Eminent Hipsters - Softcover

Praise for Eminent Hipsters

"[An] excellent. . . and satisfying memoir. This is less about Fagen's career than about his tastes. . .He writes insightfully about music, films, and books. . .with this remorseless, hilarious book, Fagen reveals himself as a first-class grump. . . Eminent Hipsters is also a convincing testimonial to the honing effect of a lifelong devotion to the culture of misfits, weirdos and cranks."--Rolling Stone

"Fagen is utterly charming when he describes other performers. . .he defends TV and film composer Henry Mancini from charges of fuddy-duddyness. . . his essay on Connie Boswell is the kind of top-notch, incisive cultural critique you ain't gonna get from the likes of Keith Richards. Just like the lyrics he penned for the Dan, Fagen's writing here is charged with a zingy, acerbic intelligence."--Slate.com

"As you would expect from someone who has been one of the most consistently sardonic voices of rock, Fagen can write."--GQ.com

A witty, candid, sharply written memoir by the cofounder of Steely Dan

In his entertaining debut as an author, Donald Fagen—musician, songwriter, and cofounder of Steely Dan—reveals the cultural figures and currents that shaped his artistic sensibility, as well as offering a look at his college days and a hilarious account of life on the road. Fagen presents the “eminent hipsters” who spoke to him as he was growing up in a bland New Jersey suburb in the early 1960s; his colorful, mind-expanding years at Bard College, where he first met his musical partner Walter Becker; and the agonies and ecstasies of a recent cross-country tour with Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs. Acclaimed for his literate lyrics and complex arrangements as a musician, Fagen here proves himself a sophisticated writer with his own distinctive voice.