Last week, we excerpted Rolling Stone scribe Mark Binelli’s sad profile of a heroin-snorting Pete Doherty. (The full article’s online now. Am I the only one who didn’t know it was pronounced Dockerty?)
In the same issue, Austin Scaggs plays the drug card on Donald Fagen to a decidedly more comedic effect.
AUSTIN SCAGGS: Have you ever dropped acid and listened to Steve Gadd’s drum solo on “Aja”?
DONALD FAGEN: No. That’s after my LSD moment was over. Have you?
AUSTIN SCAGGS: Yeah!
DONALD FAGEN: How was it?
AUSTIN SCAGGS: It was incredible!
DONALD FAGEN: [Laughs] I did drop acid and listen to Blonde on Blonde. That was pretty good.
Steely Dan – “Aja” (MP3 Link Expired)
Now, unlike you (I assume), I’ve been anxiously awaiting Morph The Cat, Fagen’s first solo disc in 13 years. I was a big fan of Kamikiriad and that’s a source of endless amusement to some esteemed journalist friends of mine. (They don’t dispute Steely Dan’s importance, but love to rib Indie Boy for listening to CD101.9 fodder). Ergo…
| _____________________________________________ From: Stereogum Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 5:17 PM To: C. Subject: RE: Morph The Cat I actually clicked on that. Dick. > _____________________________________________ >>_____________________________________________ |
Turns out Morph is a snoozer. After I bought “H-Gang” on iTunes my wife commented, “You’re actually listening to this … on purpose?” Stream it for free if you’re curious.
So I won’t try to sell you on the new Donald Fagen. But Steely Dan … please tell me there are some fans out there. “Reeling In The Years”? “Deacon Blues”? Even MF Doom and Sondre Lerche dig the “Black Cow.”
Spence back me up here.
If you are a fan, here’s a .zip of a 2000 concert for ya: “Two Against Nature: Live On PBS, January 2000″ (YouSendIt Link, 98.6 MB). (Via Aquarium Drunkard.)
Since it’s apparently Old Man week on the Gum, I should mention Paul Simon gives us Surprise on May 9. Produced by Brian Eno! Rolling Stone Q&A with a stoned Garfunkel TK.
You Might Also Like
 Hospitality Cover Steely Dan |  Elvis Costello Fleshes Out His Spectacle With She & Him &… |
 |
 |
I for one LOVE Steely Dan AND Kamikiriad, no shame in either one of those.
wow, Pete Doherty is a worthless sack of shit? who woulda thunk.
i can’t wait until that waste of humanity dies.
the nightfly was good too, but i think that album was only 12 minutes long.
One of my favorite NYC live-music experiences ever was seeing the Dan perform for the Today Show in 2001. Yes, it was 8:00 in the morning in Rockefeller Center, but I was 20 feet away and saw three tunes at no charge.
Of course I love Steely Dan, well, the good songs anyway.
I get shit all the time for being a Dan fan. I’m fully aware that it’s not hip but whenever I listen to them I’m like “how can someone NOT like this?”
“Reeling In The Years” and “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” are two of the worst songs ever released to classic rock radio. They’re just bad, schlocky, sub-easy-listening crap.
But there are definitely some amazing Steely Dan songs (“Kid Charlemagne,” “Do It Again,” “Green Earring,” “Hey Nineteen”). There are even entirely great albums (Aja and The Royal Scam, in particular). It helps, of course, to be on drugs.
The Dan has been sampled by all kinds of freaks, including Ice Cube, All Saints, Super Furry Animals, De la Soul, Goldie, 3rd Bass, and many more.
Skate a little lower now!
Hey Nineteen is a great song for the Humbert Humbert in all of us. Plus the fact that with a little Cuervo Gold and some fine columbian, we don’t really care that she’s only nineteen.
I’ve heard a few tracks off of “Morph The Cat,” and I’m still trying to figure out what differentiates it from a Steely Dan album.
…is Rolling Stone writer Austin Scaggs related to 70′s crooner Boz Scaggs?
Yes, I saw Steely Dan a few years ago, it was a great live show. They have a number of great albums. “Aja” for sure. I like Fagen’s solo stuff, I heard a new remastered version of “Kamikiriad” is coming out soon. I think Steely Dan is one of those bands all the cool people like, secretly!
The album Aja is top notch. An all time favorite, I must say. I grew up listening to way more Steely Dan than I realized, due to my parents’ record collection. They even took a bus trip (with kegs) to see Steely in Pittsburgh…I wish I had been old enough.
I’m surprised the Dan doesn’t get sampled more in hip-hop… songs like “Monkey in Your Soul,” “The Fez,” “Show Biz Kids” and “Green Earrings” seem so ripe for being pillaged.
I remember as a kid trying to create my own samples of “Monkey…” and “Night By Night” on my Radio Shack tape recorder. It almost worked… all I remember from the cracker rapping I did on it was “hello party people 1 and 2…” I think I started all my ‘throwdowns’ with that.
Anybody notice Ambulance LTD’s latest EP has a song that sounds like it belongs on a Donald Fagen album? “Arbuckle’s Swan Song” Ambulance Ltd (http://musicstore.real.com/music_store/preview.ram?trackid=9145054)
People who hate Kamakiriad just don’t know how to listen to it. So it’s a little too slickly produced and less edgy than The Nightfly. It’s not as if the songs don’t stand the test of time. Tomorrow’s Girls was far and away the best sounding thing on the radio at the time.
“Any Major Dude,” “Here At The Western World,” “My Old School,” “FM,” and “Black Cow,” are some of my favorite songs ever.
Katy Lied is a terrific record (“Dr. Wu”; “Any World”); All of Pretzel Logic is brilliant (“Barrytown”!!!); Countdown to Ecstasy (“Show Biz Kids”; “King of the world”); “Babylon Sisters” is sheer bliss… Drugs have little to do with it in my book…
Steely Dan is the greatest. It all about Katy Lied!
When you put out an immortal album such as “Nightfly”, ANYTHING Fagen puts out will look inferior. It’s like REM after “Automatic”.
The Dan is awesome, it would probably help their rep if classic rock stations threw on “The Fez” and “Boston Rag” in addition to the usual suspects.
I wish “The New York Rock & Soul Revue” would get reissued!
is there anything to the rumour about how Pete Doherty is just a skit, a play on celebrity gone bad by the KLF?
nightfly is fanfuckintastic
OLD PEOPLE
Even if Fagen’s stuck in a groove this time around, I still have ‘Aja’ and a wealth of the past to fall back on. I too would love to see ‘Rock & Soul Revue’ reissued as well.
In the last 2 years Ive become a MASSIVE Steely Dan fan and I dont know anyone else ethat is into them either.
It does take a bit to get around the inital “easy listening” baggage, but fuck it. The music is incredible.
So good to see that there are still some serious Steely Dan fans out there. I’ve been hooked since i was a kid and my parents played the shit out of Aja and Royal Scam (desert island picks for sure).
“Show Biz Kids” is my favorite Dan track these days
P.S. This is off topic, but the cover to the new Built To Spill is the ugliest piece of shit Ive seen for a CD cover outside of a New Age bookstore. Cant believe Warners let that go thru.
Hey Drake, Ice Cube ripped “Green Earrings” for a song called “Don’t Trust ‘Em” back in 1992.
As for “Monkey in Your Soul”, I figure Sheryl Crow came close enough when she recorded “All I Wanna Do”…
Drake,
“Green Earring” has also been sampled by Organized Konfusion (“Walk into the Sun”) and Zimbabwe Legit (“Legitimate Mix”).
“The Fez” has been sampled by All Saints (“I Know Where it’s At”) and Brothers Like Outlaw (“Trapped into Darkness”).
“Showbiz Kids” was sampled by Super Furry Animals (“The Man Don’t Give a Fuck”).
More: http://www.the-breaks.com/search.php?term=steely+dan&type=0
I’m a big fan of Steely Dan. I got Pretzel Logic on vinyl for Christmas and it’s great. I think that those Yacht Rock shorts really dented their street cred though.
http://www.channel101.com/shows/show.php?show_id=152
scott, any info on the lost gaucho album?
The 76-82 period is pure gold (including “The Nightfly”). Don’t forget Glamour Profession – amazing song.
Here’s hoping B&F officially release the re-recorded version of “The Second Arrangement” – my bootlegged copy is not the best quality.
Some aspiring shred guitarists actually looked to Steely Dan to steal ideas from. Dude, they always had monsters playing lead guitar!
Pete Doherty:
In the Uk the pronunciation is like Dockerty. Shannon Doherty same thing. Who knew. “Herb has a fucking Hache in front”
“Peg” is an amazing song. But is that interview with Fagen from their regular one-page Q&A? Because they always ask a stupid fucking drug question. It’s, like, in the spec for the interviewer or something. (“Make sure interview goes to print with one [1] drug-related question and answer, at least.”)
I was excited when you said that the new Simon is produced by Brian Eno and that it was called Surprise. Then I got disappointed when I read that “Father and Daughter” is going to close the album. What an uninspiring song. This guy’s gift for melody and lyric is nowhere to be found on the previous release of that song, and I don’t expect better from this version (if it is in fact different at all). You’re the One was disappointing, but not as bad as that song. Let’s hope the rest of the album does better to dispel my perception that his songwriting talent and fresh ear is rapidly disappearing.
i was tipped off to this… but as the author of said interview with Fagen, i’m proud to be quoted on stereogum…
And thanks for the comments. In my retarded opinion, Fagen/Becker stand only below Dylan as the greatest songwriters ever…. On acid, it’s a coin flip… And Morph the Cat holds up — go buy it… (pop some vicodin and listen to “The Night Belongs To Mona”)
I really love Morph The Cat. Really a grower, and AS is right “Mona” is a helluva good track
That Doherty piece was the best thing I’ve read all week.
Wow.
That’s a good idea. Brian Eno should have his named legally changed so that an ! occurs at every mention of his name. Regardless of whether or not you like him, that’d be kind of a Brian Eno thing to do. And come on, he’s an awesome producer anyway.
* Reelin In The Years, live at the Record Plant, March 20th 1974
http://s42.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2DK9R53J8620S2V0C20O55QZOV
* Your Gold Teeth (instrumental), live at the Record Plant, March 20th 1974
http://s48.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=164E7O4BWWBW22MPD65WJLNN2F
* King Of The World, live at the Record Plant, March 20th 1974
http://s48.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3DX70GRCY5DM53EAAI12SMFOPR
as far as this whole “easy listening” crap goes, i got some hilarious news for you, deathcab4eva@aol.com: all the music on your ipod is going to end up in the same easy listening bargain bin at your local digital music store 20 years from now. the only difference between them and the dan is that becker and fagen are musical geniuses who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That’s what kind of band they were. It’s science.
a total treasuretrove of DAN http://www.symmetricalmedia.com/sdarchive/
steely dan is unlistenable crap when you’re a kid, but then when your heart’s been busted up and dragged around the block called LIFE a couple of dozen times or so, it all starts to make sense. it’s like a light goes off or something. i always, ALWAYS turn up “do it again” when it comes on the radio. amazing song. “rikki”, “hey nineteen”, “reelin in the years”, and “deacon blue” are also all solid FM gold.
from the CITIZEN STEELY DAN box set liner notes (1993):
“It is a funny split, in any case, this leap between the archly rendered anger in many of Steely Dan’s songs over the years and the easier listening strains the group eventually became synonymous with in the popular mindset. A handful of other rock-era acts, from Randy Newman to Was (Not Was), have successfully shared this dualism. But in recent history, at least, musicians informed by the intoxicating headiness of jazz have generally drifted toward unchallenging lyrical currents, whereas conversely, bands with subversive intentions to speak of have deliberately tended toward some of the least sophisticated strains of music.
Donald Fagen: ‘Well, in that respect the situation hasn’t changed in 20 years. It’s the dichotomy that you mehntioned a moment ago: the ‘anarchists’ or people who are interested in more interesting lyrics, are generally speaking not interested in jazz harmonies. They want something more raw and what they perceive to be subversive-sounding, which usually means clanging guitars.’
Walter Becker: ‘And it was just a quirk of Donald’s and my natures that we thought superimposing jazz harmonies on pop songs was subversive in a much subtler way.’ “
steely dan rocks.
that statement is unoriginal and cliche, but it’s true.
Great post man..
I love Steely Dan.
I just saw Fagen open his solo tour in New Brunswick NJ earlier this month.
Rumour has it they are touring with Micheal McDonald as part of the band this summer.
I was always a fan of “Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More”
Steely Dan? I hate that guy.
As a graphic designer – I dont’ find this very funny.
The lyrics to “Home at Last” alone make Fagen a genius. Also, the Minutemen’s cover of “Dr. Wu” on Double Nickels on the Dime is groovy in a very far-out kind of way, dig?
Sunday afternoons/evenings in June + Gin & Tonic + Horse Racing + Steely Dan = Righteous
Progressive Pop Music from the future http://www.myspace.com/animandible
I will go on the record to say that the guitar solo (with horn section) is the greatest ever in My Old School. If you can’t get down with that, then, well, you’re probably a lot cooler than I am…
the dan are so good i might have to name my 1st born “fagen.”
there is no cooler lyric in the world than “where did you get those shoes”. NONE.
the poor Dan got unfairly lumped into the Doobiesgestalt by ignoramuses who were at the time listening to such classics as George Thorogood and the Destroyers, and they have incorrectly suffered for it since. they’re rock’s original post-ironic wisenheimers, and I love ‘em for it. (although I’m not the biggest fan of the last two WB records and now, I suspect, the new DF. but jeebus–they put out TWENTY YEARS worth of incredible stuff, and if their muse is finally kickin’ it, I can’t blame her. er–them. er–whatever.)
thing that makes it all worth the price of admission: their cruel hoax on all purchasers of the first songbook concerning their heavy reliance on the “Mu major” chord. that fucked with me for years.
nightfly is an awesome album
Best band named after a dildo EVER! I love the Dan, and I think that the Todd is pretty good, too, and just as misunderstood.
I knew if I waited long enough you’d do a post about me.
That article actually let me in on the origin of my name–apparently I’m named after a Korean bride! Excellent! And it let me know i’d be amazing on acid. See, RS actually is still good for something.
Steely Dan is great. You either get it or you don’t, it’s that simple. Also that zip file link is dead. Anyone manage to get it?
steely dan may be considered uncool by all of the self-titled experts of cool who live in the Burg, but their brilliance as songwriters, arrangers, and musicians is undeniable. not to mention than they have worked with a who’s who of the greatest players of all time!
So depraved!
That music makes staying home alone on NYE with an 8Ball and a copy of ‘Pretzel Logic’ seem like a totally viable back-up plan if nothing good is going down.
My NYE tradition, so what!
the steely dan phenomena is real!!!!!!
although recent years have rendered a much softer, old folks home-esque floaty vibe…their earlier works still allow them to roam the earth and other close by parallel dimensions as gods
so sayeth josh murphy of foxycock
foxycock.com
steely dan influenced illuminati rock!