Showbiz Kids: Talking with Jeff Baxter, and a Critical View of Steely Dan

INTERVIEWING AN American musician is a unique experience. The inevitable myth preceeds actuality. Three Steely Dan albums and eighteen months of impressions formed within the confines of one's own stereo systems and no opportunity to see the band play live. Simple manipulation of the media guarantees "cult band" status, and still, who really knows if they can actually produce the goods together? After all, average producers can work miracles with the tape machine as testified time after time by the endless stream of North American rock bands who visit Britain with a string of credible albums, only to blow it onstage.