If you want another "chill ride" off of this album, I'd recommend my personal favorite track- Home at Last. The drummer on this song is Bernard Purdie. His signature style is known as the "Purdie Shuffle".
Another great track. Great support vocals from Michael Mcdonald. Michael sang lead vocals for the Doobie Brothers. Another great band! Aja is a masterpiece of an album. Such brilliant production for 1977!!
Every time you listen to a Steely Dan song it's like a box of chocolates.... you never know what you're going to get. Noe of their songs, at least to me, sound like any of their other songs. They use multiple drummers and guitarists on each album. I personally don't recall other groups doing that. Not only that but they mix different styles such as rock, jazz, fusion, funk and R&B within a single song. The mixing and engineering on their music is stellar in my opinion.
Can't go wrong with any Steely Dan (or Donald Fagen) album nor any individual track; all are either "Super Good" or "Amazing". Even so, some of my personal favorites gleaned over the last 45+ years: FM Home At Last Jack of Speed Doctor Wu Haitian Divorce Babylon Sisters Deacon Blues Don't Take Me Alive Glamour Profession My Old School
These guys were so crazy. They started off as a legit "band" but eventually they decided to just stop touring and make it a 2-man operation of making extremely slick sounding albums. They would record entire different groups of musicians playing the same song over and over again until they thought it was perfect. They would record 10 different guitar solos. They would obsess over tiny stuff like how the tape machines were calibrated. They junked entire albums over flaws you and I would never notice. Getting the Steely Dan gig was one of the most coveted jobs for musicians on the coasts, and you had to bring your A game. They used to say that only 2000 people ever bought the first Velvet Underground record, but every single one of them was inspired to form a band. Steely Dan was the opposite: the band by music nerds for music nerds.
Hey John. Listened to your reaction to Aja - jumped here to Peg. I am gonna subscribe so I can watch your journey in Steely Dan. When done here - gotta find your Bodhisattva video. Lots of us have know Steely Dan for years. it is such a pleasure to watch younger folks learning what great music is all about. Thanks for doing reaction videos, we are with you. Ken
The Aja album was transformative listening for me. I listen to music in a Completly different way becouse of it. I don't think I will ever tire of it. Also.. If I wake up in a bad mood in the morning, I will usually bring a cup of coffe with me to the car and put on Black cow or Peg on my way to work. It never fails to pick me right back up again!
Solo by Jay graydon is renowned as the gig that several guitarists auditioned for including Larry carlton Robben Ford! Jay nailed it first take ! Class !
Plenty of other brands of mics in the room, and if they'd had Pro Tools back then they *absolutely* would have used it. (Fagen's 1st solo album The Nightfly was one of the first fully digitally recorded albums) so maybe spare people the Jack-White "pure analog" proselytising.
Excellent. I'd bet you would really like the album just before Aja, "The Royal Scam". It has a very different production style and a 'broader' range of tunes. Check out "Green Earrings" or "Kid Charlemagne" and you'll see what I mean. Regardless, good fun!
🤣 Had to watch this 3x cause 1st time 💃🏽 I was dancing, 2nd time got lost in Michaels backup vocals, 😁 finally got around to watching you that 3rd go round! 🥰🐰
A person's ear, especially a musician's matures from the the visceral to the thoughtful as he or she matures. I think you are experiencing that. I am 75 years old and I got into music in the 60 and grew as music grew. I didn't appreciate Glen Miller and big ban music until I learned the nuances of what music is. That is the reason The Beatles were so epic. Their music could be soft or heavy but there was always more to be discovered upon a closer listen and they did it all without any computer enhancement or assisted tuning. Absolutely note perfect all the time? No. It was human.
You'll get some idea of the pains that Walt and Donald took in the snippet about Peg from the 'Classic Albums' Aja doc. ua-cam.com/video/waIBA6_0GQc/v-deo.html They're ball-busters.
A very somber song regarding the adult film industry and the pressures they put on the actresses. My son is big into music and really isn't into Steely Dan either, I think age has a lot to do with it.
Great reaction and analysis. My favorite band since 1972. They're just so talented. They're production is second to none, like a swiss watch. Please try "Don't Take Me Alive" off of the Royal Scam album. It has the famous Larry Carlton on guitar and Bernard Purdie on drums.
There are 2 songs w/ 30 second guitar solos that, whenever I listen to the song, I rewind 2 or 3 (or 100) times to hear the solo again & again. This one, and the solo in "Burning For You" by Blue Oyster Cult. Give that one a listen. I think you''ll like it.
Steely Dan was interesting because they were never really a band.... but a bunch of the best studio musicians in the world that sort of rotated in and out depending who was around.
One of the lyrics you read is wrong. It’s actually “I like your pin shot, I keep it with your letter”. For some reason the lyric find website has the wrong lyric there.
🙋🏿♀️ Still suggesting anything else off AJA. 🤗 'Reeling in the Years' for a different feel off a different Album. 🥰 Personal Favorite is 'Show Biz Kids' now that you did Peg! 🤭 Throwing it all out in to the Universe. 😁🐰
I'll go on this journey with you. You might want to give (my favorite) Deacon Blues a listen or perhaps Do It Again which I believe was the first song on their first album. Either way, you will get started with the Dan's cast of lovable losers.
You are going on a musical adventure with Steely D., J.! You already have a taste....One suggestion you may not get is "King of the World." Like those backing vocals, aye? Michael McDonald is smooooth and soulful~!
I've heard that "Peg" was about some minor level actress who committed suicide by jumping from the Hollywood sign, in LA, but not sure if that is true.
Haha I have a long way to go. I was born in the 90's so I got stuck there, and in the 2000's for the longest time! Working my way back :P better late than never!
@@JohnSlopReacts I was born in the ‘60s, so I grew up on classic rock, and what a ride it was. Once in a while, I’ll hit the music from farther back - ‘40s big bands, ‘50s rock and do-wop, classic country, and recently revisited Bobby Short’s ‘The Mad Twenties’ for a little jazz/swing fix. It’s never a bad time to look back on the evolution of popular music. Enjoy your journey, wherever it takes you.
Oh, a world of Dan is about to open up for you.
Back in the 70s, during their heyday, Steely Dan were THE Gold Standard for production and musicianship.
If you want another "chill ride" off of this album, I'd recommend my personal favorite track- Home at Last. The drummer on this song is Bernard Purdie. His signature style is known as the "Purdie Shuffle".
100%!
Rick Marotta is the drummer on PEG.
Another great track. Great support vocals from Michael Mcdonald. Michael sang lead vocals for the Doobie Brothers. Another great band! Aja is a masterpiece of an album. Such brilliant production for 1977!!
It’s a brilliant production regardless of the era.
"Josie' is a groove..But, just about anything they ever recorded is a gem....Do a deep dive on these guys...You'll love the journey.
The bass in this song is virtuoso. DUDE! You really have to listen to this entire album...it's amazing.
Loved, loved watching you appreciate this amazing track!❤
Every time you listen to a Steely Dan song it's like a box of chocolates.... you never know what you're going to get. Noe of their songs, at least to me, sound like any of their other songs. They use multiple drummers and guitarists on each album. I personally don't recall other groups doing that. Not only that but they mix different styles such as rock, jazz, fusion, funk and R&B within a single song. The mixing and engineering on their music is stellar in my opinion.
"Don't take me alive" to hear some of the juiciest licks from Mr. 335 himself, Larry Carlton.
Best intro ever🔥
You also need to check out Donald Fagen's solo work. I.G.Y., New Frontier, and his entire Kamakiriad album. It's all magic. Solid gold.
Can't go wrong with any Steely Dan (or Donald Fagen) album nor any individual track; all are either "Super Good" or "Amazing". Even so, some of my personal favorites gleaned over the last 45+ years:
FM
Home At Last
Jack of Speed
Doctor Wu
Haitian Divorce
Babylon Sisters
Deacon Blues
Don't Take Me Alive
Glamour Profession
My Old School
Try "Kid Charlemagne" 👍😉
These guys were so crazy. They started off as a legit "band" but eventually they decided to just stop touring and make it a 2-man operation of making extremely slick sounding albums. They would record entire different groups of musicians playing the same song over and over again until they thought it was perfect. They would record 10 different guitar solos. They would obsess over tiny stuff like how the tape machines were calibrated. They junked entire albums over flaws you and I would never notice. Getting the Steely Dan gig was one of the most coveted jobs for musicians on the coasts, and you had to bring your A game. They used to say that only 2000 people ever bought the first Velvet Underground record, but every single one of them was inspired to form a band. Steely Dan was the opposite: the band by music nerds for music nerds.
Hey John. Listened to your reaction to Aja - jumped here to Peg. I am gonna subscribe so I can watch your journey in Steely Dan. When done here - gotta find your Bodhisattva video.
Lots of us have know Steely Dan for years. it is such a pleasure to watch younger folks learning what great music is all about.
Thanks for doing reaction videos, we are with you.
Ken
I have to think these youngins will rethink whats been shoved on them.
Haitian Divorce! You've gotta vibe to it...
The Aja album was transformative listening for me. I listen to music in a Completly different way becouse of it. I don't think I will ever tire of it.
Also.. If I wake up in a bad mood in the morning, I will usually bring a cup of coffe with me to the car and put on Black cow or Peg on my way to work. It never fails to pick me right back up again!
"Kid Charlemagne" is a great groovy one of theirs
Solo by Jay graydon is renowned as the gig that several guitarists auditioned for including Larry carlton Robben Ford! Jay nailed it first take ! Class !
Your grandma introduced this song to me when I was young! 🎶🎵💃💃
Ooh yeah I can tell grandma really likes them. They're so smooooth :D
Great songwriting, killer performances, Neumann mics, analog tape. Go to hell ProTools
Plenty of other brands of mics in the room, and if they'd had Pro Tools back then they *absolutely* would have used it. (Fagen's 1st solo album The Nightfly was one of the first fully digitally recorded albums) so maybe spare people the Jack-White "pure analog" proselytising.
A must for Steely Dan is Green Earrings. It will awesome
Steely Dan has a nice jazzy way of talking about sad, dark things.
The only part that's weird to me is the way they say "3D".
When you get through the album, seek out the ‘Making of …’ documentary (I’m fairly certain it’s on Prime). Some fun from the studio.
Love it. Plugging "Green Earrings" every time, man.
Thanks John! Welcome!
Craftmanship... yes. I'm not sure I've heard any crafted better. You will enjoy this ride John.
Excellent. I'd bet you would really like the album just before Aja, "The Royal Scam". It has a very different production style and a 'broader' range of tunes. Check out "Green Earrings" or "Kid Charlemagne" and you'll see what I mean. Regardless, good fun!
This song was such a big part of the soundtrack of my college days
You might like don’t take me alive by those guys. They where awesome musicians
🥰 Peg! Yippie! 😁🐰
I'm going through all the reaction videos to my favorite Steely Dan song, and giving a like and subscribe! ☺
Good for you expanding your musical horizons.
Rick Marotta with the sweet groove on the drums and cymbals.
All tracks on Aja are great!
Next: "FM"
🤣 Had to watch this 3x cause 1st time 💃🏽 I was dancing, 2nd time got lost in Michaels backup vocals, 😁 finally got around to watching you that 3rd go round! 🥰🐰
Michael Macdonald's soulful voice is in the background vocals.
A person's ear, especially a musician's matures from the the visceral to the thoughtful as he or she matures. I think you are experiencing that. I am 75 years old and I got into music in the 60 and grew as music grew. I didn't appreciate Glen Miller and big ban music until I learned the nuances of what music is. That is the reason The Beatles were so epic. Their music could be soft or heavy but there was always more to be discovered upon a closer listen and they did it all without any computer enhancement or assisted tuning. Absolutely note perfect all the time? No. It was human.
My favorite Steely Dan song is "Deacon Blues"
There are so many Steely Dan songs to choose from Great music all the way around. I saw this video and I subbed immediately. Keep up the SD.
Peg was Aunt Peg, an adult film actress.
Have a great day!
Keep going dude.....check out some older Steely Dan...your subscribe base will overflow!
You'll get some idea of the pains that Walt and Donald took in the snippet about Peg from the 'Classic Albums' Aja doc. ua-cam.com/video/waIBA6_0GQc/v-deo.html They're ball-busters.
A very somber song regarding the adult film industry and the pressures they put on the actresses.
My son is big into music and really isn't into Steely Dan either, I think age has a lot to do with it.
Great reaction and analysis. My favorite band since 1972. They're just so talented. They're production is second to none, like a swiss watch. Please try "Don't Take Me Alive" off of the Royal Scam album. It has the famous Larry Carlton on guitar and Bernard Purdie on drums.
Nice short and sweet guitar solo.
There are 2 songs w/ 30 second guitar solos that, whenever I listen to the song, I rewind 2 or 3 (or 100) times to hear the solo again & again. This one, and the solo in "Burning For You" by Blue Oyster Cult. Give that one a listen. I think you''ll like it.
Steely Dan was interesting because they were never really a band.... but a bunch of the best studio musicians in the world that sort of rotated in and out depending who was around.
Guitar solo was by Jay Graydon
One of the lyrics you read is wrong. It’s actually “I like your pin shot, I keep it with your letter”. For some reason the lyric find website has the wrong lyric there.
Hi John great reaction! Little correction here The lyrics are “I like your pinshot” not “picture”
🙋🏿♀️ Still suggesting anything else off AJA. 🤗 'Reeling in the Years' for a different feel off a different Album. 🥰 Personal Favorite is 'Show Biz Kids' now that you did Peg! 🤭 Throwing it all out in to the Universe. 😁🐰
Home at Last and Deacon Blues should be next from this album.
I'll go on this journey with you. You might want to give (my favorite) Deacon Blues a listen or perhaps Do It Again which I believe was the first song on their first album. Either way, you will get started with the Dan's cast of lovable losers.
“Lovable losers”! Yeah they permeate the backstories. Antiheros throughout. I wonder why we find them fascinating.
Their "nightfly" album is the best
You are going on a musical adventure with Steely D., J.! You already have a taste....One suggestion you may not get is "King of the World." Like those backing vocals, aye? Michael McDonald is smooooth and soulful~!
Did you know they call Alabama the Crimson Tide?
Peg is awesome. But I love Josie. Steely Dan is continuous perfection. Nothing didn't work.✌
Would love to see what you think of 'bound for glory' by Tedeschi Trucks band!
What cave have you been living in John Slop??? Peg has been playing since 1977, have they no elevators or waiting rooms where you live?
They said it's about a porn star. Their lyrics seem simple but most have an underlying meaning.
Check out DO IT AGAIN Z BY THE DAN
Try Do it again.
Like lsd on lsd ?
Black Cow, trust me.
Brain massage.
I'm supposed to believe this guy has never heard "Peg" before? Okay.
Michael McDonald is just so unmistakable on this track. lol
you need to listen to electric light orchestra
Best studio ,besides Beatles ?
listen to.. Don't Take Me Alive....Home at Last... Showbiz Kids....My Old School..>>> you wont be dissapointed!! then if you dare..Haitian Divorce
Is there such a thing as a bad Steely Dan song? They still amaze me.
I've heard that "Peg" was about some minor level actress who committed suicide by jumping from the Hollywood sign, in LA, but not sure if that is true.
A musician his age that never ever heard peg before????.....thats some well rounded musician there
Haha I have a long way to go. I was born in the 90's so I got stuck there, and in the 2000's for the longest time! Working my way back :P better late than never!
@@JohnSlopReacts I was born in the ‘60s, so I grew up on classic rock, and what a ride it was. Once in a while, I’ll hit the music from farther back - ‘40s big bands, ‘50s rock and do-wop, classic country, and recently revisited Bobby Short’s ‘The Mad Twenties’ for a little jazz/swing fix. It’s never a bad time to look back on the evolution of popular music. Enjoy your journey, wherever it takes you.
A musician who never heard of Steely Dan before? BS.