AJA

With Aja, Steely Dan achieved worldwide success, stardom. After a long march of perfecting recording technique, mixing, and music studio production, the Fagen-Becker duo, which always had talented musicians at its side, arrives to release a great album with some 40 session-men. Becker himself play the role of a session man: he will devote himself more to composition and production control than to play bass or guitar (once he plays bass, often he plays only the solo guitar parts, in two important songs he is absent, he does not play: the first of the two sides, Black Cow and Peg, the latter will be their main hit). Donald Fagen is the absolute leader: he composes all the songs with Becker, sings (often singing backing vocals as well), plays piano and synthesizer with great taste and balance. And here's to you one of the best-selling records in rock history. A jazz- soul-funky-fusion pop disc, with retro touches of swing and be-bop. Nothing to do with real progressive rock.

1) Black Cow. The first twenty seconds immediately define the atmosphere, genre, and ideological sense of the album: - cocktail-lounge evening in New York for satisfied bourgeois; - languid, relaxing soul-funky-blues music (the drums beat time loosely, lazily, almost tired from the first bars); - reactionary, anti-rebellion music, status quo forever, enjoy Manhattan and capitalism. The squence is: Verse-Chorus with female choruses, arrival of woodwinds, Verse-Chorus, very dull Fender Rhodes solo (Viktor Feldman), Chorus, final one-minute coda where the voices repeat the Chorus while a tenor saxophone (Tom Scott) tries to liven up the song with a crisper solo than the music heard so far (perhaps too much alcohol or too many drugs in the cocktail participants: they are all narcoleptic). Loffy of high-class music, with cynical lyrics: "Like a gangster/ On the run /You will stagger homeward/ To your precious one/ I'm the one/ Who must make everything right/ Talk it out till daylight". Rated 7.

2) Aja. The atmosphere, genre and ideological sense don't change (and will not change, except for a few nuances, throughout the album). The sequence is: Verse-Chrous-Verse-Chorus played and sung with more grit than Black Cow. Convincing especially the rhythmic vocal part by Fagen. Then starts a long instrumental interlude that is perhaps one of the best moments in Steely Dan's entire discography (and also one of the few genuine prog moments in their songs). Whistle solo played by Fagen, then repeated flanked by good work by Becker on electric guitar, then the pace picks up and there is a jam piece where the drummer (Steve Gadd) and saxophonist (Wayne Shorter) give their best. The music seems to go back to where it started, but instead the sax and tribal rhythm starts up again (we are at the climax of the piece, and of the whole album), and then finally back to the beginning: Verse-Chorus-Final coda that picks up the instrumental interlude but pointing to a more sustained percussiveness, which ends on the high notes touching on psychedelia. Masterpiece of the album, almost unclassifiable syncretic jazz-rock fusion music. Rated 8.5.

3) Deacon Blues. Conventional soul floppy and relaxed like the opening, but with a less lazy rhythm. The sequence is: Verse-Chorus, Verse-Chorus, beautiful sax solo (by Pete Christlieb; the woodwind accompaniment is worthy of the 1950s), and then back to Verse-Chorus and ending with woodwinds. Of course, female choruses in the refrains. (Aja is also saved because it doesn't have these sweetish choruses). Clearly the cocktail participants all end up with diabetes, too many Daiquiris. Or too much cocaine? But, in anycase, this is not a bad song, it is just a narcissistic song. Steely Dan are masters in framing bittersweet catchy refrains:

"Learn to work the saxophone I play just what I feel Drink Scotch whiskey all night long And die behind the wheel They got a name for the winners in the world I want a name when I lose They call Alabama the Crimson Tide Call me Deacon Blues"

Rated 7.5

End of the first side. The second side is less relaxed and relaxing than the first side.

4) Peg, a soul-funky rhythm song with the structure Verse-Chorus-Solo-Verse-Chorus-Final Coda. The refrain features the usual soul choruses, this time not female but entrusted to the falsetto of Michael McDonald (Doobie Brothers) and Paul Griffin. The guitar solo is by Jay Graydon. More rhythmic and upbeat song than those on the A- side. Peg was their best 45 rpm: very easy listening. Rated 7+.

5) The next Home at Last is a more serious song, opened by a jazzy piano and a syncopated blues rhythm. The (uncredited) horns trace the sounds of Deacon Blues, at least until, after the Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus sequence, comes an instrumental interlude that breaks out of the dominant musical key with a flicker (finally!) of trumpet (or Fagen's synth?) that gives a fantastic, faux-improvised jazz feel to the piece, which is followed by Becker's solo on electric guitar. Rated 8.

6) I Got The News. Another neurotic song: with this track the listener realizes that the quality of the music has risen. Again a jazzy piano appears and a syncopated rhythm punctuated by great work by Ed Green on the drums. But the best part arrives after the sequence Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus with the bridge structured on horns and a change of musical key, which becomes higher - the chorus of female voices (with in addition McDonald) plays a notable part. The song ends with a nice climax reached by Fagen's vocals, followed by a guitar solo (Becker or Carlton?). Almost improvised ending, the most jazzy part of the entire album thanks to Fagen's almost dissonant phrases on the piano, Rated 8.

With the last two songs, the second side definitely leaves behind the relaxing music of the first side and introduces into the music the neurosis present in the hedonistic bourgeois lifestyle in which it is set.

The final song: 7) Josie is perhaps the grittiest song of the Lp, with a very African-American funky groove: led by the riff of Larry Carlton and Dean Parks on rhythm guitars, the song enchants with its rhythm (Jim Keltner on drums and Chuck Rainey on bass), indulged by yet another catchy melody. Sequence: Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus, then beautiful guitar solo by Becker, new chorus - and Final coda. Excellent, it almost sounds like a rock song! Rated 8+.

With this close, Fagen and Becker end the album on a high note. This snooty, snobbish jet-set music, with its impeccable production, its velvety, soft, glossy arrangement, is tremendously sophisticated and, at the same time, so darn light and catchy that it can't help but put you in a good mood - or at least relax you and make you want a cocktail.

It is a high-class easy-listening that treacherously stimulates your lower instincts, the languid and hedonistic urge to enjoy Western pleasures. You can hate this music, but it's hard, damn hard to hear it as bad, not to take the slightest pleasure in listening to it. Fortunately, there are 3 songs out of 7 that are only a masterpiece of production (as, moreover, is the entire album) and not a masterpiece of inspiration, not a masterpiece of composition (these songs are too light and slurred : I'm talking about Black Cow, Deacon Blues and Peg), otherwise I should have put 5 stars on this album. So, instead, I can stop at 8.75/10, which is 4 and a half stars.