Pretzel Logic (song)

"Pretzel Logic" is a song written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, released as a single by Steely Dan from their album Pretzel Logic, originally in 1974 by ABC Records. It reached number 57 in the Billboard charts.

Background
Steely Dan FAQ author Anthony Robustelli describes "Pretzel Logic" as a bluesy shuffle about time travel. Fagen has stated that the lyrics, including anachronistic references to Napoleon and minstrel shows, are about time travel. According to Robustelli, the "platform" referred to in the song's bridge is the time travel machine. But Something Else! critic Victor Aaron describes the lines "I stepped out on the platform, the man gave me the news/He said, 'You must be joking son, where did you get those shoes?'” as a memorable putdown line. Steely Dan biographer Brian Sweet hypothesizes that the first verse was inspired by the band's distaste for touring, particularly the tours of the American South on which their record label had sent them the previous year. The Brownsville Herald writer Bobby Alvarez felt the song was about Steely Dan's "quest for stardom" and represented their philosophy about themselves—that whatever they have not done or experienced in the past doesn't matter anymore since the past is gone.

Billboard described "Pretzel Logic" as a "bluesy rock hit" and praised the vocals, production, and the "catchy instrumental refrain." CashBox said that "the accent here is on a funkier jazzy melody than 'Rikki.'" Record World called it "a blues construction trimmed with hall-filling harmonies" and said that "The group's ability to meander and yet keep to a hooky home base once again proves their mastery of rock thought processes." Rolling Stone critic Bud Scoppa describes "Pretzel Logic" as one of the album's most conventional songs, calling it a "modified blues." Aaron regards it as Steely Dan's song that remains most faithful to the blues, but acknowledges that a few non-blues chords are incorporated into the refrain. Scoppa particularly praised the electric guitar improvisations for their originality and for pedal steel guitar parts that don't sound like country music. Scoppa credited Jeff Baxter for this, although according to Steely Dan biographer Brian Sweet, Walter Becker played the guitar solo. This is one of the first Steely Dan songs to feature Becker as a lead guitarist. Eduardo Rivadavia cites "Pretzel Logic" as one of several songs on the album on which Steely Dan hones their trademark sound, "as sweetly infectious as it was deceptively intricate, dark and witty." Alvarez rated it one of the best songs on the album.

Composition
Pretzel Logic is a modified version of a 12-bar blues, a form which contains a turnaround in the last (typically four) bars. This turnaround consists of two sets of dominant 11th chords resolving to the V, and then again, down whole step, to the IV. Although the V chord commonly goes down to the IV like this in blues music, they are both major seventh chords, which are relatively uncommon in the blues vernacular. Furthermore, Fagen and Becker employ their not-quite-yet signature 'Mu Major' voicing, which includes the 9th scale degree. Steely Dan would go on to use this chord to further define their sound in albums like 'The Royal Scam' and Aja. The turnaround concludes with a walk-up from the flat sixth to flat seventh, before finally resolving to I at the top of the form.

Personnel

 * Donald Fagen – lead and backing vocals, Wurlitzer electronic piano
 * Walter Becker – lead guitar
 * Dean Parks – rhythm guitar
 * Plas Johnson – saxophone
 * Ollie Mitchell – trumpet
 * Lew McCreary – trombone
 * Michael Omartian – acoustic piano
 * Wilton Felder – bass guitar
 * Jim Gordon – drums
 * Tim Schmit – backing vocals

Covers
In 1987, it was covered by Hiram Bullock on his album Give It What You Got.

A live version by INXS was performed during the Moontan Double J Concert At Manly Vale Hotel, October 1980 show. A recording is available on the compilation Stay Young 1979–1982.

The New York Rock and Soul Revue covered it in 1991, led by Donald Fagen.

The song was performed by the Warren Haynes Band, the solo project of The Allman Brothers Band and Gov't Mule leader Warren Haynes, which he started in 2010. A staple of the band's live shows, often running over ten minutes in length and featuring multiple solos from band members, it appears in this form on their 2012 album Live at The Moody Theater.