Anxiously awaiting my August concert date to see Fagen and Nightflyers, I see new touring tidbits today from the Wall Street Journal.
Spoiler alert: if you plan to attend a show, and want to be completely surprised, read no further. Fagen reports he has penned and will perform new tunes! “One is a noir thing I wrote recently called ‘Hardboiled Life.’ Another is about ’50s film creeps—guys who only went to see foreign films. People who now go to film school, I guess.” There’s news of a fifth Nightflyer. Another Woodstock-area musician and friend of the band, Zach Djanikian sings harmony, and plays sax and guitar. I was wondering how Fagen would perform his jazzy catalog without horns. Apparently, he has determined that he needs at least one saxophone. 🙂 Also mentioned are several covers that might make their way into the band’s setlist. Among these are the Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden,” the Beatles’ “I’ll Cry Instead,” and the Grateful Dead’s “Shakedown Street,” a tune Donald has done with the Dukes. Fagen teases, “I put Chuck Berry’s ‘You Can’t Catch Me’ in a minor key and changed the feel.” That alone should be worth the price of admission.
Steely Dan co-founder Donald Fagen says he is going on tour—with a much-younger backup band—in part to make money that once flowed in from album sales.
Source: Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen Tours With Young ‘Nightflyers’ (Mark Myers, WSJ)
