Donald Fagen: Eminent Hipsters

Donald Fagen is a musician and songwriter best known for co-founding the rock band Steely Dan. In his book Eminent Hipsters, he recalls his influences and formation as a music fan. As a kid growing up in suburban New Jersey, Fagen was fascinated by the compositions of Henry Mancini, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and the work of Philip K. Dick. Science fiction was like reality to him, and music helped him create stories of his own in his head. "I'm sort of halfway between the more authentic generations that came before me, and the sort of mediated generations that came after," he says, and many of his songs are about people caught in the middle of two places.

Photo by Danny Clinch, courtesy of Viking Adult