One of the all-time great songs, about Americans gathering what they had and fleeing at the end of the Cuban Revolution. A masterclass in songwriting and production.
When Fagen goes after a vibe he goes hard, whether Asian, reggae, Caribbean, or whatever. He obviously doesn’t seem too down about getting the goodbye look
Back at this underappreciated masterpiece of an album. Another work of art showcased on your channel. Thank you, brothers, for your content and comments. I'm with you all the way.
Where do I start? Firstly, you’re reviews are fabulous. It maybe your first time, would be at least my thousandth lol. Musically, as with everything on The Nightfly, it is flawless. But look at the band!!! Larry Carlton on guitar (and the brilliant Steve Khan and Dean Parks). Jeff Porcaro from Toto on drums. The legendary Marcus Miller on bass. The equally legendary Greg Phillinganes on keys. Valerie Simpson (Ashford & Simpson) on bv’s and the brilliant Starz Vanderlocket on percussion. Add to that a fusion of Caribbean/Jazz and ending with a conga. Untouchable.
I have listened to this album more than any other in the history of the world. I have used the song i.g.y. to test every stereo, every speaker, every receiver, every turntable, everything. Everything. It is Sonic perfection.
This is a MULTI-LAYER MASTERPIECE... I can't get enough of this track. I first heard this song in 1982. It sounded great then and it sounds just as good today. Great reaction, guys. As always.... take care.
A superb album. IMO one of the great "Steely Dan" albums, from beginning to end. Any song from this album is a wise choice. Always great seeing you guys enjoy my favorite music. This song is a favorite, for the charming rhythms and melodies, and the classic SD way of telling of an unfortunate situation without actually saying it, just talking all around it. Lovely. Thanks guys.
One thing I really enjoyed when I caught Steely Dan last year was his real appreciation for his backup singers. In fact, he turned the entire vocal duties for "Dirty Work" over to them and they killed it.
Whatever words you can find to say how great this song and album is….it’s better. A true classic from a musical genius. More musical styles in this song than you can count. A brilliant, brilliant album, The Nightfly. 🔥🔥
FINALLY! I haven’t even started to watch this yet! I know you’re going to love this! My favorite cut on this album! NOW I’m going to watch your reaction! ❤😂👍🏾
Impeccable and brilliant imagery! Lots of those “expensive” chord voicings mixed with that pulsing rhythm. Larry Carlton’s guitar solo is masterful….smooth yet with a hint of edge when needed. That outro! I was ready to join the the conga line! 👍🏼🎸🎼🔥❤️😎
Fagen keeps it going after this with his solo work. Kamakiriad, Morph the Cat, and Sunken Condos are all great, as you've come to expect, and sound better at each listen. Another great reaction, enjoy seeing your admiration for this unique and thoroughly enjoyable music...
The album is just intelligently made music and the whole album is a masterpiece - there is nothing to complain about - it`s fantastic at all !!! Many wishes @all from germany ;-)
This is another album you should listen to from the beginning! There isn’t a stinker on it. I love the love between you two and your love for this music. Thanks so much🦚
Amazing this album never received the airplay it deserved. It is wonderful through and through......It just brings a smile to my face every time I listen to it and that is what music is for.....
One of the first digitally recorded albums. When you say "that Steely Dan sound there" I think that was Larry Carlton on guitar but Dean parks also plays guitar on this track.
Airplay Beats consistently smooth and getting with it - as always, your musical choices and commentary are beyond the best of the rest. Thanks, guys for the hard work and great music.
Donald Fagen/Steely Dan never ever disappoint! The subject matter of this song makes me think of somewhat related matter in Steely Dan's "The Royal Scam", which also reminds me that you probably have at least 30 more songs to enjoy, La and Che! 🥰 Their sound, their intelligent lyrics; true standouts.
I love how you guys point out things that I hadn't really paid too much attention to before. I have to re-think how I listen to these songs now. Kind of a refreshing point of view.
Fellas, fellas, fellas..... of course this was a great selection and your energy always good. I was bit surprised when you were disclosing your tops for music genres , that there was no mention of Steely Dan. What category would you even put them? Their own? Thoughts?
@@AirplayBeats Agreed they are rooted in jazz. Fagen once said in an interview, he and Walter were raised on jazz and when starting out, they went to studios selling songs...more pop rock stuff which you hear on the first album. He said they kept the good stuff they wanted to do in the hip pocket until they had the power. You also didn't mention BLUES and of course SRV comes to mind. You might do FAVORITE ARTISTS NEW TO YOU since your reaction journey started. Maybe FAVORITE LIVE PERFORMANCE. People are gonna be interested in who has had an impact on you since starting your journey. Thanks for sharing with us! Love the vibe and energy fellas
There’s extra value available for this tune by finding on TH-cam the live version of this from DF’s solo tour in 2006. The band takes the last part of the song and extends it by about three minutes and gets into some really interesting territory. Find it.
20-30 takes?! lmao not even 20-30 hours, we measured Dan and Fagen's albums by YEARS... so a little note, growing up with The Boys we understood how great they were, we just were naive enough to think we would hear something like it or that good again, yea, well, 40-50 years later and still waiting. So, when we would hear their albums the first time, we would be blown away but had to re-listen to absorb all the delicate touches built into their musical paintings. So when we would hear "would you make me a Cuban Breeze, Gretchen" it would stick and become part of our vernacular and would be sprung on unsuspecting parties, such as being greeted by a server in a restaurant, heaven forbid, named Gretchen, lol, and it was a race to fit in the phrase at the best point, "can you make me a Cuban Breeze, Gretchen"? There are nuggets like this all through their musical history, and many me and my friends still use to this day, and all we need say is a word, or a short phrase from The Boys, and bam! - memories are triggered and we are transported in our minds to those glorious times back in the day. Hope you get as much out them as we did, cause it's been a wonderful ride.
you are SO right! Been 50 years now...still waiting lol...loved your post. There are so many lines...from songs like "Daddy Don't Live in New York City No More, Everyone's Gone To the Movies, Don't Take Me Alive" and so many more...a rich texture of words/phrases painting the story...they are unsurpassed in both music and lyrics..
I bought the vinyl album in 1983 after hearing the single "New Frontier". Wow! I'd stumbled upon a hidden gem. I brought my kids up on this album and my son is still a huge fan (being strapped into the back of the car and having to endure Dad's taste in music couldn't harmed that process!). This album is a MUST for every "muso". And one of the first, if not the first fully digitally recorded albums!
Another fantastic reaction to a fantastic song!!! A totally enjoy watching you two react to all this great music, it takes me back to when I first heard a lot of this music!!! Thank you La and Chi!!👏👏
One of the first 100% digitally recorded albums. The music and engineering are both masterpieces. The record is basically about Fagen growing up in the 50's.
"I'm doing all I can to remain seated" 🤣😍 - This really swings doesn't it!? The whole LP is a delight, of course. They released a *live* reconstruction of the Nightfly last year, here the Goodbye Look from it th-cam.com/video/4OqZaf7INrQ/w-d-xo.html
It does sound like Cuba, but the musical vibe of the song is calypso (he even mentions steel bands), which is not Cuban music at all, it’s Trinidad and Tobago. Then again, there’s that line about “Cuban breeze…” Anyway, it sure reminds me of my childhood. I was born in Cuba and lived through the Revolution.
@@perrynelson4254 you think that’s wow? Fidel Castro picked me up and sat me on his shoulders. He picked my sister up and sat her on the hood of his car. We also met and chatted with Che Guevara.
Trying again since this one is fresh: On your Heart - Led Zeppelin video, you mentioned you’d like to know what LZ thought. They were on Letterman the next night and talked about it. I posted the link in the original comments, but you’ll find it if you search lettermen led zep. The clip title mentions Elvis.
Great song. Donald performs this song when he was inducted into the jazz hall of fame. His voice is off a bit but well worth watching, it's on YT. Later...
Try to get to "Maxine" and "Ruby baby" before you leave this album. Edit: forgot. There's some Donald Fagen songs from movie soundtracks you'll want to try too. "True companion", from the "heavy metal" soundtrack, and "century's end" (forgot what movie it's from). And one more Steely Dan, "chain lightning". I don't know what album or what it's from (I've only heard it on a "best of"). Sort of a Doo wop/blues song. Different, but still good. Edit edit: sorry one more. "Here at the western world". It's another that's on a best of, but not on a regular album. I read it got dropped from "royal scam", but not added to "Aja". It's a good song though, and you can tell it sounds like it would have been on one of those albums.
Larry Carlton, for me, is among the best of the best, and I favor his playing among most of those. He is absolutely brilliant here. I have had this song in my head for weeks at a time and only removed it by conscious choice. Donald Fagen is a demigod. I generally pay close attention to the bass guitar: on this song the bass player is so good that I had to concentrate to isolate his or her (his) line in the song. That may be the greatest compliment that a bass player can achieve on a tune of this magnitude: it's everywhere but I can't tell where it is! If I had to guess(and at this point I do), I would say Chuck Rainey is the bassist.
Fagen on top of his game, the whole album, masterclass.
Morph the Cat is even better imo
kamakiriad is another perfect album. NO bad songs.
I'm tellin" ya guys. "Ruby Baby". 🙂 Smoooooth!
"Wont you pour me a Cuban Breeze Gretchen", great line.
Stand by for the Bay of Pigs.
The first time I heard it I though, brilliant.
Also, includes former Steely Dan musicians Dean Parks and Jeff Porcaro.
Won't you pour me a Cuban Breeze Gretchen!
The more you look back at what Donald Fagan has done the more you realize he is a one of a kind all time great.
Every song on the album is a gem. This one is my favorite.
What are my favorite albums right there it's priceless
Your sound is perfectly tuned, best of reaction genre on utube.
One of the all-time great songs, about Americans gathering what they had and fleeing at the end of the Cuban Revolution. A masterclass in songwriting and production.
My favorite Fagen song.
A song that’s absolutely cinematic
The words, again. Listen to the words. The story.
This album is an absolute masterpiece.
Just Crazy Good!
Back in 1982 at university almost every student had a copy of the Nightfly we knew back then that this was a masterpiece and still is 😉
When Fagen goes after a vibe he goes hard, whether Asian, reggae, Caribbean, or whatever. He obviously doesn’t seem too down about getting the goodbye look
Maybe the greatest reaction I've ever heard: "I'm doing all I can to stay seated". Love you guys!
Dylan, Simon, Fagen.....gifts to mankind. Rock on.
Back at this underappreciated masterpiece of an album. Another work of art showcased on your channel. Thank you, brothers, for your content and comments. I'm with you all the way.
Where do I start? Firstly, you’re reviews are fabulous. It maybe your first time, would be at least my thousandth lol. Musically, as with everything on The Nightfly, it is flawless. But look at the band!!! Larry Carlton on guitar (and the brilliant Steve Khan and Dean Parks). Jeff Porcaro from Toto on drums. The legendary Marcus Miller on bass. The equally legendary Greg Phillinganes on keys. Valerie Simpson (Ashford & Simpson) on bv’s and the brilliant Starz Vanderlocket on percussion. Add to that a fusion of Caribbean/Jazz and ending with a conga. Untouchable.
Donald and Walter just take me to a place no other group does. They relax my soul. :)
I so agree with you!
Great album....all killer, no filler.
I envy you getting to hear his other solo albums for the first time and very much look forward to your reactions
I immediately fell in love with this album when it first came out, all those years ago. Perfection.
Love the Blue Jays hat, Fagen is one of the greatest . Thanks
He brought the magic to steely dan❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
"I'm doing all I can to stay seated........nuff said. LOVE this track!!!!!
I have listened to this album more than any other in the history of the world. I have used the song i.g.y. to test every stereo, every speaker, every receiver, every turntable, everything. Everything. It is Sonic perfection.
a song about impending doom with a bouncy groove -- wild
Lol😂 La “I’m doing all I can to stay seated”!
Perfection is all need be said…for all their work
One of my favorite songs from an album with all songs that bang. Thanks for the share.
This is a MULTI-LAYER MASTERPIECE... I can't get enough of this track. I first heard this song in 1982. It sounded great then and it sounds just as good today. Great reaction, guys. As always.... take care.
I hope you guys get to his other solo works, especially the Sunken Condos and Morph The Cat albums.
Wow fellas I totally forgot about this jam. Ty ! You cats never miss man!
A superb album. IMO one of the great "Steely Dan" albums, from beginning to end. Any song from this album is a wise choice. Always great seeing you guys enjoy my favorite music.
This song is a favorite, for the charming rhythms and melodies, and the classic SD way of telling of an unfortunate situation without actually saying it, just talking all around it. Lovely.
Thanks guys.
He ALWAYS has the best backup singers 😮
One thing I really enjoyed when I caught Steely Dan last year was his real appreciation for his backup singers. In fact, he turned the entire vocal duties for "Dirty Work" over to them and they killed it.
5:21 Ya mean that Fagan sound😉. Keep on my BROS.
Whatever words you can find to say how great this song and album is….it’s better. A true classic from a musical genius. More musical styles in this song than you can count. A brilliant, brilliant album, The Nightfly. 🔥🔥
FINALLY! I haven’t even started to watch this yet! I know you’re going to love this! My favorite cut on this album! NOW I’m going to watch your reaction! ❤😂👍🏾
Impeccable and brilliant imagery! Lots of those “expensive” chord voicings mixed with that pulsing rhythm. Larry Carlton’s guitar solo is masterful….smooth yet with a hint of edge when needed.
That outro! I was ready to join the the conga line!
👍🏼🎸🎼🔥❤️😎
Fagen keeps it going after this with his solo work. Kamakiriad, Morph the Cat, and Sunken Condos are all great, as you've come to expect, and sound better at each listen. Another great reaction, enjoy seeing your admiration for this unique and thoroughly enjoyable music...
Actually, I thought Sunken Condos was pretty weak.
All to they're own taste I guess. I would simply suggest you listen to it again. Miss Marlene, Good Stuff, Weather in My Head, ???
This and the Frampton reaction, nicely setting off my evening
The album is just intelligently made music and the whole album is a masterpiece - there is nothing to complain about - it`s fantastic at all !!! Many wishes @all from germany ;-)
Yo this track is fresh af!!! Has a head nod vibe like crazy!! The chords are the best part. This jazz music is gangsta af
Genius !
So good I listened again, even though I could simply pull up the Fagen library. Love when y'all react to Fagen or SD.
This is another album you should listen to from the beginning! There isn’t a stinker on it. I love the love between you two and your love for this music. Thanks so much🦚
Don't forget Florida Room by Fagen
one of my favs 👍
Amazing this album never received the airplay it deserved. It is wonderful through and through......It just brings a smile to my face every time I listen to it and that is what music is for.....
One of the first digitally recorded albums. When you say "that Steely Dan sound there" I think that was Larry Carlton on guitar but Dean parks also plays guitar on this track.
Airplay Beats consistently smooth and getting with it - as always, your musical choices and commentary are beyond the best of the rest.
Thanks, guys for the hard work and great music.
Wow, I forget how incredible this album is. Thanks!
Can’t believe I’ve never heard the 808 bass part in the chorus before now!!! Thanks
Nice nostalgic vibe to this wonderful album.
I learn a lot every time guys, thanks for the great channel.
This album is so tight it squeaks on the turntable!
Donald Fagen/Steely Dan never ever disappoint! The subject matter of this song makes me think of somewhat related matter in Steely Dan's "The Royal Scam", which also reminds me that you probably have at least 30 more songs to enjoy, La and Che! 🥰 Their sound, their intelligent lyrics; true standouts.
Love this album! It is groovy!
I love how you guys point out things that I hadn't really paid too much attention to before. I have to re-think how I listen to these songs now. Kind of a refreshing point of view.
This is a favorite love that latin beat
Fellas, fellas, fellas..... of course this was a great selection and your energy always good. I was bit surprised when you were disclosing your tops for music genres , that there was no mention of Steely Dan. What category would you even put them? Their own? Thoughts?
In my opinion, I consider Steely Dan more jazzy than anything but they are definitely their own genre
@@AirplayBeats Agreed they are rooted in jazz. Fagen once said in an interview, he and Walter were raised on jazz and when starting out, they went to studios selling songs...more pop rock stuff which you hear on the first album. He said they kept the good stuff they wanted to do in the hip pocket until they had the power.
You also didn't mention BLUES and of course SRV comes to mind. You might do FAVORITE ARTISTS NEW TO YOU since your reaction journey started. Maybe FAVORITE LIVE PERFORMANCE. People are gonna be interested in who has had an impact on you since starting your journey. Thanks for sharing with us! Love the vibe and energy fellas
It's about the great Cuban Revolution. Although marimbas have never been a big part, if at all, of traditional Cuban music.
That is such a great song from start to finish
There’s extra value available for this tune by finding on TH-cam the live version of this from DF’s solo tour in 2006. The band takes the last part of the song and extends it by about three minutes and gets into some really interesting territory. Find it.
Florida Room is a masterclass in song writing and performance imo.
My favorite from the album 👍👌
i love this whole album
Morning gents! Thanks for the spin! Thought you might like it…love hearing your reaction…thank you both!
Good Morning. Hope you enjoyed it!!
@@AirplayBeatsthanks! Hope you guys did too!
Thank you! A wise, enchanting choice.
20-30 takes?! lmao not even 20-30 hours, we measured Dan and Fagen's albums by YEARS... so a little note, growing up with The Boys we understood how great they were, we just were naive enough to think we would hear something like it or that good again, yea, well, 40-50 years later and still waiting. So, when we would hear their albums the first time, we would be blown away but had to re-listen to absorb all the delicate touches built into their musical paintings. So when we would hear "would you make me a Cuban Breeze, Gretchen" it would stick and become part of our vernacular and would be sprung on unsuspecting parties, such as being greeted by a server in a restaurant, heaven forbid, named Gretchen, lol, and it was a race to fit in the phrase at the best point, "can you make me a Cuban Breeze, Gretchen"? There are nuggets like this all through their musical history, and many me and my friends still use to this day, and all we need say is a word, or a short phrase from The Boys, and bam! - memories are triggered and we are transported in our minds to those glorious times back in the day. Hope you get as much out them as we did, cause it's been a wonderful ride.
you are SO right! Been 50 years now...still waiting lol...loved your post. There are so many lines...from songs like "Daddy Don't Live in New York City No More, Everyone's Gone To the Movies, Don't Take Me Alive" and so many more...a rich texture of words/phrases painting the story...they are unsurpassed in both music and lyrics..
Is there gas in the car??? Great comment, couldn't agree with more.
I bought the vinyl album in 1983 after hearing the single "New Frontier". Wow! I'd stumbled upon a hidden gem. I brought my kids up on this album and my son is still a huge fan (being strapped into the back of the car and having to endure Dad's taste in music couldn't harmed that process!).
This album is a MUST for every "muso". And one of the first, if not the first fully digitally recorded albums!
Love the Humphrey Bogart look on the album cover 😮
Another fantastic reaction to a fantastic song!!!
A totally enjoy watching you two react to all this great music, it takes me back to when I first heard a lot of this music!!!
Thank you La and Chi!!👏👏
Nice little tune about the Cuban revolution.
One of the first 100% digitally recorded albums. The music and engineering are both masterpieces. The record is basically about Fagen growing up in the 50's.
You notice he closes a Caribbean flavored song with sleigh bells?
That whole album...
Own that shit.
You do or ya don't but it awesome.
Fagen did some great stuff outside Steely Dan.
The 808 makes sense, given the year this was recorded
Kamakiriad is going to blow them away 😅 every song it HARD!!!
Yes sir! One of my favorite albums. I can’t wait until they play it. :)
@@masapell what's your favorite track from the album?mine is on the dunes
@@melvinwomack3717 I love the bouncy feeling of Florida Room and the Cornelius Bumpus solo. The horn parts are great too :)
@@masapell yes! the horns are great on that song 👌 spring time is my second favorite
@@masapell Cornelius is the sax player on some of the Doobie brothers stuff right 🤔?
You can bring this album to a desert island, to planet Mars or even to the next galaxy...
I'm not much of a dancer, so I was tapping my feet.
Fucking master piece!
"I'm doing all I can to remain seated" 🤣😍 - This really swings doesn't it!? The whole LP is a delight, of course. They released a *live* reconstruction of the Nightfly last year, here the Goodbye Look from it th-cam.com/video/4OqZaf7INrQ/w-d-xo.html
This song is set in Cuba when Castro was seizing power. Fagen's character is trying to get off the island
It does sound like Cuba, but the musical vibe of the song is calypso (he even mentions steel bands), which is not Cuban music at all, it’s Trinidad and Tobago. Then again, there’s that line about “Cuban breeze…” Anyway, it sure reminds me of my childhood. I was born in Cuba and lived through the Revolution.
@@esdel1955 Wow!!
@@perrynelson4254 you think that’s wow? Fidel Castro picked me up and sat me on his shoulders. He picked my sister up and sat her on the hood of his car. We also met and chatted with Che Guevara.
Even MORE WOW!! That's incredible.
@@perrynelson4254 hehe yeah my childhood was like a movie
Really enjoy your channel...
Give this a listen...jazz instrumental but think you might like it...
forgot the link...
th-cam.com/video/qbs1O-IUBv8/w-d-xo.html
Sorry
Checks off the SD Boxes ...this record .
Trying again since this one is fresh:
On your Heart - Led Zeppelin video, you mentioned you’d like to know what LZ thought.
They were on Letterman the next night and talked about it.
I posted the link in the original comments, but you’ll find it if you search lettermen led zep. The clip title mentions Elvis.
Donald was never scared to let his soul glow
I just found a used copy of The Nightfly last Saturday! This is Fagen’s best solo album…period.
❤
I love that I love the way it starts out.Oh well
😅😅😅
Ever heard the hit the song l I g h t s out of u t by the j giles band
Great song. Donald performs this song when he was inducted into the jazz hall of fame. His voice is off a bit but well worth watching, it's on YT. Later...
Fagen loved Hemingway and Nabokov amongst other authors so he just riffed on 'ol Ernie's vibe and voila!
Try to get to "Maxine" and "Ruby baby" before you leave this album.
Edit: forgot. There's some Donald Fagen songs from movie soundtracks you'll want to try too. "True companion", from the "heavy metal" soundtrack, and "century's end" (forgot what movie it's from).
And one more Steely Dan, "chain lightning". I don't know what album or what it's from (I've only heard it on a "best of"). Sort of a Doo wop/blues song. Different, but still good.
Edit edit: sorry one more. "Here at the western world". It's another that's on a best of, but not on a regular album. I read it got dropped from "royal scam", but not added to "Aja". It's a good song though, and you can tell it sounds like it would have been on one of those albums.
Larry Carlton, for me, is among the best of the best, and I favor his playing among most of those. He is absolutely brilliant here. I have had this song in my head for weeks at a time and only removed it by conscious choice. Donald Fagen is a demigod. I generally pay close attention to the bass guitar: on this song the bass player is so good that I had to concentrate to isolate his or her (his) line in the song. That may be the greatest compliment that a bass player can achieve on a tune of this magnitude: it's everywhere but I can't tell where it is! If I had to guess(and at this point I do), I would say Chuck Rainey is the bassist.
Just as good as Steely Dan.
"whole new ballgame" = Castro was a big fan of baseball.
Help me out guys. 808? What is that?
It’s a deep drum kick. Need sub woofer speakers or earphones to hear it
Thanks!
And all this time I thought it meant Hawaiian. Be strong, Maui
A song about Castro taking over in Cuba..this whole album is about growing up during the Kennedy years...