Billy Joel sent shockwaves through his fan community earlier this month by announcing plans to release a new single, “Turn the Lights Back On,” on Feb. 1. He hasn’t put out new material of any sort since 2007’s “Christmas in Fallujah,” and River of Dreams was his last album of …
Read More »Steely Dan's Donald Fagen Out of Hospital After Unspecified Illness
Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen is no longer in the hospital and expects to return to the road soon, a source close to the situation confirms to Rolling Stone. Steely Dan have missed the last few shows on their tour with the Eagles, starting with a pair of gigs in Denver …
Read More »Joni Mitchell Did Whatever the Hell She Wanted. A New Box of Unheard Music Proves it
Like its two recent multi-disc predecessors,JoniMitchell Archives — Volume 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975)collects live and studio vault tapes from a particular era in Mitchell’s career. This one gets off to a seemingly unbeatable start. Much of its first quarter is devoted to an entire live show from Carnegie Hall …
Read More »'Our World Is More Steely Dan Than It's Ever Been': Why the Seventies Jazz-Rock Cynics Sound Perfect Right Now
You could fill a book with all the shady characters you meet in Steely Dan songs. Quantum Criminals is that book. Journalist Alex Pappademas and artist Joan LeMay take a deep dive into the genius of Steely Dan, and the strange world that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker built together. …
Read More »Steely Dan Weren't Hip-Hop, Even if 'Everything About Them Was Hip-Hop'
Quantum Criminals, the upcoming book by journalist/critic Alex Pappademas and illustrator Joan LeMay, is a comprehensive Steely Dan biography that doubles as a wild trip through the extended Steely Dan universe — the dazzling, seedy, romantically unromantic world Donald Fagen and Walter Becker created together. For the most part, the …
Read More »'You're a Mean Old Mama': Hear Steely Dan's Rare Cover of Joni Mitchell's 'Carey'
A Steely Dan cover of Joni Mitchell‘s “Carey” has been unearthed, and it’s the kind of soft rock summer treat you’d expect. The Blue track — which Mitchell wrote after an encounter with a chef in Crete — sounds especially jazzy here, and the duo even swaps gender and uses …
Read More »Donald Fagen Denies 'Ridiculous' Claim About Why Aimee Mann Was Dropped From Steely Dan Tour
Donald Fagen has denied Aimee Mann’s claim that she was dropped as the opening act for Steely Dan’s new tour because, as she speculated, “they thought their audience wouldn’t like a female singer-songwriter.” In a statement to Rolling Stone, Fagen explained, “Well, first of all, the idea that I would …
Read More »Steely Dan's Donald Fagen Talks Lessons in Sleaze and a Rabbi With a Fastball
In chaotic times, Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen found calm and comfort in what some would consider chaotic music: Bebop records by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were his pandemic soundtrack, and as he tells Rolling Stone, “It’s weird; a lot of people get anxious when they hear bebop, but it …
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