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While Steely Dan’s debut album, Can’t Buy A Thrill, was a huge hit and features some of their most beloved songs, their second album, Countdown To Ecstasy, was the point where the band really established an identity. The jazz and blues influences that Walter Becker and Donald Fagen initially bonded over are felt more keenly and the performances hit heavier and swing harder than before. The success of Can’t Buy A Thrill put pressure on Steely Dan to tour. The band had initially been a studio-based proposition and, when it came to playing the shows, they were under-rehearsed. What’s more, things weren’t working out with vocalist David Palmer. The singer had joined during the recording of the debut, most notably taking lead vocals on “Dirty Work” and the plan was that he’d sing lead vocals live, as Donald Fagen had been reticent to take the mic. Over the course of the tour, Becker and producer Gary Katz persuaded Fagen to step into the spotlight and Palmer left the group. Still, it did influence their following album; when it came time to write and record Countdown To Ecstasy, Becker and Fagen were much more attuned to the musical abilities of their band, and the material was written with the strengths of individual members in mind. “That was the only album where the songs were developed on the road, in rehearsal, and onstage,” Fagen told MOJO in 1995. “We were playing them before the album was recorded, so it had a more live, blowing feel about it.” Though the album was Steely Dan’s first masterpiece, it underperformed after the runaway success of their debut, only reaching No. 35 on the Billboard 200. In time it has become one of their most well-regarded albums. The following years would see Becker and Fagen’s perfectionist streak took hold and – after their next album, 1974’s Pretzel Logic – the original line-up was disbanded as touring ceased. Steely Dan wouldn’t sound quite like this again, another reason to treasure Countdown To Ecstasy.