By Bill Ellis Memphis Commercial Appeal The long Walnut Grove traffic lines said something special was happening at Shelby Farms on Saturday. It was more than a pleasant weekend evening outdoors. It was rock-jazz giant Steely Dan in the band’s only regional show of their current tour, and some 6,365 paying fans made sure they […]
Reeling in the Years
By Michael Senft The Arizona Republic Twenty-two years ago, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen dissolved Steely Dan, the band they had taken to stardom with such albums as Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied and Aja, despite a lack of concert performances. Ten years ago the pair reunited, and spent most of the ’90s on summer shed […]
Singing along with Steely Dan
By Scott Walton Atlanta Journal-Constitution In keeping with the title of their latest CD, Steely Dan tried the clearing-house approach to their concert Friday night at HiFi Buys Amphitheatre. But the audience wanted the band to take the “Everything Must Go” tour’s theme literally, and thunderously cheered for a second encore that never came. Steely […]
Steeling from the past
By Dave Ferman Fort Worth Star-Telegram You want irony in rock ‘n’ roll? How about the career of Steely Dan? In the ’70s, when Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were producing one pop/rock/jazz masterwork after another, they almost never toured. And now that they’re making decent but unexceptional CDs, they’re practically road dogs. What a […]
Somber words set to a sweet beat
By Ron Gonzales For The Albuquerque Journal The reigning pop duo of the ’70s finds itself back on top. There are very few music artists who would dare to refer to either Marcel Proust or Sigmund Freud in a song. Then again, Steely Dan, the band that has dared to do it, is not a […]
Spectacular Oddity
By Steve Persall St. Petersburg Times TAMPA — The knock occasionally raised against Steely Dan is that everything, especially the band’s latest release, “Everything Must Go,” sounds exactly the same. Same as what? Its own uniqueness? No other band has mastered such intricate neogenre arrangements, so deceptively peppy for the cryptic lyrics they’re wrapped around, […]
Steely Dan Inspires Nakedness
By Vit Wagner Toronto Star As Steely Dan frontmen Donald Fagen and Walter Becker strolled on to the stage of the Molson Amphitheatre Sunday night, a guy a few seats down turned to his friend and asked: “I wonder what kind of groupies they get?” Groupies? It’s absurd to think of Fagen and Becker -— […]
Steely Dan Lights It Up After Blackout
By JASON MACNEIL Toronto Sun TORONTO — It might have taken them a month longer than anticipated, but Steely Dan’s breezy ’70s sound rounded out the Molson Amphitheatre’s summer schedule on a high note. Originally set for mid-August, the show was postponed due to the blackout. It was something not lost on the core tandem […]
Riding the Weird Wavelength of Steely Dan
By Dan Moffett Palm Beach Post Many Steely Dan fans confess to a moment of epiphany during which they ascend through an unexplored portal to a higher level of quirky enlightenment. It is an experience like that of the monk on the mountain who chants his prayer each day, every day, when suddenly, one day, […]
Steely Dan Remains Razor Sharp
After 30 years, the music is still at the top By Mark Bialczak Syracuse Post-Standard Walter Becker decided he liked the state fair. “I bet you, dollars to doughnuts, that our state fair is the best fair in the state,” Becker told the crowd. Donald Fagen knew he was in the land of “lots of […]
