Steely Dan -- Aja
Each picture refers — with remarkable specificity I might add — to a song on the record. "I Got The News", "Home At Last", "Black Cow", "Deacon Blues", "Peg", "Josie" and -- for those of you feigning ignorance (and innocence) -- that’s Asa Akira (as close as I could find to an "Aja" sound-a-like) in the last photo. Let’s not pretend you don’t know who she is.
First things first — I knew I was going to nominate this before De La Soul showed up here with its “Peg” sample and well before our ELO pick. I wanted a super-chill, easy record before the holidays. No more Mr. Nice Guy after this :)
We’ve danced around this band endlessly on many a thread, with perhaps more Americans than Brits chiming in, but as they’ve always been one of my very favo(u)rites, it’s finally time to talk about Steely Dan, and their most popular record, Aja, released in 1977.
I have no idea where I first heard the Dan, as they’ve been a staple on AOR radio since my parents listened to it, but I do recall “Peg” and “Josie” being huge when I was 12 on AM pop radio, of all places. And I adored Josie the moment I heard it. In college I bought every last one of their records and I am guessing, pound for pound, me and my roommates wore out their Greatest Hits record more than any other save perhaps Murmur by REM.(As an aside, in a comment I make that others have, leaving “FM” off of Greatest Hits was a horrible crime, as that’s one of their best tunes).
There’s no doubt these guys were studio hermits. Normally that irritates me, but it’s forgivable in men of this obsessive talent. The songs on Aja are longer, jazzier and more languid than the rest of their records up til that point, which some big fans at the time found a bit annoying. As with all their records, the production is so glossy you can see yourself in its reflection. Becker and Fagan employed 40 studio musicians. As such, its vibe — to a Yank — is much more California than New York, which turned off a lot of East Coast music critics who panned it originally. And I see their point — the lyrics aren’t dark nor cynical nor wistful the way “Charlie Freak” or a lot of The Royal Scam was, nor as clever. But over time, I think the quality of the hits plus the old-wood-and-gossamer bridges of the other songs have turned just about everyone around.
“Peg” and “Josie” and “Deacon Blues” were those hits, of course, and their nearly 50-year long staying power remains, but along with “Josie”, “Black Cow” has always been one of my favo(u)rite SD tunes and maybe is the one I like best here. “Home At Last”, “I Got The News” and the title track are a bit less impactful IMO but only slightly so — they retain their easy charm, and each contain change points in the tempo that always end up as nice surprises even though I know they’re coming.
I’ve always struggled with which of Steely Dan’s albums I like the most, and I like all of their first seven — a lot. Often times, it’s the one I happen to be listening to that I like most. Once in a while, in moments of great critical clarity, it’s Katy Lied, which no one else but me likes most. But Aja is and has always been the Steely Dan record I LISTEN to the most. It’s like a comfortable old coat that might have been expensive once and is now fraying a bit on the edges, but is still the one you reach for when you can’t decide what to wear.
And despite my proclivity for “get up and move” music, with winter in full form, and the holidays coming up, it’s nice to have a record to listen to while you sit sipping cocoa by the fire — or, if you prefer, a black cow . . . or whisky, neat, while slowly dragging on a Marlboro Red.
Happy listening, and happy holidays to all of my favo(u)rite Mooners!
