A literary and visual exploration of the songs of Steely Dan.
Steely Dan's songs are exercises in fictional world-building. No one
else in the classic-rock canon has conjured a more vivid cast of rogues
and heroes, creeps and schmucks, lovers and dreamers and cold-blooded
operators--or imbued their characters with so much humanity. Pulling
from history, lived experience, pulp fiction, the lore of the
counterculture, and their own darkly comic imaginations, Donald Fagen
and Walter Becker summoned protagonists who seemed like fully formed
people with complicated pasts, scars they don't talk about, delusions
and desires and memories they can't shake. From Rikki to Dr. Wu, Hoops
McCann to Kid Charlemagne, Franny from NYU to the Woolly Man without a
Face, every name is a locked-room mystery, beguiling listeners and
earning the band an exceptionally passionate and ever-growing cult
fandom.
Quantum Criminals presents the world of Steely Dan as it has never
been seen, much less heard. Artist Joan LeMay has crafted lively,
color-saturated images of her favorite characters from the Daniverse to
accompany writer Alex Pappademas's explorations of the famous and
obscure songs that inspired each painting, in short essays full of
cultural context, wild speculation, inspired dot-connecting, and the
occasional conspiracy theory. All of it is refracted through the
perspectives of the characters themselves, making for a musical
companion unlike any other. Funny, discerning, and visually stunning,
Quantum Criminals is a singular celebration of Steely Dan's musical
cosmos.
