11-Year Itch

'I don't like that much of the old Steely Dan stuff, " says Donald Fagen, "but every once in a while l think of another song that wouldn V be, like, too horrible to actually do. '' This month, Fagen gives himself a bit more to work with by releasing one of the most overdue albums in pop music: the follow-up to his 1982 solo debut.

"I came out of a depression, which Fd been in for most of the 80s,'' he says. "I had pretty much of a block. It was kind of awful. Someone would ask me every day when the record was coming out, for, you know, five or six years. "

Kamakiriad is worth the wait, reminiscent of lateperiod Steely Dan (Fagen's old partner in that band, Walter Becker, produced it), but funkier. "It's good driving music, " says Fagen of the eight-song cycle about a futuristic car trip. "And by connecting all the songs, I can say something with more depth. Never as much depth as, say, 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow. ' But you can only hope for that. "

Fagen's gradual return to the limelight—the low-key club gigs, the New York Rock and Soul Revue shows, the elusive new album—has elated the odd network of long-suffering fans who for years have kept a kind of lonely Donaldwatch. For them, more joyous paroxysms lie ahead: Steely Dan, a band notorious for virtually never playing live even when it existed, plans to hit the road in late summer. That old stuff must be sounding less horrible, even to Donald Fagen.

G.K.