In the final part of my 1974 MM story
about Steely Dan, Becker and Fagen talk about other bands, not always admiringly...
It was The Beatles, Bob Dylan
and Rolling Stones who shifted Fagen’s and Becker’s allegiance to rock and
roll. They admit to being heavily influenced by The Beatles, and approve of the
ongoing nostalgia for the music of the sixties, a period they consider to be
the most creative in rock music.
“It was exciting and it was new, but the funny thing is it
wasn’t really new, it was just a
different approach,” says Becker. “The Rolling Stones... they were all derived
from rhythm and blues which came from black America. It was fun and that was
most important.”
Both admit to being ardent Dylan fans too, but they were disappointed
with Planet Waves and
neither particularly wanted to see Dylan on his recent US tour. “That album
pales compared to Highway 61.
It’s like a joke,” says Fagen. “It’s probably better than other people’s
albums, but it’s not what a Bob Dylan album used to be. I could count on buying
a Dylan album and wearing it out. There was a good year’s worth of
introspective thinking involved with a new Dylan release, but now...”
They have equally forthright views on today’s rock scene
which they consider to be based totally on commercialism. “It always has been,
but never more so than now,” says Fagen. “It just happened that in the sixties
there were bands that came up one after the other with original ideas, but now
everyone seems to be copying each other. I never seem to hear anything new.
“The last thing I heard that was really and truly new was
the first Band album. The second was good too but after that you could chuck
them out of the window.”
Their explanation for the success of British bands in
America is simple: “The American people love to hear an English accent.”
“In addition to that the English bands seem to have a flair
for a certain type of presentation that was exciting when it first came out.”
says Becker. “Groups like The Who put on the kind of show that American bands
would never do.”
“But it is true that the American people are inexplicably
attracted by the English accent,” says Fagen. “It’s alien and it’s exotic and
they never seem to get used to it. Even I think that. There’s a lot of English
acts could fill, say, Madison Square Garden, but there’s very few of them I
would go and see. It’s ironic that an English band will come out playing the
blues and the blues started in America.”
“I will begrudgingly admit that English bands are more
polished performers. Their recordings are more carefully made and even the bad
ones sound kinda good to me somehow. They’re better than their American
counterparts and I can’t understand how that is,” says Becker.
The conversation turned to a general discussion on which
groups they did and didn’t like. In general they dislike rock groups,
especially the “new wave” of bands that slot into the glitter category. Their
most hated group of all appears to be Slade. “How they ever managed to get enough money
together to come here and tour is a miracle,” says Becker.
Uriah Heep is another band whose popularity amazes them,
along with Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. “Black Oak Arkansas is an American
band who imitate that kind of music and they’re absolute trash,” says Fagen. “I
can’t listen to them. Even if I might enjoy the visual thing, I couldn’t
possibly stay in a room and listen.”
“I like Johnny Dankworth,” says Becker, “and Tubby Hayes.
That’s where it’s at for us. We like all jazz.”
“The more complex groups like Yes, or Jethro Tull or
Emerson Lake & Palmer are more interesting, but I’ve yet to hear one of
those groups that seemed to have developed into anything more than quick
changes and super niceties.
“Yes is a very polished group, but I don’t particularly
like their music,” says Fagen. “Their music doesn’t seem to hold together. We
might be prejudiced because we like short songs and they like long songs. It
has a sort of artificial sound, though, like it was put together deliberately
to appear complicated.
“A lot of those groups seem to me as if they picked up on
Frank Zappa many years ago. Zappa puts a lot of complex things together which
probably don’t make much sense but he looks at it with such a comical eye and
the English bands don’t think it’s funny. They take it very seriously.
“We don’t consider ourselves too serious about the music.
We enjoy ourselves. I’ve been to see about five rock concerts in the last five
years and most of them have been Frank Zappa concerts. I’d go to see the Gil
Evans Big Band or Thelonious Monk. We’re really out of it as far as rock is
concerned. It’s too loud. I’d go to see Joni Mitchell. She uses interesting
chords.”
“You wouldn’t go see Joni Mitchell,” snapped Becker.
“Ok. I might not go see her live, but I have bought Joni
Mitchell records,” Fagen corrected. “Her voice terrifies me.”
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