Steely Dan - Aja (1977)

Dan:

Aja was my first foray into the music of Steely Dan, although I had probably heard songs like "Do It Again" and "Rikki Don't Lose that Number" on the radio before I plunged into their vinyl. From the very first notes of "Black Cow," I was hooked. The snide lyrics, accompanied by a chorus of background singers and premier musicians jelled into a song about breaking up such as I had never heard (and we all know how many songs are written about breakups). I even knew what a black cow was, although in my family we called them rootshakes. 

Then came the title piece, featuring Wayne Shorter's note-perfect tenor sax solo and the sustained chords of the outro. Of course, I knew who Wayne Shorter was because as a college freshman in 1962 I was listening to him play with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. I've studied Shorter's solo on "Aja" carefully in order to understand how those precious notes fit together so perfectly, and on a rock album no less! It's one of the best deployments of a real jazz artist into a rock number without a hint of pretentiousness or selling out. "Aja" is nothing like a jazz composition, and it's certainly not ordinary rock. It might be Donald Fagen and Walter Becker's most extraordinary musical accomplishment. 

"Deacon Blues," with its irresistible melody and sax parts played by another jazz luminary, Pete Christlieb, completes side 1. Christlieb and Shorter were not merely "session musicians;" they're more like top guns, especially Shorter (who died earlier this year after receiving every meaningful jazz award there is). "Deacon Blues" is a lot of people's favorite song (including my late brother and Steve's uncle). 

Before I ever turned the record over, I had the feeling that I had stumbled upon something special. Side 2 offers four briefer tunes, but each one is tight, punchy and full of great lines. "Home at Last" borrows from classical literature with Odysseus as its inspiration. "Peg" and "Josie" are portraits of admirable women. "I Got the News" is perhaps the only disappointing track, but it's got so much competition to vie with that I'll give it credit for making it onto the album.

A year after Aja's release, Becker and Fagen produced a real jazz album that paired Christlieb with tenorist Warne Marsh. The Steely Dan leaders included their composition "Rapunzel" on that album. They must have loved that project! 

Steve:

Few albums dominate my memories of the late 1970s like Aja. Once it entered our house, it played seemingly constantly, as did several other Steely Dan albums such as Katy Lied, Countdown to Ecstasy, and The Royal Scam. Despite my lifelong tendency to ignore lyrics (a tendency I've expressed regret for elsewhere in this blog), I knew the lyrics to all the songs, even if the slang terms and underlying meaning of the words was lost on me. The "remedies" on the counter by her keys in "Black Cow", one of which will "screen out the sorrow", were just cool sounding words to me back then.  

Aja was also, along with Dark Side of the Moon, a favorite album to test stereo equipment and speakers - something Dan and I did fairly often as we carried the record to Sound Advice, a stereo component store in Coral Gables. I don't recall how often he actually bought anything from that store, but I imagine he did it often enough to earn the trust of their staff. Once I brought in an LP of my own - a recently acquired Mobile Fidelity pressing of Queen's A Night at the Opera, which has some sonic marvels of its own.

If Aja is not my absolute favorite Steely Dan album (that honor would go to The Royal Scam), it's certainly not because of any flaws. I watched a documentary wherein Becker, Fagen and other participants (bassist Chuck Rainey and drummer Bernard "Purdie Shuffle" Purdie come to mind) talk about the making of Aja, and demonstrate the craft that went into the album by isolating certain tracks and talking about why this one three-bar phrase was attempted 82 times before the hired studio musician got it just right. It's well known as one of the most clinically-perfect albums out there, a distinction that actually turns off a lot of music fans. But what the record lacks in spontaneity and raw energy, it makes up for with its genuinely heartfelt songs (I still get a little misty-eyed during the suburban kid's dreams of becoming a tragic musical legend) and its stunning musicality.  

If Becker and Fagen were anal about getting THE perfect take, then it's to their credit that they only hired the best to do the job. A lot of labored-over albums are so treated because of egomania or a simple lack of good judgment; in the case of Aja, such decisions were based in knowledge about who would make it great and how to get the album to that level. [Dan Comment: Steely Dan might have learned the value of obsessing over recordings from none other than Elvis Presley, who was notorious for creating dozens of takes before the perfect one was realized.]