S
TEELY DAN
t
ti Alive
inAmen
.
•
•
Thheerosi ngi
ad anggad
inuotesting
new songs for their
upcoming studio album.
ca
GARY GRAFF SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
T
t seems a bit odd; after'riot touring,
even gleefully eschewing it, for 19
years, Steely Dan principals Donald
Fagen and Walter Becker have be-
come road hogs.
The duo and its assorted sidemen have
hit the road for the third time in four sum-
mers — the fourth in five if you count
their participation in the 1992 New York
Rock and Soul Revue.
They even released a live album, (Alive
in America), in 1995.
And by the time this summer's outing
winds up, it may just total more touring
than Stkily Dan did during its entire first
incarnation.
"Not quite," says the Jewish singer-key-
boardist Fagen, 48. "But we must be get-
ting close to equaling what we did."
The twist is that on this year's tour, the
duo will road-test a few new songs slated
for a new album — the first Steely Dan
studio release since the 1980s' Gaucho.
It's not an unusual approach for pop
bands, but it's a significant change for Fa-
gen and singer-keyboardist Becker, 46,
who between 1974-92 were perfectionist
studio rats who labored over every minute
detail of their recordings.
Fagen and Becker met at Bard College
in upstate New York during 1967. There,
the duo found common interests in pop,
blues and jazz — which they went on to
combine to great effect in Steely Dan. But
first they played in a series of bands, in-
cluding one called Bad Rock Group that
featured a young Chevy Chase on drums,
and toured as backing musicians for Jay
and the Americans under the pseudo-
nyms Tristan Fabriani (Fagen) and Gus-
tav Mahler (Becker).
U-1
They wound up as writers for hire, plac-
=
c.r) ing one song ("I Meant to Shine") on a
— Barbra Streisand album before moving
w to New York as staff writers for ABC/Dun-
-, hill.
The duo's own songs proved too quirky
CD
cc and individual to appeal to the ABC sta-
ve ble, which at the time had groups such as
° the Grass Roots and Three Dog Night.
"As jazz fans," Fagen explains, "it was
amusing for us to play jazz harmonies on
these big, ugly electric guitars." Not the
best philosophy for writing Top-40 hits.
So producer Gary Katz, who had re-
90
cruited Fagen and Becker for ABC, sug-
gested the two start their own group, and
in 1972 Steely Dan was born. For near-
ly three years it resembled a standard
band, though Fagen and Becker were
clearly in control. They gave up all pre-
tenses of group unanimity in 1974, when
— fed up with one-nighters, with open-
ing for heavy metal bands, and with book-
ings that had them in Honolulu one night
and Miami the next — the duo quit tour-
ing.
From there, Steely Dan became a mu-
sical lab, home to Fagen and Becker's
songs, Katz's Teflon smooth production
and some of the best musical talent avail-
able.
"It's basically always been a bore to me
to reproduce the tunes onstage," Fagen
says. "What I wanted to do was some-
thing we could accomplish better in a stu-
dio situation."
In those environs, Steely Dan produced
a passel of hits ("Peg," "FM," "Deacon
Blues," "Hey Nineteen") as well as one
album, 1977's Aja, that holds up as one
of those rite-of-passage rock records that
everybody seems to own.
But in 1981, besieged by drugs and cre-
ative neurosis, the duo decided to split
up. Becker went off the Hawaii — "to
clean up and get my bearings" — and
went on to produce albums for Rickie Lee
Jones and China Crisis.
And Fagen released a well-received
solo album, The Nightfly, in 1982 and
then laid low until he began popping up
with the New York Rock and Soul Revue
during the late '80s. Becker eventually
began playing with that all-star combo
— which also included McDonald, Boz
Scaggs and Phoebe Snow — and the re-
activation of Steely Dan seemed in-
evitable.
"For us, not that much time had
elapsed," Fagen says. "Steely Dan time
is a whole different thing; literal time
doesn't really exist. So to us, there was
no break. It's all on a continuum."
With about a half dozen new songs fin-
ished or close to it, Fagen and Becker
plan to go into the studio this fall, though
when the noted perfectionists emerge
with a new album is anybody's guess.
"It's an extension of what we've been
"They require more leisure
doing," Fagen says of the new
Walter Becker and
songs. "I hope they show some Donald Fagen formed time."
Steely Dan in 1972.
"They demand that we sit
sort of evolution."
"In the old days," Becker
around and discuss the affairs
adds, "when we used to get together to of the day at some length."
write songs, we'd write songs. Now we go
"Yes, we want to plug into the culture
out there, feeling the pulse of what's hap-
out and get coffee."
Injects Fagen, "I guess what Walter is
pening now."
saying is that when we were young
So what do they talk about?
workaholics, we would sit around for
"Girls," says Becker.
hours writing songs, drinking Cokes and
"What else?" answers Fagen. ❑
so on. Now we find that the beverage con-
sumption is starting to at least equal the
Steely Dan performs at 7:30 p.m.
time we spend writing songs."
Wednesday, July 31, at Pine Knob. Tick-
"Or maybe just the kind of songs we're ets are $35 pavilion and $20 lawn. Call
writing, Donald, demand that."
Ticketmaster at (810) 645-6666.
e