Steely Dan

Immortality may be impossible without a chilling breakthrough in genetic engineering, but Steely Dan`s Walter Becker and Donald Fagen are undaunted.

"We want to be remembered for living forever," Becker said.

"Or," added the deadpan Fagen, "for forgetting to die."

The two founders and linchpins of Steely Dan are unlikely to keep on reeling in the years indefinitely. But their sleek, sophisticated blend of jazz, rock, funk and more is likely to endure. And their profile now is higher than ever, thanks to "Two Against Nature," their first new studio album in 20 years, and their current tour.

The album manages to simultaneously sound fresh and as if almost no time has passed since the group`s previous album, 1980`s "Gaucho." What it does not sound like, happily, is a cheesy excuse to pander to the baby-boomers who were the bulk of the group`s core audience three decades ago.

Older and wiser, Becker, 50, and Fagen, 52, have grown even more accomplished, as evidenced by Becker`s notably improved guitar work. And their songwriting is more polished and subtle than ever. But their basic instrumentation remains unchanged, and there are no attempts to add trendy hip-hop production touches or rap-metal accents.

Given the duo`s reputation as notorious perfectionists, was recording "Two Against Nature" less stressful than the albums Steely Dan made in its heyday?

"It was about the same as the last few albums we did in the `70s," said Fagen, speaking from New York. "It was tedious and boring."

"We exhausted all of our resources," added Becker, who often embellished or continued Fagen`s thoughts throughout the joint interview.

"In other words, it was a model project," Becker continued. "I like to think of the last quarter of making a record - and this goes for most of the others we did - as being analogous to a large-scale version of the Bataan Death March" (in the Philippines during World War II).

Lyrically, "Two Against Nature" features the deft wordplay that has long been a Becker and Fagen trademark. But the often disillusioned characters who populate their latest songs sound - if not bitter - as if they are wistfully yearning for the younger, wilder lifestyle of their youth.

"The fans of ours who are dead perceive it with the most wistfulness of all," said a droll Fagen. "I don`t think we are yearning for (our) younger days; we`re just yearning for those experiences."

"We`re so desperate!" cracked Becker.

"They say not to follow in the footsteps of masters, and to seek what you want," Fagen continued. "So we just want the accouterments of youth. We really are in it for the thrill; that`s what it amounts to. I guess (the title of Steely Dan`s 1972 debut album) `Can`t Buy a Thrill` was prescient."

Since reuniting in the early 1990s, Becker and Fagen have embarked on several major tours with new, expanded editions of Steely Dan. Yet while the tours (in 1993, `94 and `96) were instant sellouts, the two grew concerned that their concerts were simply sentimental journeys. It was their desire to avoid becoming a nostalgia act that inspired them to record "Two Against Nature."

"I think, mainly, we were perceiving ourselves as an oldies act," explained Fagen, who first toured nationally with Becker in 1971 as members of the pop group Jay & The Americans. "We wanted some new and relevant material to revitalize the operation, and we both had eyes to expose some of the material that we had individually developed.

"You`re not really an oldies act," Becker mused, "without the piping on the lapels and custom-made suits with slash pockets."

"And," Fagen elaborated, "without the guitar player doing the same solos, note for note, night after night."

And how do Steely Dan`s audiences now differ from those during its brief performing tenure in the 1970s?

"It`s mostly college girls," Fagen said.

"High-school girls," Becker corrected.

"And a smattering of models and professional girls," Fagen concluded.

Joking aside, how much artistic growth is possible when performing solely to an audience of longtime fans, bereft of young new converts?

"We really do want new listeners," Becker said. "Maybe not runaway age, but ... "

"What we`re doing," Fagen said, "is music that should be appealing to people of any age, and to one age as much as another. And I think there`s some justification for that. We`ve been told there are new generations who have discovered our stuff. And we get letters at our Web site from people who say, `Wow, I just heard your music,` or from someone who says, `I discovered your music in `83,` or `My parents turned me on to your music.` Good music shouldn`t only appeal to one generation."

"I am reminded," Becker noted, "of a maxim by (jazz sax pioneer) Lester Young. When asked why he didn`t play more aggressively, he said, `I always try to play.`"

Steely Dan`s music frequently uses devious jazz harmonies and arrangements. Its albums and touring bands often feature first-rate jazz musicians, among them saxophonist Chris Potter and ex-Weather Report drummer Pete Erskine.

"Rikki Don`t Lose That Number," one of Steely Dan`s early hits, was based on jazz pianist Horace Silver`s classic "Song for My Father." And the album "Pretzel Logic," also from 1974, featured Steely Dan`s version of the 1926 Duke Ellington chestnut "East St Louis Toodle-Oo."

Becker and Fagen chuckled when asked if they were musical subversives slyly introducing a broad pop audience to the rich legacy of jazz.

"Donald and I were both jazz fans, beginning in early adolescence, and we talk about this," Becker said. "We both had the incredibly dispiriting experience of running over to see some friend, or to a party, and saying: `Hey, listen to this!` and putting on a Dizzy Gillespie record and being laughed out of the room.

"Something very similar could happen now, if we were foolish enough to do that. And I`m thinking maybe this is our way to sneak something (jazzy) in on the American music scene that has been excluded by various prejudices."

Added Fagen: "Why jazz doesn`t sound great to everyone, we still don`t know. Every morning I put on a jazz CD, and wonder: `Why doesn`t everyone do this?` So the only thing we can do is to play what we like, and hope somebody else likes it."

"You should listen to jazz if you want to enrich yourselves," Becker interjected. "But a lot of people don`t want to."

"They want to enrich themselves, but not culturally," Fagen said.

"Exactly," Becker agreed.

"Maybe that`s the key," said Fagen, who cites five Miles Davis albums from the 1950s as all-time favorites.

"We should say that the deep, dark secret of people who are wealthy and successful in America is they all listen to these five albums. In fact, you can`t (expletive) bust out of the middle-class without listening to these albums."

Becker let out a conspiratorial chortle.

"We should put out a book," he said.

"Yeah," Fagen said. "`The Musical Mind of the Millionaire.`"

Becker and Fagen proudly noted that the newest touring edition of Steely Dan features musicians who are skilled improvisers.

"It`s like a big band," Becker said, "where people have their (written) parts, and when it`s time to do their solos, they improvise."

The duo`s enthusiasm for touring now is dramatically different from the 1970s. Then, they regarded performing as only slightly less painful than dental surgery.

"We felt at the time that any thinking, non-alcoholic person would dread touring. And we certainly did," Becker replied. "Our band then was very erratic; some nights it was great, and some nights were very uneven, including us. The travel arrangements were horrible, and we didn`t even break even, financially.

"Plus, we were mostly opening for other people, which meant we didn`t have our own sound system or get our own sound checks. So it was very chaotic and unsatisfying. Today, the opposite is true."

"Nobody`s ever drunk now," Fagen said, "at least not during the show. And you don`t have to figure out what you`re going to do when you get back to the hotel and have all these unfortunate adventures.

"Because, when you`re this age, you just want to go back to sleep."

(c) Visit Copley News Service

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Author: George Varga