Fagen's parents and sister in the Cleveland Jewish News
David de Graaf
Enjoy!
http://www.cleveland.com/jewishnews/thisissue/story5.ssf
Bringing up Steely Dan
SUSAN RZEPKA
Staff Reporter
"Would you, by chance, be a Steely Dan fan?" Beachwood resident Joseph
"Jerry" Fagen inquires wryly. It's an unlikely question coming from an
80-year-old, but Fagen's "favorite conversation starter" affords the
opening he needs to do what any parent would do in his shoes: kvell a
little.
Reaching for his wallet, the spry sneaker-clad Fagen produces a
computerized list in tiny type of the 13 albums released by his son,
Donald Fagen, co-founder of the jazz-rock-pop recording group, Steely
Dan. His latest entry? "Two Against Nature," the group's newest
release, which debuted last month at #6 on the Billboard charts.
Steely Dan was founded in the early 1970s by college-mates Donald Fagen
and Walter Becker. The multiplatinum recording artists write, produce
and perform a unique brand of music. They employ the best studio
musicians money can buy, creating a smooth and sophisticated alchemy of
sound that has remained brilliant and untarnished since the group's
inception in 1972.
Hanging on the wall in the office-den of Jerry Fagen's home, Steely
Dan's platinum records gleam in the afternoon sun. Uninterested in
displaying them himself, "Donald thought his parents would appreciate
them more," says mother Elinor, a spunky 77-year-old former Bellefaire
JCB volunteer.
"Aja," "Gaucho" and "Steely Dan's Greatest Hits" are among the musical
trophies displayed above the Fagens' blue floral sofa-sleeper. "The
gold ones are in storage," quips Jerry, careful to clarify that the
gold and platinum albums are symbolic of total record sales and not
made of the precious metals themselves.
In his pocket, Fagen also carries a list of the Top 100 rock artists.
Another paper lists the nominees and inductees to the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. "Look," he says, pointing to the credit card-sized
rosters, which he has painstakingly cross-referenced, "Steely Dan is
number 57."
Nominated, but twice passed over for induction to the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame, Steely Dan outranks Hall of Famers Paul McCartney (62)
and Billy Joel (78) on TV's VH-1 countdown.
"Everyone's been nominated more than once," laughs the retired CPA,
knowledgeably. "Only the Boss (Bruce Springsteen) got in the first
time."
According to the elder Fagens, when their son was growing up in Kendall
Park, N.J., he took an immediate liking to a gift from his grandmother:
a piano. (It's already in storage at the Rock Hall.) That same year,
Donald became the first bar mitzvah at the brand-new synagogue his
father helped establish. The young Fagen was the rabbi's only student
in 1961.
For an entrance evaluation at the Princeton School of Music, the
completely self-taught musician showcased the moving theme song from
the film "Exodus." The school accepted him, but the free-thinking,
young keyboard player, who would later develop jazz chords that some
claim never existed before, flatly rejected the idea of basic, formal
instruction.
Instead, he consumed the piano with an appetite that never seemed
sated. Robbing sleep from his younger sister, Donald would often jam on
the piano in the family room until the wee hours of the morning with an
impromptu band of teenage friends.
"He still plays the piano all the time in my house," says his sister,
Susan Pfaff, a preschool teacher at Carol Nursery School in Shaker
Heights. "He literally has to have a piano wherever he goes." Whether
it's on vacation in Europe, or at his parents' home, she says, Fagen
will rent, buy or otherwise procure a piano as an outlet for his
creative flow.
Playing host to a series of family photographs, the piano in the
Fagens' living room is more than a simple gift from Donald. It ensures
that he will have something to play when he visits his parents. "Even
when we see him free and loose, there is music going on in his head,"
they note.
When he's not sitting at the keyboard, Donald's fingers incessantly
play imaginary keys. The chords and melodies that play in his mind
often make their way to the blank music sheets he always brings along
on his visits here. "(Playing piano) is almost therapeutic for him,"
his sister suggests.
Quick weekend visits with his Cleveland-based family, who have lived
here for 15 years, are traditionally low-key. There is the occasional
jaunt to Half-Price Books (Fagen majored in English literature at Bard
College and is an insatiable reader) or a casual meal in Little Italy.
Otherwise, he goofs around on the piano and discusses jazz chords with
his 15-year-old niece, Emily, an honor student at Shaker Heights High
School, who also plays piano. An old college buddy who lives in town
sometimes drops by, as well.
At the Rock and Soul Revue at Blossom Music Center several years back,
Fagen's parents were whisked from a crowd that "stood screaming for
more with cigarette lighters lit." Seeing their son's fans show their
appreciation in such large numbers "is so great to see!"
While bus travel and a string of budget motels marked Steely Dan's
early years, Fagen now "travels in style," according to his father. "He
charters a plane to take him from venue to venue," and budget motels
have given way to plush Ritz-Carltons.
On one of Fagen's more memorable non-working visits, the accomplished
keyboard artist supplied kazoos for each member of his family,
suggesting they play "Name That Tune" with television theme shows.
Fagen lives in Manhattan with his wife of seven years, songwriter Libby
Titus, who has two grown children from a previous marriage.
Although Fagen is, in many respects, the quintessential New Yorker -
intellectual, arty, and musically mature - "He's really very funny,"
says Pfaff, a quality most people rarely see in her brother. Seldom
seen smiling in photographs, Fagen's public image is understandably
pensive and cautious. "If you want to see him smile," his mother
remarks, "You have to see him with Walter" (his Steely Dan co-founder).
Still Steely after all these years
Reviewed by SUSAN RZEPKA
Staff Reporter
Like a fine red wine in the pop world of bland whites and even blander
musical rosés, the smooth, rich sound of Steely Dan has aged
deliciously in the lost years spent maturing in the studio cellar.
"Two Against Nature," the first new release from Steely Dan in two
decades and nearly five years in the making, serves longtime fans a
lush glass of full- bodied flavor that time has made all the more
potent.
From the first strains of Walter Becker's funky guitar and Donald
Fagen's crisp keyboard on "Gaslighting Abbie," loyal fans will devour
the clever presentation of turbulent lyrics and sleek finishes they've
done without for far too long. In his vocal on "Gaslighting Abbie,"
Fagen sings, "Check out the work itself - a mix of elegance and
function" - and indeed it is.
Always light-years ahead of the pack, Steely Dan has clearly advanced
to a higher level, with a sense of savoir faire and sophistication that
mirrors smooth progression through ascending jazz chords.
Through nine terrific tracks, the unmistakable Steely Dan sound reels
in the years seamlessly. Reminiscent of "Peg," "Deacon Blues," and
"Time Out of Mind," the lyrics tell tales of desire, dysfunction and
despair. A favorite subject, perhaps a carryover from "Gaucho's" barely
legal "Hey, Nineteen," is the narrator's penchant for young, forbidden,
nubile fruit on "Janie Runaway" and "Cousin Dupree." The ward
foreigners - as Jews tune about little-cousin lust, is the CD's first
single.
Tight horn arrangements give way to lounge-like bebopping sax and
clarinet solos. Vibes glisten against a soothing complement of
precision background vocals. The title track is a surprising blend of
spiky ska and contemporary jazz, built upon a framework of the most
cryptic lyrics the CD has to offer.
Accustomed to delivering the cleanest sound on vinyl 20 or more years
ago, long before the advent of compact disc, Steely Dan is perfectly
poised for the digital age. Concurrent with release of the new CD,
Steely Dan has a dedicated Web site: www.steelydan.com - slick mix of
interesting information and irony. Web browsers will find a
tongue-in-cheek bio, tour dates, sound clips and a chance to submit
questions to Becker and Fagen, who, until now, have been rather
recluse.
As Fagen sings in the infectious final track, "West of Hollywood," "It
started out good, then it got much better, making up the rules as we
went along..."
What took them so long?
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Barry Braksick
>For an entrance evaluation at the Princeton School of Music, the
>completely self-taught musician showcased the moving theme song from
>the film "Exodus."
It was a coded message, a cry for help: "Get me out of the suburbs! Please!"
>The school accepted him, but the free-thinking,
>young keyboard player, who would later develop jazz chords that some
>claim never existed before,
The mu-major strikes again! <g>
Mam'zelle Canard
news:020420001626595595%degraafS...@SPAMMENOTiname.com...
> An interview with donald's parents and sister many may have missed.
> Enjoy!
>
> http://www.cleveland.com/jewishnews/thisissue/story5.ssf
Awwwww! That's sooooooo cute!
Reminds me of my own family.
(Well, if my family hadn't been dysfunctional as all hell. And given more to
creating scenes that could have been bad out-takes from early Woody Allen
movies ... )
/the Mam'zelle
now really, really, REALLY feeling all verklempt
(tawk among yourselves)
--
Mam'zelle Canard
http://www.drizzle.com/~mizducky
"Then the room turns bright/And fills up with light ..."
tim r
have you seen ''the hills have eyes''.....
now we're tallkin'.....
is there any wonder we're so twisted we subscribe to
'alt music steely-dan'?
no? catch ya'll later......tim r
Mam'zelle Canard > wrote in message ...
>"David de Graaf" <degraafS...@SPAMMENOTiname.com> wrote in message
>news:020420001626595595%degraafS...@SPAMMENOTiname.com...
>> An interview with donald's parents and sister many may have missed.
>> Enjoy!
>>
>> http://www.cleveland.com/jewishnews/thisissue/story5.ssf
>
Raoul Duke
Mam'zelle Canard wrote:
> "David de Graaf" <degraafS...@SPAMMENOTiname.com> wrote in message
> news:020420001626595595%degraafS...@SPAMMENOTiname.com...
> > An interview with donald's parents and sister many may have missed.
> > Enjoy!
> >
> > http://www.cleveland.com/jewishnews/thisissue/story5.ssf
>
> Awwwww! That's sooooooo cute!
>
> Reminds me of my own family.
>
> (Well, if my family hadn't been dysfunctional as all hell. And given more to
> creating scenes that could have been bad out-takes from early Woody Allen
> movies ... )
Mine too!
I am almost embarrassed to admit it, but my family was (and is) disgustingly
functional.