Steely Dan: They may be older and fatter, but their sense of humour remains unchanged By Jack Sawkin Glasgow Herald As someone once memorably remarked, dinosaurs weren’t exactly walking the earth the last time Steely Dan released an album of new material, but their tracks were still fresh. But, having been missing in action for […]
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Steely Dan (Half of It, That Is) Strikes Back
By Jon Pareles The New York Times Fifteen years later, we find out who put the edge into Steely Dan. It was Walter Becker, who played bass and guitar and left the lead vocals to his songwriting partner, Donald Fagen. On his first solo album, 11 Tracks of Whack, Becker brings back everything fans cherished […]
Classic of the Week: ‘The Nightowl’
By Jon Matsumoto Los Angeles Times Adjectives like warm and nostalgic rarely are applied to the cynical and bittersweet music of Steely Dan. But they certainly describe the moods evoked by 1982’s The Nightfly, the first solo album by the cryptic band’s singer, Donald Fagen. Working apart from the barbed sensibilities of his Steely Dan partner Walter Becker, Fagen fashioned […]
Fagen Does Dan; Dan Does It Again
By Geoffery Himes Washington Post Donald Fagen’s first album in 11 years, Kamakiriad, can be judged from two different perspectives. On the one hand, it marries tartly ironic lyrics with lush jazz harmonies in ways well beyond the reach of today’s ambitious pop-rock composers from Sting and Billy Joel to Mark Knopfler and Brenda Russell. […]
Donald Fagen’s ‘Kamakiriad’: Words and Music
From the radio show “Words and Music” with Donald Fagen, featuring music from his new Reprise Records release, Kamakiriad. This program was written and produced by Davin Seay, and edited by Rick Dasher for Marc Graue Recording Services, Burbank. Executive producer, Larry Butler. Segment 1 INTERVIEWER: Donald Fagen, it’s been over a decade since one […]
Picking up Where Dan Left Off
By J. D. Considine Baltimore Sun Packaging, they say, is everything, and Donald Fagen’s Kamakiriad (Reprise 45230) is a case in point. Mention to most pop fans that Kamakiriad marks Fagen’s reunion with Walter Becker, and the reaction is likely to be mostly yawns. Explain, however, that Becker and Fagen’s last project was a little […]
Resonant Emotion in Fagen’s Latest
By Richard Cromelin Los Angeles Times Donald Fagen Kamakiriad Reprise The Steely Dan signatures are all in place: jazz chords and female choruses, horn-section sighs and light-funk grooves, lush atmospheres and a sound of amazing presence. But Kamakiriad isn’t just an Aja minor. For the first time, Fagen instills his music with full emotional openness, […]
Kamakiriad Review
By David Browne Entertainment Weekly Both nothing and everything sounds out of place on Kamakiriad (Reprise), the long-delayed return to the record bins of former Steely Dan singer, keyboardist, and jaundiced wit Donald Fagen. Steely Dan was the first slacker pop band, mixing in bits of hipster jazz rhythms and lingo into sardonic pop that […]
A Dan for All Seasons
By Fred Dellar Vox No news flash interrupted TV programmes on May 21, 1990. No breakfast time headline gave any indication that much of musical importance was happening. But for many, the real rock summit was taking place – Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were both booked into New York’s Hit Factory studio and working […]
