Classical Composer reacts to STEELY DAN: AJA (Side 1) | with Black Cow, Aja, & Deacon Blues (Ep 833)
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#steelydan #aja #deaconblues #steelydanreaction #blackcow
In this #masterpiecefriday edition of #thedailydoug, I'm diving into Steely Dan's sixth album, Aja. We're listening to side one today, which includes Black Cow, the title track, and Deacon Blues. This music, in my mind, stands above everything else I've heard in the jazz rock genre. It's simultaneously pop and jazz in a way that few others have managed to achieve. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!
Reference Video: • Aja
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Steely Dan are truly their own genre.
regarding Victor Feldman. many years ago i found a sealed 1958 Contemporary stereo of Victor Feldman Arrives. in the lower left corner was a cutout with the inscription as i remember: Leisle i will always remember your brother Scott....he was referring to Scott Lo Faro the double bassist who died in a car crash some years later. I am 76 and i found the record at a goodwill 30+ years ago. it took me about 3 years of searching to locate and return this album to Scotts sister. a great day in my record collecting.
Aja is its own genre.
That Steve Gadd and Wayne Shorter solo in Aja gives me the chills every single time I listen to it. Its so goddamn beautiful
Rumor is Shorter did it in one take and didn’t ask to be paid.
@@loslobos9461 I read that he listened, wrote out a sketch, and then played it down. That ascending low tone thing is just so....Wayne.
Black Cow and the entire Aja album is the definitive music to sample the quality of ear- and headphones. The audiophile’s audio.
That was where Producer Gary Katz came in. He was key to the clean, clear sound of every SD album he was associated with.
Always sounds amazing in my Sennheiser HD600’s
One of the All Time Best Albums Ever!
Often overlooked but, I think, just as important are engineers Roger Nichols and Bill Shnee who are key to the sophisticated and beautifully recorded sound of Steely Dan. Both were masters of precision and like Donald Fagen and Walter Becker always pushed towards perfection.
Cover needs to go up on Doug's wall of honor
@@UK_LemonsAbsolutely one of the best engineered and produced albums of any genre, ever.😊
i love steely dan! they are my 4th favorite band, and my favorite non-metal band. in my opinion aja is their best song, but the album as a whole, while amazing, is only their 4th or 5th best album. countdown to ecstasy and gaucho are my 2 favorite. then i would say can't buy a thrill is a clear cut #3. even the songs that weren't singles are awesome, especially only a fool would say that and kings. then the 4 and 5 spots are a toss-up between aja and the royal scam. then 6 - 9 is pretzel logic, katy lied, two against nature, and everything must go.
I'd definitely put in a top ten perfect album list. Takes me back to summers with the T-tops off the Camaro. 😊
One of my favorite albums of my life. Steely Dan, erroneously called West Coast Jazz, created some of the most iconic music of my lifetime.
YUP!
One of my favorites too, but Donald Fagen himself has gone on record saying that they were not a jazz band.
ROLLING STONE rag-azine called (calls) Steeley Dan YACHT ROCK...
It's not always the artist that defines the genre. I wonder what Wayne Shorter would have called it? Or Lee Ritenower (sp?) ?
@tomratcliff3755 I just love that someone out there knows who the great Lee Ritenour is!
Uh...I had to look at one of my Ritenour albums to make sure I was spelling it right (I was).
One the unsung heroes of "Jazz" guitar!
One of my favourite albums. It really deserves to be called a masterpiece and timeless classic. The sound is unbelievable good. For years this was the reference when you wanted to test how good your hifi system was.
Can you believe they used to play this stuff on the radio? When FM radio first started it was so great!
For those of us who were lucky enough to grow up with Steely Dan from the beginning, even after all these years, we never tire of listening to them and learning about them.
The Steely Dan rabbit hole could easily encapsulate your entire AUTUMN of this year.
The rarest of bands have NO weak songs. Steely Dan has NO weak songs. Thank you!!
I also thought thsi until I heard "Show Biz Kids" - a song with only one chord throughout - but it has great lyrics! 🙂
@@peboblank437it’s a blues drone you fool; listen to the melody, the deadly slide guitar fills, the percussion, the syncopated handclaps, the marimba, the bouncy bass, Show Biz Kids is an unequivocally fantastic song with a lot going for it. Chord progressions are not the only or even the main reason Steely Dan song are good.
Queen of the Quarter
@@f1refall or pearl
You know Peg and Josie, but Home at Last is the hidden Nugget!
I love everything about this album but I think Home at Last is my favorite song.
Agree. I think it rivals the song "Aja" for musical sophistication.
home at last is so good!
so true
In my top 10 for sure. Purdie shuffle + Rainey + Homeric Epic + the Dan... how could it ever miss?
This and Gaucho are two of the single most engrossing, complex, and addicting listens that appeal to a wide audience maybe ever. Masters of the craft, I cannot gush about them enough.
Yes I love Gaucho too. I would also add Donald Fagen's The Nightfly album. Superb, got to be the vinyl for that though.
This record is so well recorded and produced, in the 70s all the hifi shops used it to test out the hi-fi systems. It has to be some of the most complex music ever to appear in the charts.
When I went to buy a hi fi system back in the day they used Donald Fagen’s Nightfly album!!
Aja, Roxy Music's "Avalon", and a bunch of Russ Freeman's Rippingtons albums were the go-to "try this out" albums in the stereo shops in the mid/late 80's in my area.
I love that Doug does not stop the tracks to comment, but just throw in his comments in real time. Nice!
“I know just enough about Jazz to be dangerous.”
🤣🤣
That makes two of us, Doug!
T-shirt!
I absolutely love you Doug. These songs are so deeply embedded in my world, the best way to listen to them is with someone else's ears.
Steve Gadd did not play the solo in Aja anything like that during rehearsals. He pulled that out for the recording and made everybody's jaw drop and almost forget what they were supposed to be doing.
And he did it coked out of his mind.
@@steveelshoff3353You are mistaken. Steve: "We were all doing too much coke during the late 70s. But I never did it while recording" -Modern Drummer magazine.
What is YOUR source for this Bullshit statement? Methinks YOU do cocaine...
@@JasonSmith-jr7jh who cares if he did or not, like jesus dude, chill
@@JasonSmith-jr7jh Gadd did a long interview w Rick Beato and he talks extensively about what recording that song and w the Dan was like.
@@muzikkification They were a bit harsh but imo it's fair, on such a seminal take like that, it's important to honor the truth whatever it may be. If the man was sober, that's a different story than if he was gakked.
Plus it's not like we need more coked out drummers who think they're the next Gadd LOL
"Throw out the hardware,
let's do it right"
that brilliant line in "Aja" always puts a smile on my face
Heard Peg on the radio at work on the day it was released. We usually had on WXRT in Chicago, in the paint shop. They continued to play other songs from Aja throughout the day. I couldn't help stopping what I was doing to simply listen. I was blown away by what I had heard. Out the door at closing time, and went to Woodfield Mall and bought the album. Then, went up to Schaak Electronics, and bought a Technics Turntable that I still have today.
I got home, hooked up the turntable, put on Aja, and took it all in. A Masterpiece.
Thanks, Doug.
Similar story. Aja came out the year I graduated high school. With money, I received as a graduation gift, I walked into a stereo store in the San Fernando Valley. ( In LA). The salesman was playing Aja for a customer in the “high end” room. As I stood in the back of the room, I thought, “ WHAT IS THIS MUSIC?” After that , man, it was all over. Nothing could compare. Still can’t!!!
I can still vividly remember putting the needle to the album on my new Technics turntable - from my first legit post college paycheck - back in 1978 and very consciously choosing to listen to Aja. Genuinely felt like I was in heaven
Yes, it was the very first album my brother played on his new CD player setup too, around twenty years ago. He and I have been fans of Steely Dan since roughly around the time this album was released. :)
Both Chicago (the years with Terry Kath, 67-78) and Steely Dan are my favorites for how they were able to blend jazz, rock, blues, etc into their own signature styles of rock with horns. So smooth!
Indeed. A true masterpiece - combination of elite composition and musicianship!
A vital part of the Steely Dan sound is the μ-major chord (as Donald Fagen refers to it) which is a major triad with an added 2nd (not 9th because that implies a b7), either replacing or added to the 3rd note of the triad. So the C μ-major would be C-D-E-G. Try it, and a lot of this stuff will fall into place.
Could you come over and show me that?
These notes can make either C/D, Cadd2 or Cadd9 it depends on their way you put them
That's a lovely bright chord, thanks
Isn’t it called a mu major chord?
See the fine video by Nerd Writer.
In learning a few of their tunes, I have found that you can’t just play the notes of those chords in any voicing and have it sound right. The voicing has to be the same as they did it for the most part, or it just doesn’t work as well.
The unmistakable sophisticated mix of Pop and Jazz that makes Steely Dan so unique ....
Doug,
Of all the reactions I have watched regarding anything SD, you are the ONLY one that is really qualified to analyze their music. Not that the other reactions are not entertaining, but SD really deserves the deep dive that you go into.
Bravo..
This album's recording engineer deserves some serious props.
Roger Nichols was the engineer behind all the classic Steely Dan.
This is right alongside Dark Side of the Moon for greatest album of all time for me. The title track alone is an absolute masterpiece.
Of all the Classic Rock, Soft Rock, Hard Rock, Pop Rock, Acid Rock, Southern Rock, Prog Rock, you-name-it rock, nothing I tell you Nothing has worn as well over the years as Steely Dan. I wore all my cassette tapes raw and knew every note, every nuance of all the music I owned and loved, and I would sometimes grow weary of music I "loved", but my ears Never tired of Steely Dan. To this very day, every song is Still a Joy, full stop. Always a musical feast, Every Time.
Sonically, hard to come up with a better sounding album in my 67 years. Aja is a true masterpiece in every sense of the word.
One of the only contenders is Gaucho, which I think actually sounds better, but I prefer the songs and vibe of Aja a bit more.
@@stevesheroan4131 Donald Fagen's solo album, _The Nightfly_ , is up there. In fact, it's arguably even better soundwise, since it was recorded 100% digitally.
@@mournblade1066 I agree, though it it has a little too much drum machine for me. It’s done as well as could be done, it just isn’t Purdy (a little pun for fun).
Reminds me of Rick Beato's channel with the in-depth musical analysis of the songs. Both Doug and Rick are very knowledgeable about music theory and applications in their respective backgrounds.
Sophisticated music. Excellent musicianship
One of the albums that I consider to be perfect.
True. Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” is another.
The horns in Deacon Blues are so gorgeous, you hope they have horns like that in heaven.
Steely Dan was the music of my high school days and will always have a special place in my heart. I was a singer as opposed to a musician, but I have always had a deep admiration of songs that were instrumentally complex and sophisticated - and nobody was better at creating those songs than Steely Dan. Nearly 50 years later, "Aja" is still miles ahead of its time.
A never ending source of joy. Over and over, I played this since 1979. Still love every note.
They call Alabama the crimson Tide, call Doug Deacon blues 💙
AJA is da bomb Steely Dan album! I’ve had the LP since day one and still play it often - 47 years later! It still holds up and something new catches my ear every time! Hope my sons will be listening to AJA 47 years from today!!😊❤❤❤
'....this brother is free...I'll be what I want to be...' I always loved that line and how it was sung.
Fagen and Becker, the be-all and end-all of composition, performance, engineering and performance perfection. Their 50+ year-old work remains as fresh (no, fresher!) than anything else today.
Amazing that using so many different session players Steely Dan could still maintain their unique 'sound'. A tribute to these guy's writing style and choices for instrumentation. Smoothly Funky.
"Commercial pop sensibility, but with all the sophistication of a great jazz track." Great summary of the Dan
Everything about Steely Dan is perfection. Their sound till today is unmatched, it is not just hitting a couple of keys or play chords.
I heard this LP when it originally was released, and hearing it here today, I am STILL amazed and awed. Nothing has EVER sounded like Aja. It's on top of the pop/jazz/rock/fusion/prog list for greatness. Thanks Doug.
This is a worthy successor to Gershwin. The composition demonstrates formal, academic, historical mastery and it is also alive. Real art.
One of the best produced albums in the history of recorded music.
After you've finished the album, there's a really fantastic documentary dvd by Classic Albums on the making of Aja with interviews by most everyone involved including Donald, Walter, the engineer, producer and many of the musicians. Facinating stuff! Watch it with the misses!
Loved the Dan when I was a kid / pre-teen (Do It Again, Reeling In The Years, etc...). Then I started to play guitar and bass and get more deeply into music. When I got Aja I was more mega blown away as I ever have been over anything. A true masterpiece.
I was 16 when this came out. Changed my musical tastes forever.
I've never clicked on a link so fast. Happy Friday y'all!
One of the greatest albums of all time. Sheer perfection! I love listening to Doug talk even though I have very little idea what he’s actually talking about. I don’t know if anyone else will agree with me, but I’d love to see Doug react to Oh Good Grief by Vince Guaraldi, the music from all the Peanuts holiday specials. Lovely album.
This has been this metalheads secret favorite album since my dad showed it to me as about an 8 year old. I’m 42 now and it is still the jazz pop, audiophile, sardonic wit in a smoky club classic. Not many better!
hahaha, i used to have guilty pleasures and all, but no longer care anymore what others think of my record collection! At my age, I don't gotta prove anything to anyone or justify why I like Steely Dan or anyone else.😎
My favorite album byֶ my favorite band. My son started listening to them in his teens. After a few weeks, he said, “They’re their own genre.”
Doug - Watch the video of 'The Making of Aja' . Its Don and Walter sat at a mixing desk and almost re-mixing this real time. It is fascinating and there's so many little musical inserts
An absolute timeless masterpiece 😎🙏❤️🎶
Oh my God! You are in for such a treat when you do side 2! "Home At Last", and "I Got The News" never really got much notice, but both are fantastic songs and deserve way more praise than they received. ("Home At Last" is one of those songs I keep inside my head and "listen to" from memory, it's THAT good!) "Peg" and "Josie", on the other hand, got a lot of attention and radio play (all of it well deserved!). Both quite different from each other and both stand out as the kind of song that knocks your socks off.
"Home at Last" is the hidden gem of this album.
I bought this when it came, very young, just 13. I really liked it, but obviously couldn’t appreciate it in full. It grew. Over the years, I have also got clues to what the lyrics are all about. I now know what ”Black Cow” is about and the rest of it - except the title track. Well, I’m swedish so english is my second language.
A "black cow" is a non-alcoholic drink made by mixing root beer and ice cream.
I would say that the Joni Mitchell albums Court and Spark, Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Mingus, Hejira come close to what you were saying about jazz and pop.
I love Steely Dan. One of my favorite records of all time. Yes, I have the original record. And yes, you have to get to side 2 asap.
I'm 67 and this album highlights my life at that time when it came out. It triggers so many memories. I was then, previously, and will forever be a fan of Steely Dan. I grew up the son of a semi-professional jazz pianist mother (heard Brubeck's "Take 5"" when it first came out at age 5 or 6, so I didn't get it till later, but it definitely sunk into my mind at the time) who made sure all her 3 sons learned to play instruments (for me it was trumpet, baritone horn, bass guitar, drums, mandolin, and piano, but not proficiently). I have always been awed by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker and all the incredible top notch musicians that made up Steely Dan. Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and others would have been impressed or at least amused.
one of the best albums of all time
The same day Gadd tracked the drums to “Aja” he also recorded the drums for Leo Sayer’s huge hit “you make me feel like dancin”- supposedly all while hung over and sleepless.
couldn't have as You Make Me Feel Like Dancing came out a year before the Aja album was recorded
A lot Of Vitamin C!🤫
It's impossible to tire of this album.
I love your breakdowns of chord structure. You and Rick Beato nail this part of reactions.
And Steely Dan are the masters of music structure.
I was a drummer in a band back in the 90s and I never needed to know this part of songwriting. I just kept time and filled in at the changes when needed.
I never needed to know the words of our songs. I wish I dove deeper into my own band's melodies and been an all around musician.
The sax guy on Deacon Blues was a member of the tonight show orchestra during Johnny Carson's time on the show. Got to listen to side 2 of Aja!
This arrived as I was due to leave 🏴 high school on its release...it has travelled everywhere with me including a decade in the 🇲🇷🐪🌴 Sahara. Never ever tired of it. Donald Fagen's Nightfly is a gem too.
Steely Dan = Modern Day Mozarts. My lifetime, all time favorites. Royal Scam, Aja and Gaucho are the most incredible albums. If you haven't listened to a lot of their stuff, I highly recommend all 3.
I love Katy Lied as much as the 3 you mentioned...
Fagan and Becker were masters at bringing jazz elements into these 'easy listening' rock songs they made. Aja is one album that holds a lot of examples such as Aja, Black Cow, Peg and Josie to name just a few. Their other albums did similar manifestations, again using studio musicians because there was no definitive band called Steely Dan. It was like Fagan and Becker were the wizards who brought Oz to the people by having the munchkins create the support.
Yeah, those guys really composed some extraordinary songs, didn't they?
Great composers can demand fealty to the music. Fagen and Becker are great contemporary composers deserving our respect.
Did you catch the drum stick CLICK in the second drum solo?? MASTERPIECE!!
Rick Beato said it's the "drum solo changed popular music". He's also very into the drum stick CLICK, as are many fans.
That plus the Latin pattern on the ride cymbal in the fade out absolutely make it for me. Something the Dan always did was pull a rabbit out of the hat on the fade out to make you wish the volume stayed up just a little bit longer.
Steve Gadd is and was an amazing drummer!!!
There is a YT vid of a college professor that said he uses them in his music theory class. You can see why in this album. Up until the early 2000's I believe they were one of the most sampled bands in hip hop, and it's that jazz/pop fusion and unique sound that you can see why you'd want it in your songs.
I saw them about 2 years ago. They pretty much did a greatest hits set, and seeing them live was out of body! Professional is an understatement.
In the making of Aja doc, Larry Carlton was the conductor for Walt and Don in the studio. He would get demo's and sheet music to guide whoever was in the session playing that day.
Deacon blues is my favorite song on this album. Love this album.
This music invites you to come on a journey, transports you to exotic lands, and then returns you where you started, but leaves you changed.
Extraordinary musicianship and on AJA one of the greatest drum outros ever!
I never realized Denny Dias played on the Aja album even though I've listened to it uncountable times. He was the lead guitarist with the band when Becker was still playing bass. He played lead on "Do It Again" while "Skunk" Baxter played bongos.
There's a documentary on the making of the album. Denny is on it playing the Aja solo
Great review and I thank you!! You're the best!! Oh and looking forward to side 2!!
FINALLY a full album reaction from one of the best bands ever!!!!!
The snare drum tone in Deacon Blues is exceptional. Deep but still very dry and perfect in the mix.
Doug, you made our evening with this! Bought the vinyl three times now since first release. Thanks for the analysis
Thanks, Doug! This brilliant album just gets better with age, in my opinion. I could say that about almost all of the Steely Dan catalog, though. Extraordinary music that, in its way, is every bit as progressive as Gentle Giant or King Crimson. This is highly sophisticated music, and that is mostly the work of Donald Fagen, a wizard at crafting highly advanced chord structures and then fitting catchy melodies to go over them. The song "Aja" is simply a masterpiece. I'm blown away all over again every time I hear it. By the way, I was 23 when this album came out, young-en!
You're the best, Doug!
Steely Dan has always had my attention. I started learning drums in 76 and was blown away by these tracks. Steve Gad, one of the GREATS!
Take a hit Doug when you listen to this masterpiece!
and dim the lights...lol
@@alansmith7626 he haw!
They're the YES of Jazz!
I find it amazing that Doug isn't more familiar with Steely Dan. Aja is a masterpiece and it's so much fun to watch Doug discover the genius going on in their music. Looking forward to Side two of Aja review. I wish I knew more about music so I could better understand what Doug is saying. I have listened to Aja probably hundreds of times over the years. Crazy good.
One of my favorite albums! Thank you for doing this one!
Doug, ive listened to this album a lot over the years but today you've taken me to another level of listening, especially Black Cow which often i would breeze through en route to Aja. Looking forward to the second side!
In my top ten albums of all time
SD uses a lot of MU chords, which I had never heard of until I starting learning how to play some of their songs. When you hear a MU chord it has that SD sound.
Chord master Donald. He's a legend. Love these guys. Donald's voice is also unique. No one sings like him. You might do all SD albums. From Countdown to Gaucho. Also must listen to his first solo 'Nightfly', sensational record. I cried when I wrote this song, sue me if I play too long, WHAT A LINE. Well done Doug..
I saw once someone suggest you could make an entire Film Noir tv series, based just on the lyrics to Steely Dan songs. Each episode based on each song. In B&W of course. There's a great "Behind the music" on this album. The chord structures are almost unique.
The level of painstaking detail that went into these recordings cannot be overstated. They would literally record all the songs with different lineups of musicians like a couple of mad scientists. One thing for sure. They knew what they wanted.
Definitely deserving of the title “one of the greatest albums ever”
I grew up in my teens listening to all Steely Dan's albums in the 70's, and 80's. Their music changed my life.... Love them....
Truly a masterpiece. I listen to this album regularly (and The Royal Scam and Gaucho and The Nightfly and... you get the idea). Not a dud in the bunch. Simply superb.
Deacon Blues is probably the most complicated song structurewise that I know how to play on guitar. I used it as a litmus test with others when they didn't believe that I play guitar (because I guess you're supposed to "look" a certain way as a guitar player). This and Eruption (of course).
There was a band called Deacon Blue that of course named themselves after this song.
Thank you Doug for coming back to Steely Dan. This album in particular. When you get to Side 2, please share with your listeners a little more about how much sonic meat is in this sandwich. Not just the musicianship, but the recording engineering and mixing. Anyone that wants to learn the art\science of audio recording needs to study and absorb this piece of work. It's just phenomenal in both conceptualization and execution. There are SO many layers to this onion to relish. It's right up there with Bohemian Rhapsody, Dark Side of the Moon, and Wish You Were Here in terms of scope and technique.
As many others have mentioned, this album is part of my childhood and early music education. I was blessed to have one of the great album-oriented rock FM radio stations in my town. So, I was spoiled to hear deeper tracks from artists all the time. And on Sunday night, they would play 6 albums in their entirety. Even though it was an AOR station, they recognized the brilliance of softer music like Steely Dan and played them a lot. Because it was THAT good. And my life is richer for it.
This Album and Gaucho make a fine pair for afternoon listening... or any time...
Their music is so cleans feels like taking a shower, getting a fresh hair cut and splashing on cologne!
BTW, Steely Dan "invented" a chord called the "Mu Major" (basically a major 9th with 2 in the bass. They also liked to put the 4th in the bass - e.g. Cm9/F - as played in the chorus of "Black Cow". 🙂