Twenty Years after their last hit, proto-cool studio wizards Steely Dan emerge from a deep freeze. By Jeff Gordinier Entertainment Weekly The two guys from Steely Dan are staring at a vegetarian menu. They look like they’ve just been handed a medical textbook written in Urdu. ”I wonder what Zen ravioli is,” Donald Fagen muses. […]
Tag Archives | Interview
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
The Steely Dan Q&A
By JOHN SAKAMOTO Executive Producer, JAM! NEW YORK — The most organic, slow-motion reunion in rock history finally climaxes today (Tuesday) with the release of “Two Against Nature,” the first new Steely Dan studio album in 20 years. Though Donald Fagen and Walter Becker went their separate ways after 1980’s disheartening “Gaucho,” they continued to […]
Back in the Mix
Bright, incredibly well-versed musicians Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, fresh from a two-decade hiatus, are finally ready to share some of their souvenirs. By J.D. Considine Baltimore Sun NEW YORK — We’ve all heard about the perks of rock stardom — the parties, the groupies, the readily available intoxicants. And getting on […]
New CD is Pure, No-Frills Steely Dan
By Steve Morse Boston Globe Carlos Santana launched his comeback last year by using a fleet of famous guest stars, many of them young, on his ”Supernatural” album. No doubt more aging boomers will do the same — but an exception is Steely Dan, whose first studio album in 20 years keeps it all in […]
