills in the quad mix of "Reelin' in the Years".

Two songs recorded during the Can't Buy a Thrill sessions were left off the album and released as a single ("Dallas" and "Sail the Waterway"). This is the only Steely Dan album to include David Palmer as a lead vocalist, having been recruited after Donald Fagen expressed concerns over singing live. Drummer Jim Hodder also chips in lead vocals on one song, as well as singing the "Dallas" single. By the time recording of the next album began, the band and producer Gary Katz had convinced Fagen to assume the full lead vocalist role.

Music and lyrics

According to writers Marjorie Galen and Gordon Matthews, Can't Buy a Thrill features an upbeat soft rock style. Music journalist Paul Lester said that it incorporates mambo, swing, jazz, and Latin musical elements. Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that "there are very few of the jazz flourishes that came to distinguish their [later] albums," but added that the first single from the album, "Do It Again," incorporates a tight Latin jazz beat, while the second single, "Reelin' In the Years," features jazzy guitar solos and harmonies. Robert Christgau described the former song as a toned-down mambo song with "tragic" lyrics about a "compulsive" loser.

"Fire in the Hole", which features strident piano by Fagen, takes its title from a phrase used by American soldiers in Vietnam, and alludes to how so many students evaded the draft in the late 1960s and early 70s (Becker and Fagen included).

Cover art

The album cover features a photomontage by Robert Lockart. It includes an image of a line of prostitutes, standing in a red light area waiting for clients, chosen because of its relevance to the album title. The title of the album is taken in reference to the opening line of the Bob Dylan song "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry". Walter Becker and Donald Fagen themselves commented on the album art in their liner notes to the reissued The Royal Scam, saying that the album possessed "the most hideous album cover of the seventies, bar none (excepting perhaps Can't Buy a Thrill)." The cover was banned in Francisco Franco's Spain and was replaced with a photograph of the band playing in concert.

Release and reception

Can't Buy a Thrill was released in the United States by ABC Records in November 1972 and in the United Kingdom by Probe Records in January 1973. The album peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums, and was reissued on August 22, 1973, by Dunhill Records. On May 31, 1973, it was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments of 500,000 copies in the US, then certified platinum by RIAA on September 7, 1993, for shipments of 1,000,000 copies in the US. In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, James Isaacs said Can't Buy a Thrill is "distinguished by three top-level cuts and scattered moments of inspiration," but felt the band occasionally sounded "limp". Christgau deemed it "a good album attached" to a hit single in his review for Creem; he found the lyrics "oblique, even philosophical ... as befit a band named after a dildo in a William Burroughs novel."

Christgau later wrote of the record, "Think of the Dan as the first post-boogie band: the beat swings more than it blasts or blisters, the chord changes defy our primitive subconscious expectations, and the lyrics underline their own difficulty—as well as the difficulty of the reality to which they refer—with arbitrary personal allusions, most of which are ruses." In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Erlewine said the songs "subvert traditional conventions" and are "tightly constructed, with interlocking chords and gracefully interwoven melodies, buoyed by clever, cryptic lyrics." However, he critiqued that vocalist David Palmer "oversings the handful of tracks where he takes the lead", which caused Walter Becker and Donald Fagen to temper "their wildest impulses with mainstream pop techniques." Writing for BBC Music, Lester said the album was so "fully-formed ... that you would scarcely believe that it's their debut", and observed "tightly constructed songs with dazzling hooks, clever, cryptic lyrics, and vocals that offer teasing critiques for those that want them." In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked Can't Buy a Thrill number 238 on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Rob Sheffield was less impressed in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), regarding the record as "mellow folk rock" that was "softened" by Palmer, who "sounds like he's nervous about where his wallet is".

Track listing

All songs written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.

Side one

1. "Do It Again" – 5:56
2. Electric sitar solo by Denny Dias
3. Plastic organ solo and vocals by Donald Fagen
4. "Dirty Work" – 3:08
5. Saxophone solo by Jerome Richardson
6. Vocal by David Palmer
7. "Kings" – 3:45
8. Guitar solo by Elliot Randall
9. Vocal by Donald Fagen
10. "Midnite Cruiser" – 4:07
11. Guitar solo by Jeff Baxter
12. Vocal by Jim Hodder
13. "Only a Fool Would Say That" – 2:57
14. Guitar solo by Jeff Baxter
15. Vocals by Donald Fagen and David Palmer

Side two

6. "Reelin' In the Years" – 4:37
7. Guitar solos by Elliott Randall
8. Vocal by Donald Fagen
9. "Fire in the Hole" – 3:28
10. Piano solo and vocal by Donald Fagen
11. Pedal steel guitar solo by Jeff Baxter
12. "Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)" – 4:21
13. Steel guitar solo by Jeff Baxter
14. Vocal by David Palmer
15. "Change of the Guard" – 3:39
16. Guitar solo by Jeff Baxter
17. Vocals by Donald Fagen and David Palmer
18. "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again" – 4:58
19. Vocals by Donald Fagen, Walter Becker and David Palmer

Musicians

Production

Charts

Album

Pop Singles