Yesterday was Donald Fagen’s birthday. He turned 65. He was/is part of one of the greatest songwriting partnerships in modern times – Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. Together, they were/are Steely Dan. The songwriting and performing core of it, at least. And here’s a little known fact: Steely Dan never put a bad song on one of their records. Not one.

Pretzel Logic is one of the truly great songs they wrote together. It has one of my favorite lyrics ever:

I have never met Napoleon, but I plan to find the time.

Which only makes sense if you know the song is about time travel. Which I didn’t, for a long time, but I still loved the line.