Steely Dan speaks
By Hal Bienstock
Special to amNewYork
• Steely Dan plays Beacon Theatre July 28, 29, 31 and August 1, 3, 4, 10, 11.
Steely Dan may be one of the least likely bands to have ever become huge. Despite the fact that they weren’t especially good looking, rarely toured during their heyday and were playing music that had as much in common with jazz as it did with rock, the group managed to sell more than 30 million albums worldwide and get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Now, Steely Dan is gearing up for an eight-night stand at the Beacon Theatre. During five of the shows, it will play one of its classic albums start to finish. For the other three, it will play songs voted on by ticketholders.
We talked with band leaders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker as they got ready for the shows.
During five of these shows, you’ll play either "The Royal Scam," "Aja" or "Gaucho" in its entirety. How did you choose those albums?
Fagen: They seemed like they were pretty good all the way through and they’re in a style that fit this configuration of the band. And no one would go see us play [2000's] "Two Against Nature" or [2003’s] "Everything Must Go," even though they’re also good all the way through.
Are you suggesting that your earlier albums weren’t good all the way through?
Fagen: They’re good till the last drop. But the early ones are in a slightly different style. They’re more rock inflected, so it’s a little further from what we’ve been doing for the last 15 years.
Playing entire albums start to finish has become a big thing lately. Is something lost when you’re trying to recreate an album onstage, rather playing more spontaneously?
Fagen: For one thing, we do a lot of these tunes anyway. And all the solos are spontaneous. We don’t stick that close to the recordings.
How did the idea for the Internet request nights come about?
Becker: I had dream one night, and in this dream I was visited by an animal that was a cross between a ram and goat, with 14 eyes and six horns. And four banks of teeth. This creature spoke and said “if you guys don’t do an Internet request night there’s going to be trouble.” So obviously we had no choice.
Are you worried the fans may stump you with a song you don’t really know that well?
Becker: We’ve got that covered. The way we’re doing it is that the people who buy tickets will get a code and they can pick 20 songs from a list of about 50 that we’re prepared to do.
You’re known for being perfectionists. Are you a little more willing to let it all hang out a bit on this tour, since you’ll have to be prepared to play so many different songs?
Becker: Some of these songs are pretty lightly rehearsed. We’re allowing ourselves six hours to brush up on the details of those.
Fagen: The perfectionism is a myth. We’re more philanthropists than perfectionists.
So, you’re saying all those stories about your perfectionism aren’t true?
Fagen: We come from a jazz background. Think about big bands from the ‘30s to the ‘60s. In those bands, the sections all have to play together. If they don’t, it doesn’t sound like a big band. It sounds like a big mess. When we ask people to play together and stay in the note in the same place, that’s the jazz tradition.
You’re known for combining jazz and rock, but it sounds like you really think of yourselves as jazz musicians.
Fagen: Rock music is for kids. We grew up gradually, and as you grow up, you evolve. You stop playing kids’ music after a while, which isn’t to say there aren’t elements of those things that survive in the music.
Were you surprised by the amount of success you had given the complexity of your music and the sarcasm of your lyrics?
Becker: Somehow, we always thought people would like us.
Fagen: We thought the material was strong and that the particular elements wouldn’t scare people away.
It seems harder for music that’s complex to find a big audience today.
Fagen: I don’t know. Some of that cheesy pop stuff is pretty complex. When you think about the Michael Jackson thing…
Becker: What Michael Jackson thing?
Fagen: Did you hear that Michael Jackson died?
Becker: Really? I’m sorry to hear that.
Fagen: His stuff was very carefully arranged. A lot of the music on the charts today is very carefully arranged dance music. They change key a lot. They use all kinds of chords that wouldn’t have been used in the past. A lot of that comes from jazz. The vocabulary of popular music has greatly expanded, but it can still be meaningless, even though it has all that stuff. Vocabulary is s**t if you don’t have an idea in your head and you don’t have anything to say.
For most of your career, you never toured. Have you grown to like it now?
Fagen: We adore it. It’s so much fun. You get to travel around and play for people. Sometimes they like it, and sometime they couldn’t care if you live or die.
You guys were parodied in the Internet series Yacht Rock. Have you seen it?
Becker: Of course. We think it’s fantastic.
Fagen: The guy who invented it came to one of our shows. He gave us some yachting hats and everything.
