Donald Fagen
39 articles
Free articles
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, March 1993
DONALD FAGEN'S first album in 11 years, Kamakiriad, can be judged from two different perspectives. On the one hand, it marries tartly ironic lyrics with ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 13 November 1991
The former Dan man talks about the New York Rock & Soul Revue; Steely Dan's influence on UK groups; the serious process of recording Dan albums; his forthcoming album Kamakiriad; The Nightfly, 'IGY' and "mock sentimentality"; writer's block and psychotherapy; Walter Becker's drug problem, and being reunited with him; his childhood, his parents and Jewishness; meeting Walter at Bard College; on '60s soul; on Prince, hip hop, and De La Soul sampling 'Peg', and on the Dan members, and catalogue reissues.
File format: mp3; total file size: 51.6mb, interview length: 53' 43" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 5 March 1993
On making Kamakiriad, NYC versus LA, favourite grooves and favourite rhythm sections, working by himself and looking back on Steely Dan
File format: mp3; file size: 78.5meg, interview length: 1h 21' 44" sound quality: ***
List of articles in the library
Donald Fagen Spins His Favourite Records
Book Excerpt by Charlie Gillett, Capital Radio broadcast, 1982
After the release of The Nightfly, Donald Fagen visited the U.K. to promote it, and one of the few "interviews" he permitted was with Charlie ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 23 October 1982
AHEM. WHERE were we? Steely Dan go out on the worst album of their entire career, Walter Becker gets involved in one of those stupidly ...
Donald Fagen: The Nightfly (Warner Bros. 23696-1)
Review by Sam Sutherland, High Fidelity, December 1982
STEELY DAN fans, rejoice: You can remove your mourning bands, undrape the black crepe from your speakers, and bask in the savvy pop splendors of ...
Donald Fagen Revisits an Era of Innocence
Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, January 1983
"LACK OF IRONY," says Donald Fagen with a wry grin, "is not exactly my specialty." It's an odd apology – more like a boast – ...
Interview by Sam Sutherland, High Fidelity, January 1983
From the dark, jaded regions of Steely Dan emerges an intellectual with an album about innocence, by Sam Sutherland ...
Donald Fagen: A Nightfly Up Against The Wall
Interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 22 January 1983
RICHARD COOK meets the urbane spokesman of cool, DONALD FAGEN who, for 14 years, partnered Walter Becker in Steely Dan. A celebrated eccentric, Fagen is ...
Donald Fagen: The Nightfly (Warner Bros.)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, February 1983
DESPITE WHATEVER initial impressions you might get from hearing it on the radio, this is not the new Steely Dan album minus an apparently expendable ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, January 1991
No, there won't be a Steely Dan reunion. But the good news for those still checked in at the Hotel California is that songwriting partners ...
Donald Fagen: Return of the Nightfly
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 3 November 1991
Steely Dan co-creator Donald Fagen resurfaces after nearly a decade of silence, with new works and a new outlook on life. ...
Donald Fagen: Reeling In The Years
Interview by Rob Steen, The Independent, 21 November 1991
NOT BEFORE time, the man who did it again is doing it again. But, after nine years of soundtrack credits and precious little else, muffled ...
Donald Fagen: Get Your Motor Running
Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Creem, 1993
With Kamakiriad, Donald Fagen proves that behind every great album is a great car ...
Fagen and Becker on Kamakiriad
Report and Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Schwann Spectrum, January 1993
IN A WAY, the ID Donald Fagen did for New York's WNEW-FM, arguably the best album rock station in a city with little choice in ...
Donald Fagen, Candid and Vulnerable
Interview by Wayne Robins, unpublished, May 1993
Author's note: This interview took place in Manhattan, May 19, 1993. Without his partner in crime Walter Becker to deflect questions, Fagen was more candid ...
Donald Fagen: Steely Don is no fly-by-night
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 9 May 1993
With their jazz-tinged soft-rock and mordant lyrics, Steely Dan were critics' favourites and a staple of FM radio throughout the Seventies. ...
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, 12 May 1993
Back in the '70s, Steely Dan grabbed the American Dream by the throat with their deceptively soft rock. Now singer Donald Fagen is back, giving ...
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 27 May 1993
ELEVEN years between albums is excessive, even by living-legend standards. For some pop performers, that's time enough to get discovered, be the next big thing, ...
Donald Fagen: Back To Bed For Another 11 Years Then
Interview by Andy Gill, Q, June 1993
VARIOUSLY JET-LAGGED and eyeing each other guardedly from behind their paper plates and coffee cups, half a dozen representatives of the world's rock press settle ...
Donald Fagen: Kamakiriad (Warner Bros.)
Review by Mat Snow, Q, July 1993
KAMAKIRIAD (Japanese for "insect" but used in this case as a futuristic steam-driven car with its own vegetable garden) tells of a journey, as much ...
Donald Fagen: Kamakiriad (WEA 9362452302)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, July 1993
BEYOND THE STEELY DOME ...
Donald Fagen: The Man Who Came In From The Cool
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Arena, Spring 1993
Steely Dan were the muso's band. As icily astute chroniclers of the Seventies, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker recorded a series of virtuoso albums of ...
Film/DVD/TV Review by John L. Walters, The Guardian, 1 August 2003
THE MAIN REASONS for buying a DVD of Donald Fagen's Kamakiriad are sonic: the crisp intelligence of the songwriting is matched by the sumptuous clarity ...
Donald Fagen: The Cat Will See You Now
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 2 March 2006
First there was The Nightfly. Then Kamakiriad. And now, a mere 24 years on, the trilogy is complete. Robert Sandall meets Steely Dan's Donald Fagen ...
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 3 March 2006
HOW DO YOU write a song about homeland security without sounding preachy or trite? On the other hand, how do you make honest music in ...
Donald Fagen: Morph the Cat (Reprise) — Catdown to Ecstasy
Review by James Hunter, The Village Voice, 16 March 2006
Steely Dan's unfashionable co-founder catches a New York where things changed forever ...
Donald Fagen: Former Steely Dan Member On His New Album
Interview by Andy Gill, The Independent, 19 March 2006
IN THE BRUTAL world of American football, teams often employ what they call a "hurry-up offense", a series of plays they can run quickly when ...
Rock of the Aged: Morrison, Gilmour, Davies, Fagen
Review by Steven Ward, Las Vegas Weekly, 23 March 2006
YOU KNOW WHAT Van Morrison, David Gilmour, Ray Davies and Donald Fagen have in common, besides their royal rank in rock geezerdom? They have new ...
Review by Alfred Soto, Stylus, 31 March 2006
AT THE END OF 1980'S GAUCHO you'll find Steely Dan's best song — the slow fade of Johnny, the protagonist of 'Third World Man'. The ...
Donald Fagen: The Nightfly Trilogy (The Nightfly/Kamakiriad/MorphThe Cat)
Review and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Uncut, January 2008
Steely Dan man's smooth tales of paranoia, boxed. ...
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Uncut, September 2012
Here's Donald Fagen in New York to discuss his latest solo album, Sunken Condos. "It's a metaphor for my current phase of life," the 64-year-old ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Arts Desk, 10 October 2012
Sly and sardonic new songs from the Steely Dan veteran ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Uncut, November 2012
MORPH THE CAT, the final volume of Donald Fagen's Nightfly trilogy, which appeared in 2006, is introspective and jittery, reflecting the cumulative impact of 9/11 ...
Report and Interview by Bruce Pollock, Songfacts, 7 November 2012
AT THE KEYBOARDS, Donald Fagen was the smoky voice and songwriting co-conspirator (with Walter Becker) on all of Steely Dan's classic hits, from 'Reelin' In ...
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, 27 November 2012
ITEM: A recent Los Angeles Times article reported that the city's Wende Museum, which houses more than 100,000 Cold War artifacts, had outgrown its present ...
Donald Fagen: Sunken Condos — Drowning not waving
Review by Mat Snow, MOJO, December 2012
SUNKEN CONDOS: it's an eerie image; all our iPads, Audi TTs and bubble money submerged like Debussy's piano prelude 'La Cathedrale Engloutie'. So too our ...
Interview by Paul Zollo, American Songwriter, January 2013
On the occasion of Donald Fagen's latest non-Steely Dan effort, Sunken Condos, we sat down to talk about this new classic, and the previous ones. ...
Donald Fagen: Eminent Hipsters (Viking)
Book Review by Ian Penman, City Journal, 16 January 2014
IN JANUARY 1974, Joni Mitchell released the exquisite, deceptively sunny Court and Spark; two months later, on the penultimate day of March, the Ramones played their ...
see also Walter Becker
see also Steely Dan
back to LIBRARY
