Nightfly

The Life of Steely Dan's Donald Fagen

By: Peter Jones

Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray

Donald Fagen will forever be associated with Steely Dan, the band he formed with Walter Becker and four other musicians in 1972.

The smooth radio-friendly veneer of the duo's songs made Steely Dan internationally popular and famous in the 1970s, but the polish glossed over the underlying layers of anger, disappointment, sleaze, and often downright weirdness lurking just beneath the surface. The elliptical lyrics—were—and continue to be-an endless source of fascination. What kind of person was capable of writing such songs?

Fagen has always kept his true self hidden behind walls of irony, confounding most journalistic enquiries with a mixture of obscurity and sarcasm. Nightfly cracks open the door to reveal the life behind the lyrics and traces Fagen's story from early family life in suburban New Jersey, to his first encounter with Walter Becker at Bard College, their long struggle for recognition as songwriters, and the formation of Steely Dan. The band's break-up in 1981, reformation in 1993, and Fagen's parallel solo career are covered in detail.

©2022 Peter Jones (P)2022 Tantor

The deets

It was a nice experience to get updated. Good to hear that he weathered the decades well.

Eccentric. Great Detailed Story

Loved the details and story. Some happy with many says. Glad SD is still touring. Going to checkout all the stuff I missed.

Not even done yet

Peter Jones does a magnificent job of telling the story of one rock & rolls most unique outfits, Steely Dan as well as the life of Donald Fagen. I love the stories of the record making experiences as well as the glimpse into the world of Donald Fagen. This a must read for any hardcore fan or someone daring to get into something different musically. A+++

Great book

Lots of fun facts and details. Liked the timeline approach. Learned a lot I didn’t know

Fagen

I was hoping that the mysterious Mr. Fagen would be revealed but, alas, not really. I would have enjoyed more in-depth detail regarding his personal life along with his brilliant musical history.

TV Babies Unite

Learned a lot about his connections to the rest of the rock world. Helm's Midnight Ramblers would have been amazing!

Inspired a deeper relisten to the SD catalog appreciated both lyrics and music on a new level.

If you like SD at all this book is for you.

behind the scenes

a behind the scenes look at some of my favorite music. the stories were great and narration not bad. except for a slight program glitch ever few minutes. a great insde look at steely dan

Didn’t want it to end

Very enjoyable trip through personal and musical details of their (about Donald but almost equal Walter info) past.
Takes some shine off their dedication to band members and engineers if that is possible
But it takes some flaws to see the world through those eyes

Missed Opportunity.

As a Steely Dan fan, I relish any opportunity to read detailed information that reflects on the creative process and the details and nuances of their recordings. I was in high school when Can’t Buy A Thrill was released and in college for that fabulous run of albums in the 70s. I was a huge Beatles and Springsteen fan and enjoyed a great deal of the R&B albums of that time. The sophistication of the writing, and the production of Steely Dan‘s albums were incomparable. So with this book, I enjoyed a lot of the detailed comment about the production. I enjoyed some of the details of Walter and Donald’s upbringing also. I thought author Peter Jones was inconsistent in the story he was trying to tell. I think the overarching sense I have about this book was that Peter had a axe to grind against Donald Fagen and Walter Becker and I don’t know why. He often drifted into tabloid quality writing when framing Donald and Walter in a negative light. In one instance the author details an incident where Donald and his wife had an argument resulting in police involvement and subsequent dismissal of charges yet much later in the book the author chose to refer to that incident again sarcastically. There are also multiple instances of representing Donald as taking advantage of others financially with very little detail as to source of information or attempts to hear Donald’s side. It was very disappointing. I listened to the entire book hoping that the quality of the writing would improve but it peaked at a quality level that I would just call Fair, Sophomoric. There is no doubt when one looks at Steely Dan objectively those 6 albums were the pinnacle of creative adult album rock in the 70s.
Anyway, it’s an ok book.

I love everything steely Dan

Audio was quite informative and easy to listen too. Learned many things about the band I never knew, like I always thought Walter played lead guitar throughout their history, he didn’t