JOE JACKSON: “Do It Again” is the first track on the first album, and right away it’s Steely Dan. It’s quite unusual, this Latin groove and electric sitar on the solo. You think the vocal ...

Nor are there any from its follow-up Gaucho. I mention this because I am fully aware that Aja – Steely Dan’s sixth album – is beloved by many fans. An equal number of their fans revile it.

Becker, indeed, had a certain way of looking at the world that made the nine Steely Dan albums such complex, wise, hilarious documents. In a particularly revealing interview from 1976, the Melody ...