BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN is doing it. So are Van Morrison, the Pixies and Steely Dan. Playing a classic album in its entirety in concert - along with random favorites, of course.

On tour this year, Steely Dan is rotating the three biggest albums from its 1970s warped-jazz-rock heyday: "Royal Scam," "Aja" and "Gaucho." They'll bring the roadshow to the Tower Theater this Thursday and Friday, with "Aja" on tap the first night and "The Royal Scam" Friday - plus other tunes both nights, of course.

To get Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Walter Becker and Donald Fagen to explain the concept behind their tour, along with their thoughts about "Aja" and all things Steely Dan, was as curiously challenging and oddly humorous as a Dan disc. Becker, 59, called from New York, while Fagen, 61, was on the phone from points elsewhere, stuck in traffic.

Q: How's the tour going?

Becker: We're at my favorite part - the break.

Fagen: Yeah, the break's going really well.

Q: How do you like this approach of doing an entire album in concert?

Fagen: It's been going pretty well. It turns out that the audience reacts differently when you play an album in sequence. They seem to really like it. Not only that, the band plays the music differently when it's in sequence.

Becker: That was the real surprise, I think.

Fagen: They play as if the songs have little wings, little silver wings.

Becker: And as if their hearts have little wings, too, little golden wings.

Q: Whose ideas was it to take this entire-album approach?

Fagen: I think it came from management. We were somewhat skeptical to begin with. But it's worked out real well.

Q: What stands out about "Aja" for you?

Becker: Let's see, that's the one with the girl on the cover?

Fagen: It's the black one.

Becker: That one works really well for the purposes of translating the album sequence to concert. That one is the best combination of interesting and still ultra-coherent.

Fagen: That album is the most grammatic, in a certain way, so it works well onstage.

Q: Why did you choose "Aja," "Gaucho" and "Royal Scam"?

Fagen: Those are probably our best sellers.