Originally published on July 17, 2013
By Chuck Yarborough
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND — Remember elementary-school science class, when Mr. Wizard talked about polarity of magnets, how the south end of one magnet repelled the south end of another, while the opposite ends were instantly attached?
Well, on a whole BUNCH of levels, Steely Dan exemplifies that. Take the conference-call interview with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, the founders of Steely Dan, who will play Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica on Tuesday.
First off, the two Rock and Roll Hall of Famers are brilliantly playful sadists who’ve turned jockeying with reporters into a science. Second, though, even though you can be reduced to a sniveling, tearful idjit, the intelligence in their gibes has to leave anyone who makes a living with words in awe.
It just ain’t fair to have two people with that much musical talent ALSO have that much literary swordsmanship. But it’s fun, beyond a doubt. As long as it’s happening to the other reporter.
Take the very first question of the interview. The poor guy just asked why Fagen and Becker decided to call the tour “Mood Swings 2013: 8 Miles to Pancake Day.”
Fagen: “My feeling is that — go ahead.”
Becker: “No, I’m not in the mood anymore.”
From there, the conversation devolved into a discussion about the antidepressant Paxil and whether that drug or Lithium would be more appropriate. Finally, the poor guy just reiterated his question, in pretty blunt terms. Basically, how did the name come about?
“How did it come about?” parroted Becker. “We made it up.”
The poor guy apparently hung up, while the rest of us were alternately laughing or quaking, wondering if we’d get the same.
We shouldn’t have wondered. He was the first but he wasn’t the last caught in their mind games. And as the hour-long call moved along, their victims became legion, and their delight at reducing yet another journalist to jelly seemed to increase. But again, it was all fun and funny. I don’t THINK there was any true malice involved.
But the charade really shouldn’t have come as a surprise, for two reasons. One is that Fagen and Becker have a reputation for despising interviews, so it would make sense for them to turn one into a veritable turkey shoot, and having multiple targets made it even more fun for them. The second, purely musical reason, is that the Steely Dan catalog stands as proof that they are worthy of every accolade they’ve received, from Grammys Awards to induction in the Rock Hall.
This particular tour is going to be an interesting one, as Becker and their outstanding backup band, the Bipolar Allstars (that MIGHT have something to do with the tour title), will do some audience-request nights, some full-album nights and some greatest-hits nights. For right now, it looks as though Cleveland is on the greatest-hits schedule, but with these two, anything could change.
The hope is that Fagen and Becker will turn some of that wit into new music, and Becker said that’s a possibility.
“It’s in the air,” Becker said. “It really is. We’re just picking it up here and starting the tour, but I can almost — well, I can smell it.”
That doesn’t mean there are real songs in the works, though.
“No. It’s just a smell now,” Becker said. “Next thing is then you taste it, then you start to feel it. You know how this goes.”
Of course, there were a few chances for Becker, 63, and Fagen, 65, to play a few “you kids get off my lawn” cards, like one whippersnapper’s question about new hi-res formats and their suitability for releasing or re-releasing Steely Dan tunes. Fagen turned it into a chance to comment on today’s music.
“The thing about those things,” Fagen said, “is that it’s just too bad they don’t have any good music anymore to play on those formats. Maybe they ought to have a moratorium on someone inventing new formats until someone invents good music.
“When they invent a format that sounds as good as a nice clean piece of vinyl played on a good turntable then someone should let us know,” Fagen said.
“Yeah, and then we’ll add the clicks and pops,” said Becker.
Class dismissed.
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