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List Price: $9.98
Our Price: $7.97
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Manufacturer: Mca
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Audio CD
Brand: STEELY DAN
EAN: 0008811205621
Format: Original recording remastered
Label: Mca
Manufacturer: Mca
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Mca
Release Date: 1999-11-23
Studio: Mca
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Make love to these women, languid and bittersweet ...
Comment:
This review silently encompasses the totality of Aja, which is probably one of the best albums of modern music ever put to tape, but I just want to focus of track three, Deacon Blues and flesh out a few thoughts and ideas that I've been mulling over for some time.
Of course no commentary on Deacon Blues would be complete without that landmark and fascinating conversation about how the song came together between Walter Becker and Donald Fagen:
"Walter and I had been working on that song at a house in Malibu. I played him that line, and he said, "You mean it's like, 'They call these cracker a------'s this grandiose name like the Crimson Tide, and I'm this loser, so they call me this other grandiose name, Deacon Blues?' " And I said, "Yeah!" He said, "Cool! Let's finish it!"
The song "Deacon Blues" is often played as a fight song by the marching band at University of Alabama football games. The song contains the lines:
They've 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
However, those lines were written more in contempt than praise. The song is about a man who decided to say "whatever" and live his life how he wants to live it.
In life, we get lost most days and never actually live fully as we are all caught up in the stuff that never matters, the distractions that derails us from true happiness. I always felt this song to be genius for its use of allegory, contrasting both day and night. The first half is of day "this is the day of the expanding man", which symbolizes the beginning of his transformation from what is typically seen as normal, to be 'what he wants to be'.
The last phase starts with "the night of the expanding man", signifying his exodus into what is seen to be a self destructive life and what he never expected it to turn out like, leaving the journey open-ended as even Nirvana most likely has its own dungeons.
On a larger scale, the 'expanding man' is a man who has had a realization and has resolved to expand himself - in all ways. Many paths in life teach asceticism - depriving yourself of luxuries or indulgences to reach enlightenment. The protagonist has the insight that the very fact of being alive is a luxury and an indulgence.
** I gazed through the glass, at ramblers, wild gamblers. That's all in the past. **
He now understands that they are the ones who are alive -- truly alive. It's not about sin, it's about worshiping life and not just chasing a dream but enjoying it during the struggle.
The last verse shows that the song is the reflection of the man after the transformation. He's giving us his story to show that the transformation was painful, damaging and maybe even wrong. The looks from his peers also seem inconsequential and meaningless:
** You call me a fool, you say it's a crazy scheme. This one's for real, I already bought the dream. So useless to ask me why. Throw a kiss and say goodbye. **
The path is always lonely, isn't it? Working towards any goal, chasing down any dream is often thankless and brings with it much scorn.
** I cried when I wrote this song, **
He cried when he wrote this song - meaning yes, there is tragedy even among those who live life to the fullest, but that is also part of the path and must be accepted.
** Sue me if I play too long. **
Go ahead and do what you will to people like him, it won't matter.
** This brother is free - I'll be what I want to be. **
The causality goes both ways between those two facts. Be what you want to be, and you will be free. Really, a tale as old as time.
And when you find others who are free, you can share with them sensations which stagger the mind, but only with those of your kind - the enlightened. A whole new world opens up to those who open themselves. And it's indescribable to the rest.
What else needs to be said? ...
I crawl like a viper
Through these suburban streets
Make love to these women
Languid and bittersweet
**** ****
Customer Rating:
Summary: THIS IS THE GREATEST ALBUM, EVER MADE...PERIOD
Comment: THIS HAS BEEN MY FAVORITE ALBUM, FOR 31 YEARS SINCE IT'S RELEASE IN 1977.
NOW IN 2008, IT STILL IS TRULY THE GREATEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME.
THE SECOND BEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME IS PERFECT ISLAND NIGHTS - BOBBY CALDWELL, RELEASED IN 2005. CHECK IT OUT, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED..
GOD BLESS, THE GENIUSES DONALD FAGEN & WALTER BECKER, WE THANK GOD FOR THESE GREAT TALENTS. AMEN
Customer Rating: 
Summary: The beginning of the end for a great duo
Comment: Steely Dan's first five albums between 1972 and 1976 reinvented the language of rock in a manner seldom if ever replicated. Their consistently quirky and complex arrangements made them always interesting purely from a listening perspective, but what made them so unique was the manner in which their literate lyrics told tales that are remarkably endearing and in a manner quite unlike any other band of the 1970s. From tales of ecological devastation to immigrant lives, Fagen's lyrics were much better than anyone in rock at the time and have rarely been equalled (Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout and Tori Amos on her first two albums come close).
After the masterful The Royal Scam, Steely Dan became even more of a studio band than before with "Aja". The story of how the band's notorious perfectionism led to songs being given tens of takes to complete is well-known, but the trouble is that whereas this perfectionist style made for music that expressed the feelings of their lyrics remarkably well on previous releases, on "Aja" it is fair to say the Dan took it beyond anything reasonable. As so often in the early days of overlayering, it serves merely to reduce the emotional level of the music.
"Black Cow", the opening track, is very catchy but does not really match previous openers like "Black Friday" or "Do It Again" despite the band trying quite wholeheartedly to be more pretty than they were meant to be. The title tune, a multi-part epic, is well-designed and played but is not the song to capture a listener's attention for the full eight minutes. The next three songs, however, are really flyweight and even soppy compared to the energetic work of their previous album: it is difficult to see any reason for the Dan's decline apart from fear they would not meet their recording costs if they lost airplay due to "punk revolution"-driven tightening of playlists.
It is true that when one thinks there is no limit to the decline of a great group, Fagen and Becker do hit back with the two strongest tracks, "I Got the News" and "Josie", to close the album. The former is a love song that is simultaneously simple and intricate, whilst "Josie" might seem to be about the Vestal Virgins (akin to "Whiter Shade of Pale") but fires like nothing else on the album in terms of tight, yet complex and changeable, playing.
Nonetheless, even two good tracks to finish are not enough to prevent "Aja" from being a major let down after five albums with hardly a weak track. As I see, rather than being a landmark, "Aja" is the weakest album from Steely Dan's original period, weaker even than Gaucho which does at least have one or two tracks ("Glamour Profession", perhaps "Hey, Nineteen") that match the very best from their first five albums.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of Steely Dan's best
Comment: For a long time I thought "Aja" was Steely Dan's best. I don't need to explain their sound, I'm sure you've heard their music. Highlights include the title track and "Deacon Blues" along with the album opener, "Black Cow" and the singles "Josie" and "Peg". Very consistent album with strong highs and no lows. The title track is quite possibly the best thing they ever recorded.
I'd probably still have to give the edge to this album, but after picking up their box set which contains the complete contents of their 70s albums I would also strongly recommend "Katy Lied" as well as Donald Fagen's first solo album, "The Nightfly".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Music
Comment: What a great way to introduce people to Steely Dan. One of their best releases.
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