“Shanghai Confidential”—non-album release – Donald Fagen

This song is apparently a B-side of the single, “Century’s End” from 1988—and it only came to my attention because it’s on YouTube—but that’s why I like using a random system to pick songs to focus on—I would have never gotten around to this one. It’s a rare Donald Fagen instrumental—so I’m a little sad at having no lyrics to grapple with—but it’s good song to get back on track with writing about Steely Dan songs.  There’s a kind of subtly Asian sounding synthesizer part—a little annoying to me—a little obvious for a song with “Shanghai” in the title—and a little on the cheesy side of noirish for a song with “Confidential” in the title—but that’s okay—it’s an instrumental B-side. But then there’s this guitar part that just goes right into outer space—it’s this style of jazz guitar that I find intriguing, in that it somehow makes sense to me, but not in any obvious way. Like I could never predict where the next note is going to go—yet it’s pleasing, and even exciting. That really makes the song for me. I read on the dependable internet that it’s Steve Khan on guitar, and I know he played on later Steely Dan recordings, and with Donald Fagen, a bit. Steve Khan is an interesting character, and I might look for some of his solo stuff. He’s the son of Gloria Franks and the famous lyricist Sammy Cahn (who was originally named Cohen—and who wrote some of Sinatra’s best stuff). Steve, however, changed his name from Cahn to Khan. He’s played with a lot of people, including Michael Franks and Chaka Khan, but I’m reasonably sure he’s not related to either of them. Nor the first partner at the second law firm I worked at, nor Khan Noonien Singh.

—Randy Russell 10.27.21