Countdown to Ecstasy

Like Steely Dan's 1972 debut album Can't Buy a Thrill, Countdown to Ecstasy has a rock sound that exhibits a strong influence from jazz.{{sfn|Valdez|2006|p=380}} It comprises uptempo, four- to five-minute rock songs, which, apart from the bluesy vamps of "Bodhisattva" and "Show Biz Kids", are subtly textured and feature jazz-inspired interludes. Commenting on the album's style and production, music critic Tom Hull said it is "clean, almost slick", with "no dissonance, no clutter", reminiscent of 1940s bop and "the overproduced early 60s pop rock".{{cite magazine|last=Hull|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Hull (critic)|date=April 1975|url=http://tomhull.com/ocston/arch/rekord4.php|title=The Rekord Report: L'Objet Rèpris|magazine=Overdose|access-date=July 12, 2020|via=tomhull.com}} Countdown to Ecstasy was the only Steely Dan album written and arranged for a live band.

Bop-style jazz soloing is set in the context of a pop song on "Bodhisattva".{{sfn|Chapman|Clapton|2000|p=202}} "The Boston Rag" develops from a jazzy song to unrefined playing by the band, including a distorted guitar solo by Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. "My Old School" features reverent saxophones and aggressive piano riffs and guitar solos. Jim Hodder's drumming on the album eschews rock music for pop and jazz grooves.{{cite magazine|date=July 14, 1973|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA62|title=Billboard's Top Album Picks|magazine=Billboard|page=62|access-date=April 12, 2013}}

Countdown to Ecstasy has similar lyrical themes to Can't Buy a Thrill. It explores topics such as drug abuse, class envy, and West Coast excess. "Your Gold Teeth" follows a jaded female grifter who uses her attractiveness and cunning to take advantage of others,{{sfn|Dimery|Lydon|2010|p=301}} "My Old School" was inspired by a drug bust involving Walter Becker and Donald Fagen while they were students at Bard College, "King of the World" explores a post-nuclear holocaust United States, and "Show Biz Kids" satirizes contemporary Los Angeles lifestyles. Critic Tom Hull described the lyrics as "a running paste together joke [...] sufraintelligent, witty and slyly devious", citing as an example the following lyrics from "Show Biz Kids": "They got the booze they need / All that money can buy / They got the shapely bods / They got the Steely Dan T-shirt / And for the coup de grâce / They're outrageous."

According to Rob Sheffield, Becker and Fagen's lyrics on the album portray America as "one big Las Vegas, with gangsters and gurus hustling for souls to steal." He views it as the first in a trilogy of Steely Dan albums that, along with Pretzel Logic (1974) and Katy Lied (1975), showcase "a film noir tour of L.A.'s decadent losers, showbiz kids, and razor boys."{{sfn|Sheffield et al.|2004|p=789}} Erik Adams of The A.V. Club called the album a "dossier of literate lowlifes, the type of character studies that say, 'Why yes, the name Steely Dan is an allusion to a dildo described in Naked Lunch.' These characters hang around the corners of the entire Steely Dan discography, but they come into their own on Countdown to Ecstasy".{{cite news|last=Adams|first=Erik|date=March 8, 2012|url=https://www.avclub.com/steely-dan-1798230349|title=Gateways to Geekery – Steely Dan|newspaper=The A.V. Club|location=Chicago|access-date=April 7, 2013}}

Some songs on the album explore more spiritual concerns. The opening song, "Bodhisattva", is a parody of the idea that the disposal of one's possessions is a prerequisite to enlightenment. Its title refers to Bodhisattva, or people who are of the belief that they have achieved spiritual perfection, but remain in the material world to help others. Fagen summarized the song's message as: "Lure of East. Hubris of hippies. Quick fix".{{sfn|Rubin|Melnick|2007|p=160}} "Razor Boy", meanwhile, is a bitter, ironic pop song with lyrics that subtly criticize complacency and materialism. According to Ivan Kreilkamp of Spin, in the song "Steely Dan speaks to us from that 'cold and windy day' when the trappings of hipness and sexiness fall away to reveal a lonely figure waiting for a fix. 'Will you still have a song to sing when the razor boy comes and takes your fancy things away?' Fagen asks a generation stupefied by nostalgia and self-involvement".{{cite journal|last=Kreilkamp|first=Ivan|date=February 1992|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yLVeu01ciK8C&pg=PT71|title=Steely Dan|journal=Spin|location=New York|page=70|volume=7|issue=11|access-date=April 12, 2013}}

The album's title was selected as a joke about attempts to rationalize a state of spirituality.{{sfn|Rubin|Melnick|2007|p=160}} The original cover painting was done by Fagen's then girlfriend, Dorothy White. The president of ABC Records, Jay Lasker, disliked it and insisted it be re-drawn. The art proofs were subsequently stolen by Becker and Fagen during an argument over the final layout.{{cite AV media notes|last1=Becker|first1=Walter|author-link1=Walter Becker|last2=Fagen|first2=Donald|author-link2=Donald Fagen|year=1998|title=Countdown to Ecstasy|publisher=MCA Records|id=MCAD-11887|type=CD reissue booklet}}

Countdown to Ecstasy was released in July 1973 by ABC Records in the United States and Probe Records in the United Kingdom. It failed to generate a hit single{{cite web|last=Erlewine|first=Stephen Thomas|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/steely-dan-mn0000011707|title=Steely Dan|website=Allmusic|access-date=April 7, 2013}} and was less commercially successful than Can't Buy a Thrill,{{sfn|Heatley|Lester|Roberts|1998|p=50}} only charting at number 35 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart.{{sfn|Uslan|Clark|Solomon|1981|p=392}} Nonetheless, it spent 34 weeks on the chart{{sfn|Heatley|Lester|Roberts|1998|p=50}} and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1978, recognizing the shipment of 500,000 copies in the U.S.{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oQ0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA71|access-date=April 8, 2013|title=Flipping Through the Catalog|page=71|date=January 15, 2000|magazine=Billboard|last=Hay|first=Carla|volume=112|issue=3}}

{{Album ratings

| title = Retrospective professional reviews

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|5|5}}

| rev2 = Chicago Tribune

| rev2Score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}{{cite news|last=Kot|first=Greg|author-link=Greg Kot|date=August 16, 1992|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-08-16-9203140079-story.html|title=Thrills, Scams and Nightflys|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|access-date=September 30, 2019}}

| rev3 = Christgau's Record Guide

| rev3Score = A{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=Ticknor & Fields|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: S|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=S&bk=70|access-date=March 9, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}

| rev4 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev4Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin|title=Encyclopedia of Popular Music|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|edition=4th|isbn=978-0195313734|title-link=Encyclopedia of Popular Music}}

| rev5 = The Great Rock Discography

| rev5Score = 8/10{{cite book|last=Strong|first=Martin Charles|author-link=Martin C. Strong|title=The Great Rock Discography|publisher=The National Academies|year=2002|isbn=1-84195-312-1|chapter=Steely Dan}}

| rev6 = MusicHound Rock

| rev6score = 3/5{{cite book|editor1-last=Graff|editor1-first=Gary|editor2-last=Durchholz|editor2-first=Daniel|title=MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide|publisher=Visible Ink Press|location=Farmington Hills, MI|year=1999|isbn=1-57859-061-2|chapter=Steely Dan|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781578590612}}

| rev7 = Music Story

| rev7Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|url=http://www.music-story.com/steely-dan/countdown-to-ecstasy|title=Countdown to Ecstasy|website=Music Story|language=fr|date=n.d.|access-date=November 21, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091121012314/http://www.music-story.com/steely-dan/countdown-to-ecstasy|archive-date=November 21, 2009|url-status=dead}}

| rev8 = Rolling Stone

| rev8Score = {{Rating|5|5}}

| rev9 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev9Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{sfn|Sheffield et al.|2004|p=778–89}}

| rev10 = Tom Hull – on the Web

| rev10Score = A−{{cite web|last=Hull|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Hull (critic)|date=n.d.|url=http://tomhull.com/ocston/nm/get_gl.php?n=Steely+Dan|title=Grade List: Steely Dan|website=Tom Hull – on the Web|access-date=November 23, 2020}}

}}

Reviewing the album in August 1973 for Rolling Stone, David Logan said that, while it might follow a "formula", the songs do not become "redundant or superfluous", and that, though the band's "playing is hardly unique and their singing is occasionally hampered by patently ridiculous lyrics, they exhibit a control of the basic rock format that is refreshing and that bodes well for the group's long-term success."{{cite magazine|last=Logan |first=David |date=August 16, 1973 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/countdown-to-ecstasy-19730816 |title=Countdown To Ecstasy |magazine=Rolling Stone |page=54 |location=New York |access-date=April 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121227000503/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/countdown-to-ecstasy-19730816 |archive-date=December 27, 2012 |url-status=live |df=mdy }} Billboard complimented the "studio effect" of the dual guitar playing and found the "grandiloquent vocal blend" catchy. Stereo Review called it a "really excellent album" with "witty and tasteful" arrangements, "winning" performances, "high quality" songs, and a "potent and persuasive" mix of rock, jazz, and pop styles.{{cite journal|title=Special Merit|page=94|journal=Stereo Review|date=November 1973|volume=31|issue=5}} In Creem, Robert Christgau made reference to "studio-perfect licks that crackle and buzz when you listen hard" and "invariably malicious" vocals that back the group's obscure lyrics,{{cite magazine|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|date=December 1973|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/crm7312.php|title=The Christgau Consumer Guide|magazine=Creem|access-date=April 6, 2013}} and he named Countdown to Ecstasy the ninth best album of 1973 in his year-end list for Newsday.{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=January 13, 1974|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/news/nd740113.php|title=Returning With a Painful Top 30 List|newspaper=Newsday|access-date=April 6, 2013}} Tom Hull, in a review published in Overdose in April 1975, said the album is "perhaps the most representative, certainly the best realized," of Steely Dan's albums, as far as their "clean, almost slick" style is concerned, and called the overall effect "strange, strangely comfortable, queasy almost", and the band "a dangerous group, one that should be watched."

In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Christgau said that, thanks to Fagen's replacement of Palmer, who Christgau felt did not fit the group, Steely Dan was able to achieve a "deceptively agreeable studio slickness" on the album. Paul Lester described the album in an entry in The Encyclopedia of Albums (1998) as a progression from Can't Buy a Thrill, and wrote that "Becker and Fagen offered cruel critiques of the self-obsessed 'Me' decade", while their "blend of cool jazz and bebop, Brill Building song craft and rock was unparallelled at the time (only Britain's 10cc were creating such intelligent pop in the early Seventies)."{{sfn|Heatley|Lester|Roberts|1998|p=50}} In his 1999 autobiography A Cure for Gravity, British musician Joe Jackson described Countdown to Ecstasy as a musical revelation for him that bridged the gap between "pure pop" and his jazz-rock and progressive influences and influenced his subsequent attempts at songwriting.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fQe_eCmmqaUC&pg=PA138|title=A Cure For Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage|first=Joe|last=Jackson|date=October 9, 2007|publisher=Hachette Books|isbn=9780306817083 |via=Google Books}} Pat Blashill wrote in a review in Rolling Stone in 2003 that the "joy in these excellent songs" and in the band's playing revealed Steely Dan to be "human, not just brainy," "like good stretches of the Stones' Exile on Main St."{{cite magazine|last=Blashill |first=Pat |date=October 30, 2003 |issue=934 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/steelydan/albums/album/90998/review/5940553/countdown_to_ecstasy |title=Steely Dan: Countdown To Ecstasy |magazine=Rolling Stone |location=New York |access-date=April 7, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071112074036/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/steelydan/albums/album/90998/review/5940553/countdown_to_ecstasy |archive-date=November 12, 2007 }} In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Rob Sheffield called the album "a thoroughly amazing, hugely influential album" with "cold-blooded L.A. studio rock tricked out with jazz piano and tough guitar."{{sfn|Sheffield et al.|2004|p=778–89}} Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic found Countdown to Ecstasy to be "riskier" musically than the band's debut album, and called the songs "rich with either musical or lyrical detail that [Steely Dan's] album rock or art rock contemporaries couldn't hope to match."{{cite web|last=Erlewine|first=Stephen Thomas|author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/countdown-to-ecstasy-mw0000191882|title=Countdown to Ecstasy – Steely Dan|website=AllMusic|access-date=April 7, 2013}} Chris Jones of BBC Music said the ideas on the album are "post-modern" and "erudite", and asserted that the band was "setting a benchmark that few have ever matched."{{cite web|last=Jones|first=Chris|date=January 4, 2008|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/3pjw|title=Review of Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy|publisher=BBC Music|access-date=April 7, 2013}}

In 2000, Countdown to Ecstasy was voted number 307 in Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums.{{cite book|title=All Time Top 1000 Albums|author=Colin Larkin|author-link=Colin Larkin|publisher=Virgin Books|date=2000|edition=3rd|isbn=0-7535-0493-6|page=127}} The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.{{sfn|Dimery|Lydon|2010|p=301}}

{{Tracklist

| headline = Side one

| all_writing = Walter Becker and Donald Fagen

| title1 = Bodhisattva

| length1 = 5:18

| title2 = Razor Boy

| length2 = 3:12

| title3 = The Boston Rag

| length3 = 5:40

| title4 = Your Gold Teeth

| length4 = 6:59

}}

{{Tracklist

| headline = Side two

| title5 = Show Biz Kids

| length5 = 5:26

| title6 = My Old School

| length6 = 5:46

| title7 = Pearl of the Quarter

| length7 = 3:51

| title8 = King of the World

| length8 = 5:00

| total_length = 41:10

}}

{{col-start}}

{{col-2}}

;Steely Dan

• Denny Dias – guitar
• Jeff "Skunk" Baxter – guitar, pedal steel guitar
• Walter Becker – electric bass guitar, harmonica, backing vocals
• Jim Hodder – drums, percussion, backing vocals
• Donald Fagen – piano, electric piano, synthesizer, lead vocals, backing vocals

;Additional musicians

• Sherlie Matthews (5,6), Myrna Matthews (5,6), Patricia Hall (5,6), David Palmer, Royce Jones, James Rolleston, Michael Fennelly – backing vocals
• Lanny Morgan, Bill Perkins, Ernie Watts, Johnny Rotella – saxophone (6)
• Victor Feldman – vibraphone, marimba, percussion
• Ray Brown – string bass (2)
• Rick Derringer – slide guitar (5)
• Ben Benay – acoustic guitar
• Jimmie Haskell – horn arrangement (6)

{{col-2}}

;Production

• Gary Katz – producer
• Roger Nichols – engineer
• Miss Natalie – assistant engineer
• Dotty of Hollywood – album design
• Ed Caraeff – photography

;Reissue

• Walter Becker, Donald Fagen – producers
• Roger Nichols – remastering engineer
• Red Herring Design/NYC – design
• Daniel Levitin – consultantInfo from [http://www.broberg.pp.se/sd_ecstasy.htm Countdown To Ecstasy] at broberg.pp.se.

{{col-end}}

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{cite book|last1=Chapman|first1=Richard|author-link=Richard Chapman (musician)|last2=Clapton|first2=Eric|author-link2=Eric Clapton|year=2000|title=Guitar: Music, History, Players|publisher=Dorling Kindersley|isbn=0789459639}}
• {{cite book|last1=Dimery|first1=Robert|last2=Lydon|first2=Michael|date=March 23, 2010|title=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die|publisher=Universe|isbn=978-0789320742}}
• {{cite book|last1=Heatley|first1=Michael|author-link1=Michael Heatley|last2=Lester|first2=Paul|author-link2=Paul Lester|last3=Roberts|first3=Chris|title=The Encyclopedia of Albums|publisher=Dempsey Parr|date=August 27, 1998|isbn=1840840315}}
• {{cite book|last1=Rubin|first1=Rachel Lee|last2=Melnick|first2=Jeffrey Paul|year=2007|title=Immigration And American Popular Culture: An Introduction|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0814775530}}
• {{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Sheffield et al.|2004}}|author=Sheffield, Rob|editor1-first=Nathan|editor1-last=Brackett|editor1-link=Nathan Brackett|editor2-first=Christian|editor2-last=Hoard|title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide|edition=4th|publisher=Simon & Schuster|date=November 2, 2004|isbn=0-7432-0169-8|display-authors=etal}}
• {{cite book|last1=Uslan|first1=Michael|last2=Clark|first2=Dick|last3=Solomon|first3=Bruce|year=1981|title=Dick Clark's The First 25 Years of Rock & Roll|publisher=Dell Publishing|isbn=044051763X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/dickclarksfirst200usla}}
• {{cite book|last=Valdez|first=Stephen K.|date=August 31, 2006|title=A History of Rock Music|publisher=Kendall Hunt Publishing Company|isbn=0757533795|edition=4th}}

• {{Discogs master|type=album|16898}}
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=guR30Wq5Wd0C&pg=PT91&dq=%22Neither+was+Kenny+Vance%22&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4 "Steely Dan: Reelin' in the Years"] (Chapter on Countdown to Ecstasy) at Google Books
• [http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/staff_top_10/top-ten-obscure-steely-dan-lyrics.htm "Top Ten Obscure Steely Dan Lyrics"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012153644/http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/staff_top_10/top-ten-obscure-steely-dan-lyrics.htm |date=October 12, 2007 }} by Stylus Magazine

{{Steely Dan}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Steely Dan albums

Category:1973 albums

Category:ABC Records albums

Category:Albums produced by Gary Katz

Category:Albums recorded at the Village (studio)