Donald Fagen Recalls Lennon's Murder

[Norbert]

In December 1980, I was living three blocks from the Dakota,
watching Monday Night Football, when Howard Cosell announced that John
Lennon had been shot in the back. I walked over and watched while a
huge crowd of sobbing New Yorkers gathered at Seventy-Second Street and
Central Park West. This pretty much set the tone of the decade to come.
After delivering my album The Nightfly to Warner Brothers, I came apart
like a cheap suit. The panic attacks I used to get as a kid returned,
only now accompanied by morbid thoughts and paranoia, big-time. I could
barely get through the day, much less write music. I starting seeing a
shrink and gobbling antidepressants.

-- from Fagen's memoir Eminent Hipsters

[super70s]

Post by Norbert
In December 1980, I was living three blocks from the Dakota,
watching Monday Night Football, when Howard Cosell announced that John
Lennon had been shot in the back.

Also how I learned of the assassination. At the time I also happened to
be perusing a listing of Beatles 45's in a record shop catalog, Corny's
Record Shop in Ohio who did mail order. Most (but not all) were later
generation Capitol pressings and I still own them today.

Post by Norbert
I walked over and watched while a
huge crowd of sobbing New Yorkers gathered at Seventy-Second Street and
Central Park West. This pretty much set the tone of the decade to come.
After delivering my album The Nightfly to Warner Brothers,

Great album.

Post by Norbert
I came apart like a cheap suit. The panic attacks I used to get as a
kid returned,
only now accompanied by morbid thoughts and paranoia, big-time. I could
barely get through the day, much less write music. I starting seeing a
shrink and gobbling antidepressants.

It's a shame if it shook him up so bad he was never able to replicate
the critical and commercial success of the Nightfly album, either solo
or with Steely Dan (he wasn't, even if "Two Against Nature" won a
Grammy and sold fairly well I guess).

Post by Norbert
-- from Fagen's memoir Eminent Hipsters

[Norbert]

I iiked Two Against Nature a lot (with the exception of the title
track and one or two others). A problem, however, is that Walter Becker
was allowed to play too much of the bass and lead guitar. And the
drumming is too simple; it could almost be mistaken for a machine in
places.

Steely Dan's oeuvre abounds in amazing guitar and bass -- but none
of it is Becker's. The great basslines are Chuck Rainey's; the great
guitar is guys including Jon Herington, Jeff Baxter and Denny Dias.

Becker was an entertaining wordsmith, but they should have left
the guitar and bass to the experts.

Same with Fagen's solo album Kamakiriad. Becker produced it and
played lead guitar and bass, both of which were noodly. "Where's Chuck
Rainey?" was a 1-line review I recall, and could not have agreed with
more.

[super70s]

Post by Norbert
I iiked Two Against Nature a lot (with the exception of the title
track and one or two others). A problem, however, is that Walter Becker
was allowed to play too much of the bass and lead guitar. And the
drumming is too simple; it could almost be mistaken for a machine in
places.
Steely Dan's oeuvre abounds in amazing guitar and bass -- but none
of it is Becker's. The great basslines are Chuck Rainey's; the great
guitar is guys including Jon Herington, Jeff Baxter and Denny Dias.

Yes I've owned a "Making of Aja" DVD from Eagle Rock/Image
Entertainment for several years and it shows them in the studio playing
with all those great musicians from that era, also at the mixing board
talking about the individual tracks.

I also own a "Two Against Nature" concert DVD that came out around the
same time as the album and I've watched it several times over the
years. Even though it's called Two Against Nature they only do a couple
of numbers from that album and it's mostly their '70s hits. It was a
great investment along with the Making of Aja DVD.

I did get to see them live once in 2006, with Michael McDonald as the
opener and he also came out later and did some songs with them,
particularly Steely Dan songs he sang back-up on.

Post by Norbert
Becker was an entertaining wordsmith, but they should have left
the guitar and bass to the experts.
Same with Fagen's solo album Kamakiriad. Becker produced it and
played lead guitar and bass, both of which were noodly. "Where's Chuck
Rainey?" was a 1-line review I recall, and could not have agreed with
more.

I think it all comes down to the quality of the songwriting, IMO it was
never there after The Nightfly and the pre-Nightfly Steely Dan albums.

[Norbert]

I love the Making of Aja! I wish they had done similar docs about all
of their 70s albums.

I enjoyed Walter's playing of rejected guitar parts and his explanations
of why they nixed what they did and kept what they did.

One of the most entertaining parts for me was Chuck Rainey's explanation
of how he got his outstanding slapping bass part down on the chorus of
"Peg" when Becker & Fagen had forbidden slapping. He recorded it turned
away from them!