Donald Fagen on Walter Becker's Death Steely Dan's Future
Donald Fagen
In mid-December  Donald Fagen  sat down in Sirius XM’s studios for an in-depth interview –  his  first since the September death of Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker – on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast  hosted by Brian Hiatt. Here are some highlights from the conversation  which spanned the entire history of Steely Dan. To hear the entire discussion  see below or download and subscribe on iTunes or Spotify.
 Fagen  got to spend one last day with Becker in August. "When I heard  he  was really ill "  he  says  "I was on the road in  I think  Salina  Kansas  and I flew back. I had a day off and  he  was in  his  apartment in New York. And I was really glad that I went. I could see  he  was really struggling. When I put a chair next to the bed   he  grabbed my hand. It was something  he  had never done ever before. And we had a great talk and  you know   he  was listening to hard bop –  his  wife had put on Dexter Gordon records.  He  was very weak but  he  was still very funny. I'm really glad I had those hours."
If it were up to  Fagen    he  would refer to the post-Becker touring incarnation of the band as " Donald Fagen  and the Steely Dan Band." "I would actually prefer to call it  Donald Fagen  and the Steely Dan Band or something like that "  he  says  noting that promoters have so far insisted that  he  call it Steely Dan for commercial reasons. "That's an ongoing debate. To me  Steely Dan was just me and Walter  really – it was like a concept we had together."
 Fagen  had hoped to record another Steely Dan album – which would have been the first since 2003's Everything Must Go – but Becker wasn't interested. "Walter had some health problems " says  Fagen   "and especially after 2011-12  I think just being ill for so long  he had a little bit of a personality change and he was much more isolated  and he kinda wasn't that interested in working on Steely Dan records anymore. It also might have to do with the specter of doing an album that would be on the same standard that we did previously. Maybe that scared him a little bit  or maybe he didn't have the energy. I did ask him once in a while if he wanted to do something – and he'd usually say  'yeah  sure ' but then he wouldn't call me or whatever  so it was obvious that he lost some of the enthusiasm."
In [TGT]sat down in Sirius XM’s studios for an in-depth interview –  his  first since the September death of Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker – on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast  hosted by Brian Hiatt. Here are some highlights from the conversation  which spanned the entire history of Steely Dan. To hear the entire discussion  see below or download and subscribe on iTunes or Spotify.
 [TGT]got to spend one last day with Becker in August. "When I heard  [TGT]  was really ill "  he  says  "I was on the road in  I think  Salina  Kansas  and I flew back. I had a day off and  he  was in  his  apartment in New York. And I was really glad that I went. I could see  he  was really struggling. When I put a chair next to the bed   he  grabbed my hand. It was something  he  had never done ever before. And we had a great talk and  you know   he  was listening to hard bop –  his  wife had put on Dexter Gordon records.  He  was very weak but  he  was still very funny. I'm really glad I had those hours."
If it were up to  [TGT][TGT]  would refer to the post-Becker touring incarnation of the band as " [TGT]and the Steely Dan Band." "I would actually prefer to call it  [TGT]and the Steely Dan Band or something like that "  [TGT]  says  noting that promoters have so far insisted that  [TGT]  call it Steely Dan for commercial reasons. "That's an ongoing debate. To me  Steely Dan was just me and Walter  really – it was like a concept we had together."
 Fagen  had hoped to record another Steely Dan album – which would have been the first since 2003's Everything Must Go – but Becker wasn't interested. "Walter had some health problems " says  Fagen   "and especially after 2011-12  I think just being ill for so long  he had a little bit of a personality change and he was much more isolated  and he kinda wasn't that interested in working on Steely Dan records anymore. It also might have to do with the specter of doing an album that would be on the same standard that we did previously. Maybe that scared him a little bit  or maybe he didn't have the energy. I did ask him once in a while if he wanted to do something – and he'd usually say  'yeah  sure ' but then he wouldn't call me or whatever  so it was obvious that he lost some of the enthusiasm."