The only musicians that Donald Fagen actually likes: “I basically listen to the same 40 albums”
Emerging in an era when the countercultural spirit was rife, Steely Dan were one of the only acts who could genuinely claim to have worked against the grain of tradition and what was expected from a band.
While it might seem odd to think so, the counterculture was actually a pretty tight-knit group of bands who, by and large, all wanted to achieve the same kind of widespread success. Sure, they didn’t all want to be The Beatles, it’s hard to imagine Jerry Garcia on The Ed Sullivan Show, but they certainly all wanted to be heard. They all wanted their records to be bought and a touring group of fans to follow them across the country. Steely Dan were different.
As if they would have it any other way, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were total musical and philosophical outliers. Although they might have appeared like just another group of hippies, there was much more to the longhair, shades and generally unkempt appearance than many expected.
Openly disdainful of the counterculture, Steely Dan came from a tradition fusing incisive comedy with innovative musical choices, with two of their earliest heroes being The Fugs and Frank Zappa. Famously, the latter was often deemed inextricable from hippiedom, but he openly hated the movement and did all he could over the years to distance himself from it despite his similar aesthetic. Later in life, Zappa would openly describe himself as a “conservative”, much to the chagrin of fans.
When speaking to Rolling Stone in 2021, Fagen reflected on his career with Steely Dan. Asked if he perceived any similarities between his group and the definitive hippie band, the Grateful Dead, in response, he shared his love for Frank Zappa’s first influential outfit, The Mothers of Invention.
He maintained that if he and Becker had “any models” when they started, it would have been The Mothers. Given the duo’s penchant for comedy, avant-garde and jazz, it’s easy to see how records such as We’re Only in It for The Money and Uncle Meat would have inspired them when getting their project off the ground.
Although there are many similarities between Zappa and Steely Dan in terms of comedy, the musical refinement inherent to their sound that made them stand out from the mass of acts their era produced is the most full-bodied connection. Like Zappa, Becker and Fagen took more from the world of jazz than they did the zeitgeist of rock ‘n’ roll, and that was something Fagen would describe once again when speaking to New York in 2006.
Although he was promoting his most recent solo effort, Morph the Cat, Fagen maintained that he still listened to the same records he did in high school and that the only artists he actually likes are mostly jazz greats, including Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk.
He explained: “I basically listen to the same 40 albums that I listened to in high school, near Princeton. I had much better taste then. I was a kid jazz fan. I only like seven or eight of the greatest artists: Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk … And I like big-band arrangers, like Gil Evans. There’s a band called the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra that I used to like for the arrangements.”
Not exactly a glowing endorsement of all involved, but considering from whose mouth those words came, one can be certain that Fagen adored the musicians in question. To him, they were the true musical heroes, the lifeblood of a movement that would shape generations of performers.
Donald Fagen’s favourite musicians:
- Sonny Rollins
- Charles Mingus
- Miles Davis
- Thelonious Monk
- Gil Evans
- Sauter-Finegan Orchestra
