You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Steely Dan's "Aja": A Perfect Album?

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

From the hypnotic grooves of “Black Cow” to contributions from jazz legends Wayne Shorter, Steve Gadd, and Victor Feldman, Steely Dan’s 1977 masterpiece Aja reigns amongst the best—and best-produced—albums of all time. In this episode, Peter and Adam break down Fagen and Becker’s jazz-infused harmonies, their precision recording process, and the album’s audiophile-worthy engineering. Tune in for stories, stem breakdowns, and a brand new segment where Kaleb Kirby and Bob DeBoo join us to play through Aja hits. Whether you’re a Steely Dan devotee or just here for the yacht-rock controversy, get ready to kick off the new YHI season with one of the 70s’ most iconic sonic journeys._____show notes:(00:00) Intro & avoiding nautical references(03:11) Introduction to Aja (1977) and its Grammy nods(06:01) "Black Cow" keys analysis (Joe Sample & Victor Feldman)(07:36) Isolation of Paul Humphrey's drum tracks(11:01) Breakdown of Victor Feldman's Rhodes solo(14:37) Deep dive into title track "Aja"(18:11) Analysis of Wayne Shorter solo w/Steve Gadd "comping"(25:49) "Peg" analysis(27:27) Breakdown of McDonald's background vocal arrangements(30:23) Album sequencing discussion(31:31) Chuck Rainey's bass contributions across the album(33:11) "Home at Last" analysis(35:35) "Deacon Blues" discussion(39:44) Snob-o-meter rating(42:34) Preview of Open Studio member exclusive content🟠 Open Studio Members -> Nerd NookTry OS Membership today! → https://osjazz.link/aboutLooking to drop a question? Want to listen to the audio pod? Look no further!https://youllhearit.com/Check out AJA by Don Breithaupthttps://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/steely-dans-aja-don-breithaupt/1100758984

Are we good? Yeah. All right. Cats. We need to address something before we do this album. One of the greatest albums ever, yeah? But there's something that I don't want to talk about. It has to do with boats.

I don't want any mention of even a dinghy, a schooner, any boat of any kind, any nautical vessel, nothing. Any seafaring ship. Let's just keep it out of there because these guys get pissed about that kind of stuff. You know what I mean? All right, cool. But can we talk about yachts? Dude, that's what I'm talking about.

I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Music Explored. Explored brought you today by Open Studio. Go to Open Studio, jazz.com for, oh, your jazz lesson, needs. You've really stored that one up there. I like it.

I got a lot of energy coming off that black cow, man. That was fun. That was fun. That's Bob DeBoo on bass. Oh, yeah. That's Caleb Kirby. Come on the drums. Yeah, we're so excited to have those guys with us on this show.

Yeah. Sounding great. Peter, today we're talking about this is a biggie for me. Yeah. This is a big one. I don't think anyone else

ever noticed this record. So you're good. We're going to fly out of the radar on this one. Nobody's going to be finicky about this one, right? This is Steely Dan's Asia. Their 1977 masterpiece and commercial masterpiece.

Yes. And I used to think this was, because I was a young lad when this record came out. And when I became aware of it, I used to think it was Aja. Or Aja. Oh.

Because it's, you know, like you're looking at the, you know, on the radio, they'll never really say, like you'll hear the music and you'll see the album and it's A. J.A. That's right. Yeah. And they probably never played the title track

on the radio, especially when you were a kid. If they did, it was not past the four minute mark. I know that. It definitely wouldn't have been. Yeah. I don't think so. Yeah, I have a different relationship because I was not of this earth when this album came out. Oh, interesting. I was not quite here. 77. You hadn't seen. You don't know nothing about no 77. No. But I do remember

my father, shout out Lester Manis, had a giant stereo system set up with like an old wooden box as like the case. Very 70s. And I remember a few different album covers. I remember the Ohio Players Honey album. I remember that very vividly actually.

That was a nice cover. It was a great cover. I remember Thin Lizzie's jailbreak, which my dad was a huge Thin Lizzie fan at the time. And I remember this. I remember Steely Dan's Asia. Striking cover, which we'll talk about more later in the show in the categories.

And then I remember hearing it for the first time on that turntable. And then if you haven't heard, heard Asia on vinyl. And I know this sounds ridiculous and snobby. But it sounds so good, man. Right. Like that opening, the opening Black Cow sound with the clavonet down low

and the bass and the drums. Ah, this is beautiful. We could add that to our questions. Is this the best opening of an album just sonically? I mean, it's got to be top 10. So great. It has to be, right? Can you imagine a better setting

than that opening of Black Cow? Which we'll listen to you in a minute. But, man, a couple of things. that we might set the table. Yes. So we mentioned it was recorded in 77. It was actually, this album was nominated for Album of the Year in 1978. It lost to Fleetwood Mac's rumors.

Well, that was a big record, my friend. I can't really fall to anybody from that. The only Grammy at won was for Best Engineering, Non-classical. But that's a big, I mean, I think that that's held up. You know what I mean? That checks out. I think that that this is, it's, incredible, this is the kind of thing that you want to put on some headphones, which I hadn't

done it a while and I did yesterday. And it sounds so good. Like the panning on it is so interesting and innovative and artistic. Like there's so much attention to detail. The playing is great, but I think the sound on this album might be the sleeper hit of it. Well, let's get to the sound of the album. So let's listen to the, a little bit of the first track, Black Cow. And then we can even go deeper with some of these stems here. So here is the opening track of it. I'm sorry, my friend. Did you say stems? What? This is Blackout.

By the way, for our piano nerds out there, this is Joe Sample on the Clavinet. This is Victor Feldman on the roads. And Victor Feldman, by the way, who we'll talk about in a minute, all over Asia, all over all these Steely Danes. Several instruments. Several instruments.

Here is the opening of Blackout. Come on. It doesn't get better. There's space in that. There's so much space and precision. Ooh. Man. Donald Fagan is lead vocals on this,

On most of the Steeley, Dan, by this point, of their, of their trajectory. His lead vocals may come up in a little segment, a new segment we're going to be introducing later on called Quibbitt. I mean, he's got such a cool distinctive voice for me. It is like, it couldn't have been anybody out back to you. One second of it, and you know exactly who is. Can we just, can we go back and just, I was going to. Hold on, yeah.

I want to say, just, I want to listen to a couple things here. Oh, I can see, this is a great new forum we have. We're going to be doing some of this. No, no, no, no. I want to listen. Oh, yeah, yeah. You got it. With the lazy Suzette.

So just listen to this. Here's just the drums, right? Oh, you have. It's Paul Humphrey on the drums. Paul, I was going to say, do you know there's six different drummers on this? I'm not surprised. Yeah. But listen to how those drums sound, man.

Isn't that incredible? It's an incredible sound. The thing is, like, that is not like a super funky. Obviously, it's a backbeat groove. He's in the pocket. Oh, yeah. But it's not like, it's not like the nastiest groove. I don't know what do you think, Caleb?

To me, it's not really like, it's not like this. It's not like this nasty group, but combined with the sound, it just gives it that. Well, and one of the themes of this record is they sound gorgeous. They do. They're pristine. The precision of them is incredible. Here's that same section with everything but drums. So here you have guitar, bass, and Joe Sample on the clavinet.

And they've got this clavonet somehow hard pan with the reverb. Put some headphones on on this. What are the young going to say? Headphones on. For those of you that don't know, clavinet was an instrument that was super popular. 60s and late 60s and 70s and beyond. I think Stevie Wonder's superstition. Yeah. Incredible.

With those simple triads on top of the C7. It's interesting. This is the beginning, I mean, the way that the table is set for this record with this intro. Yeah. And then, you know, we're going to talk a little, we're not going to get deep into the lyrics and stuff because I don't understand them.

As much as I've heard them from so many years, it's such a mystery. But, like, there's certain reference. that come up. Obviously, there's some drug stuff right at the beginning of the album. So to me, that always set the tone, even though this is not a drug lyric album.

Oh, you're talking about the accusation of you were right there? Because musically, it connects so much. But it's like, musically, I think that this is a record that has all these little isms, little instances of blues. And to me, because even though this isn't a blues, and Deacon Blues, which is called a Blues,

is not a Blues either, there actually is a blues. We'll talk about it. But this is blues-z-e or blues-adjacent. You know what I mean? It's that dominant seventh. It's a 13-core. Can I bring what I'm thinking up?

Oh, exactly. That's 13-core. So listen to this. Listen to the harmony of the horns there. Yeah. Right? So that sound, that sort of like you mentioned, the 13, or you might call it the 6,

but listen again. We'll listen with no vocals. And listen just a little bit. when the guitar comes in. Yeah, right. That. Same thing. That's exactly the same voicing as Freddie Freeloader.

Yeah. You know, and that's what we're working with. Here's just the vocals on their own. Great background vocals. Yeah. And that was just fagging, kind of like doubled, and then the backgrounds came in on the you. Yeah.

Yeah. It's so good. I mean, the precision that's there, the precision on the drums, the bass. I mean, like, everything is like beyond bespoke. It's bespoke it.

And then can we talk a little bit about Victor Feldman on this? And I just want to, like, to me, this is amazing. Victor Feldman, who would have been a little bit older than these guys. Yep. A little more British, too.

A little more British. Was a jazz pianist. In fact, Victor Feldman famously was responsible for this Miles Davis track. The composer of Seven Steps to Heaven. And he's playing on this, I think. I don't know about this version.

He's playing on this album. Ironically, I think this might Herbie on the song? Maybe he's all part of it. He splits the album with Herbie. He's on a bunch of cannibal records. He plays vibes.

He's got his own music. He's playing marimba on this. He's all right. But he goes from this in the early 60s to, I mean, he's on most of Steeley Dan stuff in the 70s, and he plays this beautiful road solo here. Yeah, this is a good soul. Again, Joe Sample on the Clavinet. Victor Feldman on the roads. That's very like that harmonic movie,

very Herbie Hancock, M1D, she coming with those chords, the susses and the major sevens. Like the, and we're going to probably talk about, you know, throughout this kind of the jazz influences of this record.

Oh, there's so many. You know what I mean? We'll get to it in the next track specifically. And that was a great one with the Freddie Freelor. I never caught that one. I just want to give another shout out to Paul Humphrey here. Check out this Phil in the middle of the chorus of the road solo. Listen.

Woo, that's all he needs. Yeah. That's all you need. It feels great. Everything like that kind of stuff, the stuff Gad plays on Asia, like it's all, especially from the drums,

it's like, it's like the best most inspired studio playing ever. You know what I mean? It's just like very, this is not the way they would play it live. This is like in the studio, you can hear every little, like that would totally get lost

in a club or something, that little, but then we can sit there and, yeah. I mean, that was like, and that's what I think, the engineering is such a good thing. It's not just the same. sound and the cool panning on the clav and stuff, it's like, that's brought out. Like, you can tell there's intention for us to even be able to hear that and notice that.

And there's also just a ton of lore about the tracking and the mixing of this. It took them over a year to produce this record. So, and if you don't know, something like Michael Jackson's thriller was done in just a few weeks. Yeah. And I think it was like, I think it was like... The tracking of it. The tracking of it was like six weeks or something. The vocals took some time.

This took a year total to get all the tracking and the mixing. together. But you can hear, you can hear the precision, you can hear the detail, you can hear the quality. And this is something we can maybe talk about either now or later, but like, you know, I think when people have, if there's any gripes about Steely Dan ever, it's almost that it's too good, which is an interesting thing to gripe at, but it's like, it's so clean. It's so pristine. It's so beautiful. You know, Donald Fagan, I think, almost, if it wasn't for the graveliness of his voice and the rawness of his voice, like if you had Michael McDonald on Steely Dan, it would almost be too.

much. It would almost be like too syrupy. Right. Because he's on here in the background. He is on the background. But you know what I'm saying? Or if you if you had like just like where is the where's the grit? Where is the, where is the, the, the dirtiness going to come on this record? I think it does come from Fagan's voice and from the crazy lyrics and stuff. Everything else is just so, you know, top shelf. You know, it's like going into a bar where everyone is dressed right and they only have the best stuff. And then you have one guy who's a little bit like slovenly and he's drinking. and some Jim Beam, you know. I can actually think of a moment that it becomes very organic and very raw. And is maybe the apex of this entire album that it comes from the next track, Peter. Yeah. The title track.

Yes. Asia. Yeah. So again, Victor Feldman on piano here. Yep. That's like probably one of the best studio piano sounds of an acoustic. That's what I'm saying. Everything.

It's not a jazz piano sound. It's a studio piano sound. No. It's a studio piano sound. That keys up atop the road right there. And it's like very actively mixed on that piano, you can tell. And that's Victor Feldman on Marimba as well, I believe. Oh, sorry.

This isn't Victor Feldman. Is that sample? No, this is Michael Omarian on piano. That's my bet. This is Joe Sample on Electric piano. Yeah, yeah. All on electric, right. Yeah, Victor Feldman's doing percussion on this one.

That's right. Right here. I excise. The melody's very, very, simple harmony, super complex. You know, right here. Major 7-sharp 11, major 7-11, major 7-sharp 11. A little breaking up at the time there.

We're not in 4-4 for a minute. Yeah. There's some stuff in here. So, jazz rock? Well, like, especially you take out these little segments, yeah. It's not yacht rock, and we should not disrespect. My only quibble with it being a jazz rock. According to General Beato and Donald Thughey himself.

I definitely don't think it's Yacht Rock. But I think the way that I know everything. No, no, my only quibble bit with it being jazz rock. Like, I don't know if this is really a rock album. You know what I mean? Would you classify this as a rock? I mean, who cares, right? I don't.

You know how I feel about genres. It's super jazz influences. But if you think about it, the great things about this record to me, the precision. Like, this record was Frankenstein together. It was late, like a lot of the most spontaneous moments, and I know we're going to talk about the apex moment, that I know from an interesting. was not done live together. It was layered up with several different versions and then put together and stuff. And I think a lot of this record was like that. And so that's kind of the antithesis of a jazz

record. If you think about the greatest jazz records, a Love Supreme, even kind of blue and, you know, like where it's recorded very quickly, the spontaneity of the moment. I mean, kind of blue, you can hear Miles comes in two beats early and they leave that in it. It becomes a part of, like, the beauty is in the imprecision. Yeah. Right. The beauty is in the humanity of, of it being raw, but like very grooving and like you can actually feel the intimacy of the exchange of spontaneity between the musicians. Here, they've created that.

It sounds like when Steve Gad and Wayne Shorter are soloing together, it sounds like they're going for crazy. They, Steve Gad had already laid that down. I know, man. I mean, so this is like a crafted thing to make it feel like something. I think it's great. I'm here for it, for sure.

It's just the opposite of how a jazz record would be made. So this brings me to what I think is the most raw, the most beautiful moment, maybe the apex moment. We could talk about this because this could be the apex moment. And this, I know Asia, this is your pick for the Desert Island track. This is your favorite track on the island track. And I think the Apex moment of the entire album, ironically, happens on the second track. I think this is where it peaks. But I also have another thought on this.

But it is in that solo of Wayne Shorter. Yeah. Where Steve Gad just goes crazy. minor 11 heaven so i'm assuming any wayne shorter makes everything literally everything better i mean so wayne shorter of course famously with art blakey with miles davis but also played with steely dan played a lot with johnny mitchell of course weather report in the 70s was his band co-led yeah and i want to play that section one more time yeah and just listen to what steve gad is doing this is underneath what wayne's doing i mean the thing about it is if you take what steve gads playing

severally. You take what Wayne's playing. You take that apart. They're so good that like it's actually not that impressive what they're doing. Like Wayne's solo is not like any, any different than he would do at any other. It's not like the apex moment for his solos, but a lot of people would be like, oh my God, that's my favorite Wayne Sol. The moment that they put together, same thing with Steve God, he can play like this in his sleep. Like, oh, give me the hits. Yeah. I got it. Well, if you're not familiar with Steve Gad, so famously the year before he recorded this. right Paul Simon's 50 ways to leave your lover from still crazy after this is kind of more creative kind of playing for Steve Gadd this is like his stick yeah yeah yeah great that's a great sound too yeah but I'm it's just to say that like

on Asia I think it's the combination the sound being so good the way they put it together with Wayne coming in and just kind of layering on top like Steve Gad is not comping behind him he's soloing yeah and then Wayne came in and recorded that over the top of it so like the vision I think of Faygan and Becker and the whole, you know, the team and how they did this stuff and put it together is really what it's about. So it's almost like, okay, we know Wayne Shores can be able to come in and play over one chord, but not playing away. You know, he's not doing any of that kind of stuff.

But this way that he plays is very much how he was playing right, even before this with Weather Report, you know, cucumber slumber, slumber, a lot of that kind of those tracks. I'm thinking, like, this is the way he would come in. And I would consider Weather Report much more jazz rock than Steely Dan for some. reason because it's got so much more that spontaneity. Like, they're playing with it. Like, you couldn't imagine a lot of that stuff, them not doing it live.

Whereas this, we know it's not live, but it's great. You know what I mean? It's just a different thing. I was just thinking about Donald Fagan and Walter Becker and just the amazing music that they made for 50 years, probably, together. Yeah. And just like this tradition of duos, like, I mean, Steely Dan had many iterations,

and they kind of shedded members as they got older and older. And it was obvious, it's just the two of them that are sort of the core of what's going on. But you think, of course, like Lenna McCartney, you think of like, you know, even to like the lads from Oasis. You think of obviously Steeley-Den. Well, they are lads. These two guys, Manison Martin. Yeah, Manison Martin. No, but there's something about, I think is why, like, you think of Mick Jagger Keith Richards.

Like these people that bounce these things off of each other and these pairs. I guess sometimes trios, too. but like it's really there's something about a pair. Yeah. Where you trust each other, you have a similar goal in mind, and then yet you hold each other accountable. You don't let, you know, you don't let your partner get away with too much bullshit

and you hope that they don't let you get away with any bullshit. Like you really try to like stay when one of you falters, you stay the course or when someone's faltering, they stay the course. And then just, yeah, absolutely. And bringing complimentary skill sets. There's something about like, you know, because I love that. You said it was nicer.

What I don't know. This is why we're such a good team. But an awareness. of that. Like, that's partly luck. It's like, who do you team up with? And then you've got the different elements. But I know that there's stories about, you know,

Fagan was going crazy because I guess Becker was even, I mean, they both were like perfectionist and like, it's got to be like this. Yeah. But I guess Becker's going crazy with the drums got to be this. Fagin's like, I can't even be in here anymore. You guys, they're sitting there for hours just about one Tom, Tom, Tom, or something.

So there's, there's different skills that they bring to being able to clue in on. Yeah. And being able to execute on. But, but yeah, it's the, it's the finished product. Do you want to hit up that last solo before? we check out. Oh yeah. Well, so I like this. So Gad has two solos. He played them both as solos, I believe. But then after they come back to that B minor 11 and oh, make sure you check out, we're going to talk about the nerd nook, but we'll do that later. The what? The nerd nook.

We got a new set. We got a new band. We got new segments here. We're going to talk about that chord in particular because it's a minor 11 is very rare in really any kind of music. We're going to talk about a few of the chords over on the nerd nook. That's for pianists who want to and musicians who want to kind of go on a deeper dive on the theory. We'll talk about that. That's for open studio members, by the right. But the thing is, it's just to say that that sound of, and that's what you're hearing during this whole

and this kind of sets it up with this real peaceful thing. Oh! That's a B minor 11. But like, what does that sound give you if you don't know? It's not like minor-y, but it's not major. It's very like kind of floating

minor sussy? It's not a sussy at all. And then the- Minor moot. Minor moot kind of. But I think of you with that syncopation. I love the synths too. And then all that space in there for me.

All right. For me, this is like, drummers should take note of that. Yeah. To come out of a big, Tom-heavy, fill-heavy solo. Yeah.

I think, I mean, I am such a sucker. And then, like, apex your solo towards going back to, like, a groove. That's a groove that maybe nobody's heard in this song yet.

Yeah. But there's like, there's no bigger... And this is like seven minutes in the song. This is at the end, you know? There's no stankier face

than when the drummer transitions from like the fill heavy solo into just like the groove solo. Yeah. It makes me want to fall off the back of my chair. I'm serious. Yeah. It is a hair knocker backer.

Yeah. I mean, in a way, that's kind of my apex moment. Of course, the Wayne and yeah, but that one for sure. Let's talk about this. So the apex moment of the album,

undoubtedly, the leading candidate has got to be this moment. I mean, if you're, especially for musicians, I feel like the Wayne GAD interaction, that chord progression at the end of it. I don't know if it was just a normie, someone who wasn't a musician, if they would consider that the apex moment. But for me, I think a lot of musicians would have to think that like the appearance of Wayne shorter on the end of this.

I have a little quibbled a bit about this, though. Quibble your bit. I feel like it happens too early in the record. Well, this is an interesting thing. So this is the second. We're on the eighth side. We got three tunes. Did they mess up this track order?

Right, because you're on the second tune. It's eight minutes long and you've hit the apex mountain. Even if that's not your favorite moment, it's the loudest, it's the busiest. I get what they're going for. I'm looking at these tracks. Does it go downhill after that? Well, so this is my real quibble bit. So when we get to quibble bits, we can talk about it.

But I just wonder if it's... We don't have the way. No, but I wonder if it's too early for this to be the apex moment. I kind of wonder, Peter, if the apex moment of the entire, like, if the album doesn't apex, this peak, isn't... Also, my desert island. I was going to say, let's do that. Which is this.

The intro. Come right, man. The bass there. Bob, you got that? All right. All those new chords going down? Yeah. I think this groove, everything here.

This is, to me, the apex of Asia. Right? So all of this stuff happens. And maybe I'm wrong about the track order. Maybe it feels like an apex because of the Asia track, the eight minute long, the Wayne. And then you get to Deacon Blues. which is, you know, kind of a chill track.

You know what I mean? It's learned to work the saxophone. There's a lot of drinking in this song. Yeah, but that's at the end of the A side. Like, peg's the beginning of the B side. That's what I'm saying. That's important positioning. But don't you think also, can you play the beginning of peg again

because this kind of phase thing they do on everything? It's not on one instrument. I think it's on the whole, like the master, right? It might be. I don't know. If there's any... A clab under there? Or some kind of keys.

I don't think it's on the master, but... Okay, and then that place, when it's... Instead of going right into the groove, like, man, this whole thing, and then like an extra bar before they... I think that it just speaks to, like, the engineering being so masterful on this record and such a big part of it. That's a huge part of it. Like, we...

Because to me, that intro, and just Pegg in general, it wouldn't be the Apex Mount otherwise. Yeah. There's some great video that you can find on YouTube of Donald's Fagg and talking about Pegg. And, I mean, the great part about it is this verse is the blues, right? Yeah. So typical 12-bar blues form, one chord. Right. But put together in a very unusual way. Yeah, with those play-glot cadences, four chord for two bars.

Yeah. Back to the one chord. Kia G, and they're all major seven chords. They're major six-nine chords. Five-nine chords. Yeah. Four chord. And then back to the one. Yeah. And so it's kind of like, in a way, it's interesting because there's bluesiness from the very beginning of the record. We talked about that.

And then certainly in Asia, there's... On the blackout of the Freddie Freeloader things are shot. Yes, exactly. And just being on that C-7 at the being... And like, that's some of the groovier kind of stuff that's on here. But the only actual blues doesn't really sound like a blues, except for the form of it. It's a dance track. Yeah, and this is like major seven chords, you know, pretty much.

So they don't really have that blues connotation, but the form does. So I think it's something that they were really interesting that they played with throughout the record. There's some stuff on the further than the B side, too, that's blues. adjacent. Yeah. So we can, I think, I do think. So let's just pin this down. Your Desert Island track for this is Peg.

Is that? It is, it is peg, yeah. And I do light up every single time, even though I've been listening to this for probably 35 years, every single time I hear it. Yeah. Another real quick peg thing is well known.

It's been out there for a while. But the background vocals in the chorus, St. Louis' own, Michael McDonald's. Those high harmonies. It will come back to you. Then the Shutter Falls, you see it all. It's your favorite barring movie. Isn't that great?

Was that him on everything or just the top one? No, it's Fagan on the lead, and then he's just on the chorus behind. Isn't that great, though? That's so great. Little Michael McDonald. So, yeah, Peg is my Desert Island track for this. I mean, it's really hard because, I mean, we play Black Cow. It's been in my repertoire for years, black cow.

For maybe six or seven years. It's been on my... It's on my... This morning. This is this morning. No, I bring it... I bring it with my trio everywhere. It's always a big, like, either a good, like, set starter.

It's a great set-ender. It's a great, like, if I see the audience is like, hmm, they need a little pick-me-up. I always play Black Cow. And people light up with it, you know? So it's hard for me not to pick that. But Peg, which doesn't... Well, we should maybe play Pegg on the way out

and see how we like it. I've never really played it. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, we just, like, take the verse and see if we can solo. Oh, on the actual... instruments. Yeah, yeah. That would be fun. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. But you are Asia for your

Doug Salern. And I think, I do think if we go to, we can start the categories now. So Apex moments, I am going to go with Wayne Shorter and Steve Gads, amazing Coda to Asia. I think it's some of the best playing of the 1970s. Honestly, some of my favorite moments of music in the 1970s. That's my favorite decade of music. So that's saying a lot, you know. Yeah, I would agree. I mean, my only reticence on this is like it's so obvious in a way. And I hate for us to double up. But that's, I mean, that's the apex moment for it.

I mean, there's so many great moments. Like, some of the other great moments that I would have thought of are those little details, like those little things like on Pegg with the waiting for a bar on that drum field, that segue between the intro and the core, like the verse is great. But that's not like a, it's just a detail kind of thing. And to me, that's what this record is about all these fun details. Like, this is why this record, when we talk about like Desert Island records and tracks and stuff, like a lot of times we're like, oh, this is stuff.

we like because it's nostalgic. It reminds us of a certain time. And this kind of does for me, but it's more like, is it something, it's like a movie that you can just watch over and over again. Are you actually enjoying it or are you just reliving your youth? For this, you're like, for me, I'm excited to hear these details. It sounds great. Yeah.

It feels great. It's not like the, I mean, like vocally or even like playing wise, as much precision and great playing. This is not like Steve Gads' deepest grooves or anything. or like Victor Feldman or Joe Samples, like best playing or anything? It might be Apex moment for Victor Feldman, honestly. Maybe, but, but or like Chuck Rainey.

Like, well, Chuck Rainey's a little different on this because he's sort of the... But he's on thousands of recordings. He's on thousands of recordings. Like, he really, he did some kind of revolutionary bass type stuff on this, on peg where everybody's like, bass players geek out on that. For me, man, I think Feldman steals the record. Like, I think this is his...

I think he's the best part about this. Well, that's not true. I would almost say Chuck. Rayne, just because he's on, like, we have six different drummers for seven tracks, right? We got a bunch of great keyboard players coming and going. Chuck Rainey's on everything except one track.

Which, what's one he's done? One of those, oh, and Deacon Blues. On Deacon Blues. That's Beckers playing. Oh, okay. We have playing bass on that. Nice. Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about, well, we didn't really play Deacon Blues, but you know what? I'm going to be honest. Deacon Blues? It's not your favorite? Not my favorite.

No. Okay. So, well, the bigger question of, is this a perfect record? No. I guess not. There's no such thing. Well, maybe thriller. But this is one that people get that throw around, like Thriller, like Kind of Blue. Yeah. Like Rumors, maybe if you're into that.

Rumors might be a perfect record, actually. And Kind of Blue might be perfect. I don't know. We'll get into it, but I don't think it's perfect. And we have some quibble bits about that. Do we want to go there right now? Let's go to the quibble bits right now. Quibble bits are fun.

This is a new segment for us. You can figure it out if you were around for the wonderful Purina, Ralston Purina commercials of your quibbles and bits. Quibbles and bits. My biggest quibble. bit about this is that after Pegg, the bangers kind of taper off. And I love Josie, but it's like, it's hard to get there sometimes. You know what I mean? It's not that the two tracks that are between Peg and Josie are terrible. By Steely Dan standards, they're not their best.

But by any other band standards, they're pretty effing good. But this was a time still in the 70s that there was an expectation once you got to that B side that things were going to go, not downhill, but there was going to be a little bit of little bit. A little bit of, if they were going to get weird, there was going to be a lull. I think a lot of times. I think a lot of times, as jazz musicians were like, oh, that's the good stuff. And on this, it's kind of like, the good stuff is stacked up

on the second track, right? And I think the B side of this could have had either, they could have had some kind of ambience, like an ambient track, a slow ballad. Well, a whole of ambient? I know.

Everything is driving on this album. Everything has a groove from the beginning. I want a slow balladry. Come on, man. I know. But this is like, I like this because it's like moving to another thing, you know what I mean? I mean, does this belong on Gaucho, though?

Yeah, well, maybe that's why it's like... You know what I mean? Well, Gaucho was before this, though. Goucho was the one after this. Oh, yeah. Well, that's perfect. I think it goes right to Goucher, which maybe it's a great... That's what I'm saying.

Joe's a great track. But I don't know if it below... I don't know if there's the two that are between Pegg and Josie. I don't know. For me, it just lulls. I would have loved to have some kind of, like, really quiet moment on the album, I think would have been cool. But that's why I think it's not perfect.

I think it's like a nine out of ten, but I don't think it's... You're right, you're right, because this is a little quibble bit for me. This is not my favorite moment of the record. This little piano. I mean, it's tight like everything. The groove is cool, but... This could be... So, I want to shout out...

What track is this? Is this Home at Last, right? Home at last, yeah. But you know what? That's the great thing about fun... By great records is there's always those ones where you're like, and it's not that you don't like... Whoa, sorry about that.

It's not that you don't like those tracks. It's just when the level... set high, especially with the songwriting, with the tune. You always have those ones where you're like, ah, you skipped over them. That's Victor Feldon again on piano. And I just, this gives us an opportunity to shout out. Our open studio member, Don Brighthop, who sent me this book that he wrote for 33 and a third.

Great series. Great series of books. And Don, you just crushed it on here all of the, he interviewed Donald Fagan for this. He had some incredible insights about the production, even about the harmony and things like that. So pick up your Asia by Don Brighthop. It's amazing. Yeah. Okay. My quibble bit. it's just a small thing. Deacon Blues is not a blues.

Okay? No, I have a pet peeve about this. Even like going back... It's a drink, right? It's like supposed to be a drink. I guess. But I mean, the... No, I thought Black Cow was a drink. I think it's all drinks, man. I think they were drinking a lot at this point. I thought they were doing drugs. They were drinking too, man? What's going on? They were having fun.

Okay. So, no, I mean, just, I'm not a big fan of that. Maybe, maybe even going back to like old standards, like, I've got the right to sing the blues. That's not a blues. Don't call it a blues. Anyway, but that's small. For me, because this is a great record. I would agree on the lull on Side B. It was just more accepted and expected and accepted. Okay.

What about another category here, Bespoke Playlist Title. If this were going to go on a Spotify playlist, what would be some examples of the titles of the playlist? I have a few. Yeah. Why don't you hit yours first? Because I'm actually amending mine.

These are all with love, by the way. I just want to point that out. So first would be... High Fagan. High-Fi store demo jams with a Z. I love that one. Because that's actually a playlist I would subscribe to. There's no way that a hi-fi salesman in the early 80s didn't use Asia every single time.

You know what I mean? Yeah, they're probably still using it. Because you put that on a hi-fi store in 1981? Come on, man. Yeah. No, and I think it's, I actually love tracks that I love, I love a good curated list or association of tracks that sound great with headphones that sound great with good monitor, speaker. They can be all different styles, but for

sure, this would be up there. So I've got, mine's kind of silly. I've got jazzy yacht rock. Jazzy yacht rock. Yeah. Because I had yachty rock that swings, but this doesn't swing. That's offensive. Yacht rock is offensive. This one's not, though. I have Seattle's commercial bangers.

Speaks for itself. You know how like in Seattle's commercials, they're always going to like a smooth jazz fest? I said it speaks for itself. And then I have one more. If you've seen, the Yacht Rock documentary, which they called Donald Fag. Actually, Rick Biotto has a great thing on

why he doesn't use Yacht Rock, and he mentions this interview. And so the playlist could be go F yourself, Rock. And if you saw that documentary, you know what that's about. What about up next, Peter? So if something were to auto play, if an album were to be a part of

this, maybe unexpectedly, because obviously any other Steely Dan... Like a really good up next. Like a really good and maybe surprising up next. So I got Mysterious traveler by Weather Report. Like, I would love to hear that, especially if I'm coming out of Asia, thinking about Wayne Shorter, solo, Steve Gadd.

The way, like, that would lead me right into this a similar kind of spirited playing of Wayne Shorter. A little bit earlier than this, I guess. Not much, though. And a little bit of an offbeat. It's not their best known, partly because there's no Jock on that record. But it's a great record kind of under the radar

a mysterious traveler. I have Michael Jackson's Off the Wall. Yep. Which is more of a disco album. we were talking earlier, but I do think I do think it would be a good next to each other

kind of situation, right? Similar textures. Yep. Bebe do, do, yeah, yeah. And then also I have Herbie Hancock's album from 2008, I believe, the Joni Letters.

Yes. Also featuring Wayne Shorter, and there's something about that album that, I don't know, it has Asia remnants to it. You know what I mean? It's all the music of Joni Mitchell, which I think is definitely a co-ke

category here. Like Joni's Court and Spark would be a nice pairing with Asia as well. For sure. But for some reason, the Joni letter is just, they spoke to me. Good, good, good, good, good. Yeah. Okay, we talked about, is this a perfect album? And you said no.

I'm thinking it's an Uber clean studio sound, but very high level. And, you know, I think it feels like they're trying to make a perfect album. And I think that that was kind of a part of the Steely Dan thing. It's like, let's craft this perfect thing. And I think it's, for whatever it is, it's a great record. But, no, it's not perfect. I agree. I don't think it's perfect for the reasons I mentioned.

I think it has that little dip where, again, really good songs, but not equal to the other five on the album. And, yeah, I wonder, too, how snobby do you think this album is? What does it get on the snubometer? Yes, well, the snobometer can just give me quick. So snobometer is a rating system of one to ten, where one is the least snobometer. thing. My aunt Linda would love it. My Aunt Linda, not a fan of like, you know, with love,

with complicated music. She likes melody. Does she like Katie Perry? No. Oh. No, too, too excitable. Yeah. But that's Taylor Swift. That's just because my aunt Linda's 80 years old. But just in general, she likes digestible things, palatable things. And then the 10, we always use Ethan Iverson, the great pianist from the bad plus fame as the sort of 10, the avatar of the snob, not because he's like stuck up or anything, but because he's got impeccable taste. Right. So I'm going five on this because, I mean, in general, Steely Dan can be like really high on the snobble meter for a lot of the reasons that we've talked about. But because this is their most commercially successful, but it sold them most number of records. It's kind of like the number

one that a lot of snobs would be like, oh no, but have you checked out pretzologic? Presologic would be like eight and a half. That's right. Right. So it's more just sort of perception. I'm going to agree with you. I think it's, Right in the middle. I think it's... Although Wayne Shorter being on it, that pushes it a little snobier, kind of. Maybe.

I don't know. But Gad kind of pulls them back. You know what I mean? Is it better than Kind of Blue? No. No. That's easy. Acutchevon's album cover?

Well, you said, maybe. I know, and I thought about it and I said, no. I was still thinking about it when I said whatever. Acutcheon's album cover. I give it an eight. It's very good, but it's these kind of records, and we can look at it there. It's just, you know, it's like,

how do you take it away, like the legend of the... It's so connected with the sound, with the time, with your experience with it. But if you were to show me, hey, I'm thinking about this as a record cover I'd never seen it. I'd be like, yeah, it's fine.

Yeah. I love it. I gave it an eye. I think it's amazing. Okay. I think it's distinctive. Yeah. I love everything.

I love the imagery. I can't really see this person's face. I think it's a woman. But I just, I only see this like red and white stripe down the middle and I just love the whole, the whole look of it. Yeah. It's great.

So, hey, how about a little comment? How about a... How do you like the new? format. Yeah, we don't want to talk about it too much, but we did change everything. Yeah. Yeah. Leave a comment in the YouTube comments about what your favorite track is on Asia. Let us know how wrong we are. Right. Or how right we are. Yeah. And we accept either. And you can actually leave a comment. Do you know this? You can leave a comment on Spotify now? Let's not encourage that because I don't know how to do it. I don't like people doing stuff that I don't

know how to do. Okay. Did you guys notice we're not in the pod front anymore? For the OG listeners, don't worry, it's still right over there, but we've moved in here. I like it in here. man, it's nice in here. Yeah. It's warm. We've got Caleb and Bob. Yeah. Well, also for open studio members,

because we've got a ton of open studio members. Yeah. That listen to the pod. Over on the hang, which is our community. Yes. Check out. Award winning community.

Award winning community. Head it up by Bob Dubu. Go to the nerd nook. We're going to be talking just after this. We're going to make a little video breaking down some of the chord voicing that you might hear here. Yeah. I want to do that be minor one for sure. There's that other moo one.

Yeah. That's going to be cool. Yeah. Should we maybe go out on some peg? Yeah. And like maybe just see what we can do with the ver. I've never played this. But I mean, I know what the voicing is.

Yeah, what key is it in? G. G. And it's like at that play goal thing. Yeah. Nerd no. That's nerd nook. That's right.

That's right. Good. Until next time. You'll hear it. You'll hear it.