Donald Fagen

As half of the creative team behind Steely Dan, Donald Fagen was part of one of rock's most celebrated partnerships, also producing a solid body of work outside the band. Fagen and Bard College classmate Walter Becker began working together in 1968, pitching songs wherever they could; Barbra Streisand recorded one and for a time they even joined the '60s pop band Jay & the Americans. But their music proved too idiosyncratic for anyone but themselves, and by 1971 they had the first version of their band, named Steely Dan after the sex toy featured in William Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch. Because Becker had stage fright, Steely Dan originally had a nominal lead singer in David Palmer, though he appeared on only half of the debut album Can't Buy a Thrill. When Fagen sang the first two hits ("Do It Again" and "Reeling in the Years") Palmer's fate was sealed; Fagen became the sole lead singer from then on. The first version of Steely Dan otherwise had a steady lineup, with Becker on bass and Fagen on vocals and keyboards, but by the fourth album Katy Lied it was down to the two founders and an increasingly jazz-based crew of studio players. Like few rock bands before them, Steely Dan embodied jazz sophistication and hipster cool, and no self-respecting college dorm would be without an album. The new version of Steely Dan didn't play live, and their perfectionistic studio techniques were part of their mystique. Becker and Fagen temporarily split in 1981, partly due to Becker's drug addiction. Fagen was the first to make a solo album, 1982's The Nightfly which had the sound of a Steely Dan album though the lyrical tone was more romantic. It went platinum in the US and UK, and remained the most successful Steely Dan solo album. When it came time for a followup, 1993's Kamerikad, Becker was back as producer and guitarist. The pair revived Steely Dan as a live band that year and to the surprise of many fans, remained a fixture on the touring circuit for the next two decades. Fagen also remained relatively prolific in the studio, both with Steely Dan (2000's Two Against Nature and 2003's Everything Must Go) and solo (2006's Morph the Cat and 2012's Sunken Condos. He also published a book, 2013's Eminent Hipsters, with his reflections on the early Bard days and beyond. Becker and Fagen played their final Steely Dan shows together in 2017; Fagen had just begun a tour with his solo band when news broke of Becker's death on September 3, 2017. Though he announced that Steely Dan would continue in tribute to Becker, he began a hiatus from touring after the news broke.