Studio engineers still use this album to test out their studios and studio monitors. It’s that damn precise and well done! Steely Dan…the perfectionists we’re fortunate enough to be able to enjoy album after album!
Steely Dan evokes polar opposite stimulation at the same time, on one hand they're structure, layering, melodies, instrument choices, and complexities are far beyond those of mortal men, while at the same time offering some of the most chill and relaxing musical experiences one can have. They really are amazing...
🤩 and why AJA night sells out just as fast as Greatest Hits night, when they do Album Residency Shows. 😒 That ended due to Pandemic 🤗 Nice to see them doing make up dates! 😁🐰
Thanks for the listen. I'm 66 years old and have been a big Steely Dan fan for as long as I can remember. What I didn't realize in the 70's was that, at heart, I was a jazz fan, and that's why Steely Dan resonated with me so. They are an interesting group, constantly evolving around Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who met in college. They've always incorporated a variety of top-tier session musicians in their music, and as you've already noticed, they are wizards of engineering and production. "Black Cow" features jazz legends, Larry Carlton (guitar), Joe Sample (keyboards), and Tom Scott (sax). Sadly, Walter passed away five years ago. They've actually used horns on many of their tracks. In my estimation, "Aja" is the pinnacle production in their repertoire. As always, thanks for sharing. Steve
Absolutely the best CHILL music. Why is it that I can be fairly bored with jazz music but Steely Dan I could just sit and chill and listen to for hours,,,,,! Steely Dan is basically jazz but there is just something special about it.
It's the way they combine the complex and jazzy with super catchy melodies, especially those choruses that stay with you forever. Few bands do that to such a high degree
Check out some of his songs when Donald Fagan the lead singer went out on his own. True Companion, Snowbound, The Dunes, Mona, Morph The Cat, I.G.Y., New Frontier, Night Fly. All songs are Awesome!✌️🎸
My FAVORITE Steely Dan song. I believe it's a male telling his wild girlfriend. Black Cow is an adult Root Bear float. It has liquor. Totally 70s to me. During the 70s. My dad's chainsmoking aunt used to drink them. All. The. Time.
I can hear this song a million times and it always seems like the first time. A truly great, classic track that stands the test of time. It does not seem possible that that song and Aja, the album it’s from is 45 years old. The quality of the recording speaks to 2022.
I think the first song they did that featured a horn section was My Old School in 1973. Second album, Countdown to Ecstasy. Ernie Watts , Johnny Rotella , Lanny Morgan and Bill Perkins - saxophone on that tune.
What is a Black Cow? It's basically a root beer float using Kahlua. The adult version however uses bourbon. Rudy's (Bar and Grill) still exists here in NYC on 9th ave between 44th and 45th. Then and now it is essentially a dive bar. In the 70's 42nd St was a hub for pro's and johns, and Rudy's was often where pro's, musicians, artists, and actors would mingle. On the bar when he sees her are her remedies (alcohol and drugs), and her book of numbers, so she was more a high priced pro. The pros also strolled from 26th and 11th ave to the Javits Center on 34th and 11th Ave down to 42nd, down to 7th Ave. There were many on the east side on Greene St from Houston to Spring St as well. He is a man who was hopelessly in love with a prostitute that cannot change her ways, and his many attempts to change her have proven fruitless. This is now perhaps his goodbye to her.
I saw Steely Dan in Detroit a week or so ago. It was everything and Donald Fagan is still as cool as ever. Snarky Puppy opened. Stellar show. Lots of 20 somethings there going bananas for some songs. ???
I’ve vacillated from time to time. Aja is most definitely a masterpiece but for my money, Black Cow always keeps coming back to me as worth being regarded as the best song they ever recorded. I don’t know. It’s a tough call. All I can say is: Black Cow is a contender for their very best work, Aja notwithstanding.
I always think to myself when I hear a Steely Dan fade out that there is a master tape somewhere where the band just jams on for another 10 minutes and wouldn't you give anything to hear that post fadeout music. Actually there are sax solos all over Aja.
Black cow is a bar drink and the book of numbers and remedies is his fixing for shooting heroin. It’s a deep song. Glamour profession is a great song and it about cocaine.. they were 70s stoners from NYC moved to LA and rode the vibe. 😎
@John Slop.........Every bass player should listen to UK band Wishbone Ash from the '70's and '80's. Their debut album in 1970 featured a long bass intro to the song 'Handy'....worth a look. ps: the Steely Dan rabbit hole will get curiouser and couriouser.
They had horns from the very beginning. Not in every song, but in alot of them. Wait - I misremembered. I was thinking about "My Old School", but that's from their 2nd album. Very early though - 1973.
🥰 My favorite thing! 🤗 That "stank face" you got when you picked up on that Bass riff! 🤭 Then you commented on it 😁 which made me giggle 😏 and realize it wasn't my imagination! 😌🐰
The next track you should spin is off Royal Scam- is "Hatian Divorce." It is a different sound for them. It is thick and lush with an Carribean island vibe with a little melancholy and voodoo thrown in. Vibraphones and a talk-box guitar effect you've not hear from SD before. So good. But again there are no bad SD songs, especially Aja.
This entire album is pure fire, not a bad track to be found. One of my all time favorite bands, they blended many genres together, jazz, blues, funk, rock, brought in the best studio musicians of the time to record the albums.
OMG . . . "when did they start incorporating horns . . . gave it that concert sound . . ." now we recite lyrics ..... omg, kids today! (and what kind of drink is a black cow .. . . .). Brother, please do some background research on the greatest Jazz-Rock songwriting/producing duo in the history of pop music, and remember, since '73 Steely Dan wasn't a "band" in the typical sense; it's important to acknowledge the ever-changing list of stellar jazz-icons who made this genius-music come alive under Fagen & Becker's brilliant supervision!
The production on the Aja album was especially fantastic. Long hours and many takes on a maniacal level. The whole album should be taken in one listen, but the song Aja - THAT is perfection.
Horns? Did you say...horns? Uh, well, let me give you a one word band name: Chase. Very short song list, as they only really lasted a couple of albums before tragedy struck and ended the band. In the meantime, though, they did at least one song that was dominant in its time, a song that was covered by everyone down to high school marching bands, because it was perfect at what it did, fusing hard rock and jazz with a horn-heavy band. It was called Get It On. Look it up, react to the original studio version before looking into anything else. Get it On, by Chase. If you like horns, you'll like this nine piece band.
"Black Cow." A sweet, cold ice cream drink with vodka or Kahlua ~ A New York concoction. Usually vanilla ice cream with chocolate...and other (more sugar the better) The "Black Cow" was/is popular with heroin addicts...when you are coming down, sugar is a serious craving. So, a "Big Black Cow" will do the trick at 4:00am. Donald Fagen is describing seeing an ex-girlfriend coming into "Rudy's" (a popular hipster, after hours hangout in New York) "high" and ordering herself a Black Cow... He is disgusted and wants her to drink her big Black Cow and "get out'a here."
I have a question. What music have you listened to in your past? I ask because I am curious. I have been listening to Steely Dan since I was 13 years old. Previous to listening to Dan, I listened to Jazz, Country, Blues, Funk, R&B, Rock and Classical music. Listening to all genres of music lead me to being a fan of fusion music so artists like Stevie Wonder, The Beatles Sly and the family Stone, Return to forever and Steely Dan, Frank Zappa, (there are a lot more to name), have always caught my attention. Steely Dan, Fagan and Becker are/were strong big jazz fans, but if you listen to their music can hear the influences of Big Band, Duke Ellington - Miles Davis - Bebop and post Bebop, Country - listen to Pearl of the Quarter and even Reggae - Haitian Devoice. When you listen to Steely Dan try to take notice of the music as well as the lyrics of their songs. Their lyrics are sardonic, sarcastic and sometimes very pessimistic. Listen to Bad Sneakers and you will get a vivid picture of a dark situation, not mention the 'ode to a loser, Deacon Blues. Lot of their songs are about Drugs and Sex and the elements the environment lends itself to like Kid Charlemagne, Dr. Wu and Time out of Mind, and last but not least, Western World. Musicians - check out the personnel on a Steely Dan album. Even the backup singers are great! In Aja, the sax is played by Wayne Shorter, a disciple of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Ya can't get much better than that! Steve Gadd on drums has played so many jazz greats I can not name them all. Yes, I am a Steely Dan fan!! All and All, Steely Dan is giant who stands on shoulders of a larger than large giant. Amen. Keep up the good work.
Hornz came in a great deal earlier than this one. There's some REALLY great sax AND trumpets on earlier LPs Dig deeper; I defy you to find a song you dislike.
"When did they incorporate horns into their sound" ????????? Really? Did you really listen to "Aja" ?? There are others too....."FM", and "Dirty Work" are a couple.
Nice to hear someone appreciate the studio work that Steely Dan puts in!!!
Studio engineers still use this album to test out their studios and studio monitors. It’s that damn precise and well done! Steely Dan…the perfectionists we’re fortunate enough to be able to enjoy album after album!
Steely Dan evokes polar opposite stimulation at the same time, on one hand they're structure, layering, melodies, instrument choices, and complexities are far beyond those of mortal men, while at the same time offering some of the most chill and relaxing musical experiences one can have. They really are amazing...
The title track "Aja" is simply stunning. The Aja album is among the greatest ever recorded.
🤩 and why AJA night sells out just as fast as Greatest Hits night, when they do Album Residency Shows. 😒 That ended due to Pandemic 🤗 Nice to see them doing make up dates! 😁🐰
Their best, for sure. And that's a high bar.
It was the first Steely Dan song he reacted to
Thanks for the listen. I'm 66 years old and have been a big Steely Dan fan for as long as I can remember. What I didn't realize in the 70's was that, at heart, I was a jazz fan, and that's why Steely Dan resonated with me so. They are an interesting group, constantly evolving around Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who met in college. They've always incorporated a variety of top-tier session musicians in their music, and as you've already noticed, they are wizards of engineering and production. "Black Cow" features jazz legends, Larry Carlton (guitar), Joe Sample (keyboards), and Tom Scott (sax). Sadly, Walter passed away five years ago. They've actually used horns on many of their tracks. In my estimation, "Aja" is the pinnacle production in their repertoire.
As always, thanks for sharing.
Steve
Ditto!
They turned me into a hardcore jazz fan
What a track John. The whole Aja album is a masterpiece. What production for 1977! Can't believe its 45 years old!! Still sounds fantastic
Every song on this album is a master piece
Steely Dan is incomparable.
My absolute favorite Steely Dan song love you
Can you image what a youth I had ? I was born in 1956 and I grew up with all the music of these times.
Excellent song, 🎹 🎸 🥁 📯 ❤️
Been a fan 43 years
Steely Dan sets the standard. Great reaction.
Black Cow is an ice cream float with soda or rootbeer.
This from one of my favourite albums of all time and I’ve been around for a year or two.
Absolutely the best CHILL music.
Why is it that I can be fairly bored with jazz music but Steely Dan I could just sit and chill and listen to for hours,,,,,!
Steely Dan is basically jazz but there is just something special about it.
It's the way they combine the complex and jazzy with super catchy melodies, especially those choruses that stay with you forever. Few bands do that to such a high degree
Dude if you asked for a 70s band with great horn arrangements, these would be my nomination.
the genius of Donald Fagan
Looks like I will be binging you Love you
Took just under a minute for stank-face and chicken head bobs to kick in. You got it!
Steely Dan is your favorite bands favorite band. Boom! Do King of the World!
One of my choices for best song ever. Not kidding. Thank you for reacting🙏🙋♂
R.I.P. David Sanborn ❤️🔥🌈
Yes. Black Cow is a drink. The drumming. The best.
The drink varies by region but the most common type is basically a root beer float.
Steely Dan is a musician's band for sure.
Check out some of his songs when Donald Fagan the lead singer went out on his own. True Companion, Snowbound, The Dunes, Mona, Morph The Cat, I.G.Y., New Frontier, Night Fly. All songs are Awesome!✌️🎸
My FAVORITE Steely Dan song.
I believe it's a male telling his wild girlfriend.
Black Cow is an adult Root Bear float. It has liquor. Totally 70s to me. During the 70s. My dad's chainsmoking aunt used to drink them. All. The. Time.
I can hear this song a million times and it always seems like the first time. A truly great, classic track that stands the test of time. It does not seem possible that that song and Aja, the album it’s from is 45 years old. The quality of the recording speaks to 2022.
“Home at Last” song from the same album (Aja). It’s the best song on the album.
I think the first song they did that featured a horn section was My Old School in 1973. Second album, Countdown to Ecstasy. Ernie Watts , Johnny Rotella , Lanny Morgan and Bill Perkins - saxophone on that tune.
What is a Black Cow? It's basically a root beer float using Kahlua. The adult version however uses bourbon. Rudy's (Bar and Grill) still exists here in NYC on 9th ave between 44th and 45th. Then and now it is essentially a dive bar. In the 70's 42nd St was a hub for pro's and johns, and Rudy's was often where pro's, musicians, artists, and actors would mingle. On the bar when he sees her are her remedies (alcohol and drugs), and her book of numbers, so she was more a high priced pro. The pros also strolled from 26th and 11th ave to the Javits Center on 34th and 11th Ave down to 42nd, down to 7th Ave. There were many on the east side on Greene St from Houston to Spring St as well. He is a man who was hopelessly in love with a prostitute that cannot change her ways, and his many attempts to change her have proven fruitless. This is now perhaps his goodbye to her.
Happy days...
I saw Steely Dan in Detroit a week or so ago. It was everything and Donald Fagan is still as cool as ever. Snarky Puppy opened. Stellar show. Lots of 20 somethings there going bananas for some songs. ???
I’ve vacillated from time to time. Aja is most definitely a masterpiece but for my money, Black Cow always keeps coming back to me as worth being regarded as the best song they ever recorded. I don’t know. It’s a tough call. All I can say is: Black Cow is a contender for their very best work, Aja notwithstanding.
I always think to myself when I hear a Steely Dan fade out that there is a master tape somewhere where the band just jams on for another 10 minutes and wouldn't you give anything to hear that post fadeout music. Actually there are sax solos all over Aja.
I know Steely Dan were Duke Ellington fans, and something about this track always reminds me of him.
Totally in the tradition (not not totally lol) of the Ellington type of arrangements for sure
You should listen to their homage to Duke Ellington, "East Saint Louis Toodla-oo" from Pretzel Logic.
Black cow is a bar drink and the book of numbers and remedies is his fixing for shooting heroin. It’s a deep song. Glamour profession is a great song and it about cocaine.. they were 70s stoners from NYC moved to LA and rode the vibe. 😎
Aja was one of the first albums I got when I was 13! Black Cow is my favorite!
@John Slop.........Every bass player should listen to UK band Wishbone Ash from the '70's and '80's. Their debut album in 1970 featured a long bass intro to the song 'Handy'....worth a look.
ps: the Steely Dan rabbit hole will get curiouser and couriouser.
They had horns from the very beginning. Not in every song, but in alot of them. Wait - I misremembered. I was thinking about "My Old School", but that's from their 2nd album. Very early though - 1973.
"Dirty Work" from CBAT also has horns. It was their first song to have horns.
This is an incredible breakup song.
PS Rudy’s is a real bar in NYC.
If you like horns, wait til you get to "Aja" and the extended version of "FM".
Yacht Rock and i love it. Love you too John!!!!!
🥰 My favorite thing! 🤗 That "stank face" you got when you picked up on that Bass riff! 🤭 Then you commented on it 😁 which made me giggle 😏 and realize it wasn't my imagination! 😌🐰
The next track you should spin is off Royal Scam- is "Hatian Divorce." It is a different sound for them. It is thick and lush with an Carribean island vibe with a little melancholy and voodoo thrown in. Vibraphones and a talk-box guitar effect you've not hear from SD before. So good. But again there are no bad SD songs, especially Aja.
Nope - Haitian Divorce is on The Royal Scam album.
@@gold98gtp My bad!
This entire album is pure fire, not a bad track to be found. One of my all time favorite bands, they blended many genres together, jazz, blues, funk, rock, brought in the best studio musicians of the time to record the albums.
OMG . . . "when did they start incorporating horns . . . gave it that concert sound . . ." now we recite lyrics ..... omg, kids today!
(and what kind of drink is a black cow .. . . .). Brother, please do some background research on the greatest Jazz-Rock songwriting/producing duo in the history of pop music, and remember, since '73 Steely Dan wasn't a "band" in the typical sense; it's important to acknowledge the ever-changing list of stellar jazz-icons who made this genius-music come alive under Fagen & Becker's brilliant supervision!
Try some of their early stuff. Anything you choose will not disappoint... always have used horns!!
BTW, Love the intro 🤘
Fender Rhodes piano, recognizable anywhere.
Next Steely Dan's songs you'll surely like: King of the world, Your Gold teeth II, Home at last.
The production on the Aja album was especially fantastic. Long hours and many takes on a maniacal level. The whole album should be taken in one listen, but the song Aja - THAT is perfection.
Horns? Did you say...horns? Uh, well, let me give you a one word band name: Chase. Very short song list, as they only really lasted a couple of albums before tragedy struck and ended the band. In the meantime, though, they did at least one song that was dominant in its time, a song that was covered by everyone down to high school marching bands, because it was perfect at what it did, fusing hard rock and jazz with a horn-heavy band. It was called Get It On. Look it up, react to the original studio version before looking into anything else. Get it On, by Chase. If you like horns, you'll like this nine piece band.
You need to listen to Aja with minimal lighting and closed eyes. BTW, in my youth, Steely Dan was usually your favourite band's favourite band!
"Black Cow." A sweet, cold ice cream drink with vodka or Kahlua ~ A New York concoction.
Usually vanilla ice cream with chocolate...and other (more sugar the better)
The "Black Cow" was/is popular with heroin addicts...when you are coming down, sugar is a serious craving. So, a "Big Black Cow" will do the trick at 4:00am.
Donald Fagen is describing seeing an ex-girlfriend coming into "Rudy's" (a popular hipster, after hours hangout in New York) "high" and ordering herself a Black Cow... He is disgusted and wants her to drink her big Black Cow and "get out'a here."
aja... aja.. AJA...🤪 AJA! 🤗 I seriously want to see your "stank face" again... 🤭🥰😁🐰
Niiice. If I may offer a suggestion once again: Gold Teeth 1 and 2. Keep on discovering 🤙
I have a question. What music have you listened to in your past? I ask because I am curious. I have been listening to Steely Dan since I was 13 years old. Previous to listening to Dan, I listened to Jazz, Country, Blues, Funk, R&B, Rock and Classical music. Listening to all genres of music lead me to being a fan of fusion music so artists like Stevie Wonder, The Beatles Sly and the family Stone, Return to forever and Steely Dan, Frank Zappa, (there are a lot more to name), have always caught my attention. Steely Dan, Fagan and Becker are/were strong big jazz fans, but if you listen to their music can hear the influences of Big Band, Duke Ellington - Miles Davis - Bebop and post Bebop, Country - listen to Pearl of the Quarter and even Reggae - Haitian Devoice. When you listen to Steely Dan try to take notice of the music as well as the lyrics of their songs. Their lyrics are sardonic, sarcastic and sometimes very pessimistic. Listen to Bad Sneakers and you will get a vivid picture of a dark situation, not mention the 'ode to a loser, Deacon Blues. Lot of their songs are about Drugs and Sex and the elements the environment lends itself to like Kid Charlemagne, Dr. Wu and Time out of Mind, and last but not least, Western World.
Musicians - check out the personnel on a Steely Dan album. Even the backup singers are great! In Aja, the sax is played by Wayne Shorter, a disciple of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Ya can't get much better than that! Steve Gadd on drums has played so many jazz greats I can not name them all. Yes, I am a Steely Dan fan!! All and All, Steely Dan is giant who stands on shoulders of a larger than large giant. Amen.
Keep up the good work.
Root beer float
Patreon! Really man?
Now try home at last from the same record
Hornz came in a great deal earlier than this one. There's some REALLY great sax AND trumpets on earlier LPs
Dig deeper; I defy you to find a song you dislike.
My son is a trombone performance major and I can hear the trombone in this horn section very well.....I listen for the trombones!
"When did they incorporate horns into their sound" ????????? Really? Did you really listen to "Aja" ?? There are others too....."FM", and "Dirty Work" are a couple.
A musician not familiar with Steely Dan and the legendary players who created them? Heh
Overpolished musos. The very worst thing about music/musak!