Thursday, August 22, 2019
IF YOU GO
What: Steely Dan in concert
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre
Tickets: $52.50, $62.50, $99.50, $129.50 and $175 at ticketmaster.com (fees apply) or the Covelli Centre box office
Staff report
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning Valley will be the first to see Steely Dan on its upcoming tour, which kicks off Tuesday at the new Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre.
The elite classic rock act was started in 1972 by Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker, and has since sold more than 40 million albums worldwide.
Between 1972 and 1980, Steely Dan produced a string of seven platinum albums, and no soundtrack of the ’70s would be complete without “Reelin’ in the Years,” “Do It Again,” “Rikki Don’t Lose that Number, “F.M.,” “Peg,” “Hey Nineteen,” “Deacon Blues” and “Babylon Sisters.”
Steely Dan’s upcoming tour will include 31 shows in 22 cities, including multi-night stands in several cities where the act will play a different album every show in its entirety.
These include six nights at the Beacon Theatre in New York Oct. 15-22, to play the albums “Aja,” “Royal Scam,” “Popular Demand,” “Nightfly,” “Gaucho” and greatest hits. This will be followed by a five-night stand at Boston’s Orpheum Theater Oct. 28-Nov. 1, and three nights at the Met in Philadelphia Nov. 6-9.
Fagen and Becker both grew up in the New York City area, and met at Bard College in that state, where they bonded over jazz music and formed a band. They moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1971, and soon released their smash debut album, “Can’t Buy a Thrill,” which they followed up with “Countdown to Ecstasy” and “Pretzel Logic.”
Fagen and Becker parted ways around 1980 but reunited in 1986. In 2001, they released “Two Against Nature,” their first album in 20 years, which won four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. They followed it with “Everything Must Go” in 2003.
Steely Dan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
Becker died in 2017 at age 67. Fagen has continued touring as Steely Dan, including a successful co-headlining tour last year with the Doobie Brothers.