The new Donald Fagen project ‘Morph the Cat’ came out today and now I’m happily grooving to Mr. Fagen’s music.
There were two events that finally got me into the music of Steely Dan and Messrs. Fagen and Becker. I was driving back to college during a time when I nothing more to listen to than FM radio. I feel completely spoiled today with a CD player or iPod my vehicle, but I did have several lucky occurrences from scanning the radio dial. I was on a length of highway 28 and caught a morning show that was featuring the music of Steely Dan. I managed to catch about 30 minutes of the show and heard such tunes as ‘Babylon Sisters’, ‘Hey Nineteen’, and ‘FM’. After getting back to the lowly college apartment, I borrowed the roommate’s Citizen Steely Dan boxed set and became a fan.
Sometime over that winter break, I had a lot of time on my hands (I believe this was pre-computer days) and spent most of a week when not tending bar, doing nothing but laying on our $25 Goodwill couch and reading. I loaded up the CD player with all four discs from the boxed set and spent a good part of each day absorbing the jazz influenced melodies and impeccable studio chops of the band.
I occasionally get locked into musical patterns when I’m stuck on an artist and listen to nothing but their entire catalog for weeks on end. This happens with artists such as ‘Wilco’ or ‘John Coltrane’, but at least once a year I load up the mp3 player with every bit of Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, and Walter Becker music that I have.
It’s too early to judge the newest project, but it sounds like vintage Fagen, so I think I’ll be quite content.