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UMe's Steely Dan reissue campaign - which has so far yielded remastered standard and audiophile vinyl and hybrid stereo SACD reissues of the band's first three albums Can't Buy a Thrill, Countdown to Ecstasy, and Pretzel Logic - has announced an unexpected detour. On September 29, the series will jump ahead to the sixth Dan album and arguably Donald Fagen and Walter Becker's crowning achievement: 1977's Aja. (No fear: Katy Lied and The Royal Scam will show up later.)
Aja sounded - and sounds - like no other record. Jazz buffs claim it as their own; so do dyed-in-the-wool rock fans. It's even been adopted by the yacht rock crowd. In just seven songs, Fagen and Becker's ambitions crystallized. Their sophisticated compositions wouldn't just push the envelope of jazz, pop, and rock but set a new, high standard for recording and musicianship, too. The album, produced by Gary Katz and engineered by Roger Nichols (not the "Rainy Days and Mondays" composer) was famously (or infamously?) recorded over a year-and-a-half in six different studios in New York and Los Angeles. But Fagen and Becker's perfectionism and attention to detail paid off.
Having retired from the road and all but abandoned the pretense of a "band," the duo hand-picked musicians to bring their songs to life. These luminaries included Wayne Shorter, Tom Scott, Pete Christlieb; and Plas Johnson on saxophone; Chuck Findley, Lew McCreary, and Dick "Slyde" Hyde on horns; Chuck Rainey on bass; Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Steve Khan, Dean Parks, and Jay Graydon on guitar; Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Ed Greene, Jim Keltner, Steve Gadd, and Rick Marotta on drums; and Victor Feldman, Paul Griffin, Michael Omartian, Don Grolnick, and Joe Sample on keyboards. Michael McDonald and Timothy B. Schmit were joined on background vocals by The Blackberries (Clydie King, Sherlie Matthews, and Venetta Fields). Tom Scott provided the striking horn arrangements, more prominent than on any past Steely Dan album. (Listening to Aja, it's clear why the late, great Burt Bacharach admired Steely Dan.) This group of veteran players added up to a "Who's Who" of American pop in the 1970s, and every one was on their A-game in the studio.
And those songs! With "Deacon Blues," Becker and Fagen crafted a remarkable tune about a decidedly unremarkable man. A loser, even. "They got a name for the winners of the world/I want a name when I lose/They call Alabama the Crimson Tide," he mused. "Call me Deacon Blues." Marrying a slinky, seductive melody and chart to downbeat, fatalistic lyrics, "Deacon Blues" reached No. 19 Pop. "Peg," a love song to a fashion, featured the same precise fusion of pop, jazz, and blues. Highlighted by Michael McDonald's distinctive, multi-layered background vocals, it hit No. 11 Pop and remained on the chart for over a year. The story of when the elusive "Josie" comes home rewarded the Dan with a third top 40 hit. There's no filler on Aja, however. Every song today plays like a "greatest hit," including the epic title track and the deliciously cutting "Black Cow." Aja peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, won a Grammy for its engineering, and remains Steely Dan's most commercially successful LP.
All albums in this reissue series are being mastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes with the exception of Aja and Gaucho. (It's stated that the original masters were never delivered to ABC/MCA and no longer exist.) Aja has instead been mastered from a pristine, non-EQ'ed, analog tape copy. Lacquers for UMe's standard 33 1/3 RPM 180-gram black vinyl version will be cut by Alex Abrash at AA Mastering studio from high-resolution digital files of Grundman's new masters and pressed at Precision. The package replicates the original album artwork.
Analogue Productions' 45 RPM UHQR vinyl box set versions will be pressed at the label's Quality Record Pressings on 200-gram Clarity Vinyl, and housed in a deluxe box. These luxurious pressings include a booklet describing the UHQR process along with a Certificate of Inspection.
Aja remains as bold, captivating, and alluring as when it was first released in 1977: the ultimate statement from perhaps rock's most iconoclastic and subversive duo. Look for the 180-gram black vinyl pressing and UHQR on September 29 at the links below; the hybrid stereo SACD should follow shortly thereafter. Drink your big black cow, and get out of here...
Steely Dan, Aja (ABC AA-1006, 1977 - reissued Geffen/UMe, 2023)
180-Gram Black Vinyl LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
UHQR 45RPM Vinyl Box Set: AcousticSounds.com
Hybrid Stereo SACD: AcousticSounds.com
Side A
- Black Cow
- Aja
- Deacon Blues
Side B
- Peg
- Home At Last
- I Got The News
- Josie
Release Round-Up: Week of December 1
Slide on Down: Steely Dan's "Gaucho" Returns in December
Release Round-Up: Week of September 29
Release Round-Up: Week of July 28
I recently purchased the first four albums in the series on SACD and am very pleased with them. SACD seems to be susceptible to production delays, however. I believe there are only two pressing plants in operation.
OK I am toying with options of what to do with this series...I have the 4CD set "Citizen Steely Dan" (plus the Warner-era reunion albums, "NYR&SR", Fagen solo box "Cheap Xmas" & Becker's "11 Tracks of Whack")...and I'm thinking of getting the series on vinyl, as the CD versions are served in "Citizen", compacted onto 4 discs plus it has the soundtrack song "FM"...thing is, with the vinyls, the regular ones are black & don't really look that extravagant, although the sound on them are really good I read...while the UHQR ones are crystal clear vinyl & I did see the one of "Countdown to Ecstasy" & it's a lovely package, only it's um $150!! I may buy the bullet & buy em all but one every 2 months...I'm still deciding...if I do it, I'll start with this "Aja"...
How is that possible? Only the first two have been released at the time you wrote this, so what do you mean when you say you are very pleased with the four you have purchased?
I have almost all their albums in the original vinyl and they sound great! I was an original Steely Dan fan in the 70s when most of what my buddies were listening to (and myself as well) was Lynyrd Skynyrd, Zep, Joe Cocker, et al… This list is way too long to even start here. But a few of my friends and I knew Steely Dan were far ahead of their time! I’ve kept my albums in great shape and they have, in turn, provided me with decades of pleasure.
I ordered the Aja SACD when it was announced in September 2022, and still have received nothing. When I contacted Acoustic Sounds about it, their response was a glib no release date available. And so now the same product is announced again a year later, still with no release date?
The SACDs in this series appear to be delayed and far behind the vinyl (both standard and deluxe) releases; only the CAN'T BUY A THRILL and COUNTDOWN TO ECSTASY SACDs have so far seen release. Hoping PRETZEL LOGIC and, of course, AJA arrive soon.