QUANTUM CRIMINALS

A whimsical plunge into one of America’s most unconventional rock bands.

“There really is a Rikki.” Die-hard Steely Dan fans already knew this, but for the rest of us—who arguably fall somewhere between worshiping Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s music and not knowing it at all—it’s a fine piece of trivia. Rikki, who should not lose that number, was the wife of a Bard College professor when students Fagen and Becker wrote the song and released it in 1974. She’s not the first of the famed duo’s lyrical characters, but she’s arguably one of the least foolhardy and impetuous. On the surface, this book is Pappademas’ delicious deep dive into the many protagonists in the “Steely Daniverse.” We’ve been singing about Rikki, Josie, Peg, and Dr. Wu for decades, most of us not having a clue what the songs are about—and you won’t find many definitive answers here. Instead, the author holds various tunes and characters up to the light like precious stones, turning them over as he reflects on a profusion of both far-fetched and plausible possibilities. Beyond the actual subject matter, the text also provides a sweeping survey of 20th- and 21st-century pop culture. It reads like a compelling flowchart, as Pappademas connects a staggering number of dots between Steely Dan and the culture that spawned them. What do Thomas Merton, John Coltrane, Yves Saint Laurent, and G. Gordon Liddy have in common? Steely Dan, of course. LeMay’s vibrant paintings—more than 100 of which are included in the book—provide yet another kaleidoscopic lens through which to consider the duo’s wild imaginations.

Any major dude will tell you that this is a solid and highly entertaining take on Fagen and Becker’s “platonic love story.”