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Confessions: Steely Dan, the seminal rock band, is named after a dildo in the book Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs.
Few people know that before Steely Dan became Steely Dan, the boys performed and toured under 7,566 other names as part of a test marketing research investigation. In 1973, aided by the Windsor Unimax 5000 computer system, a test market research investigation was initiated by Jack Tafoya, a prominent record company executive with a penthouse apartment in the Brill building. As a result, the computer came up with 9,087 of the best names for the burgeoning group.
Here is a list of the top fifty suggestions leading to the final selection of the band's name, Steely Dan.

In the thrity-five years since Donald Fagen and Walter Becker met and formed Steely Dan, they have written some really whacky words and phrases. Their newest album has song titles like: GodWhacker, Slang of Ages, Pixeleen, Blues Beach and the title track, Everything Must Go.

Peter Kaufman, of the Washington Post, gives Steely Dan's latest release Everything Must Go a quick spin and finds that Fagen and Becker are still "at the top of their snarky game"...
As always, the lyrics are packed with vaguely sinister details, but much of the story is tantalizingly withheld. We hear mentions of Gina and Trina and Yvonne, of Abnu and Slinky Redfoot and Dave from Acquisitions, but we never quite meet them. Maybe we're better off that way.
Behind the music, Steely Dan's website includes what they call Lexical Lunacies and gives their fans even more insight into the minds of these geniuses. And, those of us who like their words served in Windows Media or Quicktime video clips will get a real good laugh out of this wild ride around Las Vegas in a cab with Steely Dan. What a creative way to launch a new album with viral marketing on the Internet, instead of the same old same old music video.
Posted by abnu on Thursday, January 15, 2004 @ 9:15 PM [ + ]

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