A witty, uncovering, sharply written work of memoir and criticism by the cofounder of Steely Dan

Musician and songwriter Donald Fagen presents several vivid set items in his entertaining debut while an author, from portraits of the cultural numbers and currents that shaped him as a youth to an account of his college days and of existence on the highway.

Fagen starts by introducing the “eminent hipsters” that spoke to him while he was developing up within a bland NJ suburb in the early 1960s, included in this approximately Eminent Hipsters Jean Shepherd, whose manic nightly broadcasts out of WOR-Radio “enthralled a generation of alienated teenagers”; Henry Mancini, whose swank, noirish soundtracks left their tag on him; and Mort Fega, the laid-back, educated all-night jazz guy at WEVD who was like “the awesome uncle you often wished you’d.” He writes of how, arriving of age during the paranoid Cold War era, one of is own primary doorways of get away became reading technology fiction, and of his invigorating outings into New York City to hear jazz. “Course of ’69” recounts Fagen’s colourful, mind-expanding years at Bard College, the progressive school north of New York City, where he initial met his long term musical partner Walter Becker. “Using the Dukes of Sept” offers a cranky, hilarious account of the ups and downs of a recently available cross-country tour Fagen made with Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald, executing a program of older R&B and spirit tunes aswell as a few of their own hits.

Acclaimed for the elaborate arrangements and jazz harmonies of his songs, Fagen proves himself a sophisticated writer with an extremely distinctive voice in this engaging book.