Far Out Magazine : Mu Major : The chord that Steely Dan invented →

The duo invented their own chord, which they could use to give their songs a jazz feel without being overly jazzy. It was called the Mu Major, and it was similar to a suspended second chord; however, it contained a major or minor third, which you don’t tend to see when dealing with suspended chords. This meant that they could play standard minor and major chords, but give them more texture without making the track sound too jazzy.

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Relix : Songwriters Hall of Fame Details 2024 Induction Ceremony and Gala: Trey Anastasio, R.E.M. and More →

The Songwriters Hall of Fame has announced its 2024 induction ceremony and award gala details. The 53rd annual gathering will be held on Thursday, June 13, at the Marriot Marquis Hotel in New York City. [...] This year’s event will celebrate the exceptional contributions of Hillary Lindsey, Timothy Mosley (Timbaland), Dean Pitchford, Donald Fagen, Walter Becker (Steely Dan), and the iconic members of R.E.M., Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe. These luminaries, with their remarkable body of work, have left an indelible mark on the music industry.

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Far Out Magazine : Steely Dan's Donald Fagen picks his greatest influences (by Jack Whatley) →

Despite their incessant performance of the hokey cokey with the fashionable side of music, one thing that cannot be denied is Steely Dan‘s impressive command of their instruments. The duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker may be constantly fighting a ebb and flow of appreciation from the musical world, with the band arguably one of the most polarising groups in the history of rock and roll, but they know what they’re doing in the studio.

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Best Classic Bands : When Donald Fagen Lightened Up With ‘The Nightfly’ (by Sam Sutherland) →

On his debut solo album, Donald Fagen trades cynicism for nostalgia in a song cycle that lands midway between Proust’s madeleine and Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine. In tracks set in the late ’50s and early ’60s, when their author was soldiering through adolescence, he revisits the era’s aspirations and fears with the optimism and innocence of his proxy protagonists. The worldview mirrored in his sardonic tone with Steely Dan is softened, if not entirely jettisoned, in favor of songs that retain an affectionate glow.

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Houston Press : Steely Dan Still Shining, Still Reelin' in the Years (by Tom Richards) →

Donald Fagen led a crack band through Steely Dan's greatest hits Friday night at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Always keeping a low profile, never appearing in gossip columns, and definitely not wrecking any hotel rooms, Becker and Fagen minded their own business, cranking out songs that merged rock and pop with a heavy dose of jazz, coupled with lyrics that might be called subversive. They were, as Rolling Stone termed them, “the thinking fan’s top 40 band.”

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Far Out Magazine : The mythical creature that links Steely Dan and Genesis together →

You won’t get much crossover between American jazz rock legends Steely Dan and British prog-rock gods Genesis. Both share a common love for complexity and a certain intellectual bent, but the way the two acts bring their visions to life is completely different. Steely Dan were all about fitting classic R&B ethos into harmonically complicated packages, with some dashes of rock, funk, and pop thrown in to make them commercially viable. Genesis, at least in its initial form, had no worries about mainstream: they were a distinctly English form of progressive rock, with extremely long excursions that could blend time signatures, key signatures, and nursery rhymes together.

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