Return of the 70s true legends
After being treated to two shows back in 2017, Steely Dan fans are set for a bonus third gig
Steely Dan gigs appear to be a lot like buses these days – you wait ages for one, then three come along in quick succession. Donald Fagen last brought the band to Dublin in October 2017 for two sold-out shows at the 3Arena, which they now return to on Thursday February 28 with special guest Steve Winwood.
There was a huge buzz when those 2017 gigs were announced seeing as it was their first time to perform here since 1996.
But those Irish gigs will now be sadly remembered for another reason – the band’s co-founder Walter Becker (circled) died only a month before them and it briefly looked like they might’ve been cancelled.
Thankfully Donald Fagen decided the show must go on – despite being devastated by the death of his close buddy who he first struck up a close bond with at college in the Sixties.
The Dublin gigs were a wonderful way for the band and fans to celebrate the life and music of their fallen hero Walter, who died at the age of 67 from esophageal cancer.
“I intend to keep the music we created together alive as long as I can with the Steely Dan band,” Donald Fagen vowed at the time.
In a moving tribute, he touchingly described his friend Walter as “smart as a whip, an excellent guitarist and a great songwriter”.
Unlike many other bands from the 1970s that reformed in recent years, Steely Dan aren’t content to simply be – to quote the title of one of their songs – Reelin’ in the Years and just go through the motions of playing their old hits note by note.
After their long hiatus from 1981 to 1993, when Fagen and Becker got back together they vowed to perform their music live in a “rearranged” way to make it sound fresh.
Fagen told Irish music magazine Hot Press in 2002: “We’ll do old stuff but re-arranged. One thing I don’t want it to be is a nostalgia thing or a re-union tour.
“It’ll be me and Walter with a full band of all star musicians so it would be a bit coy not to call it Steely Dan. People will call it that anyway. But playing Top 40 arrangements of old stuff would be boring to me. We haven’t waited twenty years to do that.”
Rather than resting on their laurels and trading on past glories, Steely Dan recorded two records in the early noughties.
And just to prove there was live in the old dog yet, Steely Dan’s album Two Against Nature, which was their first in 20 years, actually won four Grammys in 2001 – including best album, seeing off hot favourites Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP and Radiohead’s Kid A.
Like a fine wine, Steely Dan have gotten better with age with their tight live performances. But ironically there was actually a time when Steely Dan detested touring so much that they simple stopped for almost 20 years.
Speaking to Irish journalist
Liam Fay back in 2002, Donald Fagen explained, “Walter and I stopped performing in ‘74. We found touring not very satisfying, especially under the harsh conditions of the time.
“For the most part, we were the opening act on other people’s tours so we never got proper sound-checks or anything. We opened for a lot of heavy metal acts and stuff like that. Travel conditions were bad and we always seemed to be playing in gymnasiums which I never liked.
“We finally got our own show in 1974 but by then we felt we had run out of material and we needed to woodshed and write for a while. Walter and I thought we’d just concentrate on writing for a while and then put a new show together but, I guess, inertia and stuff kept us in L.A. a lot longer.”
Thankfully they changed their minds and Donald Fagan is now back to doing what he does best with his Steely Dan band – performing live.
lsteely Dan play 3Arena Dublin on February 28.