The rock star Donald Fagen considered a walking miracle: “Actually very inspiring”
I remember the moment I realised I wasn’t a huge Sam Fender fan. That opening line may seem slightly out of pocket given the title of this article, but stay with me. I was at a show in Hyde Park and Sam Fender was supporting the headliner. I was excited to see him. Granted, I didn’t know all of his tunes, but I knew about ‘Seventeen Going Under’ and ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ and what you have.
Blazing sun, the Geordie prodigy takes to the stage, and the crowd goes wild. I thought he was opening with ‘Seventeen Going Under’, but he wasn’t, then I thought he played it second, but he didn’t, and third, and fourth, and so on. My point is that when you go into one of his shows only knowing a couple of songs, it doesn’t take long to realise that almost every song sounds the same, at least for that first album it did, I haven’t listened beyond then.
The other thing was that it was hardly the most captivating show I had ever seen. Fender had a lot of charisma and seemed like a nice person, but I wasn’t particularly blown away by the performance. This opinion was all but cemented once the headliner came on stage, and I realised what decades of being one of the greatest frontmen in the world looked like. This performer is also the same one that Donald Fagen considered a walking miracle (see, I told you I was going somewhere with it).
Donald Fagen has a great deal of respect for the live performance. It’s a common misconception that he hated playing live; he didn’t. He had a lot of fun performing with Steely Dan, but decided he preferred working in the studio over playing on stage. By stopping performing, the pressure to write songs which could be played live ceased, and he could really embrace his creativity. Despite this affinity for the studio, though, Fagen still enjoyed both watching people play live and doing it himself.
Jeff Baxter, the band’s guitarist, confirmed as much. “I think it could be said that I was the most energetic player in the band but I also know that the idea that no one else in the band enjoyed playing live was pretty much a myth,” he said, “When I watch early Steely Dan performances, it’s pretty clear that Fagen is enjoying himself.”
Subsequently, Fagen has a huge amount of respect for great frontmen, and he said that there are none better than Mick Jagger. This is who strode onto the stage that day, the first time I saw Sam Fender. Now, is comparing a young musician from Newcastle to one of the most prolific singers in rock ‘n’ roll a bit unfair? Yes, of course it is, but it is also a great example of what comes with experience, and who has more experience owning a stage than Mick Jagger?
Fagen agreed, as when he went to see The Rolling Stones, he was blown away by just how much energy Jagger had. “I saw The Rolling Stones the other day. They were great. You know, I mean, Mick Jagger was in incredible shape, he was actually very inspiring,” he said, “Not only was he pounding around for two hours, but he seems to sing just as well doing that, as if he was standing still, which is quite miraculous.”
