Donald Fagen - New Frontier (REACTION)
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- @AirplayBeats reacts to Donald Fagen’ New Frontier
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Finally got to it! You guys are too young to remember Tuesday Weld (a blonde movie hottie in the 60’s….Ambush was a perfume in the day). A lot of regular people actually built fallout shelters….in case the Reds decide to push the button down! This tune follows..
She looked 12, which is probably why Fagen was into her. 😮
I was going to mention Tuesday Weld also. I was absolutely in love with her lol! A great performance in Who'll Stop The Rain. I'm loving the "Dan" train you guys are riding!
Yep. My older sisters wore Ambush- a sweet smelling inexpensive perfume, and sometimes wore their hair in French Twists!
Ever since Dobie Gillis, I have been crazy about Tuesday Weld.
@@ubilo wonder if anyone but us remembers that show lol
This album in its tone and subject matter is a sort of dedication to the time period between the 1950s and '60s in which a Nightfly, a late night jazz DJ spins tales through music. It's brilliant.
1957-58, to be specific. THAT was the International Geophysical Year. ( I.G.Y. )
This is such a brilliant, perfect album. Fagen told Musician Magazine that Thelonius Monk was the alien in his suburban bedroom, not E.T. That's him on the back cover, upstairs at night listening to jazz radio and fantasizing about a girlfriend in his bomb shelter, a vacation in Miami, a girlfriend in Chinatown, being in the Caribbean during a Communist revolution, even being Lester the DJ himself, all cynical & broken hearted. It's one of the best concept albums ever and the Brothers zeroed in on the cohesiveness of the sound. Great reaction.
In the 70’s, one of the most popular DJ’s was Alison Steele of WNEW. She was known as the Nightbird. I spent many of my nights with her as she played all the best and newest Classic and Progressive rock. She died fairly young. But the Nightfly as an album makes me think of her.
@@sonnyhenriksen284 the SUPER 70S TOOK AHEAVY BLOW BLOW HEN WALTER BECKER SAID SOLONG TOHIS PARTNERS IN CRIME FPR SO LONG HANG IN THERE,DONALD. HIS ,MUSICAL BUDDY
You kno walter died a few years after the split,
YESSS!! Glad to see you back to The Nightfly. Fagen actually did a video to this song which got a lot of play on the then fairly new MTV. The song was a fairly big radio hit.
The video will give you more of a clue of what the song is talking about.
The phrase "New Frontier" is what John F Kennedy called his vision for America in his campaign and used it specifically in his iconic Inauguration Address in 1961. Of course this was a time where tensions were high with the Soviet Union, and there was the Berlin Wall airlift, and later the Cuban Missile Crisis where the Soviets attempted to put nuclear missiles 90 miles away from Miami (young JFK backed down the older blustery Soviet premier by calling his bluff). All that amped up fears of Nuclear War. This was Fagen as a teenager living through the school nuke drills (stop, drop and roll, duck and cover), and families building fall out shelters.
Key lines right away in the first verse:
Yes we're gonna have a wingding
A summer smoker underground
It's just a dugout that my dad built
In case the reds decide to push the button down
We've got provisions and lots of beer
The key word is survival on the new frontier
...........
Let's pretend that it's the real thing
And stay together all night long
And when I really get to know you
We'll open up the doors and climb into the dawn
Confess your passion, your secret fear
Prepare to meet the challenge of the new frontier
He's treating the very real possibility of a nuke war typically snarky and satiric, dreaming or thinking of a woman he thinks looks like Tuesday Weld (blonde movie actress) could party with him in this fall out shelter, listen to Dave Brubeck, and then hopefully come back out together to that greater world of the New Frontier.
Another great smooth Fagen look at life (the whole album is about his memories growing up in the late 50s/early 60s).
Wonderful synopsis! I typically describe Fagen/Steely Dan lyrics as snarky as well ❤
Anyone who grew up during that era knows exactly what this album is about. It was the best of times, etc. ❤️ Donald Fagen, genius!
The last album I bought on vinyl and the first on CD. Still fresh half a century later. Some of the best musicians ever. Larry Carlton, Anthony Jackson, Michael Omartian etc
Me too! First CD I ever bought after buying a stereo system. My future wife (now of 26 years) had this on vinyl while we were dating. Needless to say, I was impressed and knew I had a winner.
I think Will Lee plays on a track or two too. Will from David Letterman's late show band with Paul Shaffer.
I am a 64 year old Army Vet, with classic rock being my wheelhouse, and I must say I thoroughly enjoy your channel, and especially the respect you give to this music, Fagan, Floyd, Steely Dan, et al...thank you for a great channel...Rock On!!
We lived through spoiled times musically. There was so much new GREAT MUSIC WEEKLY we could stay in our niches. Looking back, we can widen that range.
@@Greg-io1ip Greg, we definitely were spoiled, but we also knew that alot of the music we listened to was "Great" Pink Floyd to serve as reference, and many others, 40, even 50+ years on, and people are just finding out about "our" tunes...but I love watching these reactions, I get to relive the first time, over again...ROck ON brother!!
We had no idea we were growing up in the golden age of music.
I used to fall asleep listening to this album while I was working 60 day stints fishing in the Bering Sea, 80-84. Everything was going to be OK, it still has the same effect.
My favorite Donald Fagen song. This whole album has a late 50s, early 60s post-war America flavor to it. Love it!
I think it has the most elaborate and rewarding outro of all fagen songs. It gives me the feeling he(Donald) enjoyed it very much too
It was always my favorite too. Until I started jamming to Donald's song from the Sunken Condos album, Weather In My Head. Now it's my jam.
I love you guys. So much fun watching you go down the SD/Fagen rabbit hole. Maxine is my favourite track on Nightfly. The Michael Brecker tenor sax solo is perfection IMHO. Coming 11 yrs later in 1993, the more optimistic Kamakiriad is quite solid too (nominated for Album Of The Year), and is produced by Walter Becker! Florida Room is particularly groovy, but the album is a linear journey from start to finish. The 3rd in the trilogy, Morph The Cat came in 2006, with H Gang the standout single, won a Grammy for Best Sound.
Maxine is my favorite too. Oddly it makes me cry. I love this man, DF. He's so talented. It's criminal.
"I hear you're mad about [Dave] Brubeck. I like your eyes; I like him, too." Check out Brubeck's "Take Five," a famous jazz number.
Wait till you hear Maxine and Walk between the Raindrops. I never tire of this album
I could listen to the fadeout all day, just the way the instruments drop out, dreamy.
I love this tune. The lyrics paint such a vivid picture. "Confess your passion, your secret fear - Prepare to meet the challenge of the new frontier". I have always thought that had a double meaning......
What a Groove!!! What a song!!!! What a Masterpiece album!!! Great reaction!!!!
Have always loved that ending. It’s has a feeling of distance with the echo on the keyboard and over all silence. Love it man
"Introduce me to that big blonde...she's got a touch of Tuesday Weld." Nobody writes lyrics like Fagen does...
It helps if your old enough to remember the early '60s which was the era that the lyrics are about.
Great choice, great reaction. Thanks guys.
IMO, The Nightfly is right up there with the Dan's very best albums, and a masterpiece. Fagen paints a warm, nostalgic picture of his youthful world, beliefs, and dreams. Well worth a complete listen.
I'm not a Steely Dan expert, but I am familiar with most of their albums, including the last two (before the reformation), and I'd say the biggest difference between Gaucho and The Nightfly is HEART. By the end of Steely Dan, their music was so *immaculate* that it lacks much in the way of soul and humanity, with the lyrics often impenetrable and unengaging. The Nightfly, by contrast, is overflowing with humour and warmth. That's why I love it so much. The musicianship we can take for granted, here we get something for the heart as well as the head.
This track is so funny. They take the new frontier which John F Kennedy spoke about the United States having a challenge in front of it. But this young man has a different challenge and a different new frontier. He's got a girl down in the fallout shelter that is dad built and he's got to figure out how to get to his new frontier if you know what I mean! It's such a double meaning to the song. Peace!
I liked NEXT YEARS GIRLS..
@@kenperkins7921 do you mean tomorrow girls from the Kamikiriad album?
Love this album. Donald is one slick and exacting musician, writer and producer. It’s all chill badass groovin. Growing up back then, music was a mind expanding influence like no other art form. Your reactions are spot on guys. Your all over it. 👈😉 🍻
This was my go to when it came out. A whole host of session musicians of the time. The album is total vibe in itself.
The video to this is amazing
La and Che. It is amazing how you can pick up on the keyboard and sounding like Happy Birthday from Stevie Wonder. As always fellas great reaction. Much appreciated 🙏
the genius of Donald Fagen
That’s Hugh McCracken on the harmonica and legend Larry Carlton providing that tasteful guitar throughout. Classic Fagen. 🔥
The keys do sound like Stevie Wonder’s “Boogie On, Reggae Woman,” only a little more up tempo. Good catch! I can’t think of too many albums as consistently genius as this one. Every. Single. Track. I hope you’ll do “Maxine” next!
Just enough for the city is the tempo I was getting from this. "Just Enough, For The City, yeah yeah..." Spin that Stevie Wonder and Superstition.
@@Greg-io1ip hmm, could actually work for several Stevie songs 🤔
This is one of my favorite albums. Have been listening to it for over 40 years. Beautiful.
Brings back memories of 60's elementary school where we practiced duck and cover. We never had a dug out bomb shelter. 😂
Duck and cover! To protect us from bomb radiation-OMG! I remember Tuesday Weld. We had a basement with an apartment built for WW2. But knew where there were 'Fallout shelters' around city. I don't recall this song. Like the beat+tempo. Sounds almost new to me. Thanks for info in comment section 👍🏻
You must have been born circa 1955....
First CD I ever bought after buying a stereo system. My future wife (now of 26 years) had this on vinyl while we were dating. Needless to say, I was impressed and knew I had a winner.
The Nightfly is such a polished, classy record. Never dates.
Great album and another great reaction.
I wondered when we would get to Nightfly ! Amazing production on this one. This cd stayed in the box for at least 5 years, I couldn't listen to anything else
Great ears as always...there is definitely a similarity with regards to the keyboard sounds. phrases and beats throughout this album. There are a few songs that you havent gotten to yet where they do switch things up so that'll be a nice surprise
So great to see you two discover some of the best music from the seventies and eighties
Plato Skouras, maybe??
The music on this album gives the impression of driving: wheels moving, forward motion. Some of the lyrics support this as well. A second impression is of guitar notes suggesting an angry, buzzing fly, especially on the album title track.
You guys are fun. I love watching young guys enjoying and discussing the music I listened to at the same age. You make me think of the music in new ways by your reactions. And expertise.
Love this one, something a little different....
Can't wait for you to do Steely "Night By Night"...!
Great call! I think Night By Night was a taste of Dan to come back on Pretzel Logic. I wore the vinyl grooves on that one for sure!
This album was a New Frontier in itself as it was one of the first all-digital recordings. An album based on life in the 50’s but with (at the time) futuristic technologies. The liner lists 31 musicians and I think every single one of them fits perfectly on this album (along with the engineers and production team). Hell, the engineer even invented and built an entirely new drum machine just for this album! The outro for New Frontier is mint, with so much heart and feeling played into it (without being cheesy or overstated), and must be played at high volume in the car. Pure audio perfection.
Great choice guys, love the shuffling rhythm and layered harmonies for an overall pleasing effect. You're right on about the Stevie Wonder feel to the smooth drive of the tune. Back in the 50s/60s, we had Fallout Shelters in case of nuclear war, which we teens turned into makeout spots. (laugh). Even us old dawgs were players using all the tricks.
Great song, and one of the best covers ever.
such a great vibe!
A great song, awesome sound!
🎶🎶🎶👍
Takes me right back to the days of the first couple of years of the JFK administration, the Cuban Missile Crisis, people turning their basements into bomb shelters and yes, I wouldn't mind chatting up a girl with a touch of Tuesday Weld one little bit. You guys are too young to remember her. She was quite something when I was 12. This song and I.G.Y. really paint the picture for me. The whole album is very early 1960s remembrances which I think is what he had in mind.
I agree the LP is definitely anchored between 1955-63 approx. The International Geophysical Year was 1959.
@@briangray00 The IGY dates were 01 July 1957 - 31 December 1958.
@@terenzo50 ta. (I *did* look it up, obviously somewhere different 🙂)
Nightfly..all about growing up in the Kennedy years....
The album wasn't just about the Kennedy years. Late 50s/early 60s, Fagen as a kid. THIS song was more about JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
He said this was his most personal album, so tough to do. He almost scrapped it when done. Then he went into major writer’s block for a decade.
Great stuff. Sounds just as good today as the first time I heard it.
This album is about the early 60s. I was a child then but I clearly remember when backyard bomb shelters were being sold in today's equivalent of an RV show. Not kidding.
Duck under your desk and cover!😂
@@markcosenza3274 And face away from the windows and you'll be OK.
@@markburnham7512 don't want to be injured by fly glass during a nuclear bomb attack!
@@markcosenza3274 or the radiation, lol.✌🏼
@@olly8 So glad we are all alive to laugh about it today. Truly. But this is the real shit our generation dealt with, and it's not for nothing.
I bought the vinyl album in 1983 after hearing this single "New Frontier". Wow! I'd stumbled upon a hidden gem.
I then worked back into Steely Dan, many years later, because I couldn't get into them in the early to mid 70s.
Yes, Pink Floyd, Hawkweed, Wishbone Ash, The Who, and Tangerine Dream occupied my attention.
And as I said before, 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!
I love that this whole thing is him talking to this girl, real time.
One of my favorites!!
Fagen, Florida Room, you guys are Awesome
The guy can paint a picture 😊
Back in 82 and for a few years afterwards stereo salesmen used this album/CD to demonstrate the audio quality of their sound systems. The quality is so pristine it sounds like it was produced yesterday
Fun fact; On at least some of the tracks on this album, Mr. Fagan features a thing he and his audio engineer created: an acoustic/analog-sounding mechanical drum machine named Wendell… at the time, (1982) most likely the first of its kind.
This album is the first of three albums in a trilogy: The Nightfly, Kamakiriad & Morph the Cat, if memory serves.
This is the album. I have more copies of this than I even know, across all formats. I just buy them when I see them.
I bought the Japanese hybrid SACD about 6 months ago. Fantastic!
It’s a joy sitting back and using my listening ears on songs I never otherwise would have checked out.
As a bass player, I listen to music quite literally from the bottom up as opposed to from the top (vocals) downward. I really appreciate these young guys and their knowledge of music. Good review, guys! BTW, I have learned the bass parts of this album from start to finish. Great album!!!!!
I love to listen to this album when I am working outside.
If Tuesday Weld had married Fredrick March II, she would have been Tuesday March the Second.... a real hot date.
My favorite of his solo albums- ah, 50s childhood (which I missed but I know what he was exposed to). I like Brubeck too.
Best Steely Dan breakdowns ever. Good job guys.
This whole album is great
Love the country-blues tinged harmonica. Very tasty addition.
Optimistic view of the future in IGY, Cuban missile crisis overshadowing teens here, this is his ‘youth’ album in the trilogy
Love these reviews guys love your channel keep up the great works and tunes!
This is the promise of JFK's America see from the vision of a young boy. That's the "New Fronteer". The sky was the limit.
Happy Birthday by Stevie had a Linn drum machine triggering a Moog Vocoder into a Prophet 10 for the chug a lug sound. Don't know what these guys used but the effect is the same.
As a SD nut you two are welcome to come to attend any BBQ at mine at any time. Bring the slapping hand please. I've derived a lot of pleasure watching your reactions. Dead right about the instruments, there's much more synth stuff involved 2 years later. That said there's a lot of nods on the LP to DF growing up in late 50s/early 60s. Informs his love of jazz, big bands and beautiful vocals. Don was a big fan of Henry Mancini. Stevie liked Steely. I'd be flabbergasted if there wasn't mutual respect.
And I would add that the "harmonica" is a melodica.
Sipping a margarita by the pool, Fagan and the Dan keeping me company. ❤
You should check out the video for this...brings the concept together.
Now we're talkin'! A classic story and song. Very boppy.
Stevie Wonder ~ "LIVIN FOR THE CITY"....!!!
All stitched together by the master Larry Carlton. He brings iy all into the same place.
Missed this. I love this. Also surprised you didn't get blocked on this. Other channels I follow have been blocked. To Dan fans this album was like a drink of water in the desert because they had broke up and weren't sure if we would ever hear Don again. He does tickle the ivories on this record on Maxine. As you have said the songs are complex and need to be listened to minimum 5× lol. Great stuff..
Be
Very well done, gentlemen…
World's about to end but let us have a party
Bomb shelter groove. I hear something’s going very wrong at the Bay of Pigs.
Fagen crammed a whole lot of personal and autobiographical stuff into this first solo album - as well as just about everything he'd learned about using the studio as a musical instrument. I loved it instantly. And now It occurs to me how much this song in particular would be a fun ironical soundtrack choice if someone ever made a movie out of Fallout 4. 😀
This song is full of imagery from the late 50s and early 60s. The term New Frontier was taken from a Pres. John F. Kennedy speech
8:00 I’d say the same about Ace Frehleys , Frehleys Comet closest thing too a KISS record I’d say quality is right there which is sayin something I call KISS the Steely Dan of rock cuz every song is great and they had allot of guest studio musicians on their records
Try Something Moved but every song is dope
Florida room by Fagen is the jam.Check it ...
Timeless.....
Funny how people follow how others, with no clue as to the references in the lyrics, comment on this or that song. Yes - the New Frontier indeed!
Hello to you ,I love the reactions your analysis of the tracks is always is spot on, I am enjoying your zappa journey, so cool try the track city of tiny lights. have you ever listened to Ian Dury and the Blockheads ?? 70's / part punk part rock part funk part jazz , and Ian had such (pre rap ) lyrical flow he was like an unofficial poet laureate . tracks like ..... what a waste, ... reasons to be cheerful ,...... sex and drugs and rock and roll , ...... Ht Me With Your Rhythm Stick, ..... Clever Trevor..... any of the tracks mentioned are right up your street . hope you get a chance to play some. all my best to you and yours from Liverpool
Agreed any/all of those would be great for these guys to react to - definitely have a rap vibe - especially “reasons to be cheerful’
❤
I think the Stevie Wonder song you're thinking of is "Go Home" from In Square Circle. Will say if anyone tries to turn off Steely Dan in my presence, they get The Brothers Johnson treatment: Oops! Upside your head, said oops upside your head.
One of my fav things they did on this is take the instruments away one by one instead of fading it or ending it conventionally
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Becker stepped outside that box. Just sayin.
I want to enjoy you reacting to all of this album. I'm with you all the way, but, I still can't wait for your reactions to the Kamakyriad album. But, one thing at a time. Nice reaction brothers.
Let them get through the rest of Nightfly man. Chillax.
Abraham Laboriel on the bass.
Gents, you outta look up the video of this,..really cool.
I'm loving your Mookie shirt!!
You've got it backwards, the rest of the album sounds like this. One of his best.
somehow Donald Fagen makes even a cow bell sound good 😎
3:40 sounds like they did it all in one nite
That ridge part is musically deep
Thanks for the reaction, men. 👍🏻
You should investigate the "concept" Fagen is building with this album. I like what you’re doing, but you’re missing things in these songs because neither of you is a child of the ‘60s like Fagen is. Don’t hesitate to get coached up on what’s happening on _The Nightfly_ before you react to more of the cuts. It will enrich your experience.
He wrote/writes stiff that just has its own lane. Yes there are definitely influences, but the writing & composition is just DIFFERENT!!!!
Don't Forget to move your next reaction to YES album, "Going For The One, released in 1977....It is another one of their masterpiece albums!!! It is so beautiful and very spiritual theme to the album.....you will think that you guys are entering Heaven!!! I'm serious. Excellent Production. Masterpiece!!!! And don't forget the Masterpiece album "Physical Graffiti" by Led Zeppelin.
Album is a masterpiece... Who don't like a big blond and Tuesday Wells.
Tuesday Weld.