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Aja was the album that made Steely Dan a commercial force on the order of contemporaries like Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and Chicago. A double-platinum, Grammy-winning bestseller, it lingered on the Billboard charts for more than a year and spawned three hit singles. Odd, then, that its creators saw it as an "ambitious, extended" work, the apotheosis of their anti-rock, anti-band, anti-glamour aesthetic. Populated by thirty-fi ve mostly jazz session players, Aja served up prewar song forms, mixed meters and extended solos to a generation whose idea of pop daring was Paul letting Linda sing lead once in a while. And, impossibly, it sold. Including an in-depth interview with Donald Fagen, this book paints a detailed picture of the making of a masterpiece.
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144 pages, Paperback
First published May 15, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
September 21, 2016
I bought Steely Dan's Aja fresh off the vinyl LP printing presses back in 1977 and have been its devotee ever since, but a recent listen to it had me pondering whether I had been coming at it with the unquestioning manner of a thoroughly inculcated sycophant, still sporting the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia. In short, some of it began to sound "dated" to me, and I hate using that word in the context of valid art criticism, but it cannot be avoided. Some of the music sounded to me like stuff from '70s TV shows. This might not be accidental, though, as Steely Dan's masterminds, Donald Fagan and Walter Becker, used musicians from all parts and eras of show business who played in every genre, including session players from TV.
In fact, my favorite anecdotes in this book relate how perfectionists Fagan and Becker often burned through seasoned players, one after another, discarding or barely using snatches of their solo work in their complex mixes, in favor of solos done by lesser-known musicians. Tonight Show band member Pete Christlieb, for instance, was selected rather incongruously, for a tenor sax solo on "Deacon Blues." In another instance, the relatively obscure Jay Graydon nailed the electric guitar solo on "Peg" after the Dan discarded the solos of eight other more prominent players.
Aja, which can be described most pithily though inelegantly as a jazz-rock fusion album, was the product of a more adventurous time in music -- when creative auteurs had more leeway, and radio playlists were more eclectic. Fagan and Becker were given all the studio time and money they wanted to pursue their relentless perfectionism, and they made this album the way Stanley Kubrick made movies -- slowly and without compromise, discarding take after take until they heard sounds that matched their unconventional sound-world visions.
The album still holds up as the "cafe pop" it has always been treated as, but that, and its prominence wafting softly and perhaps rather too comfortably through the corridors of doctors' and dentists' offices has made the music somewhat suspect to many who prefer a grittier vision of rock. Even among the Dan's fans, there is a bit of a schism between those who like the totality of the band and those who favor their more conventional, feel-good stadium-rock ditties of the early '70s, before they became such thoroughly artsy fusionists.
Don Breithaupt, the author of this rather good but problematic examination of the making of this album and its musical content, became obsessive over the band and this record, and has attempted to write a compact "survey of record" on it that conforms to the 100-page format of the 33 1/3 series of books devoted to classic albums.
The second half of the book, which relates more of the "making of" stories, will be more enjoyable to the non-musician than the first half, which devotes an inordinate amount of text to technical musical jargon that will be meaningless to most.
I am recommending the book to fans of the band and of the album, but would more strongly suggest you first watch the 1999 hour-long documentary, Classic Albums: Steely Dan, Aja which covers much of the same ground with more humor and flavor and shows Fagan and Becker doing astounding things at the mixing board. Watching the documentary, the genius of these men is very apparent, while in this book is it a bit harder to ascertain.
But I did find the book illuminating. There are delightful anecdotes about drummer Bernard Purdie (the accurately self-proclaimed "hitmaker") and Wayne Shorter, the jazz master who was reluctant to do the Aja session until a rep told him that the Dan loved another jazz sax master (and one of my faves), Jackie McLean.
The documentary amusingly shows Fagan mimicking the rap-sampled version of "Black Cow" that was done by hip-hopper Lord Tariq, and it's also worth noting that rapper MF Doom sampled the track on his haunting 1999 DYI rap album: Operation: Doomsday. The book's failure to sufficiently mention Aja's influence on hip-hop sampling seems an oversight, given that rappers have tended to be the most creative musical artists in recent years compared to the rest of the pop world.
Fagan rather glibly is quoted as saying the band's eclectic sonic experiments were done "just to keep ourselves from getting bored," but clearly its creations and their realization go much deeper. As Fagan also observed, "Most people in pop music never think about development unless it's louder and faster." And as Breithaupt observes, "Aja is more sonata than Sinatra," and it is an album that does not follow the rock-pop "verse-chorus paradigm."
Despite my relatively low rating -- mainly because I see this as a specialty book -- I'm recommending the book to fans. But, again, in tandem with the documentary.
(KR@KY 2016)
In fact, my favorite anecdotes in this book relate how perfectionists Fagan and Becker often burned through seasoned players, one after another, discarding or barely using snatches of their solo work in their complex mixes, in favor of solos done by lesser-known musicians. Tonight Show band member Pete Christlieb, for instance, was selected rather incongruously, for a tenor sax solo on "Deacon Blues." In another instance, the relatively obscure Jay Graydon nailed the electric guitar solo on "Peg" after the Dan discarded the solos of eight other more prominent players.
Aja, which can be described most pithily though inelegantly as a jazz-rock fusion album, was the product of a more adventurous time in music -- when creative auteurs had more leeway, and radio playlists were more eclectic. Fagan and Becker were given all the studio time and money they wanted to pursue their relentless perfectionism, and they made this album the way Stanley Kubrick made movies -- slowly and without compromise, discarding take after take until they heard sounds that matched their unconventional sound-world visions.
The album still holds up as the "cafe pop" it has always been treated as, but that, and its prominence wafting softly and perhaps rather too comfortably through the corridors of doctors' and dentists' offices has made the music somewhat suspect to many who prefer a grittier vision of rock. Even among the Dan's fans, there is a bit of a schism between those who like the totality of the band and those who favor their more conventional, feel-good stadium-rock ditties of the early '70s, before they became such thoroughly artsy fusionists.
Don Breithaupt, the author of this rather good but problematic examination of the making of this album and its musical content, became obsessive over the band and this record, and has attempted to write a compact "survey of record" on it that conforms to the 100-page format of the 33 1/3 series of books devoted to classic albums.
The second half of the book, which relates more of the "making of" stories, will be more enjoyable to the non-musician than the first half, which devotes an inordinate amount of text to technical musical jargon that will be meaningless to most.
I am recommending the book to fans of the band and of the album, but would more strongly suggest you first watch the 1999 hour-long documentary, Classic Albums: Steely Dan, Aja which covers much of the same ground with more humor and flavor and shows Fagan and Becker doing astounding things at the mixing board. Watching the documentary, the genius of these men is very apparent, while in this book is it a bit harder to ascertain.
But I did find the book illuminating. There are delightful anecdotes about drummer Bernard Purdie (the accurately self-proclaimed "hitmaker") and Wayne Shorter, the jazz master who was reluctant to do the Aja session until a rep told him that the Dan loved another jazz sax master (and one of my faves), Jackie McLean.
The documentary amusingly shows Fagan mimicking the rap-sampled version of "Black Cow" that was done by hip-hopper Lord Tariq, and it's also worth noting that rapper MF Doom sampled the track on his haunting 1999 DYI rap album: Operation: Doomsday. The book's failure to sufficiently mention Aja's influence on hip-hop sampling seems an oversight, given that rappers have tended to be the most creative musical artists in recent years compared to the rest of the pop world.
Fagan rather glibly is quoted as saying the band's eclectic sonic experiments were done "just to keep ourselves from getting bored," but clearly its creations and their realization go much deeper. As Fagan also observed, "Most people in pop music never think about development unless it's louder and faster." And as Breithaupt observes, "Aja is more sonata than Sinatra," and it is an album that does not follow the rock-pop "verse-chorus paradigm."
Despite my relatively low rating -- mainly because I see this as a specialty book -- I'm recommending the book to fans. But, again, in tandem with the documentary.
(KR@KY 2016)
August 29, 2009
a born contrarian, i love to love steely dan because they're almost universally reviled by my generation. but also because they're a great great band. and also a great tequila and cocaine band. one wouldn't think so but i can explain: there's something about the air-tight production of mid-tempo jazz-influenced rock songs matched with incredibly cynical and vitriolic lyrics that makes me very happy. or that they're a rock band that reaches back before the beatles to the great american songbook or to mingus/parker/coltrane rather than dylan/jagger/lennon. i also love that they dispensed with all that 70s confessional bullshit and kept a dandyesque distance b/t themselves and their lyrics. and fagan and becker are just great fucking songwriters and very very strange guys.
my taste in music tends more toward the raw and rowdy but i was sipping vodka tonics on the balcony w/an ex-girlfriend's father -- slightly buzzed and staring out at the beach and the ocean and he put Aja on the turntable and steely dan just kinda smashed me in the face. i hate the beach. fuck the sun. summery ocean scenes are horrible: the ocean should only exist as melville imagined it. but steely dan reconfigured all that and i saw a kind of shiny melancholy to it all. coke and tequila might make one think of the NY Dolls or cocksucker blues, might conjure images of high-pitched frenzy, chaos, and t&a, but i have an image in my head: alone, dim, end-of-day bar, dust motes in slanted sunlight, waves gently slapping the glass wall, cuervo neat and a small mound of coke on the bar, bartender puts on Aja, Katy Lied, or Countdown to Ecstasy (marisa tomei walks in and sits next to me?), and, yes... as d. fagan sings in Hey Nineteen:
"The cuervo gold... the fine columbian... make tonight a wonderful thing."
this book has some cool stories and breithaupt has serious passion for the album but the book is too technical. not enough soul. a criticism, incidentally, uninformed people lob against the great steely dan.
my taste in music tends more toward the raw and rowdy but i was sipping vodka tonics on the balcony w/an ex-girlfriend's father -- slightly buzzed and staring out at the beach and the ocean and he put Aja on the turntable and steely dan just kinda smashed me in the face. i hate the beach. fuck the sun. summery ocean scenes are horrible: the ocean should only exist as melville imagined it. but steely dan reconfigured all that and i saw a kind of shiny melancholy to it all. coke and tequila might make one think of the NY Dolls or cocksucker blues, might conjure images of high-pitched frenzy, chaos, and t&a, but i have an image in my head: alone, dim, end-of-day bar, dust motes in slanted sunlight, waves gently slapping the glass wall, cuervo neat and a small mound of coke on the bar, bartender puts on Aja, Katy Lied, or Countdown to Ecstasy (marisa tomei walks in and sits next to me?), and, yes... as d. fagan sings in Hey Nineteen:
"The cuervo gold... the fine columbian... make tonight a wonderful thing."
this book has some cool stories and breithaupt has serious passion for the album but the book is too technical. not enough soul. a criticism, incidentally, uninformed people lob against the great steely dan.
November 13, 2018
"Bringing a post-Gershwin compositional gusto to post-Dylan subject matter (and filtering it through the lens of post-Nixon America)."
There is always something for the music-lover to glean from these little books, the 33 1/3 Series, each of which focuses on a 'classic' album. Some of them centre on what the music means to the writer and how it fits into his or her life; some appear only tangentially related to the album in question. Of those that I have read, this one goes deeper into the form of the music and its construction, perhaps a little too deep at times but it does suit Steely Dan and Aja.
Author, Don Breithaupt obviously loves the album and understands music theory and he puts Aja in context, not only with what was happening in the music industry at the time of its release in 1977, but also within Donald Fagen's and Walter Becker's output and their influences with inform the album. There is a large part of the book devoted to the recording of the album and I personally love that kind of stuff although, even for me, the in-depth examination of poetic techniques such as enjambment or the relationship between E9sus4 and Amaj9 chords gets a little too much. Breithaupt is also fond of purple prose such as that quoted at the start of the review but all of this is forgiven when it leads, as this book does, to a fresh listen to, and new appreciation of, the music.
There is always something for the music-lover to glean from these little books, the 33 1/3 Series, each of which focuses on a 'classic' album. Some of them centre on what the music means to the writer and how it fits into his or her life; some appear only tangentially related to the album in question. Of those that I have read, this one goes deeper into the form of the music and its construction, perhaps a little too deep at times but it does suit Steely Dan and Aja.
Author, Don Breithaupt obviously loves the album and understands music theory and he puts Aja in context, not only with what was happening in the music industry at the time of its release in 1977, but also within Donald Fagen's and Walter Becker's output and their influences with inform the album. There is a large part of the book devoted to the recording of the album and I personally love that kind of stuff although, even for me, the in-depth examination of poetic techniques such as enjambment or the relationship between E9sus4 and Amaj9 chords gets a little too much. Breithaupt is also fond of purple prose such as that quoted at the start of the review but all of this is forgiven when it leads, as this book does, to a fresh listen to, and new appreciation of, the music.
Read
June 9, 2022a bit too heavy on music theory for a guy who barely knows what a key change is but what did i expect from a book about steely dan? still, it's a nice little love letter to one of my favourite dan records, which is exactly what these books should be. the author's passion shows throughout, and i really enjoyed the bit at the end about how the culture of fm radio allowed a song as weird as deacon blues to be a huge hit.
August 4, 2022
This rocked. Some of the theory went over my head, but Breithaupt's expertise on Steely Dan and the context of Aja within their discography makes this a standout of the series. If only there were one of these on The Royal Scam 🥲
Read
October 1, 2009I have nothing to say about this book, nothing positive at least. Really, you are including the credits as a chapter. Did you really try and explain to me the various tablature changes. Worst book in the series up to now. Sorry Don.
July 4, 2019
This exhaustive, yet very readable, book is for true Steely Dan fans only. And (this scarcely needs saying) jazz musicians too. Don Breithaupt (from the terrific band Monkey House) takes apart Don and Walter's masterpiece, song by song, facet by fact, chord by chord, instrument by instrument, player by player, groove by groove.
Aja is a classic "desert island" album, one that reveals new details with every listen. For an album that took as long as it did to put together, it still sounds remarkably spontaneous at times, yet perfect. Many stories have been told about the finickiness with which Fagen and Becker chose soloists, rhythm section members, everything. The story of how they went through six or seven different guitar players before studio musician Jay Graydon finally gave them the solo they wanted on "Peg" is legendary in the music world.
Breithaupt's writing is literate, erudite on the subject of music theory, and full of cultural reference humor. He floored me with a hilarious Spinal Tap reference while discussing Steve Gadd's drum solo on the title track. I won't spoil it for you, though.
Aja is a classic "desert island" album, one that reveals new details with every listen. For an album that took as long as it did to put together, it still sounds remarkably spontaneous at times, yet perfect. Many stories have been told about the finickiness with which Fagen and Becker chose soloists, rhythm section members, everything. The story of how they went through six or seven different guitar players before studio musician Jay Graydon finally gave them the solo they wanted on "Peg" is legendary in the music world.
Breithaupt's writing is literate, erudite on the subject of music theory, and full of cultural reference humor. He floored me with a hilarious Spinal Tap reference while discussing Steve Gadd's drum solo on the title track. I won't spoil it for you, though.
Read
November 6, 2012Even more boring than the album.
August 7, 2017
An in-depth look at Steely Dan's most commercially successful and critically acclaimed album, Aja, from 1977. Breithaupt interviewed Donal Fagan for this book, which was quite a coup, since Fagan doesn't often talk to journalists. Yet, oddly , the author has few quotes from Fagan in the book.
The most interesting chapters are on the recording sessions, which were unusually complex and time-consuming. Fagan and his partner, Walter Becker, used some two dozen West Coast studio musicians and spent months and thousands of dollars mixing and remixing the seven tracks on the record. Breithaupt goes into detail describing the notorious guitar solo on Peg, in which Fagan and Becker recorded half a dozen guitarists before they found one who could handle the complex chord and time changes on the tune.
I was pleased that the author discussed the role that the top 40 radio format had on the success of Steely Dan. In the 1970s, the most popular radio stations played a mix of different genres, allowing the jazz-influenced Steely Dan equal airtime with arena rock, disco, progressive country and pop. In those days, radio audiences had not yet become fragmented into micro-formats.
There are two curious omissions. Breithaupt says nothing about the distinctive cover photograph by Hideki Fujii, of the Japanese fashion model, Sayoko Yamaguchi. Of all the Steely Dan covers, Aja is one of the the most memorable. He also fails to explain that Deacon Blues was inspired at least partially by the Rams defensive end, Deacon Jones, a outsized personality who was on TV a lot in LA in the early 70s.
Ths brief book is recommended for fans of Steely Dan and 1970s rock in general. It is part of the 33 1/3 book series on famous rock albums.
The most interesting chapters are on the recording sessions, which were unusually complex and time-consuming. Fagan and his partner, Walter Becker, used some two dozen West Coast studio musicians and spent months and thousands of dollars mixing and remixing the seven tracks on the record. Breithaupt goes into detail describing the notorious guitar solo on Peg, in which Fagan and Becker recorded half a dozen guitarists before they found one who could handle the complex chord and time changes on the tune.
I was pleased that the author discussed the role that the top 40 radio format had on the success of Steely Dan. In the 1970s, the most popular radio stations played a mix of different genres, allowing the jazz-influenced Steely Dan equal airtime with arena rock, disco, progressive country and pop. In those days, radio audiences had not yet become fragmented into micro-formats.
There are two curious omissions. Breithaupt says nothing about the distinctive cover photograph by Hideki Fujii, of the Japanese fashion model, Sayoko Yamaguchi. Of all the Steely Dan covers, Aja is one of the the most memorable. He also fails to explain that Deacon Blues was inspired at least partially by the Rams defensive end, Deacon Jones, a outsized personality who was on TV a lot in LA in the early 70s.
Ths brief book is recommended for fans of Steely Dan and 1970s rock in general. It is part of the 33 1/3 book series on famous rock albums.
January 10, 2023
Admittedly, the music theory turned the pages into a blur, and then I would come to a little later with drool spilling from my lips, but, I'm not going to knock the author for his knowledge and his incredibly trained ear. Such words will not be seen here.
This is someone who clearly has a tremendous appreciation for Steely Dan and is not afraid to fangirl. I admire that, I applaud it, and I absolutely support it. Yes, the music theory appears tedious, but the point, in case you missed it, was what the Becker Fagan duo were doing to music and when they were doing it.
Aja is one of my favorites, and Don Breithaupt somehow made me love this album even more. Furthermore, this is what I expect of a book in this series, and the author went above and beyond.
This album was a recent topic on a podcast (Musical Shenanigans), and one of the hosts was a fangirl about the drummers and musicians on this album.
If you love music, and not just what you hear on the radio or some algorithm playlist from your streaming provider, then this book and subsequent album is for you. Even if you listen to the radio or some preprogrammed playlist, you should still sit down - with headphones - and let Walter and Donald onto your head.
This is someone who clearly has a tremendous appreciation for Steely Dan and is not afraid to fangirl. I admire that, I applaud it, and I absolutely support it. Yes, the music theory appears tedious, but the point, in case you missed it, was what the Becker Fagan duo were doing to music and when they were doing it.
Aja is one of my favorites, and Don Breithaupt somehow made me love this album even more. Furthermore, this is what I expect of a book in this series, and the author went above and beyond.
This album was a recent topic on a podcast (Musical Shenanigans), and one of the hosts was a fangirl about the drummers and musicians on this album.
If you love music, and not just what you hear on the radio or some algorithm playlist from your streaming provider, then this book and subsequent album is for you. Even if you listen to the radio or some preprogrammed playlist, you should still sit down - with headphones - and let Walter and Donald onto your head.
March 7, 2021
really good - as a fairly big dan fan this had a lot of interesting stuff. it does a nice job of contextualising aja within steely dan’s discography, and steely dan within music in general. the discussion of harmonic prosody was amazing - kind of left me wishing there was a lot more of it. the coverage of all the contributors to aja (and other albums) was pretty comprehensive, and helped me to form mental links between steely dan and other groups/artists that i had previously conceived of as being separate (mark knopfler being on ‘time out of mind’ was unexpected !!). the fact that it didn’t overreach with lyrical analysis was nice as well - it referenced a range of interpretations, but did not try to be an authority over which one was right, leaving unanswerable questions unanswered (like who tha fuck is aja). this book hasn’t helped me to love steely dan any more, but it’s certainly helped me to appreciate them a lot more !
January 20, 2022
I love Steely Dan, and I love "Aja", but I did not love this book.
I don't think I liked it very much either. The book is written for the hardcore inside-baseball music geek, who can read sentences such as "Even in an area of harmonic tranquility, like the eight measures of Bmaj9 that make up the intro to "Aja", there are share elevenths floating around, hinting at the less stable (and more exotic) Lydian mode."
It continues, "At the top of the double verse in 'Deacon Blues', we hear G6 and F6, two relatively neutral chords in the key (V6 and IV6 in C Major)."
It's not a language I speak. Breithaupt even gets an interview, or series of interviews, with Donald Fagen, but those don't add any life to the book either.
Surely there are crazy, fun stories about the painstaking process of getting "Aja" together. Breithaupt hints at them, but I would've been happy with a whole book on them.
I don't think I liked it very much either. The book is written for the hardcore inside-baseball music geek, who can read sentences such as "Even in an area of harmonic tranquility, like the eight measures of Bmaj9 that make up the intro to "Aja", there are share elevenths floating around, hinting at the less stable (and more exotic) Lydian mode."
It continues, "At the top of the double verse in 'Deacon Blues', we hear G6 and F6, two relatively neutral chords in the key (V6 and IV6 in C Major)."
It's not a language I speak. Breithaupt even gets an interview, or series of interviews, with Donald Fagen, but those don't add any life to the book either.
Surely there are crazy, fun stories about the painstaking process of getting "Aja" together. Breithaupt hints at them, but I would've been happy with a whole book on them.
November 11, 2022
TL;DR: If you're looking for a direct, and engaging look into the making of this album, I'd recommend watching the Classic Albums Documentary, available on YouTube.
A deep dive into the influences and process behind one of the most important records in the '70s and the crown jewel in the already impressive discography of Steely Dan.
I have a hard time identifying who would be the right audience for this book; on one hand the whole "musical analysis" aspect of the book seems rather simplistic for someone with musical theory knowledge looking for a deeper understanding of the Dan's jazz stylings.
On the other hand, the casual listener or someone looking for a more "historical" context will be left wanting more, and the author goes into excruciating detail in some passages of this book, regarding melodic, harmonic and lyrical analysis. I found those asides excessively detailed and rather dry.
A deep dive into the influences and process behind one of the most important records in the '70s and the crown jewel in the already impressive discography of Steely Dan.
I have a hard time identifying who would be the right audience for this book; on one hand the whole "musical analysis" aspect of the book seems rather simplistic for someone with musical theory knowledge looking for a deeper understanding of the Dan's jazz stylings.
On the other hand, the casual listener or someone looking for a more "historical" context will be left wanting more, and the author goes into excruciating detail in some passages of this book, regarding melodic, harmonic and lyrical analysis. I found those asides excessively detailed and rather dry.
August 10, 2024
I've only read a few of these books and, like this one, they follow something of a familiar format--a little past history/discography of the artist, deep dive into the particular album (Aja) and then some post-album updating. This book follows that format, but weaves these three elements throughout, particularly the look back to Steely Dan's earlier work--which I liked. The author incorporated Steely Dan's early work and entire body of work with effective detail. The deep dive was good, but at times a little wonkish for me. The writer is a musician and gives a fair amount of information about harmonic movements/sequences that were lost on me. There is some good analysis of the lyrics, shuffling personnel, links to jazz and a few good tidbit stories. I think I just a wanted a little more of all of that. Like the few of these books that I've read, definitely targeted for the more hardcore fan--I love this album but I'm just not sure that's necessarily me.
June 27, 2020
If you're a Steely Dan fan you'll like this little book. And if you're obsessed (as I am) with the album "Aja" then you'll love it. It's packed with behind-the-scenes stories about the LP's recording and musicians, critical analysis of lyrics & arrangements, plus a heaping dollop of music theory (that part went over my head). Everything you could ever want to know about one album and then some, which is what the 33.1/3 book series is all about. The author is a musician and critic who's favorite album is "Aja". He was given access to interview Donald Fagen for this book so Fagen is quoted extensively. Walter Becker was alive at the time this book came out (2007) but maybe he wasn't feeling talkative.
January 25, 2021
The 33 1/3 books are so hit and miss, it really just boils down to whether or not the author truly knows anything beyond simply liking the album. Thankfully, Breithaupt is well-versed in his knowledge of Steely Dan, so he is able to at least give it a reasonable effort. It's well written, and he obviously knows his stuff. The only problem is that he approaches the album from a music theory basis, talking more about chord progressions in the songs instead of the actual making of the album. This is not an issue if it were a portion of the book, but it seems to become the sole focus, and it really is a path to nowhere, as we are left with a list of rhyme schemes and chord voicings that don't really tell us much about the album itself as a whole. More big picture would serve this book well.
February 6, 2024
I really wanted to love this book. I love the album, and was excited that the author, clearly a true fan, got to interview Donald Fagen for the book. While there are some good quotes and cool stories, and some interesting analysis, the book itself is simultaneously too much and too little.
Too much: the in-the-weeds analysis of chords. It's a worthy move, because the music is so complex and draws from so many interesting sources, but there's so much minute detail about the chords and stuff that it all blurs together after a while.
Too little: of the album itself. Did I need a whole chapter on "FM (No Static At All)," or a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the Greatest Hits package? Turns out I didn't. I wanted more _Aja_.
Too much: the in-the-weeds analysis of chords. It's a worthy move, because the music is so complex and draws from so many interesting sources, but there's so much minute detail about the chords and stuff that it all blurs together after a while.
Too little: of the album itself. Did I need a whole chapter on "FM (No Static At All)," or a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the Greatest Hits package? Turns out I didn't. I wanted more _Aja_.
July 29, 2018
an almost overwhelmingly academic book about the construction of steely dan's classic album aja and the context of the band in the pop landscape. i mean there is a lot in this book about chord structures and time signatures or whatever. as someone who isn't terribly educated music-wise I struggled to understand what a lot of that stuff meant, but it was interesting to see music criticism approached from this angle: steely dan, and aja in particular (a synthesis of a massive pop hit with intricate song writing and design thrust on an eclectic marketplace!) seems to be a great band and album for that approach.
October 4, 2017
A well written book and of the 5 books I've read from the series it goes the most into depth about the song structure musically. It does get a bit much for someone with basic training in the subject, but there is plenty of history on the album and good explanation of the lyrics and why they are so well written so that the book is still enjoyable. Just a heads up if you read this, you may want to give The Royal Scam, Countdown To Ecstasy and Gaucho a listen because they were referenced a few times as well in this book.
October 25, 2017
In honor of the recently departed Walter Becker of Steely Dan, I read this book. If you want a quick read that still gets into the intricacies of one of the best bands of the last 60 years, who defied genre identification, you should read this book from the 33 1/3 series. I'm not so smart on the music theory stuff, but if you are, you'll love it. It shows you how they plotted out this album to become a masterpiece.
May 31, 2021
Mansplainy music theory nerd author includes a glossary because “I was not going to be able to write convincingly about Aja without delving into its musical and technical underpinnings” and “some readers will find the terminology within occasionally baffling” but the glossary is mostly unhelpful, doing little to demystify the language he’s using and furthermore does not include a definition of “angular,” possibly his most-used term, what the hell dude, thumbs down
January 1, 2023
I'm not anti-music theory at all! And here there are times where it's quite good, like locating Steely Dan in a pre-rock context musically. And of course the anecdotes and etc. are good. But it's hard to feel like this is an entry that thinks if it gives you a list of chords and modes it doesn't need to do anything else. And maybe for those more versed on the technical side, that's true. But for me I'd like to see that stuff fleshed out a little.
November 21, 2023
For every one of these 33 1/3 books that is successful about capturing the magic of the record and showing you a peek behind the curtain, there’s another 2-3 duds. This is the latter.
Way over-concerned with showing how the author can trace chord changes. Terribly structured. If I wanted to read a rambling list of musicians and paragraphs about “how a song decodes into AABCCDDEBBA” then I’d hang out with one of my gay DJ friends in a manic episode
Way over-concerned with showing how the author can trace chord changes. Terribly structured. If I wanted to read a rambling list of musicians and paragraphs about “how a song decodes into AABCCDDEBBA” then I’d hang out with one of my gay DJ friends in a manic episode
February 5, 2025
the 33 1/3 series seems to me like a fascinating 2 or 3 hour youtube video essay series that’s stuck in book form, not badly written by any means but it only reinforces to me that Aja’s true power can only be experienced listening to it. then again nobody’s reading this book having never heard it before so what do i know lol
August 3, 2017
Really enjoyable look at a great record that was meticulously crafted. The genius of the lyric "learn to work the saxophone" (not play it) still sticks in my head. And the story of the many attempts to get the guitar solo right for "Peg" is another among many chestnuts.
June 15, 2021
This book is probably better (and definitely cheaper) than an intro to music theory class. The author clearly knows his Steely Dan - not to mention a shit-ton of other pop, rock, blues, and jazz music. An absolute pleasure to read. And - by far - one of the best 33 and 1/3 entries. Simply excellent!
August 21, 2022
Love the album , although not so fussed on the book . This is book more for musicians than music fans . The book heavily focuses on the technical / academic side of music.Likely to appeal much more to a musician than simply a music fan who enjoys the music.
April 16, 2024
A nice example of what this series should aspire to, an astute mix of history, analysis, & criticism wrapped together with some clever insight. Heavy on analysis which may go over the heads of some (such as me) but which is still somewhat digestible.
February 9, 2019
Much to my husband's disappointment, this did not make me suddenly love Steely Dan.
October 9, 2020
Far too technical for the average reader.
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