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Interviews and
reviews of the band
2006
JULY-AUGUST: STEELYARD "SUGARTOOTH" McDAN AND THE FAB-ORIGINEES.COM TOUR
Walter Becker and Donald Fagen in Milwaukee, July 7, 2006
Concert preview: The many muses of Steely Dan, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/5/06
Trying to sum up Steely Dan's 34 years of musical and literary influences is like trying to translate "Pretzel Logic." It's an overwhelming task.
Concert: Unlikely then, respected now, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/8/06
When Steely Dan got on stage at the Marcus Amphitheater on Friday night, it quickly proved that, nearly 3 1/2 decades after its debut, it is still a gigantic incongruity in the history of the 1970s, of California music and of rock 'n' roll in general.
Concert: Steely Dan reels in the years, Dallas Morning News, 7/13/06
The masters of jazzy rock welcomed old bandmate Michael McDonald back into the fold for the final stretch of their set, capping off a night of freakishly tight musicianship and hits that kept on coming.
Concert preview: McDonald to perform with his old band, San Antonio Express-News, 7/14/06
Steely Dan and Michael McDonald have a history. It began long before pairing up for their "Steelyard 'Sugartooth' McDan" tour. The Doobie Brothers star played in one of the earliest touring incarnations of the revered and reclusive band.
Concert review: Steely Dan pair does it again, Fort Worth Star Telegram, 7/14/06
Back in the '70s, keyboardist Donald Fagen and guitarist Walter Becker -- aka Steely Dan -- were notorious recluses. Touring and granting interviews were rare in their universe. Instead, they locked themselves in the studio, pouring their passion into crafting a pristine, note-perfect style of sophisticated, smart, jazz-inflected rock. More than anything, they seemed bent on pleasing themselves.
Concert preview: '70s powers have become a smooth combination, Arizona Republic, 7/16/06
Whether you're a fan of classic rock or smooth jazz, Tuesday's concert featuring Michael McDonald and Steely Dan is a perfect match. Both dominated the charts in the '70s -- Dan with such exquisite studio creations as Josie and FM, McDonald with the breezy California anthems of the Doobie Brothers, including Takin' It to the Streets.
Concert review: Steely Dan brings back memories at Verizon, San Antonio Express-News, 7/16/06
With extended, jazz-flavored rhythms and quirky tunes about odd heroes and bad girlfriends, Steely Dan transported fans to another place and time during their concert Saturday night at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in San Antonio.
MARCH: THE DONALD FAGEN BAND TOUR
The Donald Fagen Band in Oakland, March 28, 2006
Interview: What will the cat drag in? Herald.co.uk, 2/23/06 
His voice sounds akin to Bogart's in The Big Sleep; a guttural drawl of laconic humour mixed with a man's-gotta-do cynicism. Donald Fagen has grown up, steeped in the oeuvre of Damon Runyon and Raymond Chandler, so perhaps it is hardly surprising that nothing surprises him any more about his native America.
Review: Morph The Cat, Independent, 2/24/06
In an age when skilful PR hype and internet downloads have combined to shrink the gap between an artist's first steps and their acclaim as Greatest Thing Ever to little more than a few nanoseconds, the appearance of a new Donald Fagen album serves to provide a little perspective, and pour a little cooling water on pop's fevered brow.
Interview: Steely Dan's Fagen ready to Morph, Billboard, 2/25/06
Finding love in an airport security line, a ghostly feline hovering above New York and imaginary conversations with the late Ray Charles are not usual topics addressed in rock 'n' roll. But they're prime subjects in the alternate musical universe of Donald Fagen.
Interview: The cat will see you now, London Telegraph, 3/2/06
First there was The Nightfly. Then Kamakiriad. And now, a mere 24 years on, the trilogy is complete. The London Telegraph's Robert Sandall meets Steely Dan's Donald Fagen in New York to discuss the finer points of despair.
Donald Fagen takes the time to not only discuss Morph the Cat, but also influential black-humor authors, the sexiness of war-time, and how nothing interesting as happened in popular music since the invention of reggae.
Interview: Steely Man: Donald Fagen takes a solo shot, Boston Phoenix, 3/2/06
For a rock band who wrote songs about prostitutes, Eastern gurus, pedophilia, heroin, niece lust, Charlie Parker, and a post-apocalyptic world, Steely Dan have always had something akin to the last laugh.
Concert: Fagen's show keeps plenty of Dan in the mix, Newark Star-Ledger, 3/3/06
Early in his Wednesday night concert at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Donald Fagen said it was his first time there. Then he clarified the statement, saying it was his first time anywhere. His first concert as the headliner, ever.
Morph Review, Los Angeles Times, 3/5/06
The taller half of Steely Dan returns from a 13-year break from solo albums as a sort of hipster Dr. Seuss. In the title song, a protoplasmic feline form permeates Manhattan, casting an inexplicable but welcome spell of well-being on Gotham.
Concert: Fagen's solo act succeeds, Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/6/06
It is tempting to claim that Donald Fagen -- pop's cheeriest misanthrope -- is little more than Steely Dan without other-half Walter Becker. So Fagen is Dan? Wrong.
Concert: Steely Dan Man Makes N.Y. Return, Rolling Stone, 3/8/06
The last time Steely Dan frontman Donald Fagen performed at New York's Beacon Theater was in 1991 with the "New York Rock and Soul Revue," an informal collective of musicians that included Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald. Tuesday night, the singer and keyboardist came home.
Concert: Donald Fagen, Cool and Partly Steely, Washington Post, 3/8/06
Donald Fagen never had much "Louie Louie" in him. Still doesn't. There is little obvious difference between the output of Steely Dan, the franchise that Fagen and Walter Becker founded in the early 1970s and the solo works Fagen presented at the Warner Theatre on Monday.
Interview: Still reelin' in the years, Ottawa Citizen, 3/9/09
Donald Fagen makes music for discerning people. Now Fagen is about to release Morph the Cat, his third solo album in as many decades, and it's as finely crafted as anything by Steely Dan. Jazz snobs will appreciate the playing, audiophiles will revel in the lush sound and the literary set will have a blast digging into the lyrics. There are even some hooks for the rest of us.
Concert: Steely Dan's Voice, Wry as Ever, if Less Sure, New York Times, 3/9/06
Those meticulous jazz-rockers Steely Dan built a career on seeming coolly unfazed. But the solo efforts of its principals, Donald Fagen and his snarkier counterpart, Walter Becker, prove what we all knew: that insouciant affect is usually the result of peer pressure.
Interview: Sad experiences still theme in Fagen music, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 3/10/06
At 58, Donald Fagen has been getting out a bit more, having developed a taste for performing; in the 1990s, the stage-shy Steely Dan returned not only to make more Grammy-winning records but to tour for the first time in decades.
Concert: Mixing songs old and new, Fagen finds a groove, Boston Globe, 3/13/06
No one has taken the place of Steely Dan. Their taut sound, technical yet warm, and their lyrics, crucial vignettes of '70s dystopia and Reagan-era dyspepsia, sped them into the pop pantheon. There's a finality to Steely Dan, a sense of arrival, that wards off imitators and apprentices.
Interview: Black Days, Toronto Globe and Mail, 3/13/06
No, Donald Fagen says, he's not on the line from the foot of Mount Belzoni, nor is he high in the Custerdome. He's sitting somewhere in upper Manhattan, in fact, working the telephones, stoking the publicity machinery for an upcoming concert tour and the launch of a new CD.
Interview: Fagen on new disk, Steely Dan return, Toronto Sun, 3/13/06
Donald Fagen's "day job" has been as one-half of jazz-rock outfit Steely Dan with partner Walter Becker since 1972. Yes, there was that 20-year break between the group's 1980 effort Gaucho and 2000's Two Against Nature, a best album Grammy winner.
Concert: Fans welcome 'Steely Don,' Toronto Star, 3/15/06
You can take Walter Becker out of Steely Dan. But you can never take Steely Dan out of Donald Fagen. While Fagen performed a nearly sold-out set last night minus his other half, guitarist Becker, the effect was more or less the same.
Concert: Donald Fagen stows away the time, Toronto Sun, 3/15/06
"How ya feelin' Donald?" a male fan shouted out to Steely Dan singer-keyboardist Donald Fagen. "I'm feeling groovy, baby," smiled the 58-year-old. And groovy Fagen proved to be over the course of an hour-and-50 minutes worth of polished, sophisticated jazz-pop.
Concert: Donald Fagen Band at the Chicago Theater, AllAboutJazz.com, 3/18/06
The full house knew what to expect: Donald Fagen on electric piano fronting a whip-tight ten-piece band; consistently satisfying performances; slick, gleaming Fagen/Dan grooves; some Steely Dan tunes; and finally, a chance to throw their approval at the architect of a wildly successful, revered and unique jazz/rock hybrid sound.
Interview: Donald Fagen on his new album, The Independent, 3/19/06
After Steely Dan closed up shop in the early 1980s, Donald Fagen went solo with The Nightfly, an album which became an instant and timeless classic. Now a mere 24 years later he has finished his semi-autobiographical trilogy with the release of Morph The Cat.
Concert: Fagen relaxes grip, makes you want to dance, Chicago Sun Times, 3/20/06
The fastidiousness of Donald Fagen is well-documented. Saturday night at the Chicago Theatre, however, Fagen -- at 58 and on his first ever solo tour -- showed signs of mellowing with age, of letting go of the little stuff. At least he made it look that way.
2003
The Everything Must Go Tour Band, 2003
One Hour Sale, A conversation with Steely Dan, 3/7/03
Hour-long radio interview conducted by Jody Denberg for KGSR radio in Austin, TX.
The Back Pages Interview, 6/03
Barney Hoskyns discusses war, economics and online smut with Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.
From the Guardian of London: Steely Dan's music is a serious business - crafted, polished, full of word games and references to Proust and Freud. Much like the men themselves.
EMG review: Tried and true or being new, New York Times, 6/10/03
As drums snicker, guitars chip out funk patters, and keyboards and horns dole out one perfectly arranged comeback after another, it's clear that Steely Dan hasn't given up either its cleverness or its control.
EMG review: Glimpsing the apocalypse ahead, Washington Post, 6/11/03
"Everything Must Go" displays those smarty-pants Fagen and Becker at the top of their snarky game. Their work may not appeal to the heart, but the brain and the feet love it.
EMG review: Steely message, National Review Online, 6/16/03
"Everything Must Go" offers a thoughtful look at what was lost on 9/11 and an acid take on where we're heading.
EMG review: The work of 'high-concept ironists,' PopMatters.com, 6/25/03
A collection of subversively jazzy tunes which delights in its own cleverness (lyrical and otherwise), and which probably finds its closest companion -- among previous Steely Dan albums -- in Pretzel Logic.
Tour review: Strumming a cynical chord,' Los Angeles Times, 7/25/03
Notwithstanding the mind-boggling instrumental proficiency of Fagen and Becker's eight-member touring band (along with three soulful backup singers), they appear to have given up trying to motivate anyone's feet and are happy just striving to keep everyone's cerebellums engaged.
Tour review: Steely Dan really can, Orange County Register, 7/25/03
The veteran act's jazz-pop proves as strong as ever at the Pacific, though Donald Fagen is losing his vocal potency.
Danmeisters Donald Fagen and Walter Becker continue their ongoing tradition with the band's latest release, Everything Must Go.
Ever droll band still understated, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 8/3/03
Steely's colorful co-founders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are confounding expectations with the release of the comparatively instantaneous studio follow-up album, "Everything Must Go."
Everything's going right for Steely Dan, Cleveland Free Times, 8/7/03
Life is good for Steely Dan, now on tour in support of the new album. But with the apocalyptic reference in the title Everything Must Go, the question as to the future of the duo hangs in the balance. Not ones to speculate one way or the other, Fagen finally admits, "Even if the worst happens, there's always mutation."
Contemplating end of world brings out best in duo, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 8/8/03
Even if "discorporating" really is a word -- sorry, it's not in our dictionary -- who uses it in everyday conversation? Those wise guys in Steely Dan, that's who.
Steely Dan remains true to its nature, Flint Journal, 8/8/03
When an artist wins the Album of the Year Grammy Award, that artist pretty much can expect a healthy bounce in sales of said album and a not-so-healthy afterglow of cocktails, parties and God knows what else. The afterglow, however, was rather short for a duo that had gone 20 years between studio albums before releasing "Two Against Nature" in 2000.
Three decades later, Steely Dan still a vital force, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 8/8/03
If any '70s-era band should have survived to play arena concerts and win Grammys in the 21st century, it would be Steely Dan. After all, they were an anachronism in their own time, just as they are today.
Having another 'go' with Dan, Chicago Tribune, 8/8/03
They may be older, but Fagen and Becker are definitely not any less caustic than they were in their '70s heyday. Their music continues to blend harmonically sophisticated jazz voicings, agile R&B grooves and some of the most twisted lyrics this side of, well, Eminem.
Muzak for the masses, Pop Politics, 8/8/03
Fagen and Becker are back with "Everything Must Go," by which they must mean everything that made them entertaining. The songs remain so ascetically smooth and clean you could operate in them, but the hooks don't swing quite as nice, and the lad-mag cleverness and obtuse sarcasm of their lyrics is gone.
Steely Dan makes a long awaited return, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 8/8/03
Nerds preoccupied with hip notions from the jazz and beatnik worlds, Fagen and Becker became hip with their sophisticated mix of jazz chordings, rock dynamics, brassy funk, pop vocals and warped, irony-laced lyrics.
Steely Dan goes back in time to 1979, Chicago Sun-Times, 8/10/03
Examples of irony, riddles and perversion have been prevalent in Steely Dan's lyrics for over 30 years. The same is true for the duo's relationship with the road. They didn't tour when they had big hits, and two decades later, they toured without new material.
Carefully crafted work still pleases ear, mind, The Columbus Dispatch, 8/11/03
Since its beginning in the mid-1970s Steely Dan has used its hit-making platform to peddle some of the most subversive music ever heard on the radio.
In concert, Steely Dan reeling in the years, Akron Beacon-Journal, 8/13/03
Steely Dan detractors offer the band as an example of 1970s studio excess, citing the band's exacting tunes and inability or unwillingness to cut loose and simply rock as prime reasons for ridicule. But working folks into a visceral rock 'n' roll frenzy is not Steely Dan's focus.
Steely Dan still reels in the ears, Boston Globe, 8/18/03
Steely Dan singer Donald Fagen is known for his irony, but he sounded totally sincere when he told Saturday's crowd, "There are no Steely Dan fans anywhere who are coolor or hipper to play for than the Steely Dan fans in Boston."
A boomer band grows philosophical, Newsday, 8/22/03
Donald Fagen is likely the only rock star able to drop the word "eschatological" into a conversation -- and use it correctly.
Deacon Blue meets Steely Dan, Bucks County Courier Times, 8/27/03
Carnival lights are strung across the Delaware beneath the Ben Franklin Bridge. They tie Philadelphia’s skyline to this place, anchored by the dome of the Aquarium, bathed in gaudy lights of primary colors. The end of summer is near. But the party isn’t over.
Steely Dan has a great sound, Norwich (CT) Bulletin, 8/27/03
Carnival lights are strung across the Delaware beneath the Ben Franklin Bridge. They tie Philadelphia’s skyline to this place, anchored by the dome of the Aquarium, bathed in gaudy lights of primary colors. The end of summer is near. But the party isn’t over.
No doubts that Steely Dan's sound transfers to stage, Atlantic City Press, 8/29/03
A Steely Dan concert sounds almost exactly like the recorded version of the "group." But that's OK -- anything close to a live performance is welcome after a nearly 20-year hiatus from the stage.
Steely Dan: Storming on at Nissan, Washington Post, 8/29/03
The two have a reputation for being sly, cynical and detached, but none of that reserve could be detected during a soulful and funky two-hour-plus set.
SPAC audience tunes into Steely Dan, The Saratogian, 8/31/03
Steely Dan was the reigning king of FM style and sophistication through the '70s and into the '80s. However, since the group existed almost exclusively in the studio during this time, seeing Steely Dan in concert just didn't happen -- then.
Steely Dan remains razor sharp, Syracuse Post Standard, 9/1/03
Leave it to the two halves that have made up Steely Dan since "Can't Buy a Thrill" came out in 1972 to deliver the reliable goods. The Dan at the NY State Fair Grandstand was still the master of the understatement and quirky as all get out.
Riding the weird wavelength of Steely Dan, Palm Beach Post, 9/14/03
Take some Ellington and Vonnegut and killer rock guitars and keyboards, add complex chord progressions and arrangements, then some tight vocal harmonies -- and you have the makings of the Steely Dan formula for breaking the formula. No one has tried to cram more into a recording track.
Mellow Fellows: Steely Dan lights it up after blackout, Toronto Sun, 9/15/03
It might have taken them a month longer than anticipated, but Steely Dan's breezy '70s sound rounded out Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre's summer schedule on a high note. Originally set for mid-August, the show was postponed due to the blackout.
Steely Dan inspires nakedness, Toronto Star, 9/15/03
An unscripted display of exhibitionism adds an element of risk to an otherwise carefully calculated performance. The veteran jazz/pop combo was in Toronto to make good on a concert postponed by the Aug. 14 power outage.
Spectacular oddity, St. Petersburg Times, 9/17/03
The knock occasionally raised against Steely Dan is that everything sounds exactly the same. Same as what? Its own uniqueness? No other band has mastered such intricate neogenre arrangements, so deceptively peppy for the cryptic lyrics they're wrapped around, without being branded as imitators.
Steeling from the past, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, 9/19/03
You want irony in rock 'n' roll? How about the career of Steely Dan? In the '70s, when Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were producing one pop/rock/jazz masterwork after another, they almost never toured. And now that they're making decent but unexceptional CDs, they're practically road dogs.
Singing along with Steely Dan, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9/20/03
In keeping with the title of their latest CD, Steely Dan tried the clearing-house approach to their concert at HiFi Buys Amphitheatre. But the audience wanted the band to take the "Everything Must Go" tour's theme literally, and thunderously cheered for a second encore that never came.
Band brings new life to old favorites, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9/22/03
Even a serious Steely Dan fan was probably surprised when the group embarked on its first full-length reunion tour nearly 10 years ago. The Dan were known for creating ultrasmooth, tuneful jazz-pop -- and then not going on the road to promote their hugely successful records.
Jjazz-rock cynicism a terrific close to summer, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 9/22/03
Few musical reputations ever grow by rarely touring -- Steely Dan's is among them. Each show feels like an event, which the Memphis concert was. Playing two sets over several hours, the Grammy-winning band ran through a wealth of Dan history.
Somber words set to a sweet beat, Albuquerque Journal, 9/22/03
The reigning pop duo of the '70s finds itself back on top. There are very few music artists who would dare to refer to either Marcel Proust or Sigmund Freud in a song. Then again, Steely Dan, the band that has dared to do it, is not a typical musical entity.
September 24: Steely Dan, Arizona Republic, 9/24/03
Throughout the interview, Becker and Fagen sounded like a married couple -- finishing each other's sentences and occasionally bickering. But a deep love and respect for each other shined through their occasionally crabby exteriors, as well as the dry wit that infuses their lyrics.
Steely Dan delivers pristine pop, Arizona Republic, 9/25/03
Steely Dan spent the ‘70s making impeccable albums while not touring and the ‘90s playing impeccable shows while not recording. With an excellent new album and tour, Becker and Fagen has proved they can do both at the same time.
Back on track, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 9/26/03
"We were born just as the nuclear age started," notes Donald Fagen. "We grew up with very low survival expectations, which I think is the major metaphor of our time and something that still resonates with us."
Proud to be rock anomalies, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9/26/03
Ask this glitz-shunning duo to discuss their sveltely subversive music and they are happy to talk at length. For them, an in-depth interview is an opportunity to bounce ideas off each other in the manner of free-flowing instrumental exchanges between seasoned jazz musicians.
Steely Dan in Universal City, LiveDaily.com, 10/3/03
Now back on the road with their second studio effort in three years, Steely Dan -- the band that refused to tour at the height of its popularity in the '70s -- hit the stage and delivered its unique brand of taut yet laid-back jazz-funk throughout a two-hour performance.
LA concert review, Hollywood Reporter, 10/3/03
A mere three years after their Grammy-winning triumph of "Two Against Nature," a megasecond in the lifetime of a band that virtually ignored the call of the live stage in the '70s and '80s, Steely Dan has returned with both a vivacious new album and another tour.
Steely Dan still does it well, Santa Cruz Sentinel, 10/7/03
Call it revenge of the nerds or the triumph of music over rock stardom, but Steely Dan at the Chronicle Pavilion proved again that good music knows no age.
Be on time for Steely Dan, Honolulu Star Bulletin, 10/11/03
Steely Dan has become one of the most ironic and cynical groups to perform on stage or enter a recording studio. Theirs is a sardonic, humorous and slightly surreal view, taking on world-weary themes about love, despair and the general human condition, mixed into jazz-catchy melodies.
Steely Dan is heaven in concert, 10/11/03
For the baby boomers who nearly filled Blaisdell Arena to capacity, two hours of Steely Dan -- with intermission -- was absolute heaven. Never mind that they had to wait nearly 30 years for Donald Fagen and Walter Becker to return to the Hawaii concert stage.
2002
The Content Partners, Dallas Observer, 3/2002
The Content Partners: Any major dude will tell you a Steely Dan story is not to be trusted.
Remembering The Nightfly, Monkey.com, 12/1/02
A fond look back at the CD that stereo buffs would use to test new gear in audiophile shops.
Reassessing Steely Dan's Aja, from AllAboutJazz.Com, 12/02
Aja stands as a unique record in both the jazz and pop genres. It is laid out with complex horn charts, a variety of synths, blazing solos and oddly timed songs.The album creates an original fusion that may seem strangely out of place by jazz or rock enthusiasts, yet it’s perfectly natural for listeners comfortable in each genre.
2001
After Grammies, Steely Dan takes rightful place, Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/12/01
Grammy victories allow Steely Dan to take rightful place as one of the best popular music groups since 1950.
In the aftermath of the Dan's four-Grammy haul in 2001, the Onion A.V. Club interviewed the guys for publication on the net.
2000
The Steely Dan Orchestra, 2000
Giant's Steely Dan Does It Again On Disc, Billboard, Jan. 7, 2000
If there's anything rock'n'roll history has taught us, it's that regardless of whether a duo or group has a bitter breakup or just slowly fades away, we can expect the inevitable: a reunion.
Competing in a world of midriff display, Jan. 14, 2000
Since the late 60s Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have wavered somewhere between Burt Bacharach and the VelvetUnderground. Barney Hoskyns of England's Guardian meets the Steely Dan of the 21st century
Replay of "All Things Considered" radio segment, Feb. 22. 2000
Linda Wertheimer converses with Donald and Walter on National Public Radio.
Are you smart enough to like 2vN? Feb. 20, 2000
The new album is, it has to be said, astoundingly good. It's no different, really, in style or emphasis: a touch cooler, slicker. As ever, one has to listen to it about a dozen times before the knowing adoration kicks in.
How Two Against Nature came to life, from Jam!, 2/29/00
West of Hollywood began as a fragment of a reggae song Becker and Fagen wrote in the '80s. And other fascinating insights from a lengthy interview.
Review of Two Against Nature, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3/6/00
Steely Dan is resuscitated and vital again on "Two Against Nature."
On hearing 2VN, from Salon.Com, 3/14/00
Good thing it was late and the rain-slick roads were nearly empty, because I experienced a violent, sudden attack of time displacement against which my airbag and seat belt were helpless. Never mind drunken driving and excess speed -- how many accidents are caused by Proustian disorientation? Someone must keep stats on this stuff.
Questions & Answers With Steely Dan, 5/21/00
Through the efforts of StAl and Hoops McKay, fans were able to direct questions to Donald and Walter for an interview on the Internet. Nice stamps illustration as well!
Q&A with Donald Fagen, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/4/00
Donald Fagen interview during 2000 Dan tour. What it's like working with Walter. Plus, what's so wrong with appreciating beauty anyway?
1999
Carlton a versatile guitarist, Oct. 15, 1999
Guitarist Larry Carlton knows all about the "city of fallen angels," as Joni Mitchell once described Los Angeles. He grew up there. He worked with Mitchell there. He nearly was murdered there.
1998
1997
1996
Online interview with Becker and Fagen, March 22, 1996
To inaugurate the official Steely Dan site, Donald and Walter subject themselves to the Webbed masses, leaving in their wake tantalizing hints of tour dates, a new album, and possible sidemen for the tour.
You can buy a thrill with Steely Dan, Charleston Post & Gazette, July 4, 1996
"I think we were really just trying to bring the material of literature into popular music,'' says Donald Fagen. "It's just a combination of a bunch of things you know. Whatever we like, music, literature, we kind of try to stick it in there.''
"We're in ... some senility thing where we love everybody," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 7/14/96
Interview previewing 1996 summer tour stop in Pittsburgh. "24 years after it made the world safe for disaffected bohemian art-rock with "Can't Buy a Thrill," Steely Dan has emerged from the stage fright and studio perfectionism that severely limited its live performances in earlier years to become a first-rate summer act."
1995
Walter and Donald, talking to Prodigy subscribers, Oct. 17, 1995
Fagen: Hey Nineteen is a song about the problem a 30-something guy has picking up near-jailbait. Becker: Donald and I are no longer concerned with the problems of 30-something individuals... unfortunately. Jailbait, however, is a subject of enduring interest. Fagen: If only in our minds.
Walter and Donald talking to CompuServe subscribers, Oct. 20, 1995
Becker: All of the solos on our records were improvised by the players themselves, with no more than the occasional ribald encouragement offered up by us
Walter and Donald talking to Microsoft Network subscribers, Nov. 9, 1995
marconi: Has anybody else done versions of your songs that sounded good to you? DonaldFagen: I kinda like that version of 'Kid Charlemagne' by Jerry Lewis. WalterBecker: Herbie Mann did a version of Do It Again that was kind of slick. That's a beaut.
Review of Roseland performance, November, 1995
"The last time I saw this band in concert was just months before they launched almost two decades of not touring. But they didn't go away. They spent their seclusion in my living room." By Carola Dibbell in the Village Voice, November, 1995.
1994
Interview with Michael McDonald, May 27, 1994
McDonald, a singer and songwriter, performed live and on albums (including thrilling vocals on "Peg") with the Dan for several years before joining the Doobie Brothers and later enjoying a solo career. In this conversation with America Online members, McDonald observes, "I think that a lot of the music of today is a product of a more restricted playlist at the level of radio in the U. S."
Walter Becker, talking with America Online subscribers, Nov. 17, 1994
Question: Steely Dan was a group with such a different sound. Did you ever wonder if it was a "marketable" sound? Becker: We thought that it was. We hoped that it was.
Publicity about "11 Tracks of Whack," 1994
Ok, so this is a publicity handout from Warner, released in connection with Walter Becker's "11 Tracks" collection. Nevertheless, there are some interesting tidbits.
1993
Interview with drummer Peter Erskine, 1993
During the 1993 Steely Dan concert tour, drummer Peter Erskine gave this interview to an industry newsletter. In it, he talks about what it's like for a jazz musician to work with Fagen and Becker.
Words and Music with Donald Fagen, 1993
This transcript of a promotional radio piece done by Warner Bros. on the 1993 release of Kamakiriad features an expansive Fagen: "In Kamakiriad the narrator's trying to reclaim some of his optimism, perhaps naive optimism, that he had as a child, and as it's spelled out in The Nightfly."
Becker Reels in the Years With Solo Effort, 4/17/93
Walter Becker interview on making an album: “I’ve learned you have to temper your desire to make something perfect with some awareness of what’s practical.”
1992
The rise and fall (and rise again) of Steely Dan, Chicago Tribune, Aug. 16, 1992
Interview with Donald Fagen, in advance of the 1992 NY Rock and Soul Revue concert in Chicago. Many insights into the period after "Gaucho."
Interview with guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, July 13, 1992
The Skunkman holds forth on touring and recording with the Dan, the Doobies, Ultimate Spinach, and on and on. "Question: When you played with Steely Dan did you record any tracks live other than Bodhisattva? JBaxter: We recorded every show we did on cassette. Bodhisattva was taken from a cassette.
The Drummers of Steely Dan, Modern Drummer, 11/92
1992 article from Modern Drummer takes us on a record-by-record review from Hodder to Purdie.
Tribute to Jeff Porcaro, December, 1992
Memories of the late drummer, by the musicians who knew him the best.
Earlier
In an interview with Musician magazine, our heroes weigh in on film, literature, Free Jazz and their music, with many neat insights and much passionate analysis.
"We write the same way a writer of fiction would write," Sounds magazine, 10/22/77
It's not every day that Steely Dan bare their souls to the public. But amid the palm trees and coke bottles at the Bel Air Hotel, all was revealed -- if not all, at least a lot for Steely Dan. An interview in support of the release of "Aja."
Aja stands as a unique record in both the jazz and pop genre, 1977
A reassessment of Aja's place in the world of both jazz and pop
Review of Katy Lied, Sounds, 5/4/75
All the familiar hallmarks of Steely Dan are here: the progressive chord changes with guitar, piano and voices in harness, the ethereal voices, the deft instrumental work, the smoothness that never degenerates into blandness...
Reelin' in from Woolworth's, New Music Express, 5/25/74
Woolworth's was where Walter Becker got turned on and Donald Fagen got his ticket to ride from the Beatles. Together they're the core of Steely Dan, an American cult band catching on in Britain.
"Very fancy music!" New Times Magazine, 2/18/77
Nineteen-year-old article from the now-defunct New Times magazine, featuring the perspectives of William Burroughs. The material is dated but the historical point-of-view is worth reading.
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