By Ken Micallef
Boston Phoenix
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. The duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker just have a knack for pulling the cultural wool over the eyes of music fans (some of whom think Steely Dan is a guy, not a Naked Lunch invention of William S. Burroughs) by cloaking inside jokes and cryptic asides in supremely shiny jazz pop that’s moved millions of units.
“I’ve always thought that a little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down easier,” says Donald Fagen from Warner Bros.’ NYC offices on the eve of a tour that brings him to the Opera House next Thursday, March 9. A third Fagen solo album, “Morph the Cat,” is due from Reprise on March 14. It’s chock full of the urbane musicianship, streamlined melodies, and cryptic lyrics that have made him a hero to those who like a little subversive sophistication with their soul-jazz-rock fusions.
“I use to read MAD magazine when I was a kid,” Fagen explains. “It had a lot of bite. MAD was saying something that always seemed very true to me, like advertising is the enemy because it’s all lies. So, subconsciously, Walter and I were using a sort of avant-garde technique of shocking the bourgeoisie, of frightening them into seeing something new or revealing something to them. It was a Trojan-horse technique to get your message across. We were brought up with that kind of satire, MAD and Lenny Bruce. Madison Avenue was the enemy, and we had to figure out a way to fight it.”
Steely Dan may not sell as many albums as they did in their ’70s heyday, but they did take home the 2000 Album of the Year Grammy for “Two Against Nature” (Reprise). And somebody’s clearly been buying up a lot of old Steely Dan vinyl, because artists as diverse as MF Doom, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Audio Bullys, Super Furry Animals, De La Soul, 3rd Bass, Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz, and Tone-Loc have lifted liberal samples from the duo’s ultra-plush grooves. The Trojan horse is alive and well.
“If you find out about anyone who’s sampled us, can you tell me?” Fagen asks. “We’re having a lot of trouble with our publishing, and I know we’ve been sampled by a lot of people.”
For those who found the duo’s 2003 release, “Everything Must Go” (Reprise), less than satisfying, “Morph the Cat” is a welcome return to Fagen form. Rich vocal harmonies underpin the droll humor of “H Gang,” contrast nicely with the ghostly imagery of “Brite Nitegown,” and buoy what, for Fagen, is a first: an overtly political song. “Mary Shut the Garden Door” describes a silent cabal who “came in under the radar when our backs were turned around, in a fleet of Lincoln Town Cars,” to change things, “forever.” “I wrote that a couple weeks after the Republican convention. But it could refer to any authoritarian government. Depends on your point of view whether it is this government or not.”
For someone who wouldn’t know Green Day’s “American Idiot” if it, in his own words, “hit me over the head,” Fagen seems adroitly tuned into the cross-cultural currents that are tearing at the seams of this country. And he relishes the opportunity to offer his accumulated wisdom.
“I gave up when they elected Ronald Reagan president. I’ve never watched political news since then. I figured that if the American public elected Ronald Reagan — if they can be duped on that level — then it’s really not worth paying attention to. Like H.L. Mencken said, ‘No one ever lost any money underestimating the American public.’ ”
No comments yet.