FEATURE:
Tomorrow’s Pearls and New Frontiers
IN THIS PHOTO: Donald Fagen shot in London, 1991/PHOTO CREDIT: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images
Saluting Donald Fagen, His Songwriting Genius with ‘The Dan’, and How His Music Inspires Me – and Why Its Influence Is Rare to Detect Wider Afield
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MAYBE 10th January…
PHOTO CREDIT: ALTEREDSNAPS/Pexels
will see more people remember the life – on the date of his death – of a mainstream music icon, rather than the seventy-sixth birthday of a more ‘underground’ musical figure. The former is David Bowie, who died on 10th January, 2016; the latter is one Donald Fagen. One of the founders of Steely Dan (co-founder Walter Becker died in 2017) should be celebrated. I am going to talk more about his solo work, why it impacts me, and how it is unusual we have not seen many modern artists imbue that incredible sound and sonic aesthetic. I want to talk about Steely Dan, as that was my first exposure to the New Jersey-born genius that is Donald Fagen. I would suggest y’all check out Good Steely Dan Takes on Twitter and the podcast, Gaucho Amigos. A go-to and well of Steely Dan archives, takes and knowledge, I am sort of aiming this partially in their direction. I am also nodding again to the sublime and phenomenal writer and journalist Alex Pappademas, and illustrator and artist Joan LeMay. They published a book last year, Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. It is a stunning and gorgeously written and illustrated book where Pappademas and LeMay look at the characters on Steely Dan songs, rather than do a standard biography about Steely Dan. I wrote about the book several times (including here), and I was lucky enough to get a couple of copies of it signed by Joan LeMay at an event in London near where I live (she did at the time; she has moved to New York now I understand). Such a really cool and lovely person, it is a shame I did not get more time to chat (shyness on my part), as she helped create an essential Steely Dan guide.
IN THIS ILLUSTRATION: Aja’s eponymous heroine and cover figure (on the album, there is a photo of Japanese model and actress Sayoko Yamaguchi)/ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Joan LeMay/Courtesy of the University of Texas Press
When I finished reading the book – which now I have read several times -, it made me realise how special Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were as writers. Not only did these songs I first heard in childhood take on new meaning. The characters dropped into verses and choruses are now coming to life. Their importance. The way the duo could write these amazingly vivid people. Even if they have an unnamed character (Deacon Blue’s ‘The Expanding Man’ or the semi-anonymous ‘Peg’ from the song of the same name), you feel like you can see them. Identify with their story. Donald Fagen brought this writing vividness and wonder into his solo material. He has released four solo albums: 1982’s The Nightfly; 1993 Kamakiriad; 2006’s Morph the Cat; 2012’s Sunken Condos. Fagen suggested in this interview that he is working on new material. That was in September 2022. I would be surprised if we went through this year without the announcement of a fifth solo studio album. If many go for his 1982 debut as his best solo work, to me it is his most recent album, Sunken Condos, that is king. I think that there is a real desire for something from Donald Fagen. He still tours with Steely Dan. Even though he was briefly hospitalised last year, he is okay now and will no doubt by touring throughout this year. He is a few days shy of turning seventy-six. It made me think how there is this gap that needs filling by him. Nobody else sounds like him. Even if Steely Dan are hugely popular – if slightly niche and underground still; not as shared and played widely by mainstream radio stations -, it has not been reflected in terms of other musicians’ output. Who could help but be inspired to write their own version of Peg (Aja) or Hey Nineteen (Gaucho)?! What about Donald Fagen’s solo work like New Frontier (The Nightfly)?! Also, perhaps take a cue from the alluringly brilliant Florida Room (Kamakiriad)?!
Even though artists such as Kate Bush have name-checked them a few times in the distant past – and her song, James and the Cold Gun starts with a piano riff very much inspired by The Dan -, you can’t hear Steely Dan or Donald Fagen that overtly and obviously in many artists’ work today. I have written about this before. How come modern artists are not emulating Donald Fagen and Steely Dan?! I posed that on Twitter a while ago and Nerina Pallot – who covered Peg in 2009 - suggested that the studio-craft and sheer hours of recording needed to do so would be expensive and draining. True in a way. Yes, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker spent so much time drilling musicians and seeking that perfect sound. The fact Donald Fagen obsessively worked to get the ‘right mix’ and fade out for Gaucho’s Babylon Sisters means any modern artists trying to do that might be bankrupted very soon! I am not suggesting artists hire Electric Lady Studios in New York for three months and try to release their version of Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic or Katy Lied. At a time when technology can provide a recording base or crutch at least, I suppose hiring musicians would be costly enough. There are artists who could afford it. It is not the case of needing an army of session players for an album. I mean just the vibe and mood of a Steely Dan or Donald Fagen album. The dreamy and lush harmony vocals. Cutting and clever lyrics, together with the richness of sumptuous brass, standout percussion and wonderfully inventive guitar lines. These arresting characters and situations. Maybe any project without Donald Fagen’s vocal might suffer, though I cannot think of any band/artist since Steely Dan who can readily been compared to them.
IMAGE/PHOTO CREDIT: Canva/Pexels
To me, someone like Donald Fagen is so important. Unique too. Reviews around his solo albums, especially Sunken Condos, have sort of had the same thought: he is in a league of his own and superb, though he doesn’t go beyond his comfort zone much; though it is looser than his previous solo records. They are positive reviews, yet most sort of are comparing it to past work and are not entirely surprised. Suggesting the sound doesn’t alter much between albums. Are they expecting a Jazz odyssey or Fagen to go Pop?! If there is nobody like him in music, do you want him to stray too far from what he is best at – and who else will fill that void he leaves?! The clear reality of his music should overshadow critical dubiousness: if it ain’t broke then why the hell fix it?! Rather than this being pure self-indulgence (though there is some of that in there!), I have been inspired to think of my own Fagen-inspired album. Whilst we await a fifth solo outing from the master, his music has compelled me to dream. An album, The Maris Crane Exposé – the juxtaposition and mystery of an unseen and fabled sitcom character and this major scandal -, would feature thirteen songs very much inspired by Donald Fagen. I have put a hypothetical back cover above. The text does blend into/clash with the background at the times, so the tracklisting is: Local Celebrity; Can’t Buy a Thrill; Coco Chanel in Blue (ft. Margaret Atwood); Winters by the Sea; Put It All on Red; Southside (ft. Lana Del Rey); Katy’s Switch; Stuck in the Middle with Me; For Those in the Back Rows; David Has a Masterplan; Hipsterlooza; Control, Alt, Repeat; I’ll Get to New York City One Day Soon (ft. Donald Fagen and Rachel Brosnahan). Of course, it is a dream and something I will not realise! The frustration with this absence of artists bringing Donald Fagen’s sound more obviously into their own music.
That said, I would love to make the album happen, albeit with someone else singing the songs. With topics covered – alongside traditional love and the sort of wise-cracking and sardonic stuff you’d find on Donald Fagen’s albums – would be climate change, transgender rights, gender equality in music, gun violence in the U.S., women’s rights and autonomy, old minds and bodies keeping track of modern music, and the idolisation of TikTok and social media artists. That sounds like a heavy and serious album! As it is very much channelling Donald Fagen, it would mix clever and important lyrics with wit and wordplay. Whilst nearly every major and acclaimed songwriter or artist has someone in music today that contains some of their DNA, I struggle to find where Donald Fagen’s successors are. Maybe it is a case of him being untouchable and that studio process being too intense. Regardless, as Fagen is seventy-six on 10th January, it should also act as an opportunity for people to seek his music out. I hope it inspires artists enough so they can create something very much with him in mind. Perhaps some important Steely Dan anniversaries – Pretzel Logic is fifty this year – might provoke some movement. Artists like Lou Hayter have covered Steely Dan and are massive fans. In fact, she may be the closest to a Steely Dan mega-fan who is bringing some of their genius into her own work. She is someone I admire hugely and feel will inspire other artists to check out Steely Dan/Donald Fagen - and, who knows, become compelled to follow them sonically and lyrically.
IN THIS PHOTO: Lou Hayter
I was excited about Donald Fagen’s upcoming birthday and the fact solo album number five might not be too far away. With him being the only one making this type of wonderful music, should it be left that way?! I, as a non-musician – though I write lyrics and have aspiration to assemble artists together -, have been influenced to think about my own Fagen/Dan-inspired album. I even got a front cover. A beautiful woman in rollerskates with a spot of blood on one cheek. A seductive look where she bites her lip. A gun in one hand. The backdrop seems like a 1950s milkshake or cola bar in California. You see patrons behind her. An old-style journalist taking a photo with a woman next to him weeping. In her other hand she holds down a newspaper where the headline reads “The Maris Crane Expose’”. The backdrop has a sign for Strawberry Kiss (the fictional milkshake-type bar). Pinks, pastel colours and something that would grab the eye, I got all of that by listening to one Donald Fagen song along: Planet D’Rhonda from Sunken Condos (don’t ask how, I just did!). That fantasy of musicians coming in New York and recording this amazing album influenced by him. One where he could take a vocal turn (I paired him with actor Rachel Brosnahan as a couple (friends/lovers) squabbling in a New York diner who eventually cool off and laugh; a backdrop to the closing track). Without it being too much like Donald Fagen, it does owe a debt to him. One cannot have too much Fagen-influenced magic in the world! Maybe Lou Hayter singing. Or someone else I guess. I don’t know! What I do know is that I am almost as excited by the prospect of a Donald Fagen album as anyone else this year (The Last Dinner Party being high up there; Kate Bush, let’s hope, will drop an eleventh studio album soon). His music is part of my childhood…though it sounds so relevant and original today. Both singular and also waiting for someone to adopt, adapt and personalise. There is nobody quite like The Don (of The Dan). As Fagen sings on Morph the Cat’s What I Do: “It's what I do/I'm specially qualified/To keep 'em satisfied/It's what I do”. Weighing up those words, looking at his impact, and seeing the opportunity for artists to learn from this master…
AIN’T that the truth, brother!