Donald Jay Fagen (born January 10, 1948) is an American musician who was the co-founder, lead singer, co-songwriter, and keyboardist of the band
Steely Dan, formed in the early 1970s with musical partner
Walter Becker. In addition to his work with Steely Dan, Fagen has released four solo albums, beginning with The Nightfly in 1982, which was nominated for seven
Grammys.
In 2001, Fagen was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Steely Dan. Following Becker's death in 2017, Fagen continued to tour alone under the Steely Dan name.
Early life
Fagen was born in
Passaic, New Jersey, on January 10, 1948[2] to
Jewish parents, Joseph "Jerry" Fagen, an
accountant, and his wife, Elinor, a homemaker who had been a swing singer in upstate New York's
Catskill Mountains from childhood through her teens.[3][4] His family moved to
Fair Lawn, a small town near Passaic. When he was ten years old, he moved with his parents and younger sister to
Kendall Park, a newly constructed suburban section of
South Brunswick, New Jersey. The transition upset him. He detested living in the suburbs.[5] He later recalled that it "was like a prison. I think I lost faith in [my parents'] judgment... It was probably the first time I realized I had my own view of life." His life in Kendall Park, including his teenage love of late-night radio,[6] inspired his later album The Nightfly.[3]
After graduating from
South Brunswick High School in 1965, he enrolled at
Bard College to study English literature, where he met[10]Walter Becker in a coffee house in 1967.[11] Becker and Fagen attracted a revolving assortment of musicians, including future actor
Chevy Chase, to form the bands Leather Canary, the Don Fagen Jazz Trio, and the Bad Rock Band.[12] Fagen described his college bands as sounding like "
the Kingsmen performing
Frank Zappa material".[13] None of the groups lasted long, but the partnership between Fagen and Becker did. The duo's early career included working with
Jay and the Americans, for which they used pseudonyms. In the early 1970s they worked as pop songwriters for
ABC/Dunhill Records, which released all of Steely Dan's 1970s albums.[14]
Becker and Fagen began to form Steely Dan in the summer of 1970, responding to a Village Voice ad for "a bassist and keyboard player with jazz chops" placed by guitarist
Denny Dias. Dias was immediately impressed by the pair's abilities, and especially that they already had a whole stack of original material.[15] (Fans of
Beat Generation literature, Fagen and Becker named the band after a steam-powered vibrator mentioned in the
William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch.[16][17][18]) The group's first lineup was assembled in December 1971 in Los Angeles, where Becker and Fagen had relocated to work as staff songwriters for
ABC/Dunhill. Becker and Fagen formed the core of the band and wrote all the songs, with Becker on bass, and later lead guitar, and Fagen on keyboards and vocals.
After the release of their third LP in 1974, the other members left or were fired from the band, which evolved into a studio project headed by Becker and Fagen. Steely Dan's best-selling album was 1977's Aja, which was
certified platinum. Three years later, they released Gaucho. Their next album was not until 1995, when they released the live album Alive in America. It was followed by the multiple
Grammy Award winning Two Against Nature in 2000, and Steely Dan's most recent album Everything Must Go in 2003. A concert DVD, Two Against Nature, included material from much of the band's history.[14]
After Becker's death in 2017, Fagen wished to retire the Steely Dan name out of respect for his bandmate and tour under a different name, but promoters advised him against it for commercial reasons.[19] As of 2024, Fagen continues to tour as Steely Dan.[20]
Solo career
After Steely Dan's breakup in 1981, Fagen released his debut solo album, The Nightfly, in October 1982. It was certified platinum for sales of over a million copies in the U.S. and reached 11 on the Billboard Top 200 albums list.[21] The first single, "
I.G.Y.", released in September 1982,[22] peaked at number 26 on the Hot 100. The follow-up single, "
New Frontier" (January 1983[23]), peaked at number 70 and was accompanied by a music video. The Nightfly was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In 2002,
Rhino Records released a
DVD-Audio version of The Nightfly in honor of the album's 20th anniversary. The bonus track, "True Companion", from the Nightfly Trilogy MVI Boxed Set is track seven on the
Heavy Metal film soundtrack. Fagen also contributed "Century's End" to the soundtrack for the 1988
Michael J. Fox film, Bright Lights, Big City.
During the rest of the 1980s, Fagen contributed to soundtracks and wrote a column for Premiere magazine. In the early 1990s, he toured with
the New York Rock and Soul Revue.[2] Becker and Fagen reunited in 1986 to work on the debut album by model and singer
Rosie Vela.[24] Fagen co-produced and played keyboards on Walter Becker's solo album debut 11 Tracks of Whack (1994). Becker produced Fagen's second album, Kamakiriad (1993), which was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Album of the Year and reached number 10 on the Top 200 albums chart.[21]
Fagen's first three albums were released in a box set, Nightfly Trilogy, in the
MVI (Music Video Interactive) format. Each album features
DTS 5.1, Dolby 5.1 and PCM Stereo mix but no MLP encoded track, along with bonus audio and video content.
Fagen's fourth album, Sunken Condos, was released in 2012. It reached 12 on the Billboard Top 200 albums list.[21]
In 2012, Fagen toured with
the Dukes of September, featuring
Michael McDonald and
Boz Scaggs. One of the concerts was recorded at Lincoln Center in New York City and broadcast on PBS Great Performances in 2014.[26]
In 2013, Fagen published an autobiography titled Eminent Hipsters.[27] A biography Nightfly: The Life of Steely Dan's Donald Fagen by Peter Jones was published in 2022.[28]
Fagen frequently uses aliases. He wrote the liner notes to Can't Buy a Thrill under the name Tristan Fabriani, which he used on stage when he played keyboards for Jay and the Americans (Becker used Gus Mahler). On his solo albums, when he played or programmed a synthesizer part to replicate a real instrument (bass, vibraphone, horns) he credited one of his aliases: Illinois Elohainu, Phonus Quaver, or Harlan Post.[citation needed]
Style and themes
Fagen has classified himself as both a self-taught pianist and a self-taught vocalist, although he did spend a few semesters studying formally at
Berklee College of Music and took some vocal lessons in the mid-1970s as a precaution after feeling the straining effects of years of touring. Although he learned to become an entertainer, early on Fagen suffered from severe stage fright, which prompted Steely Dan producer
Gary Katz to hire
David Palmer to sing two songs on Steely Dan's debut album, Can't Buy a Thrill. This also led to the hiring of
Royce Jones and
Michael McDonald as singers in the band's tours in the early 1970s. Fagen plays the
Fender Rhodes electric piano and
Wurlitzer electric piano.
According to
Robert Christgau, in terms of lyrics, Fagen is a "pathological
ironist"[29] who "doesn't much care about
hippies" or the message of his generation's
counterculture: "His '60s are the
Kennedy years, when a smart, somewhat shallow suburban white kid could dream of
Brubeck and
bohemia and
bomb-shelter wingdings and transoceanic rail links to exotic locales."[30]
In 1993 Fagen married songwriter
Libby Titus. Although the two attended Bard College at around the same time, they did not become friends until 1987 when they were backstage at a
Dr. John concert. On January 4, 2016, Titus sustained injuries after Fagen allegedly shoved her against a marble window frame at their
Upper East Side apartment.[32][14]
Titus co-wrote the song "Florida Room" on the 1993 album Kamakiriad. Fagen has performed with his stepdaughter
Amy Helm, daughter of Titus and musician
Levon Helm.[33] Fagen has no children of his own.
1970–1971: Jay and the Americans, touring band – keyboards
1970: Jay and the Americans, Capture the Moment (United Artists), "Capture the Moment", "Tricia (Tell Your Daddy)", "She’ll Be Young Forever" and "Thoughts That I’ve Taken To Bed" – co-arranger (with Walter Becker) strings and horns
1970: Linda Hoover, I Mean To Shine (
Omnivore Recordings, released 2022) – keyboards, arranger, co-writer (with Walter Becker) of five songs
1973:
Thomas Jefferson Kaye,Thomas Jefferson Kaye (
Dunhill Records), "The Door Is Still Open", "Learning How To Fly" and "I’ll Be Leaving Her Tomorrow" – backing vocals
1974:
Thomas Jefferson Kaye (ABC Records), First Grade, "Northern California" – piano
1988:
Phil Woods' Little Big Band, Evolution (Concord) – liner notes
1988: The Hoops McCann Band, Plays The Music Of Steely Dan (
MCA Records), "Rapunzel" (plus seven Steely Dan songs) – co-writer (with Walter Becker), mixing
1988:
Bright Lights, Big City (Warner Bros.), "Bright Lights, Big City" (
Jimmy Reed, writer) – vocals, keyboards, programming, arranger, co-producer (with Gary Katz)
2009: Sam Butler & the Boys /
Clarence Fountain, Stepping Up & Stepping Out (
Tyscot Records), "It's a Different World Now" – melodica, liner notes
2009: Memory Man: A
Michael Leonhart Film featuring Donald Fagen, promotional video for the
Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man effects pedal – The Memory Man
2012:
Jon Herington, Time On My Hands (Wise Axe Inc.), "Caroline Yes" and "Egirl" – piano and electric piano
2013:
Tom Schiller & Donald Fagen, The Tom & Don Tapes, Vol. 1 – conversation
2014:
The Dukes Of September, The Dukes Of September: Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs – Live At Lincoln Center (DVD/Blu-ray,
429 Records) – vocals, keyboards, melodica
2018:
Derek Smalls, Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing) (
BMG), "Memo To Willie" – vocals
2018: Far Cry, The More Things Change..., "The Hits Just Keep On Comin' " (Columbia), "It's Not As Simple As That" and "Some Things Will Never Change" – vocals
2018: Peter More, Beautiful Disrepair (Night Owl Productions) – producer
2019:
Paul Shaffer, Paul Shaffer Plus One (TV) (Series 1, Episode 5) – conversation, electric piano
2021:
David Crosby, For Free (BMG), "Rodriguez For A Night" – co-writer (with David Crosby and James Raymond), keyboards
2022: Linda Hoover, I Mean To Shine (Omnivore Recordings),[54] "I Mean To Shine", "Turn My Friend Away", "The Roaring of The Lamb", "Jones" - co-writer (with Walter Becker), "Roll Back The Meaning" - co-writer (with Walter Becker and Dorothy White), keyboards
Writing
1987: "Henry Mancini's Anomie Deluxe",
Premiere Magazine.[55] Revised and reprinted in Eminent Hipsters.
1988: "In The Throes of Lakmania", Premiere Magazine.[56]
1988: "Tell Blondie To Break Out The Ice", Premiere Magazine.[57]
^
abFagen, Donald (2013). Eminent hipsters. Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated.
ISBN9780670025510.
^James L. Kelley, "Steely Dan's Donald Fagen: A case of mistaken self-identity, corrected by self-reformulation." In: E. Vanderheiden, & C.-H. Mayer (Eds.), Mistakes, errors and failures across cultures: Navigating potentials (pp. 91-107). Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019, p. 97.
^
ab"
Certified Awards SearchArchived 2013-01-15 at the
Wayback Machine".
British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved on September 22, 2011. Note: User needs to enter "Donald Fagen" in the "Search" field, "Artist" in the "Search by" field and click the "Go" button. Select "More info" next to the relevant entry to see full certification history.