Twenty Years Later, Becker and Fagen Find the Steely Dan Formula Works Well By Larry Katz Boston Herald Say you’re a member of a bigtime rock band from the ’70s. Say you’re recording your first album of new material in 20 years. What in the name of Santana do you do to update your sound? […]
Walter Becker: Reelin’ in the Gear
By Ken Micallef Guitar.com In the history of ’70s rock the guitar solos of Steely Dan loom large. On such albums as Katy Lied, Pretzel Logic, Royal Scam and Aja, the odd-looking masterminds — guitarist/bassist Walter Becker and singer/keyboardist Donald Fagen — found ways to coax blistering performances out of bored session guitarists who had […]
Joined at the Hip
Only two people in the world understand how jazz licks, R&B rhythms, pulp novels, and Napoleonic history combine to make great pop music. Luckily, they met. On the occasion of their first album of new Steely Dan material in 20 years, Chris Ingham meets Messrs Fagen and Becker. By Chris Ingham Mojo It’s been 20 […]
1st album in 2 decades from premier cerebral jazz-pop duet
By Ian MacDonald Uncut Magazine There are two schools on Steely Dan: those who like the early poppier stuff With Tunes: those who prefer the later, purer stuff Without Tunes. Either way, it’s all one continuous cool third stream. This group (for, whoever its changing participants, it’s always a group) has consistently made the most […]
60 Minutes of Music that Rocks Their Worlds
By Vic Garbarini Guitar World Two Against Nature (Giant) is the title of the first official Steely Dan studio album in 20 years. It also sums up the subversive musical philosophy of keyboard/vocalist Donald Fagen and guitarist/bassist Walter Becker, the reclusive duo who masterminded Steely Dan’s radical blend of rock and funk dynamics, jazz harmonic […]
Steely Dan: The Second Coming
Chinese music always sets me free Angular banjoes sound good to me Aja, when all my dime dancin’ is through I run to you. From “Aja” By Walter Becker & Donald Fagen By Paul Zollo The Performing Songwriter We’re in Manhattan, a couple weeks before the final Christmas of the 20th century. Donald Fagen and […]
Steely Dan Stages Comeback for Ages
By Elysa Gardner USA Today NEW YORK — Pop-music comebacks often play out like soap opera plots as artists confront everything from personal rivalries and failed romances to squabbles with former business associates. By all indications, though, no such melodrama informs Two Against Nature, the first studio album in nearly 20 years from Steely Dan. […]
Review: ‘Two Against Nature’
By Joshua Klein Onion AV Club Steely Dan was one of the most curious — and, by nature of its mammoth popularity, most subversive — bands of the ’70s. Songwriters Walter Becker and Donald Fagen refused to tour, choosing instead to retreat to the studio with some of the world’s finest session players to perfect […]
Hey, 19: It’s About Time
It’s been nearly 20 years since Steely Dan released an album of new tunes–time aplenty for the duo to ponder perfectionism. By Wayne Robins Newsday NEW YORK — “What record company are we on, by the way?” Donald Fagen wants to know. “I’m not kidding.” You can excuse the Steely Dan man’s disorientation. Fagen and […]
Back on Tracks
By J.D. Considine Baltimore Sun When last heard from, Steely Dan was in a stylish funk. The year was 1980, the album was Gaucho, and the sound was slick and soulful, full of lithe, danceable grooves but spiked with enough jazzy sophistication to satisfy the brainiest of listeners. Even so, there wasn’t a lot of […]
