By Susan Rzepka
Cleveland Jewish News
CLEVELAND — “Would you, by chance, be a Steely Dan fan?” Beachwood resident Joseph “Jerry” Fagen inquires wryly. It’s an unlikely question coming from an 80-year-old, but Fagen’s “favorite conversation starter” affords the opening he needs to do what any parent would do in his shoes: kvell a little.
Reaching for his wallet, the spry sneaker-clad Fagen produces a computerized list in tiny type of the 13 albums released by his son, Donald Fagen, co-founder of the jazz-rock-pop recording group, Steely Dan. His latest entry? Two Against Nature, the group’s newest release, which debuted last month at #6 on the Billboard charts.
Steely Dan was founded in the early 1970s by college-mates Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The multiplatinum recording artists write, produce and perform a unique brand of music. They employ the best studio musicians money can buy, creating a smooth and sophisticated alchemy of sound that has remained brilliant and untarnished since the group’s inception in 1972.
Hanging on the wall in the office-den of Jerry Fagen’s home, Steely Dan’s platinum records gleam in the afternoon sun. Uninterested in displaying them himself, “Donald thought his parents would appreciate them more,” says mother Elinor, a spunky 77-year-old former Bellefaire JCB volunteer.
Aja, Gaucho and Steely Dan’s Greatest Hits are among the musical trophies displayed above the Fagens’ blue floral sofa-sleeper. “The gold ones are in storage,” quips Jerry, careful to clarify that the gold and platinum albums are symbolic of total record sales and not made of the precious metals themselves.
In his pocket, Fagen also carries a list of the Top 100 rock artists. Another paper lists the nominees and inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “Look,” he says, pointing to the credit card-sized rosters, which he has painstakingly cross-referenced, “Steely Dan is number 57.”
Nominated, but twice passed over for induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Steely Dan outranks Hall of Famers Paul McCartney (62) and Billy Joel (78) on TV’s VH-1 countdown. (Steely Dan will be inducted into the Rock Hall this year. March 2001, SR)
“Everyone’s been nominated more than once,” laughs the retired CPA, knowledgeably. “Only the Boss (Bruce Springsteen) got in the first time.”
According to the elder Fagens, when their son was growing up in Kendall Park, N.J., he took an immediate liking to a gift from his grandmother: a piano. (It’s already in storage at the Rock Hall.) That same year, Donald became the first bar mitzvah at the brand-new synagogue his father helped establish. The young Fagen was the rabbi’s only student in 1961.
For an entrance evaluation at the Princeton School of Music, the completely self-taught musician showcased the moving theme song from the film “Exodus.” The school accepted him, but the free-thinking, young keyboard player, who would later develop jazz chords that some claim never existed before, flatly rejected the idea of basic, formal instruction.
Instead, he consumed the piano with an appetite that never seemed sated. Robbing sleep from his younger sister, Donald would often jam on the piano in the family room until the wee hours of the morning with an impromptu band of teenage friends.
“He still plays the piano all the time in my house,” says his sister, Susan Pfaff, a preschool teacher at Carol Nursery School in Shaker Heights. “He literally has to have a piano wherever he goes.” Whether it’s on vacation in Europe, or at his parents’ home, she says, Fagen will rent, buy or otherwise procure a piano as an outlet for his creative flow.
Playing host to a series of family photographs, the piano in the Fagens’ living room is more than a simple gift from Donald. It ensures that he will have something to play when he visits his parents. “Even when we see him free and loose, there is music going on in his head,” they note.
When he’s not sitting at the keyboard, Donald’s fingers incessantly play imaginary keys. The chords and melodies that play in his mind often make their way to the blank music sheets he always brings along on his visits here. “(Playing piano) is almost therapeutic for him,” his sister suggests.
Quick weekend visits with his Cleveland-based family, who have lived here for 15 years, are traditionally low-key. There is the occasional jaunt to Half-Price Books (Fagen majored in English literature at Bard College and is an insatiable reader) or a casual meal in Little Italy. Otherwise, he goofs around on the piano and discusses jazz chords with his 15-year-old niece, Emily, an honor student at Shaker Heights High School, who also plays piano. An old college buddy who lives in town sometimes drops by, as well.
At the Rock and Soul Revue at Blossom Music Center several years back, Fagen’s parents were whisked from a crowd that “stood screaming for more with cigarette lighters lit.” Seeing their son’s fans show their appreciation in such large numbers “is so great to see!”
While bus travel and a string of budget motels marked Steely Dan’s early years, Fagen now “travels in style,” according to his father. “He charters a plane to take him from venue to venue,” and budget motels have given way to plush Ritz-Carltons.
On one of Fagen’s more memorable non-working visits, the accomplished keyboard artist supplied kazoos for each member of his family, suggesting they play “Name That Tune” with television theme shows.
Fagen lives in Manhattan with his wife of seven years, songwriter Libby Titus, who has two grown children from a previous marriage.
Although Fagen is, in many respects, the quintessential New Yorker — intellectual, arty, and musically mature — “He’s really very funny,” says Pfaff, a quality most people rarely see in her brother. Seldom seen smiling in photographs, Fagen’s public image is understandably pensive and cautious. “If you want to see him smile,” his mother remarks, “You have to see him with Walter” (his Steely Dan co-founder).
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