Word: fagen
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Before the Kenny G's of the world hijacked jazz-pop fusion and turned it into something best suited to elevators, guitarist Walter Becker and keyboardist Donald Fagen used the genre to create sharp, ravishing songs that were as invigorating as Kenny's are insipid. As Steely Dan, the pair combined the ! subversiveness of rock with the cool swing of jazz, yielding seven hit albums and sleek, acerbic singles like Hey Nineteen, about a 30ish Lothario and his drug-loving teenage girlfriend. Becker, whose stringy hair and Fu Manchu lent him a certain wanted-poster chic, and Fagen, in ever...
Steely Dan disbanded at its peak in 1980, but Fagen resurfaced with two successful solo records in 1982 and 1993. Besides producing a few albums for other musicians (including Fagen), Becker stopped making records completely and holed up in his house in Maui. Now Becker's solo debut, 11 Tracks of Whack, is finally here, and it shows that he has not lost his touch...
...gather momentum as breezy vocals and serpentine horn charts glide over a swinging rhythm section. Trans-Island Skyway builds from a muttering bass line and ice-cool finger snaps to an exhilarating joyride that derives part of its thrill from the danger lurking around the next bend. When Fagen sings, "Strap in tight cause it's a long sweet ride," it's like speeding in a convertible with the top down...
Kamakiriad is described by Fagen as an allegorical journey set in the near future where "the narrator, instead of having a winged horse, has an environmentally correct car called a Kamakiri, which in Japanese means preying mantis." Typically, there are other, unspoken, allusions. Kamikaze for one -- the headlong, heedless plunge into a blaze of glory. But in this case Fagen's muse has emerged Phoenix-like from the ashes to resurrect the spirit of a brilliantly quirky collaboration...
MUSIC Donald Fagen revives the ghost of Steely...