10 Times Steely Dan Completely Ran Out Of F**ks To Give
7. When They Feuded With Owen Wilson And Wes Anderson
In the early 2000s, Steely Dan had feuds with Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson, two men whom Becker and Fagen are clearly big fans of. With Anderson, it started over a letter the duo wrote addressing a decline in certain aspects of the mans work. Although critical, Becker and Fagens letter actually raises valuable points. Fans of Andersons came to his rescue, but they missed the subtlety, humor and great appreciation for Andersons work apparent in the letter. Fagen clarified his stance on Anderson in his book, Eminent Hipsters, writing,
I think one of the reasons we're intrigued by Anderson is that he seems to be fixated on the sort of geekish, early-sixties adolescent experience that he's too young to have had but that Walter and I actually lived through. And yet he nails the mood precisely, using comic exaggeration and fantasy to do the job.
With Wilson, it started when Becker and Fagen penned a letter to Luke talking about their worry that Owens career is faltering, that the projects hes worked on recently are no good, and that his movie You, Me and Dupree rips off thematic content from their song, Cousin Dupree. Wilson responded, I have never heard the song Cousin Dupree and I don't even know who this gentleman, Mr. Steely Dan, is. I hope this helps to clear things up and I can get back to concentrating on my new movie, HEY 19.
Kyle Schmidlin is a writer and musician living in Austin, TX. He manages the news blog at thirdrailnews.wordpress.com. Follow him at facebook.com/kyleschmidlin or twitter.com/kyleschmidlin1.
