Seems weird to me Donald Fagen would tour as Steely Dan so soon after Becker’s death; would it have been too much trouble for Donald Fagen to bill the act as "Donald Fagen of Steely Dan"or at the very least “Steely Dan featuring Donald Fagen” and maybe take over the SD moniker, lets say, I don’t know, 5 years from now??
It’s not like Dan was a 5 man band and the keyboardist went toes up; Steely was about two guys, and one died.
I get there were some legal wrangling over the band name, but this seems “too soon” to me. Let the body get cold first . . …
I’m sure name recognition has something to do with it. I mean of course true fans would know who Donald Fagen is, but to a lot of people it would be “Donald who?”
That show got a great review from the linked article.
No problem with it whatsoever. The Eagles and Queen have both carried on under their original names despite the loss of a key founding member and I see no reason why Steely Dan shouldn’t be able to do the same. Neither the memory nor admiration for the artistic contributions of Glenn Frey or Freddie Mercury have been diminished by their bands’ having carried on under their original name. If anything, their loss seems even more poignant by virtue of their absence, and that absence itself seems to serve as a constant reminder of who they were and the contributions they made to their bands.
When people see the Eagles or Queen, they’re aware every moment that Glenn Frey or Freddie Mercury aren’t there and they’re wishing this weren’t so. Same with Steely Dan. I know if I were in the audience for a Steely Dan show today I’d be very, very much aware of and missing Walter Becker. But on the other hand, a performance entitled “Donald Fagen presents the Music of Steely Dan” would seem to me to be leaving Becker behind in favor of Fagen and the new, differently named band. So it’s possible that by attempting to respect Becker’s memory by recasting Steely Dan as a different entity, the effect is actually to make people either forget Becker or relegate him to the past in a way they wouldn’t if they were watching Steely Dan as it’s always been but with an empty spot where he formerly stood.
There might be business reasons why it is being done, things that might supercede anyones decision or way it looks.
I’ve said it before: if he gets Denny Dias, and Jeff Baxter to tour he can call it God and it would be OK. This ought to be the opportunity to explore other dan contributors.
I really dislike seeing that writer refer to Donald Fagen as “crass”, even though he seems to talk himself out of it at the end. I think it is wrong to assert that Fagen is doing something shady by using the Steely Dan name. The man is 70 years old, if he still enjoys touring (or still needs to tour) I feel like he is entitled to leverage his life’s work, just as Walter Becker would have been if he had survived Fagen. It doesn’t take anything away from Becker’s contribution, in actually helps keep appreciation for it alive. If there is some financial arrangement that needs to be made to Becker’s estate in recognition of his contribution to the ongoing value of the name then the lawyers and accountants should work that out, but I don’t have any problem with the surviving member representing himself and supporting players as Steely Dan. I think it’s sickening to call it “crass”.
I’m guessing there are no new Steely Dan songs recently? I mean, as far as I’m aware the “Steely Dan canon” is solidly understood and not in a state of flux. Any responsible and skilled performer who knows the music and who has Fagen’s approval is fine with me.
I don’t think anybody is being cheated or deceived.
I never used the word “crass” and just asked if this was “cynical”. I was more or less expressing my initial feeling when I heard Dan was still performing without one half of the duo.
There seems to be a lot of evidence on this thread that technically Walter Becker and Donald Fagen signed an agreement that whoever survived got to carry on the Dan name and if true, that’s good enough for me. Sounds like Steely Dan could have hired a better publicist to spin this tour, IMO . . . . .
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I think you may be overestimating the concert-going audience’s devotion to Walter Becker. It’s always seemed to me that whatever his value to the band was, it took place offstage, perhaps in the writing/lyrics area. Certainly Becker was an accomplished musician and Fagen always seemed to regard him as an equal, but to most people Donald Fagen *is *Steely Dan. Listen to a Walter Becker solo album and it doesn’t sound like Steely Dan. Listen to a Donald Fagen solo album and it sounds exactly like Steely Dan, vocally of course, but also instrumentally. Fagen is the one who the audiences want to see and hear.
I was fortunate enough to attend a Steely Dan concert three years ago this summer and to sit about seven rows back from the stage, and of all the people onstage the only one whose contribution couldn’t be identified was Becker’s. He was a cool guy and provided a certain amount of comic relief, but he could have stopped playing at any time and I don’t think anyone would have known the difference. And then when it came time for band member introductions, Becker received pretty much the same level of applause that each of the other band members got, but when Fagen was introduced every man, woman and child in the place instantly leapt to their feet in thunderous applause. I felt badly for Becker at the time because the difference in audience appreciation was so great, but both he and the rest of the band seemed to regard it as standard fare. For his part Fagen seemed embarrassed by or uncomfortable because of the applause and noodled on his keyboards the whole time without ever looking up, but he was clearly the star of the band in everyone’s mind.
I was very sorry when Walter Becker died. He seemed to be a really cool, laid back and funny guy, and he’d probably have been the easiest to have been around offstage. But again, to the vast majority of the Dan’s listenership, Donald Fagen is Steely Dan. I doubt that 99.9 percent of the Dan’s concert-going audiences care at all that Fagen is promoting concerts and performing under the Steely Dan name this soon after Becker’s passing.
No, you never used the word “crass.” It was the author of the L. A. Times article who said it felt crass, and that was whom Periwinkle was referring to.