Yusef Lateef? I always thought he was a pretty humble soul. Please tell ...
maybe he's mellowed bu i have heard stories. clare fischer (rip) tells of how yusef invited him to a gig because he had heard his playing and wanted to collaborate. apparently, when fischer went to introduce himself yusef gave him the ice grill for being white.
more asshole geniuses:
-keith jarrett
-cosine on stan getz: i read a biography on him and man was he ever a complete sleazebag. i mean some completely depraved shit. dianne schurr, the blind jazz singer, relates a particularly troubling anecdote that i will not repea.
-chet baker - he comes across as being soft spoken and humble, but what i know of him, he was terrible to those around him
Yusef Lateef? I always thought he was a pretty humble soul. Please tell ...
maybe he's mellowed bu i have heard stories. clare fischer (rip) tells of how yusef invited him to a gig because he had heard his playing and wanted to collaborate. apparently, when fischer went to introduce himself yusef gave him the ice grill for being white.
I read this autobiography of Ginger Baker a while ago:
He came across as a pretty difficult guy to get along with. The suggestion that he might be somewhere on the spectrum kind of makes sense.
He takes a lot of trouble to emphasize that he comes from a jazz background and that he is really a jazz drummer. I think this at least partly explains his distaste for the Rolling Stones outside of Charlie Watts, they just don't have "chops" in the way that he respects.
I read this autobiography of Ginger Baker a while ago:
He came across as a pretty difficult guy to get along with. The suggestion that he might be somewhere on the spectrum kind of makes sense.
He takes a lot of trouble to emphasize that he comes from a jazz background and that he is really a jazz drummer. I think this at least partly explains his distaste for the Rolling Stones outside of Charley Watts, they just don't have "chops" in the way that he respects.
A "Jazz" drummer with the hubris to challenge Elvin Jones to a drum battle in the Royal Albert Hall and by all accounts got his ass handed to him.
He is better than average, but I have yet to be blown away by him, like I said above, Mitch Mitchell treaded the same territory and was better both in "chops" and imagination...then again Mitch was accompanying Jimi and Ginger had to accompany the bore merchant known as "slowhand".
I read this autobiography of Ginger Baker a while ago:
He came across as a pretty difficult guy to get along with. The suggestion that he might be somewhere on the spectrum kind of makes sense.
He takes a lot of trouble to emphasize that he comes from a jazz background and that he is really a jazz drummer. I think this at least partly explains his distaste for the Rolling Stones outside of Charley Watts, they just don't have "chops" in the way that he respects.
A "Jazz" drummer with the hubris to challenge Elvin Jones to a drum battle in the Royal Albert Hall and by all accounts got his ass handed to him.
He is better than average, but I have yet to be blown away by him, like I said above, Mitch Mitchell treaded the same territory and was better both in "chops" and imagination...then again Mitch was accompanying Jimi and Ginger had to accompany the bore merchant known as "slowhand".
Hmmm.
I'm not really prepared to defend Baker's drumming skills jazz or otherwise. It's certainly worth noting that his great fame is as a rock drummer not a jazz drummer.
The most interesting parts of the book (for me) were the descriptions of his early career and the scene in London that he was part of. A lot of the musicians who became part of the rock groups came from disparate backgrounds in what had been different scenes (blues, folk, jazz, etc.). Baker clearly feels an allegiance to the jazz scene that he came up in by way of the Graham Bond Organization, and that included musicians like himself, John McLaughlin, Jack Bruce and Watts.
He also is just a contrary fusker who has also slagged off:
Jimi Hendrix: "Hendrix could play okay. But he started doing all this showman shit when he sat in with us. If I had to choose a guitarist from history, I'd pick Eric over Jimi every time."
The Beatles: "I worked with George Harrison and he was a musical moron. He didn't understand music at all. He tried to explain what he wanted, and I couldn't understand a word. The only musician was George Martin, he was The Beatles. Paul McCartney boasts that he can't read music. How can a musician boast that he can't read music?"
The aforementioned Rolling Stones: "They were like a load of little kids trying to play black blues music and playing it very badly ??? but that's what people went for, because it was naive and banal. The lack of technique and musicianship was its appeal, from the start."
And pretty much every musician from his hayday who didn't directly contribute to his fame.
Do you think that there's so many distractions today that most people don't really put in enough time to be great musicians???????
(grumbles) Oh God. Musicians are born. You can't become a great musician if you haven't got the gift.
But a lot of practice helps though, right?
No, it doesn't.
Really?
I practiced for a couple of years, in 1958 and '59, and since I haven't practiced at all. The only time I bang my drums is when we're on a gig.
Wow.
What do you mean, "Wow?" ??????
Man what an ass, I hope he doesn't discourage anybody.
GB with Graham Bond Organization at some British jazz festival 1965.
I like this. Not for the drumming or the great musicianship.
I like it because "They were like a load of little kids trying to play black blues music and playing it very badly. The lack of technique and musicianship was its appeal, from the start."
other musical geniuses who happen to have been unrepentant, world class assholes:
-jaco pastorious
Not sure this is really fair, he had severe mental problems.
Yes, tragic story. One of the reasons I started playing bass was reading about him after he'd just passed.
He was diagnosed as bipolar. He was relatively normal before he got into coke with Weather Report, the habit seems to have tipped him over the edge, into a spiral of well-documented bizarre self-harm. Many tried to help him but it didn't work out.
His daughter also suffers from the same condition but she's stuck to the meds. His son Felix is playing with The Yellowjackets.
Being rude to fans or journalists is far too easy to be cool.
Yea, because fans are never rude to artists.
I'll never understand why people think artists should act a certain way and owe the fans anything. You bought his music because you liked it, that doesn't mean he has to be your buddy or live up to your standards. Quite often people are good artists because that have a lot to get out of their system. If it wasn't for that they might not have made the music you love.
Ever single person here sits on the couch criticizing one artist after another, but when Baker does it he's an ungrateful grump? GTFOHWTBS.
I'll never understand why people think artists should act a certain way and owe the fans anything. You bought his music because you liked it, that doesn't mean he has to be your buddy or live up to your standards. Quite often people are good artists because that have a lot to get out of their system. If it wasn't for that they might not have made the music you love.
Ever single person here sits on the couch criticizing one artist after another, but when Baker does it he's an ungrateful grump? GTFOHWTBS.
I'll never understand why people think artists should act a certain way and owe the fans anything. You bought his music because you liked it, that doesn't mean he has to be your buddy or live up to your standards. Quite often people are good artists because that have a lot to get out of their system. If it wasn't for that they might not have made the music you love.
Ever single person here sits on the couch criticizing one artist after another, but when Baker does it he's an ungrateful grump? GTFOHWTBS.
No problem him having an opinion, it's always refreshing when they don't trot out what the publicity people want them to say, but it's his attitude toward answering questions (from anyone, apparently) that grates. If he hates interviews so much, just don't do them.
No problem him having an opinion, it's always refreshing when they don't trot out what the publicity people want them to say, but it's his attitude toward answering questions (from anyone, apparently) that grates. If he hates interviews so much, just don't do them.
He's pretty brazen about the fact that he's only doing it for the money. Apparently hs lost a lot of money recently, but I can't recall how or in what circumstances.
Great book, amazing stories. When Clapton et al were all sinking bottles of port in Surrey mansions, he was driving across the Sahara and trying to set up studios in Nigeria.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
J i m s t e r said:
No problem him having an opinion, it's always refreshing when they don't trot out what the publicity people want them to say, but it's his attitude toward answering questions (from anyone, apparently) that grates. If he hates interviews so much, just don't do them.
A guy I know interviewed him a few years ago when he was ostensibly promoting his autobiography. For every question he asked about a particular incident or musician or event, Baker would just glare at him and say, "It's in the fucking book!" He refused to expand on anything that he felt he'd already covered in his book, and greeted most other lines of questioning with similar exasperation. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that the only reason either of them were there was to help him promote something. Fine, the guy doesn't like interviews. So don't do them (unless you're contractually obliged), as you say. OTOH if you accept, however grudgingly, that interviews are a necessary but largely benign evil if you want to sell books/records/concert tickets, then just play the fucking game.
I don't think any reasonable person would expect a musician or any other celebrity to be 24-7 sweetness and light, ready to accomodate whatever ridiculous demand the public makes of them at any time. But there's a basic level of courtesy that really oughtn't to be beyond any civilised human being, no matter how famous they are. Treat people how you'd want to be treated, and there should be no cause for complaint. Of course, if people are rude or they take liberties, then all bets are off.
Dude has been obnoxious for 50 years.....now he's old, ill and obnoxious. Honestly I don't think he's capable of being anything but obnoxious. He wears it on his sleeve for sure.....unlike other obnoxious assholes who are capable of putting up a false front and "acting" otherwise....I find that more contempable.
Throw another log on the fire. My man Donald Fagan throwing 'bows and trashing the American Shakespeare. Feisty as fuck in Rolling Stone.
Andy Greene
July 18, 2013 11:40 AM ET
Interviewing Steely Dan is no easy task. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen turned messing with journalists into an art form back in the Seventies. Rolling Stone checked in with Becker and Fagen during the final days of rehearsal for their upcoming 53-date Mood Swings American tour. It kicks off on July 19th in Atlantic City and runs through October 8th in New York. Select shows will include complete performances of Aja, Gaucho and The Royal Scam.
We spoke with Fagen first, and he lulled us into a false sense of security by casually answering our questions in a relatively straightforward manner. A couple of hours later, Becker called. He was a little less cooperative, though equally sardonic. The pair talked about choosing songs for this tour, the possibility of a new Steely Dan record, their aging fan base, what songs they're sick of playing and many other topics.
Are you guys in tour rehearsal right now?
Donald Fagen: Yeah. We've been at it for about a week now. We really just need to brush up, and then we added a few things.
Like what?
Well, it's probably better if it's a surprise. But we did notice that we're doing all the songs from the Countdown to Ecstasy album. We're thinking now that we know them, which was kind of an accident; we'll just bring the whole album out during some of the shows. We'll probably just wind up doing it randomly.
500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Steely Dan, 'Aja'
You're doing Gaucho, The Royal Scam, Aja and now Countdown to Ecstasy. Why not do Pretzel Logic too?
I think we have almost all those songs. Maybe we'll have that one, too, if we add one or two more.
So you might do it?
Yeah, sure.
I remember you saying once you don't love all those songs, though.
That's true. "With a Gun" is not my favorite. We'll see, though. Maybe we can alter it slightly in a way that makes it more palatable.
Is there a small part of you that wishes you stuck with another singer all those years ago so you didn't have to sing all night long on these tours?
There's a large part of me that wishes that we stuck with another singer. When Michael McDonald joined, I voted to make him lead singer, but I was vetoed.
You did have another singer on some of the first album, though.
Yeah, but no one thought Dave Palmer was a good match. I thought Mike would have been great, but it's probably good for him that we didn't force him to do it.
Do you have more fun on the Dukes of September tours because you can just focus on piano playing for much of the night?
I don't know about more fun, but there's less pressure, and that makes it easier and more fun.
The band seems to be in a nice groove now where you tour every other summer. I always know that if it's an odd-numbered summer, I can go see Steely Dan.
It's because we don't want to overexpose ourselves, and I can always find something to do in the alternate summer, so it works out pretty good. I'm either recording or going out with the Dukes or something.
Have you ever thought about just taking a summer off and relaxing?
I don't like vacations unless I'm writing something specific, but I usually do that in my spare time anyways. I get very anxious on vacations. I'm sort of always working.
You guys have had an odd career in that you stopped touring pretty early back in the Seventies, but now you tour all the time ??? even though it's been a decade since you last released an album.
Well, we had that all planned out, of course . . . In truth, our original bit was put together very quickly, and it got kind of frantic in the first couple of years of touring and making records. I guess we figured we'd be deceased at an early date, so we figured we'd cool it for a few decades.
It was a smart move. A lot of your peers burned out on the road in the Seventies, or they spent so much time in close quarters that they learned to utterly despise each other.
Yeah, that's true. None of that really happened, or at least not to a great extent. We kept the hate down to a slow boil. We didn't want that Rascals thing to happen.
I think a lot of bands like that just had terrible management.
A lot of it is bad management. They work the bands too hard. I also think the greed factor happens, especially revolving around songwriting things. Walter and I have always done the 50/50 thing, no matter what was the actual origin of the song.
There's also just the two of you. That means no factions can rise up. It can never be two against one or something.
That's true. That's true. It worked out pretty well, and neither of us cared that much. We never came across any issues that were serious enough to cause a split. We were lucky.
You're also lucky your voice held out like it did.
That's some unintended luck as well. I didn't burn out singing in the Seventies and Eighties.
Tell me about crafting a set list on this tour. How did you figure out what you're going to play and where you're going to include it in the set list?
We started talking about it about four months ago. We know there are certain songs the audience is gonna charge the stage if we don't do, certain hits and other popular tunes. Then maybe a third of the show we get to play around with, adding things we haven't done or some really obscure thing we never recorded.
Are there certain big hits you're just sick of singing?
Yeah. Historically, Walter and I aren't that fond of "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" for some reason. Not that it's a bad song. I think that it's, quote, "well-written," but I guess because it's so simple that it has more of a listening fatigue.
Yeah. It's one of those songs you always hear when you walk into a drugstore.
Yeah. It's got that classic rock thing that it's been played so much. It's the same with "Reelin' in the Years." We keep trying to change that arrangement, although lately we've been going back to the original. The band likes that one.
Might you just spring a complete album on an audience with no warning this tour?
We might. The audience seems to like that.
But Can't Buy A Thrill won't ever happen?
That has some songs on it that we really feel probably shouldn't have made the album. It was before our style gelled for a little while.
What song on that is your least favorite?
Let's see . . . What was on there? "Change of the Guard" approaches a level of filler, not that it was intended to be that way. It just sounds that way now.
How about "Katy Lied?"
We're very close on that one. I think maybe there's one or two we'd have to learn.
Might you do the two newer albums at some point?
Yeah. We do just about everything on Two Against Nature and most of Everything Must Go. I think one night we sprung just about the whole thing, and we didn't like the audience response. It's so much unfamiliar material for a large part of the audience. We're not as invulnerable to audience response as we'd like to think we are. I think there are actually some artists that enjoy getting beer cans thrown at their heads.
Bob Dylan clearly doesn't give a shit.
Yeah, Bob Dylan. And I've been to Bob Dylan shows where I essentially walked out in the middle. I just didn't like it. Usually there's a good reason why those songs shouldn't be done.
Yeah, Dylan's voice isn't in the best shape.
Dylan's voice is shot. There are certainly times when that doesn't bother me so much depending on the song, and he still comes up with ways of doing tunes that makes that OK, but with him it's more that he does a lot of recent material. He has about a dozen minor-key drone tunes with three chords. I find that very tedious.
Yeah. He's way into that pre-rock & roll blues sound.
That doesn't bother me. It really has to do with the individual song. He actually has some songs that are even more boring than some early Appalachian songs. It's amazing that he actually . . . It's songs with 512 verses and no melody. It's more than I can bear, really.
I often wonder what would happen if he went to a doctor to check his throat or if surgery . . .
I think a psychiatrist more than a throat doctor would probably be useful at this point.
Do you think if Everything Must Go had been greeted with the same reaction as Two Against Nature, that there would have been another Steely Dan album in the past 10 years?
Um . . . It's hard to say. Record sales certainly haven't been encouraging. I think both of us are of the opinion that Everything Must Go is actually even better than Two Against Nature in some respects, although that was a very good album as they go.
I think it also has to do with the culture. People just aren't really interested in actual songs that have the sort of musical values that we've espoused anymore. They're more interested in videos or songs where the celebrity or personality of the artist is more interesting than any actual musical values. That's just the way the cultural ball bounces.
With that in mind, do you think there will ever be another Steely Dan album?
Yeah. We've been talking. We always talk about it on airplane rides. Usually we forget what we talked about before we do anything about it. But yeah, we actually had a conversation about it the other day, so who knows?
A certain part of your audience probably just has no interest in new material, from anyone. I look at my parents. They don't have the slightest bit of interest in new songs by acts they love. They solely see them as artifacts from the past.
Well, people my age aren't that interested in music, period. I've found they're much more interested in sports, or they're more interested in the fact that their knee hurts or something like that. That's perfectly valid. I'm very interested in the fact that my knee hurts. Nevertheless, I still enjoy music.
I got a galley of your upcoming book, Eminent Hipsters, the other day. I don't want to phrase this the wrong way, but after reading the Dukes of September tour diary, it's hard to escape the conclusion that you have disdain for some part of your audience.
That's fair. That's fair enough. Part of it has to do with the way I feel in the moment as I'm touring. A lot of times it depends on the mood I'm in. That journal was generally written in the evening when I was exhausted, generally speaking, and I wasn't in the best shape. It actually reflects my condition at the time. Also, a lot of it was done with a certain amount of humor. I was trying to get a laugh.
It was definitely funny.
Thanks. I wouldn't take it that seriously, but I certainly take my various complaints out on the audience. I mean, who else is there to take it out on? I can't take it out on the band. They're too nice, and they work for me. So the audience is the next best thing.
You dismiss anyone born after 1960 as "TV babies" since TV has rotted their brains, but the older ones you dismiss as petrified mummies on slabs. You even say you feel that you're sometimes playing to nursing homes and you should be calling out the Bingo numbers instead of singing songs.
They're good targets and good vessels for my rage.
It really seemed like you were miserable on that tour, so why keep doing so many shows a year?
I was. The fact is that I'm not nearly as miserable as I sound, because it's not funny if you're in a really good mood. You don't see many comedians talking about how great they feel. You don't see Louis C.K. because he's in such a good mood.
How are you going to avoid "acute tour disorder" on this tour?
Drugs, generally speaking. No, I'm just kidding. Although, I'm sure that I have certain pharmaceuticals which are legally prescribed that help my various physical and mental problems. It's just part of the job, really. Also, in a sense, the mood disorders go along with touring. I think you give a certain amount of energy. Being 65, you need that kind of energy.
Do you get a lot less publishing money than you did 10 years ago?
Yeah, I'll say!
Because of the collapse of the industry?
Yes. I mean, I need to tour to make a living. I get maybe eight percent of the royalty money I used to get.
Is that from 10 years ago, or the peak of Steely Dan?
From the peak, but less than 10 years ago, too. With the amount of free downloading the business is no longer a business, really.
Also, you have to understand that our songs are not covered very often. They're very personal and, generally speaking, we came from a kind of ironic standpoint where pop singers really don't do them. We don't get that kind of coverage.
Comments
Yusef Lateef? I always thought he was a pretty humble soul. Please tell ...
maybe he's mellowed bu i have heard stories. clare fischer (rip) tells of how yusef invited him to a gig because he had heard his playing and wanted to collaborate. apparently, when fischer went to introduce himself yusef gave him the ice grill for being white.
more asshole geniuses:
-keith jarrett
-cosine on stan getz: i read a biography on him and man was he ever a complete sleazebag. i mean some completely depraved shit. dianne schurr, the blind jazz singer, relates a particularly troubling anecdote that i will not repea.
-chet baker - he comes across as being soft spoken and humble, but what i know of him, he was terrible to those around him
-david ruffin
He came across as a pretty difficult guy to get along with. The suggestion that he might be somewhere on the spectrum kind of makes sense.
He takes a lot of trouble to emphasize that he comes from a jazz background and that he is really a jazz drummer. I think this at least partly explains his distaste for the Rolling Stones outside of Charlie Watts, they just don't have "chops" in the way that he respects.
A "Jazz" drummer with the hubris to challenge Elvin Jones to a drum battle in the Royal Albert Hall and by all accounts got his ass handed to him.
He is better than average, but I have yet to be blown away by him, like I said above, Mitch Mitchell treaded the same territory and was better both in "chops" and imagination...then again Mitch was accompanying Jimi and Ginger had to accompany the bore merchant known as "slowhand".
Hmmm.
I'm not really prepared to defend Baker's drumming skills jazz or otherwise. It's certainly worth noting that his great fame is as a rock drummer not a jazz drummer.
The most interesting parts of the book (for me) were the descriptions of his early career and the scene in London that he was part of. A lot of the musicians who became part of the rock groups came from disparate backgrounds in what had been different scenes (blues, folk, jazz, etc.). Baker clearly feels an allegiance to the jazz scene that he came up in by way of the Graham Bond Organization, and that included musicians like himself, John McLaughlin, Jack Bruce and Watts.
He also is just a contrary fusker who has also slagged off:
Jimi Hendrix: "Hendrix could play okay. But he started doing all this showman shit when he sat in with us. If I had to choose a guitarist from history, I'd pick Eric over Jimi every time."
The Beatles: "I worked with George Harrison and he was a musical moron. He didn't understand music at all. He tried to explain what he wanted, and I couldn't understand a word. The only musician was George Martin, he was The Beatles. Paul McCartney boasts that he can't read music. How can a musician boast that he can't read music?"
The aforementioned Rolling Stones: "They were like a load of little kids trying to play black blues music and playing it very badly ??? but that's what people went for, because it was naive and banal. The lack of technique and musicianship was its appeal, from the start."
And pretty much every musician from his hayday who didn't directly contribute to his fame.
Some other musical assholes (so I've heard) are:
Marvin Gaye
Sylvester
David Axelrod
Van Dyke Parks
Brian Wilson
George Clinton
Luther Vandross
Sly Stone
Aretha Franklin
Diana Ross
As a drummer myself, I've never thought of Ginger Baker as particularly great.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Not sure this is really fair, he had severe mental problems.
Man what an ass, I hope he doesn't discourage anybody.
GB with Graham Bond Organization at some British jazz festival 1965.
I like this. Not for the drumming or the great musicianship.
I like it because "They were like a load of little kids trying to play black blues music and playing it very badly. The lack of technique and musicianship was its appeal, from the start."
Mental illness doesn't help.
Yes, tragic story. One of the reasons I started playing bass was reading about him after he'd just passed.
He was diagnosed as bipolar. He was relatively normal before he got into coke with Weather Report, the habit seems to have tipped him over the edge, into a spiral of well-documented bizarre self-harm. Many tried to help him but it didn't work out.
His daughter also suffers from the same condition but she's stuck to the meds. His son Felix is playing with The Yellowjackets.
Damn! I was looking forward to that.
Yea, because fans are never rude to artists.
I'll never understand why people think artists should act a certain way and owe the fans anything. You bought his music because you liked it, that doesn't mean he has to be your buddy or live up to your standards. Quite often people are good artists because that have a lot to get out of their system. If it wasn't for that they might not have made the music you love.
Ever single person here sits on the couch criticizing one artist after another, but when Baker does it he's an ungrateful grump? GTFOHWTBS.
BINGO!
THANK YOU
He's pretty brazen about the fact that he's only doing it for the money. Apparently hs lost a lot of money recently, but I can't recall how or in what circumstances.
Great book, amazing stories. When Clapton et al were all sinking bottles of port in Surrey mansions, he was driving across the Sahara and trying to set up studios in Nigeria.
Nice piece about his Saharan adventures.
Which is why he's getting hated so.
File under: game recognise game.
A guy I know interviewed him a few years ago when he was ostensibly promoting his autobiography. For every question he asked about a particular incident or musician or event, Baker would just glare at him and say, "It's in the fucking book!" He refused to expand on anything that he felt he'd already covered in his book, and greeted most other lines of questioning with similar exasperation. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that the only reason either of them were there was to help him promote something. Fine, the guy doesn't like interviews. So don't do them (unless you're contractually obliged), as you say. OTOH if you accept, however grudgingly, that interviews are a necessary but largely benign evil if you want to sell books/records/concert tickets, then just play the fucking game.
I don't think any reasonable person would expect a musician or any other celebrity to be 24-7 sweetness and light, ready to accomodate whatever ridiculous demand the public makes of them at any time. But there's a basic level of courtesy that really oughtn't to be beyond any civilised human being, no matter how famous they are. Treat people how you'd want to be treated, and there should be no cause for complaint. Of course, if people are rude or they take liberties, then all bets are off.
And he finds himself broke as a result of his strategy - simultaneously throwing spanners and urinating into the publicity machine.
Diane Schuur. Now, I hear she has some stories...
Andy Greene
July 18, 2013 11:40 AM ET
Interviewing Steely Dan is no easy task. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen turned messing with journalists into an art form back in the Seventies. Rolling Stone checked in with Becker and Fagen during the final days of rehearsal for their upcoming 53-date Mood Swings American tour. It kicks off on July 19th in Atlantic City and runs through October 8th in New York. Select shows will include complete performances of Aja, Gaucho and The Royal Scam.
We spoke with Fagen first, and he lulled us into a false sense of security by casually answering our questions in a relatively straightforward manner. A couple of hours later, Becker called. He was a little less cooperative, though equally sardonic. The pair talked about choosing songs for this tour, the possibility of a new Steely Dan record, their aging fan base, what songs they're sick of playing and many other topics.
Are you guys in tour rehearsal right now?
Donald Fagen: Yeah. We've been at it for about a week now. We really just need to brush up, and then we added a few things.
Like what?
Well, it's probably better if it's a surprise. But we did notice that we're doing all the songs from the Countdown to Ecstasy album. We're thinking now that we know them, which was kind of an accident; we'll just bring the whole album out during some of the shows. We'll probably just wind up doing it randomly.
500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Steely Dan, 'Aja'
You're doing Gaucho, The Royal Scam, Aja and now Countdown to Ecstasy. Why not do Pretzel Logic too?
I think we have almost all those songs. Maybe we'll have that one, too, if we add one or two more.
So you might do it?
Yeah, sure.
I remember you saying once you don't love all those songs, though.
That's true. "With a Gun" is not my favorite. We'll see, though. Maybe we can alter it slightly in a way that makes it more palatable.
Is there a small part of you that wishes you stuck with another singer all those years ago so you didn't have to sing all night long on these tours?
There's a large part of me that wishes that we stuck with another singer. When Michael McDonald joined, I voted to make him lead singer, but I was vetoed.
You did have another singer on some of the first album, though.
Yeah, but no one thought Dave Palmer was a good match. I thought Mike would have been great, but it's probably good for him that we didn't force him to do it.
Do you have more fun on the Dukes of September tours because you can just focus on piano playing for much of the night?
I don't know about more fun, but there's less pressure, and that makes it easier and more fun.
The band seems to be in a nice groove now where you tour every other summer. I always know that if it's an odd-numbered summer, I can go see Steely Dan.
It's because we don't want to overexpose ourselves, and I can always find something to do in the alternate summer, so it works out pretty good. I'm either recording or going out with the Dukes or something.
Have you ever thought about just taking a summer off and relaxing?
I don't like vacations unless I'm writing something specific, but I usually do that in my spare time anyways. I get very anxious on vacations. I'm sort of always working.
You guys have had an odd career in that you stopped touring pretty early back in the Seventies, but now you tour all the time ??? even though it's been a decade since you last released an album.
Well, we had that all planned out, of course . . . In truth, our original bit was put together very quickly, and it got kind of frantic in the first couple of years of touring and making records. I guess we figured we'd be deceased at an early date, so we figured we'd cool it for a few decades.
It was a smart move. A lot of your peers burned out on the road in the Seventies, or they spent so much time in close quarters that they learned to utterly despise each other.
Yeah, that's true. None of that really happened, or at least not to a great extent. We kept the hate down to a slow boil. We didn't want that Rascals thing to happen.
I think a lot of bands like that just had terrible management.
A lot of it is bad management. They work the bands too hard. I also think the greed factor happens, especially revolving around songwriting things. Walter and I have always done the 50/50 thing, no matter what was the actual origin of the song.
There's also just the two of you. That means no factions can rise up. It can never be two against one or something.
That's true. That's true. It worked out pretty well, and neither of us cared that much. We never came across any issues that were serious enough to cause a split. We were lucky.
You're also lucky your voice held out like it did.
That's some unintended luck as well. I didn't burn out singing in the Seventies and Eighties.
Tell me about crafting a set list on this tour. How did you figure out what you're going to play and where you're going to include it in the set list?
We started talking about it about four months ago. We know there are certain songs the audience is gonna charge the stage if we don't do, certain hits and other popular tunes. Then maybe a third of the show we get to play around with, adding things we haven't done or some really obscure thing we never recorded.
Are there certain big hits you're just sick of singing?
Yeah. Historically, Walter and I aren't that fond of "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" for some reason. Not that it's a bad song. I think that it's, quote, "well-written," but I guess because it's so simple that it has more of a listening fatigue.
Yeah. It's one of those songs you always hear when you walk into a drugstore.
Yeah. It's got that classic rock thing that it's been played so much. It's the same with "Reelin' in the Years." We keep trying to change that arrangement, although lately we've been going back to the original. The band likes that one.
Might you just spring a complete album on an audience with no warning this tour?
We might. The audience seems to like that.
But Can't Buy A Thrill won't ever happen?
That has some songs on it that we really feel probably shouldn't have made the album. It was before our style gelled for a little while.
What song on that is your least favorite?
Let's see . . . What was on there? "Change of the Guard" approaches a level of filler, not that it was intended to be that way. It just sounds that way now.
How about "Katy Lied?"
We're very close on that one. I think maybe there's one or two we'd have to learn.
Might you do the two newer albums at some point?
Yeah. We do just about everything on Two Against Nature and most of Everything Must Go. I think one night we sprung just about the whole thing, and we didn't like the audience response. It's so much unfamiliar material for a large part of the audience. We're not as invulnerable to audience response as we'd like to think we are. I think there are actually some artists that enjoy getting beer cans thrown at their heads.
Bob Dylan clearly doesn't give a shit.
Yeah, Bob Dylan. And I've been to Bob Dylan shows where I essentially walked out in the middle. I just didn't like it. Usually there's a good reason why those songs shouldn't be done.
Yeah, Dylan's voice isn't in the best shape.
Dylan's voice is shot. There are certainly times when that doesn't bother me so much depending on the song, and he still comes up with ways of doing tunes that makes that OK, but with him it's more that he does a lot of recent material. He has about a dozen minor-key drone tunes with three chords. I find that very tedious.
Yeah. He's way into that pre-rock & roll blues sound.
That doesn't bother me. It really has to do with the individual song. He actually has some songs that are even more boring than some early Appalachian songs. It's amazing that he actually . . . It's songs with 512 verses and no melody. It's more than I can bear, really.
I often wonder what would happen if he went to a doctor to check his throat or if surgery . . .
I think a psychiatrist more than a throat doctor would probably be useful at this point.
Do you think if Everything Must Go had been greeted with the same reaction as Two Against Nature, that there would have been another Steely Dan album in the past 10 years?
Um . . . It's hard to say. Record sales certainly haven't been encouraging. I think both of us are of the opinion that Everything Must Go is actually even better than Two Against Nature in some respects, although that was a very good album as they go.
I think it also has to do with the culture. People just aren't really interested in actual songs that have the sort of musical values that we've espoused anymore. They're more interested in videos or songs where the celebrity or personality of the artist is more interesting than any actual musical values. That's just the way the cultural ball bounces.
With that in mind, do you think there will ever be another Steely Dan album?
Yeah. We've been talking. We always talk about it on airplane rides. Usually we forget what we talked about before we do anything about it. But yeah, we actually had a conversation about it the other day, so who knows?
A certain part of your audience probably just has no interest in new material, from anyone. I look at my parents. They don't have the slightest bit of interest in new songs by acts they love. They solely see them as artifacts from the past.
Well, people my age aren't that interested in music, period. I've found they're much more interested in sports, or they're more interested in the fact that their knee hurts or something like that. That's perfectly valid. I'm very interested in the fact that my knee hurts. Nevertheless, I still enjoy music.
I got a galley of your upcoming book, Eminent Hipsters, the other day. I don't want to phrase this the wrong way, but after reading the Dukes of September tour diary, it's hard to escape the conclusion that you have disdain for some part of your audience.
That's fair. That's fair enough. Part of it has to do with the way I feel in the moment as I'm touring. A lot of times it depends on the mood I'm in. That journal was generally written in the evening when I was exhausted, generally speaking, and I wasn't in the best shape. It actually reflects my condition at the time. Also, a lot of it was done with a certain amount of humor. I was trying to get a laugh.
It was definitely funny.
Thanks. I wouldn't take it that seriously, but I certainly take my various complaints out on the audience. I mean, who else is there to take it out on? I can't take it out on the band. They're too nice, and they work for me. So the audience is the next best thing.
You dismiss anyone born after 1960 as "TV babies" since TV has rotted their brains, but the older ones you dismiss as petrified mummies on slabs. You even say you feel that you're sometimes playing to nursing homes and you should be calling out the Bingo numbers instead of singing songs.
They're good targets and good vessels for my rage.
It really seemed like you were miserable on that tour, so why keep doing so many shows a year?
I was. The fact is that I'm not nearly as miserable as I sound, because it's not funny if you're in a really good mood. You don't see many comedians talking about how great they feel. You don't see Louis C.K. because he's in such a good mood.
How are you going to avoid "acute tour disorder" on this tour?
Drugs, generally speaking. No, I'm just kidding. Although, I'm sure that I have certain pharmaceuticals which are legally prescribed that help my various physical and mental problems. It's just part of the job, really. Also, in a sense, the mood disorders go along with touring. I think you give a certain amount of energy. Being 65, you need that kind of energy.
Do you get a lot less publishing money than you did 10 years ago?
Yeah, I'll say!
Because of the collapse of the industry?
Yes. I mean, I need to tour to make a living. I get maybe eight percent of the royalty money I used to get.
Is that from 10 years ago, or the peak of Steely Dan?
From the peak, but less than 10 years ago, too. With the amount of free downloading the business is no longer a business, really.
Also, you have to understand that our songs are not covered very often. They're very personal and, generally speaking, we came from a kind of ironic standpoint where pop singers really don't do them. We don't get that kind of coverage.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/steely-dan-on-making-new-music-weve-been-talking-20130718#ixzz2hucQ19kG
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Thanks for posting....I thought that was a great interview.....dude seemed down to earth, honest and not cranky at all?
Yeah, that seemed positively mellow compared to Fagen interviews of yore. Great read, though.
Sorry don't know how to embed....