Dan.' "

Whatever. OK, good question: As they say in the science fiction movies, who—or what—is Steely Dan?

It's what it seems. Says bassist Walter Becker: "We like the suggestion of a big guy named Steely Dan."

It's also a rubber penis, one of a dynasty of dildoes in William Burroughs's Naked Lunch.

Principally, it's Tristan Fabriani. (The name doesn't ring a bell?)

In point of musical fact, it's five musicians, augmented at times with various sidemen, who have jazz and rock backgrounds and a lot of experience as studio musicians. The Steely Dan sound is unmistakable: nasal singing voices, double lead guitars and jazzy piano, doing firmly constructed and neatly arranged tunes. The lyrics are relentlessly difficult, the themes emerging as cowardice, obsession, low-life violence and self-deception, all performed over a rock-solidtwo Number One singles, "Do It Again" and "Reelin' In the Years," and by the time of the Santa Monica concert, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" had been climbing the Hot 100 for 11 weeks and was currently the Number Five single in the Cashbox charts. The Pretzel Logic album had been on the charts for four months, the last eight weeks wandering around in the 20s.

Mr. Whatever, indeed. For that matter, who is Jerome Aniton?

"He used to drive our equipment truck," says Fagen. "We had to fire him because he kept hitting auditorium doors with the truck, but we kept him on for his buildups."

Tristan Fabriani is credited with the liner notes on Steely Dan's first album, Can't Buy a Thrill. And strange liner notes they are,