In it was the entire Steely Dan discography (later to include The Nightfly no other Fagen solo records nor any Becker records made the cut), plus lots of Linda Ronstadt, a couple of James Taylor records, The Best of the Doobie Brothers Vol. Growing up, my parents had a very limited record collection - a stack about five inches wide or so. Joan LeMay: Listening to Steely Dan is, honest to God, my first musical memory.
Joan, what's the story of your relationship with Steely Dan - did your fandom follow a similar road? Marissa Lorusso: In one of the book's opening chapters, Alex details his evolving relationship with Steely Dan's music, from mild distaste to somewhat ironic engagement to sincere appreciation - a path he says has been followed by many Millennial and Gen Z fans.
In this interview, Pappademas and LeMay answered a few questions about their personal histories with Steely Dan and how Quantum Criminals came to be. Their book uncovers the vast constellation of lyrical references, artistic influences and social and political contexts surrounding the band and its music. Alongside Pappademas' explorations, LeMay's paintings render touching portraits of Steely Dan's influences and inheritors, and speculative illustrations of the personalities who populate its world. In the new book Quantum Criminals, Pappademas and artist Joan LeMay give a roadmap to the Steely Dan extended universe through the lens of the characters at the heart of the band's songs.
You might recognize the chorus of "Dirty Work," for example - but did you know that the man singing lead vocals on that track, David Palmer, once played a high school show alongside The Velvet Underground - its first under that name? Did you know that "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" was written for the wife of a faculty member at Bard College, where Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen studied? Or that one of MF Doom's earliest solo tracks samples the opening song on Aja? This is true even if you only know a few of those enduring hits. includes at least a dozen enduring radio hits" - two guys who continually found a way to "embed blue-ribbon misanthropy in music designed to go down as smooth as creme de menthe." And like many great paradoxes, there's more to learn about the band the longer you spend considering it. As writer Alex Pappademas puts it, it's a "cult band whose catalog. This interview originally appeared in NPR Music's weekly newsletter. Illustrations by Joan LeMay/Courtesy of the University of Texas Press What does it mean to illustrate Steely Dan?
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