Steely Dan Can Be Like The Grateful Dead

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Donald Fagen said Steely Dan could have been like the Grateful Dead if their own chosen musical approach hadn’t worked.

He and late partner Walter Becker struggled to find a foothold in their early days, and in a new interview with Rolling Stone he recalled that they originally got inspiration from Frank Zappa after watching him play. rehearsals and performs in the Village district of New York. “We love what he does on stage and humor, like a combination of Lenny Bruce and hippie, counter-cultural humor,” Fagen said.

“And then the Dead, we’re both satisfied with it for a variety of reasons, as well as the counter-cultural thing. But … we’re kind of on the cusp between counterculture and whatever. “We don’t take it seriously. There’s something good about it, but otherwise we see how it can fail.”

He continued: “But we liked the Dead; we particularly liked some of their tones and the way they played.” He acknowledged that some of the Dead shows they attended were a “mess … but in general speaks they have a very good groove, and the way they interact with each other in music is really fascinating to us.At one point, I think if we didn’t go the way we were going, we might have tried to do something more improvisational like Dead. ”He said they were also influenced by Vvett Underground,“ perhaps to a lesser degree ”and all their artistic interests led to Bob Dylan,“ because nothing in things Bob doesn’t have. “

One element that will probably persist in whatever direction Steely Dan takes is humor, Fagen said, who acknowledged that writing the song with Becker was about “trying to make everyone laugh”. “Yeah, pretty much, until the last song we wrote. It was one of my favorite things – to be with him and try to mess with him. And vice versa.”

That humor is also present in their music. “Right from the start, because of our jazz backgrounds, we thought it would be fun to play these 13th chords on a loud, twisted electric guitar,” he said. “There’s a kind of paradox involved throughout the project, and it goes along with the lyrics we’re writing.”

Asked to choose the songs he finds funny, he replied, “‘Gaucho’ is funny. To me, they’re all funny. Some of the older-man-more-gal songs, like ‘Hey Nineteen’ and ‘Janie Runaway,’ we always make fun of. “

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