Popularity Has Everything To Do With Business

I Think Of Steely Dan As Being Of Its Time, And It May Be Inseparable From Its Time.

I Took Some Lessons As A Kid But Trained Myself By Ear. I Did It The Way Jazz Musicians Used To Learn Years Ago, Which Is To Play Records And Slow Them Down To Figure Out The Notes. At First I Tried To Imitate Red Garland, Who Was My Favorite Jazz Pianist.

My Writing Is Really Intuitive. As A Kid, I Went To School In New Jersey And Hung Out In New York, So The Way Kids Used To Talk Got Into Our Earlier Songs.

I'm Starting To Get Older, And Began To Think About Mortality A Little More. My Mother Died In 2003 And That Was A Big Shock. When Your Parents Start To Die Off, That's Going To Be A Revelation. So For Me, This Album - Although It Might Sound Quite Cheery - Is Really Talking About Death.

It's Great To Know That Our Old Stuff Still Sounds Good To Our Fans, Just As It's Wonderful To Think That We've Turned A Few People On To Jazz Over The Years.