My Old School by Steely Dan

The school in this song is for real: Steely Dan founders Walter Becker and Donald Fagen met at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, not far from Woodstock…though whether the collegiate misadventures in the lyric actually happened will remain a mystery.

The pair began writing songs together at Bard, then had some early post-graduate success writing songs for a Richard Prior movie before Steely Dan was formed. “My Old School” was the second single from the group’s second album Countdown to Ecstasy, but it flopped - in fact, this was the only one of Steely Dan’s original albums not to produce a Top 40 single.

The song still became a solid favorite over the years, thanks in part to the stinging guitar work played by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter - who later became both a Doobie Brother and a defense analyst for the Bush administration.

One of Becker and Fagen’s first pre-Steely Dan bands, the Leather Canary, included drummer Chevy Chase - yes, that Chevy Chase - as a short-lived band member. If not the best drummer Becker and Fagen ever used, they say he was one of the funniest.

There are (count 'em) four guitar solos and the last one is the trickiest, so save your Overdrive accordingly. There are a lot of vocal harmonies in this song, but avoid the temptation to go with them all. You’re singing the lowest melody part.

Becker and Fagen are still touring with a regrouped Steely Dan in the summer of 2009.