Eminent Hipsters

Growing up in suburban New Jersey, Fagen recounts the sprawling 1950’s development that his family moved into when he was eight years old, and, feeling like he was just sentenced to “a long stretch at hard labor in Squaresville,” began to seek solace and escape with music (mainly jazz) and books (mainly science fiction). The figures who influenced him most were not the typical ones – Miles Davis, say, or Jack Kerouac – but rather people like Jean Shepherd, whose manic, acidic nightly radio broadcasts out of WOR-Radio had a tough realism about life and “enthralled a generation of alienated young people;” Henry Mancini, whose swank, chilled-out, noirish soundtracks, especially to films by Blake Edwards, utilized the unconventional, spare instrumentation associated with the cool jazz school; and Mort Fega, the laid back, knowledgeable all night jazz man at WEVD, who was like “the cool uncle you always wished you had.”

Amidst these pieces of cultural criticism, Fagen gives glimpses into his high school and then his college years at Bard, including the moment he met Walter Becker, who would become his legendary Steely Dan partner. EMINENT HIPSTERS also gives an unprecedented behind-the-scenes account of one of Fagen’s most recent tours, with two months of journal entries from his “Dukes of September Rhythm Review” tour with Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs.

More than a memoir, Fagen dissects his cultural influences with the same dry and cerebral voice that he gave his lyrics, and combines historical background and anecdotes with his personal perceptions on how each—whether musician, writer, or radio personality—played a roll in forming him as a musician and a person.