By Aidin Vaziri
Special to the San Francisco Chronicle
Many reasons have been given for Donald Fagen, 52, and Walter Becker, 50, getting back together as Steely Dan nearly 20 years after releasing their last studio album, 1980’s “Gaucho.” But no one has hit on the obvious — where else are these guys going to get so much praise for being dirty old men? On “Cousin Dupree,” the first single from the duo’s latest album, “Two Against Nature,” they revel in intrafamilial love. In “Gaslighting Abbie,” the main character schemes to murder his wife with the help of his mistress. Then there is “Janie Runaway,” which makes their previous ode to underage lust, “Hey Nineteen,” seem quaint. Never has the expression “lock up your daughters” been more appropriate. Steely Dan plays Tuesday at the Chronicle Pavilion in Concord and June 17 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Moutain View. We spoke with Fagen by phone recently.
Q: How’s your comeback going?
A: It’s not bad. After 25 years of doing this, I noticed that after a record comes out or you’re on TV, you get some street recognition for a couple of weeks or so, and it eventually trickles down to zero until you do something else
Q: Do you think not putting out a Steely Dan album for 20 years was a big waste of time?
A: Not really. I enjoyed doing my solo albums. I was compelled to do the, and I worked with Walter on the last one, so that led into doing this album. It was pretty natural.
Q: That sounds a bit extreme.
A: Well, chances are if we had done it any sooner the album wouldn’t have come out as good. We had a lot of time to think about it.
Q: What did you do during all that time?
A: I don’t think I ever went out in the ’80s. Actually, the ’80s was not my best decade. But the ’90s were a lot of fun. It started out with my wife and I collaborating on a project called “New York Rock ‘N’ Soul Revue,” we went on tour with that, and then I got involved with the Steely Dan stuff.
Q: Do you even remember what it was like the first time you were in Steely Dan?
A: To me it was sort of a blur. It seems like I was always in the recording studio. I was an incredible workaholic. It’s like I was so involved in what I was doing that it has some negative effect on my personal life. But now I’m recuperated as far as that goes.
Q: How bad was it?
A: We were just obsessed. All we ever did was record.
Q: It doesn’t really sound like you slacked off too much on “Two Against Nature.”
A: Yeah, but we got to do it over a longer period of time. It was planned out better. I mean, it was intense while we were doing it, but we hadn’t spent the last nine years doing the same thing, so it was fun.
Q: Are these songs all about you?
A: Um, I think it’s pretty rare that they’re autobiographical. I think each of our solo albums had more tunes you could call autobiographical. Even those are fictionalized. We write stories from observing people, observing ourselves and making stuff up. They seem right. They seem in tune in a way, but I don’t think it’s really us. I certainly wouldn’t want to be the characters in some of these songs.
Q: Do you think your obsession with young girls is healthy?
A: Well, I don’t think I am obsessed with young women, but I do appreciate younger women. I really enjoy spending time with kids. When you turn 50, I don’t see why you’re suddenly not allowed to take in any beauty. I don’t get it. You know, it’s like, you don’t have to be a pedophile or something to appreciate beauty.
Q: What do you hear when you listen to your lyrics?
A: I don’t really listen to them. The only times are when we have to remaster some old tapes or something. I get pretty uncomfortable listening to them for various reasons. I see them all as a series of mistakes and bad choices.
Q: How has getting older changed your life?
A: I have to say I like getting older. I was very uncomfortable and tortured as an adolescent. It really didn’t get much better until I was in my 40s. I was very depressed a lot of the time. Now I feel much more even and not as guilty about everything. I’m also in better physical shape, because I never used to exercise and I used to smoke a lot.
Q: What do you think it is that keeps bringing you back to Walter?
A: I haven’t worked with anyone else on that level, but since we go back to being teenagers, I think we have such a backlog of common knowledge and common language, it flows very easily. We have a lot of the same interests and it’s a lot more fun. Walter is an extremely funny person.
Q: Who do you think takes the dominant role in your relationship?
A: I’m not sure what our roles are. I think we switch roles on and off, depending on our moods.
Q: How do you guys get along after 30 years together?
A: When we’re doing the album, I noticed we would stop going out to dinner and stuff like that because you can’t stand that after seeing somebody all day. But now that the album’s done, it’s kind of fun to get together.
(Editor’s Note: Thanks to Jim “Hoops” McKay for unearthing and transcribing this article. Visit his site at http://www.dandom.com.)
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