My Top 1000 Songs #568: Dirty Work

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

So then there was that one night back in college when a few of us hung out in Peter's dorm room after the party, having a smoke and listening to records. At some point he pulled out Steely Dan's 1972 debut Can't Buy A Thrill; I'm sure I objected a bit, as, for reasons previously noted, I just never really dug Steely Dan. (Sure, my college band played "Do It Again," but that was a concession I made to our lead guitarist in exchange for letting us do some Undertones and Young Fresh Fellows covers.) But then I heard "Dirty Work" for the first time and really loved it. Probably because my least favorite part of Steely Dan is Donald Fagen's vocals, and this one was sung by short-time member David Palmer, much prettier and less irritating to my ears.

Yeah, fine, lyrically there's a bit of an ick factor, and the whole package is kinda on the cheesier side, but it still sounds great. 

These days, I'm much more open to a small doses of Dan (which, like other 70s classic rock bands I eschewed like Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, I've come to appreciate as pleasant-sounding, well-recorded background music), but this one remains my favorite.

Live 2019:

Nice cover from British folk legend Ian Matthews: