New frontier (Donald Fagen) (LP 2496)

Donald Fagen  The Nightfly (CD, Warner Bros Records, 1982) ****  

Genre: pop/ rock

Places I remember: Roger Marbeck gave me this one.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: New Frontier

Gear costume: Ruby Baby

Active compensatory factors: I enjoy, without absolutely loving, this debut solo album from one half of Steely Dan.

It's familiar territory, and that's down to Fagen and all the musicians he used in Steely Dan albums as well. Although, having said that, the songs are quite autobiographical compared to his work with Steely Dan and it's a lot jazzier in style as well. Walk Between Raindrops is a good example as it trips along on jazzy organ lines from Donald.

New Frontier was my entry to the album, thanks to the wonderful video that was on all of the music video shows that were a big deal back in 1982. Weird how short lived they all were. YouTube killed them all off.

Bottom line: it's just not an album I have a hankering to come back and listen to that often, unlike Steely Dan albums. I'm not sure why that is.

Where do they all belong? A lot more Fagen to come when we eventually get to S.

King of the world (Steely Dan) (LP 297)

Steely Dan Countdown To Ecstasy (CD - MCA, 1973) *****

Genre:  American pop/rock

Places I remember: FOPP (Covent Garden), this week, for a fiver

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: My Old School (hilarious clip from 1973 - check out the miming! the fashions! the hair styles! and a very bored Walter Becker!!)




Gear costume: Show Biz Kids, You Gold Teeth et al  

Active compensatory factors: This is one I had on a bespoke cassette for decades: I never got around to owning a proper copy. Walked into FOPP this week, saw it displayed and thought the time is right - what with CDs becoming increasingly obsolescent an' all.

My memory and love for this album was jogged a few weeks ago via a Mojo article - one of those 'Last night a record changed my life' articles by a musician. It's one of those albums.

It is an absolute classic - as are a few other Steely Dan discs. Every track on this oozes class and self-confidence. These guys knew they were on fire.

Special mention to Jeff "Skunk" Baxter on guitar. As this comes from when SD were an actual band (as opposed to Becker/Fagen and sundry studio session wizards), the prominence and distinctiveness of Baxter's playing is a standout feature of this set.

Where do they all belong? Sandwiched between debut Can't Buy a Thrill and third album Pretzel Logic, no difficult second album syndrome for Steely Dan!

Angular banjoes sound good to me (Steely Dan)

Aja is a weird song on a weird album (also called Aja) with a weird cover (right), by a weird group that isn’t really a group at all – it’s a duo comprising Walter Becker and Donald Fagen plus assorted genius session musicians.

It’s the longest song on the album and the title song so it’s important right?

Musically it’s as smooth as silk with a very jazzy feel from the sax solo, but the lyrics are just…weird.

Does it actually mean anything? Or is it just oblique for oblique’s sake?

Starts off and appears to be literally on solid ground – the hill. Maybe it’s metaphorical though. Maybe it’s Capitol Hill where People never stare, they just don’t care.

But then – whheeeeeeeeeeee – we’re off into Chinese music, banyan trees, double helix in the sky, the dude ranch and, of course, those angular banjoes.

What the hey?

A quick read on the interweb of various theories about the song shows that nobody knows anything!

So instead – kick back for 8 minutes and let your mind wander while your feet do the tapping.