If you're unfamiliar with the low-key grooves of Steely Dan's 1970s oeuvre, the band was fueled by the singular song-craft of co-founders Walter Becker and Donald Fagan. The band first came together in 1971 and released a string of hits throughout the decade. Many of Steely Dan's biggest hits, however, arrived on their debut album, 1972's Can't Buy a Thrill. So too did the song you hear in The Suicide Squad trailer, the aptly titled "Dirty Work."
Boasting a smooth Wurlitzer groove, intricate guitar play, and meticulously layered vocals, "Dirty Work" fronts many of the stylistic staples the group became known for in the early days, and it rightfully became a fixture in their setlists. Oddly, the song features neither Becker nor Fagan (who did most of the band's in-studio singing) on lead vocals, with David Palmer (who sang the songs live during their early years) doing the honors.
On the surface, "Dirty Work," a soapy lovers' lament about a conflicted man's affair with a married woman, doesn't exactly jibe thematically with the foul-mouthed carnage on display in The Suicide Squad's trailer. And as it is, Gunn largely focuses on the song's pointed chorus — "I'm a fool to do your dirty work, oh yeah. I don't wanna do your dirty work, no more" — in regard to the squad's precarious place in the world. He also savvily twists the meaning in the song's opening lines — "Times are hard. You're afraid to pay the fee. So you find yourself somebody who can do the job for free" — to rather stunning effect, too.
For fans of Gunn, whose audio choices have essentially allowed music to become a character of its own in his films, it's no surprise that the use of "Dirty Work" lends to marvelous mood-making in The Suicide Squad trailer.
