Fagen It - Doin' Th' Don

Donnie Darko travels back in time to glimpse the future as a memory

Donald Fagen's first solo album The Nightfly is one of my favourite albums [enthuses Steve Shark - Ed.] and there's not a duff track on it.

It's always interesting to hear cover versions of songs you know and love, but I've tried to go one better and compile an alternative Nightfly album. There are covers of every track and in the order they appear on the original album, although the title track proved to be problematic.

The Four Freshmen - I.G.Y.
Their trademark high harmonies - much admired by a young Brian Wilson - are mainly on show in the chorus, but they really are very sweet indeed when they happen. The naff handclaps are very 1980s but the swooping brass arrangement makes up for them. Trombone madness! They also covered Maxine on the same album.

M Sasaji & L.A. Allstars - Green Flower Street
Sasaji San's band really is all star and includes guitarist Dean Parks, who played on five Steely Dan albums. This is a pretty straightforward arrangement with a slightly heavier groove than the original. Some very interesting brass harmonies are going on behind the vocals. The same band has also done a cover of Babylon Sisters which is rather splendid.  

The Nylons - Ruby Baby
A cover of a cover - originally released by the Drifters in 1956. This version is by a Canadian acapella group and features some great harmony singing, sometimes mimicking a brass section. The pedestrian backing rather spoils it, however, and perhaps they should have just used finger snaps - and the Four Freshmen's annoying claps. Then again, if I was their record producer, I wouldn't be stuck here on Th' Isle O'Foam© pool house writing about them...

Chuck Loeb - Maxine
A slow and smokey version from the late Loeb. The minimalist arrangement really brings out the beautiful melody lying at the root (see what I did there?) of the harmonies of the original. Beautiful bass from John Patitucci, who really makes this track for me. Dave Weckl's work on drums isn't too shabby, either.

RandyPOP - New Frontier
This is a strange arrangement indeed. Every so often you get a WTF! moment as lines and notes you were following suddenly get transposed. The discordancy this sometimes causes is rather unsettling, although not necessarily unpleasant. Randy's daughter is on vocals and she's OK, although her voice seems rather week at times. Randy played on several Dan tracks so I guess he's earned some right to experiment with the formula. Good guitar solo from Adam Rogers, who would have been a great fit for Steely Dan when they reformed back in 1993.

The Donald Fagen Band - The Nightfly
Could I find a good cover of this? Could I bollocks! The only half decent version I could turn up had autotune on the vocals, which ruined it. What I chose in the end was Fagen covering himself with his own band, during a break from the Dan in 2006. Lovely coda in this with cyclic keyboard lines and a sax playing over them.

Joe Roccisano Orchestra - The Goodbye Look
More salsa than the bossa nova feel of the original. Timbale frenzy! The arrangement is a little florid at times, but Fagen wrote the sleevenotes for the album this is from and approved of it. Roccisano was involved writing horn charts for a Woody Herman album that had some Dan covers, and has worked with Fagen since. A lot of Fagen/Dan tunes adapt very well to big band arrangements and there are some great covers if you go hunting on YouTube.
 
Mel Torme - Walk Between Raindrops
It was a tough choice between this and Mel's cover of the previous song. His voice and Paich's arrangement combine in a swing version with a lovely walking bass that holds the rhythm section together. Mel was always cool, somehow, even when the material wasn't. Here, it's definitely cool material. That last note shows exactly why he was nicknamed The Velvet Fog.

Of course, this compilation doesn't trump the original album. However, what I hope it shows is the strength of Fagen's compositional skills and also how much these were influenced by pre-bebop jazz. Nowhere else does Fagen show his love and respect for Ellington quite so clearly.  

Steve Shark is the editor of Figurine It Out - The Quarterly Newsletter For Hummel Collectors. His favorite color is lovat, and he hopes one day to inflate a bicycle tire with the power of thought.