Steely Dan
Aja
ABC 1977
Aja
ABC 1977
I’ve always felt very conflicted about Steely Dan. I never was a fan of their radio fodder like “Do It Again” or “Rikki Don’t Loose That Number," so that always left me with a funny taste in my mouth when anybody would talk about them. Having recently dived deeper into 1977’s Aja, their seminal work, I find them to be very compelling musicians and very smart in the studio, but yet, I still find it hard to put away my conflictions.
Here’s the skinny, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker knew the sound that they wanted, and it can’t be more apparent than with this recording. The amount of musicians they brought in to help capture this sound is so cool. From the master of the groove Bernard Purdie, to sax mastermind Wayne Shorter, every other L.A. session cat who was hot at the time is here in one way or another (Steve Gadd, Larry Carlton, Tom Scott, Chuck Rainey, etc.). Each performer brings a different element to the table, and it is mixed together in each track with such care and precision that the regular pop listener all the way up to an audiophile will find joy in something. That’s why Fagen and Becker intrigue me, they knew all these cats so they totally knew what they were getting into, and not many artists of this time really took the time to figure out the mastery of these great musicians.
With music put aside, I can’t get behind the lyrics to any of these songs, I find the lyrics incredibly pretentious. Looking at “Deacon Blues”, probably my favorite track on the album, it is described by Becker as “... a broken dream of a broken man living a broken life”. The problem is, I can’t get behind these guys and it doesn’t feel legit, it feels as though they're posers. One of the things that makes a great lyricist, is the ability to understand and feel where they are coming from; Bruce Springsteen and Merle Haggard come to mind. I also get a lyricist who chooses to use a strong poetic approach, also heavily seen within the lyrics on this album. But again, I don’t feel that they truly are trying to be poetic. Look at how Tom Waits does it on Small Change, that is very much something that you can get behind, as with Patti Smith’s Horses. I get that Fagen and Becker like to romanticize the life of being a jazz musician, or the hopeful rise of a movie star, but as strong as their music ability comes, their lyrics do not reach that level. This is what happens when you mix an album correctly, you get a great sounding piece of art that makes you want to pick it up again to uncover other little gems that you missed the first few times you hear it.
Although I wouldn’t call Fagen and Becker jazz musicians, they can comprehend, understand, (steal), and appreciate the jazz process to bring that sort of musicianship to their recordings... Just don't take the lyrics to heart, and "Drink your big black cow and get out of here".
