By Rafer Guzmán
Newsday
Donald Fagen is likely the only rock star able to drop the word “eschatological” into a conversation — and use it correctly.
Speaking by cell phone while walking around his hometown of Manhattan, Fagen is explaining “Everything Must Go,” the title track of Steely Dan’s latest album. The song, like the entire record, is quintessential Steely: Shrewedly crafted, impeccably played jazz-rock. The melody is smooth, but the lyrics tell the tale of a failed business: “I move to dissolve the corporation/In a pool of margaritas,” Fagen sings as a tenor saxophone broods behind him.
The song has obvious parallels to the recent dot-com bust, but Fagen says there’s a broader meaning. “Everything must go — of course, that’s a sign you see in a lot of New York shops all the time, whether they’re going out of business or not,” says Fagen. He pauses. “But I think you can apply some of the eschatological themes to many different things.”
I had to look it up: of, or relating to, “a belief in death, the end of the world, or the ultimate destiny of mankind,” according to Merriam-Webster. In other words: In the end, everything really must go.
If there’s a theme to the new album, it’s one of loss, or of time running out. (Clock faces decorate the CD booklet.) But Fagen and his cohort, Walter Becker — who founded Steely Dan more than 30 years ago — have always sugared their bitter verses with sweet melodies, and this disc is no exception.
Knowledgable fans will notice that the band is cribbing from its past works, but the songs still hit the right notes. “The Last Mall” sets a pre-apocalyptic shopping spree to a buoyant, boogeying beat; “Things I Miss the Most” is a laundry list of expensive items that disappeared along with the singer’s significant other. It’s a deadly shot at one of Steely Dan’s favorite targets: well-to-do baby boomers.
“That’s the same thing as saying one of our favorite targets is ourselves,” says Fagen. “I think we understand people of our generation. A friend of mine, the late Andy Kopkind (a journalist for the Village Voice and The Nation), once described our generation as a meal moving through a snake: There was nothing like it before, nor after.”
One noticeable change on this album is its relatively loose, live feel. On past Dan albums, instruments seemed to emerge, flawlessly played, out of nowhere. This time around, you can hear the fingers on the guitar strings, and Fagen’s voice sounds more natural, even a little earthy.
It’s been many years since Fagen hurled some of his most stinging insults (“My Old School,” “Black Cow,” “Bad Sneakers”). Now that he has a Grammy (for Steely Dan’s previous disc, “Two Against Nature”) and a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is Fagen no longer an angry young man?
“Yeah,” he says with a laugh. “I’m an angry old man, pretty much.”
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