Donald FagenRecensioni

Music biographies come in two flavors: "I'm a miserable guy, but you'll like me a little better after reading this," and "I'm a.m.g. and this biography will ruin my music for you." This sits in the first category -- of *course* Donald Fagen is a grumpy guy, but he's an interesting thinker who reads and listens to everything, so this book is packed with wide-ranging thoughts about how he formed his taste, what art means to him, what art should be. The second half of the book is his unadorned and almost stream of consciousness tour diary, a big tonal shift from the closely argued and sourced first half of the book, but once you settle in, he's ... not good company exactly but honest in a way that feels genuinely respectful. As a bonus, I learned a ton of facts from this book, and got turned on to the amazing music of the Boswell Sisters.

Loved the essays in the beginning but the tour diary was barely readable. In the end he comes across as a spoiled jerk. But now I do know what venues, hotels, cities, and types of people he hates so I guess I did learn something...

Fun, though really the bare minimum to qualify as any kind of memoir/autobiography. A good read but would have loved a more fleshed out project with stories and info about Steely Dan and his solo albums. But fun—you can really hear his voice.

I won this in the Goodreads First Reads giveaway, although I already had it on library hold at the time I entered. I enjoyed it but I'm not sure I would have bought it; the book really is that short, just 159 pages--and half those pages are the 2012 Dukes of September tour diary. I did enjoy the essay portions, particularly the essay on Henry Mancini.