Donald Fagen's solo work

Underacknowledged? The Eagles were one of the biggest acts in rock and roll and one of the most grossing and popular bands of all time, no?

copy that 

huge fan

here's one for the airline threads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02c_ruYACvo

I'd say Don Fagen > Don Felder

Personally, I've always been a fan.  Love The Nightfly and Kamakiriad.  Morph the Cat not so much.  I remember back so may years ago the guy at Saturday Audio Exchange testing the equipment with some Donald Fagen.  At the time, I had NAD amps and preamps, two Nakamichi decks, and speakers for days.  So fun.

>>>Underacknowledged? The Eagles were one of the biggest acts in rock and roll and one of the most grossing and popular bands of all time, no?

turn up the eagles the neighbors are listening

Lol, the Eagles?  Guess Mr. Timpane is smoking some fine Colombian.

Haha, whoops. Wrong guy. But still, I’ve never heard of anyone thinking he wasn’t a fantastic player.

Fine Columbian >>>>>

Not sure, but I thought this was more a reference to snorting rather than smoking.

I really enjoy Donald Fagen’s solo work, esp the Nightfly album. I regret that I didn’t get to one of the Nightflyers’ shows this past summer, as they got great reviews. I’m hoping they’ll tour again. 

I’ll also add that I haven’t brought myself to search out or listen to any of Steely Dan’s music from the most recent tour after the passing of Walter Becker. Just a little too soon. RIP Walter.

As far as the “fine Columbian” lyric from Hey Nineteen, Donald did an interview a couple of years ago where he indicated that the lyric did in fact refer to pot. He said something to the effect of “When the lyric was written (late 70’s & released on the 1980 album Gaucho), the best pot still came out of Columbia while the best cocaine was still coming from Peru.” Couldn’t locate the interview, but during Walter Becker’s raps in the middle of the song in concert, it was clear he was referring to weed.

Great example here. Walter starts in at about 2:35:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SsDWQsEgsqg

Also...has anyone ever called any Eagle a genius?

(Not including Joe Walsh's bartending prowess.)

Nightfly is his best solo effort...

Nightfly was a technical achievement in its self.  Wonder how it stands the test of time.

I was trying to get my foot in the door of Skyline Studios in NYC in 1987 or so, when Becker & Fagan were holed up their focusing on the attributes of digital recording.

Love Nightfly. Big Fagan fan here. I even enjoyed the New York Rock and Soul Revue. 

The Nightfly is great to play to test potential stereo or speaker purchase, or surround sound even...

(I like a nice mix of nightfly first...then pop in dvd of Top Gun for testing surround sound systems...listen to first track off The Nightfly, then watch (listen) to the opening of Top Gun as the jets take off of tarmac...if you are not "blown away" by both?? Dont buy)

Nightfly is definitely his best solo effort. You are correct Jambone.

My thoughts, fwiw.

Nightfly: The New Frontier of the 1950's/early 1960's are summed up so well from the "dugout that my Dad built", to Cuba and the Cold War. She's wearing Ambush and a french twist all at the foot of Mt. Belzoni listening to jazz and smoking Chesterfield Kings. Jesus Christ this is just about a PERFECT album in its goal, its delivery, its authenticity, its passion and in its cohesion.

Kamikiriad: This gets a little closer to the modern day Dan (big on the vampy jazz and less of the twisted lyrical melting pot of American music that was their first 3-4 albums), Fagen trades in the true passion for a bit of kitsch with Tomorrow's Girls riding in his Kamakiriad. The Countermoon appears and on a night like this, well...yet the sublime ennui of On The Dunes and really the last three tracks on side two - make this album worth visiting again and again. 

Morph The Cat - Fagen put more than a decade between the releases of each of his first three solo albums - and each time the results were less than the predecessor - this time much more pronounced than the gap between Nightfly and Kamikiriad. Brite Nightgown? Security Joan? Fun to snap your fingers to the first time, but they  wear very thin quickly. Still a couple of gems appear in The Great Pagoda of Fun and Mary Shut The Garden Gate.

Sunken Condos - Holy shit this sucks! I listened to it once and threw it away.

brian d- please tell the people the correct spelling is Colombian.  Always thought he was referring to the pots in Hey Nineteen.

Most definitely in Hey 19 it was the pots.

A coda for Sunken Condos: When Fagen and Becker started to release solo albums -  we all began to understand who the dark and weird one in the duo was, and who the sarcastic cynic was. Clearly, for most of the Dan's career, Becker kept Fagen from the mainstream tendencies he had - at least on the collaborative Steely Dan releases. I love them both and love their music - but God bless Walter Becker for what he held together as long as he could. Sunken Condos just bears that out too blatantly for me. As each succesive album rolled along - the influence Becker had on Fagen slipped further and further away - until none was left on Sunken Condos. Sunken Condos? At least the title is pretty accurate for the music within.

Not that I have an opinion or anything. lol

>>>brian d- please tell the people the correct spelling is Colombian.

Yeah, I always screw that up. 

I completely forgot about the Sunken Condos album. Honestly, I don't think I ever listened to it. Sounds like I'm not missing much.

Just picked up the book Eminent Hipsters Fagen wrote for a few bucks.  Looking forward to checking it out.  Has anyone read the book?

Not yet. Let us know if it's any good.

"Come on, Daddy. Get in, let's go!"

Thanks for the info. I guess I just thought 70s>Columbian= Cocaine but that makes sense because Peru def was producing the highest quality for a long time if not still today. Hey 19, might be the creepiest white guy cheese yatch rock song of all time. I really the guitar arrangements and solo on reeling in the years. For all of the accusations of people saying steely Dan stole or reappropriated certain musical ideas or arrangements, I feel like if anything more musicians stole a shit load guitar riffs and piano voicings from that tune alone. Def one of my favs from them

now, Time Out of Mind is another good drug song 

Tonight when I chase the dragon
The water will change to cherry wine
And the silver will turn to gold
Time out of mind

 Hey 19, might be the creepiest white guy cheese yatch rock song of all time.<<

It would be, if he hadn't gone on to write Cousin DuPree.

Ultra-skeevy.

I really the guitar arrangements and solo on reeling in the years.<<

Those pinky pull-offs are a bitch.  

Dr. Wu has to be a drug song. 

"Dr. Wu"
Katy tried
I was halfway crucified
I was on the other side
Of no tomorrow
You walked in
And my life began again
Just when I'd spent the last piaster
I could borrow
All night long
We would sing that stupid song
And every word we sang
I knew was true
Are you with me Doctor Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
Are you crazy are you high
Or just an ordinary guy
Have you done all you can do
Are you with me Doctor

Don't seem right
I've been strung out here all night
I've been waiting for the taste
You said you'd bring to me
Biscayne Bay
Where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day
I went searching for the song
You used to sing to me
Katy lies
You could see it in her eyes
But imagine my surprise
When I saw you

Are you with me Doctor Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
She is lovely yes she's sly
And you're an ordinary guy
Has she finally got to you
Can you hear me Doctor

Katy Lied is one of my favorite Steely Dan  CD

He wrote that book for a few bucks???

Hmmm.....didnt know he was that down and out....;)

For what its worth..love katy lied, royal scam...

I feel the monkey in your soul....one of my all time faves...steely played it outdoors in htfd years ago..

Elliot Randall did the guitar solo on Reeling in the Years.

Elliot Randall<<<<<<<<<<<

Take out the dog, and bark that cat

I dig Fagen’s solo work. A bunch of gems yet inconsistent.

Is that right? I know they had a lot of guest artists/ guitarists do guitar solos. Danny Gatton also one of them. I know they had the duel guitar part at the end. All of them were Bart?

There’s the famous story of them paying Wayne Shorter 10k to do a Sax solo on Aja. He did a few tales and was out of the studio within a half hour.

>>It would be, if he hadn't gone on to write Cousin DuPree.

Ultra-skeevy

oh yeah, the song you covered at the zoner jam...and going into Good Morning Little School Girl was the real kicker.

>>He wrote that book for a few bucks???

Who cares, don't they all?  I want to read his story for less than five bucks.

While recording Steely Dan’s 1972 debut, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen knew they had a great track for “Reelin’ in the Years”—if they could only come up with the appropriate guitar solo to jumpstart the tune. So they put in a call to Elliott Randall, with whom they had worked in the backing band for Jay and the Americans, and who’d had played on many of the duo’s early, pre-Steely Dan demos.

“They were having trouble finding the right ‘flavor’ solo for ‘Reelin,’ and asked me to give it a go,” recalls Randall. “Most of the song was already complete, so I had the good fortune of having a very clear picture of what the solo was laying on top of. They played it for me without much dialogue about what I should play. It just wasn’t necessary because we did it in one take and nothing was written. Jeff Baxter played the harmony parts, but my entire lead—intro/answers/solo/end solo—was one continuous take played through a very simple setup: my old Strat, the same one I’ve been using since 1965, plugged directly into an Ampeg SVT amp, and miked with a single AKG 414. The whole solo just came to me, and I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to play it.”

Good solo. 

Pre - steely...^^.you gotta walk it like ya talk it...

Walter was listening to Dexter Gordon the last time Donald got to visit with him

Dexter Gordon ain’t too shabby on the Sax.

>>>>>He did a few takes and was out of the studio within a half hour.

I believe (so the story goes) that Garcia laid down the pedal steel solo on Teach Your Children on the first take. They told him it was perfect and he said "but I was just getting warmed up".

^Haha. Do you think Crosby paid him in blow for the session?

Don't mean to hijack a thread, but Walter Becker's 11 tracks of whack is dark and brilliant IMHO.

Song titles say it all:  Down in the Bottom, Junkie Girl, Surf and/or Die, Book of Liars.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K67dnCCs0c&list=PLkhX1KefAh26G6THFLDZ6J...

Santa claus came in late last night
Drunk on christmas wine
Fell down hard in the driveway
Hung his bag out on the laundry line
There's a cobra gunship for his golden boy

And there's a hello kitty for his pride and joy

And a silver star in the book of liars by your name
They hung a star in the book of liars by your name

Stars imploding
The long night passing
Electrons dancing in the frozen crystal dawn
Here's one left stranded at the zero crossing
With a hole in it's half-life left to carry on
But now the world's much larger than it looks today
And if my bad luck ever blows me back this way

And there's a star in the book of liars by your name