For us, this book is a gonzo helping of music criticism dessert, a hot fudge sundae with extra sauce. […] “Quantum Criminals” is like a secret handshake between two covers. The best part is that it illuminates details the rest of us may have glossed over for years.

Walter Becker und Dan Fagen sind als Steely Dan ein unsterblicher Teil der Musikgeschichte. Die perfektionistische Pop-Band hat einen festen Platz in der "Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame". Einer der Musiker, Walter Becker, ist bereits 2017 verstorben, Dan Fagen dagegen wird 2023 75 Jahre alt. Michael Bartle zollt ihm Tribut.

The Steely Dan co-founder has long been wary of the press and gave relatively few interviews during the band’s prime. And when he did deem to do so, sometimes answered in riddles (albeit pretty humorous ones). Even his own memoir, Eminent Hipsters, is less revealing than even Bob Dylan’s Chronicles Vol. 1, with much of it is carping in his trademark curmudgeonly voice. But despite not having the participation of his subject, Jones' Nightfly: The Life of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen (368 pp., $30, Chicago Review Press) is an insightful, detailed, heavily researched and wonderfully well-written tome.

Always keeping a low profile, never appearing in gossip columns, and definitely not wrecking any hotel rooms, Becker and Fagen minded their own business, cranking out songs that merged rock and pop with a heavy dose of jazz, coupled with lyrics that might be called subversive. They were, as Rolling Stone termed them, “the thinking fan’s top 40 band.”