Musician Rick Beato has maded a fascinating series called What Makes This Song Great? in which he breaks down the instrumentation and vocals on several popular hits. Below he discusses Steely Dan's Kid Charlemagne, their mid-70s rumination on the fate of a drug dealer who time has passed by. He spends nearly eight minutes on Larry Carlton's two classic guitar solos (which THC rated as his #2 Dan guitar solo favorite). You'll also hear about the sound layers, vocals and, at the end, a comparison of a drum machine sound used by Bruno Mars in one of his recent hits with the groove laid down by drummer Bernard Purdie on the Dan tune.
Here are links to two other enlightening Beato breakdowns. The first is Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by The Police in which we learn about Lydian bass lines and the second Jeremy by Pearl Jam. With Jeremy he takes us through the dense layering that leads to the cacophony of sound (it even turns out there is a cello on the recording!) and the unusual pattern of Eddie Vedder's melody.
The one aspect Beato ignores that goes into creating a great song are the lyrics which contribute to making the saga of Kid Charlemagne work and are absolutely essential to the success of Jeremy, in which the distraught, disturbed words (I don't think there is another song with lyrics similar to "gnashed his teeth/and bit the recess lady's breast") are matched by the thunderous, and occasionally dissonant, music.
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