If you enjoyed this, check out our podcast on Steely Dan! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aNp-lNapp9jVnoE.html

You've got the wrong take on this song. It's not about a somene who had something and lost it, or was a recovering alcoholic. It's about a guy from the suburbs who's bored, and longs to live a different life and be an introspective performer. He knows it's an unappreciated lifestyle, but for whatever reason, it appeals to him.

"Steely Dan are like the Salvador Dali´s of Rock´n Roll". That was probably the best definiction of Steely dan I have heard in a looong time!!

These lyrics are not about a suicidal alcoholic with some nymphomania thrown in. The lyrics are referring to your average Joe suburbanite who has fantasies of being a Don Juan, free-spirited, jazz saxophonist. His 9 to 5 existence is boring, and he is expressing his fantasy life. I love to see anyone who tunes in on Steely Dan for the first time. They are not a band; they are an entity. For the record, Steely Dan is Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. Becker is now deceased. They chose their session musicians perfectly on the production of each album. Dive into their entire pool of music. Be prepared though. You’ll be completely wrinkled before you get out! 🤪 Welcome!!! ❤️❤️❤️

“I cried when I wrote this song.....”

You guys should watch the 1 hr. Y.Tube "Steely Dan - Aja (Classic Album Documentary), where Fagen and Becker discuss and dissect this album, and they interview some of the musicians. Bernard Purdie demonstrates his "Purdie Shuffle". Also there is the 17 min. doc "Steely Dan : more than just a band", for an overview of their history.(How they went from a touring band to a studio arrangement.)

Oh my god! I never comment on KZfaq, but you’re not only playing an amazing Steely Dan tune, you quoted those beautiful lines from Peter Tosh’s song, “Equal Rights.” Beautiful!

This always struck me as Fagen's declaration of independence: "I'm not going to go on bending myself all outa shape just to help you smash-fit me into your expectations." Look at the arc of their first several years, and keep in mind that radio and record companies had some pretty heavy locks on the artists. Steely Dan is a big time landmark, with Aja and Gaucho being the major works (IMO) I consider myself enormously privileged to have seen them in concert.

I saw Steely Dan back in the day. I'm a guitar player. The entire band were all session players. I was blown away by how near perfect they were. Super tight.

These videos show us that everyone has a different interpretation of the lyrics and in the end, we have NO idea what Walter and Don meant. That’s the beauty of a SD song, in my opinion.❤️

You with the hoop earrings are scary insightful!

The players change often, but they're always jazz monsters

Steely Dan's lyrics have always been encrypted and can have many interpretations unrelated. In this however, the protagonist is finally embracing who he is, and the metaphor of a jazz musician is the perfect parallel where you operate within a world of worlds, not quite in the system of society, yet a part of the system that is actually alive. It's a place where losers in actual "life" defined by society can shine as their true artistic selves without hindrances, or judgment from the rest of that said society. Alabama Crimson Tide is a winning football team that sounds regal. To have a name for what the protagonist does even though he may be considered a loser makes him regal as well. So much music, so little time. If you enjoy the artistry of Steely Dan's lyrics, listen to The Royal Scam album track by track like you did here with Aja. I guarantee that you will love it as well. Peace!

Favorite Dan song❤️

The ultimate tribute to the freedom of the artist. You have to listen to this a few times then you'll know exactly what this song is about. It's about being able to do whatever the F you want as an artist. Artistic freedom baby!!

I'm really enjoying your SD reactions.

No one ever plays their newer stuff. Their Two Against Nature Album won Grammy’s album of the year when it came out. For a good laugh and good music listen to Cousin Depree. TAN is a great album don’t let any of my fellow geezers tell you any different.

Oh yea,check out Night by Night by Steely Dan.A great groove.

After devoting a life to listening intently to complex music, i can just about pick out the main session guys of all kinds from that era, cuz you learn their groove. Bernard Purdie is unmistakable... the half-time Purdie Shuffle is as difficult as it is famous... Steve Gadd on the title song of this LP, "Aja" delivers a jaw dropping, but unmistakably Gadd... this is just in terms of drummers. You might be familiar with 3 other session drummers they liked using...early, and mostly, Jim Gordon, but he murdered his mother, so we also pick up the Great Rick Marrota and the Superb and so underrated Jeff Porcaro, top shelf session guy, and drummer for Toto...he, who modified the Half-Time Purdie Shuffle, mixing in a little of Bonham's shuffle on Led Zep's "Fool in the Rain" and a kick pattern from a Bo Diddley Song. He only assembled that into the iconic drum intro to "Rosanna"

Great reaction to another great steely Dan track 👊

Great song choice. In the mid-'80s I got the tenor saxophonist (Doc Severinsen's Tonight Show band member Pete Christlieb) to sign my 1977 "Aja" album jacket, when he performed at Gresham, Oregon's Mt. Hood Jazz Festival. He was as cool as he sounds on this record.

It doesn’t get any better than Steely Dan.

Love ❤️ steely Dan

After Covid is over, if youre in Philly lets hang out and have a Big Black Cow. You two are very cool and thoughtful. Good taste outta you!

...guys I love your thoughts and feelings about Steely Dan stuff, and Deacon Blues blew me away completely for at least the first 50 listenings to it! :) I seem to have seen that you haven't done 'West of Hollywood' of them yet... I hope you'll do it at some point... that song (also super-long) pushes even SD's edges further... to me: mind blowing... xx

This album came out in 1977. Football is big in Alabama. The Univ. of Alabama football team is known as The Crimson Tide. I remember reading when this song came out you couldn't go to a party on that campus and not hear this song.

With a Steely Dan song you have ask yourself what each phrase or line could mean and then compare them to each other and the meaning of the song will piece itself together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Truly a classic here...great to see you 2 injesting confections of this calibre...Ty

I bought this album in 77 i would put on the earphones and i would be jammin while feeding my son ❤ 😊

Gazed through the glass I don't think means a whiskey glass it means looking through a window from the outside into a bar where he was admiring all the musicians and gamblers were hanging out. Now he is no longer looking in as an outsider. Now he is on the inside with the night people.

Though Fagen and Becker called this an anthem to epic loserdome, I've always thought of it as an anthem to being your own man no matter the consequences, even if others might think you a loser. "This brother is free... I'll be who I want to be" even if it means others seeing it as being as bad as the Wake Forest Demon Deacons who went 1-11 as compared to Alabama Crimson Tide winning the national title game, because being your own man is really winning...

song is very simple I live life on my own terms, do whatever the fuck I want even if it hurts me

As i said the song is an hommage to Jazz and Blues musicians. It's supposed to be a Jazz musician singing the song. They both loved the tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon. I read about a year ago that Walter Becker's wife told Donald Fagen that as Walter lie dying he had the music of Dexter Gordon playing.

Yes i watched your podcast and loved it. I wonder if you watched i think a six part documentary on them. It was great along with rick beatos interview with several of the session players

Love your vibe guys. One of my favorite albums and bands for sure! ❤️🔥

As Donald and Walter explain, our narrator--an alienated suburban teen, living above his parents' garage--stared through a glass window (not a drink glass), on the outside looking in at the ramblers and gamblers. Now he's going to cross that fine line, learn the saxophone, carouse, do drugs, and die a glorious failure.

Great reaction. Probably aja is one of the best albums of all time. You have some of the best session players of all time.

The best part of this song is the very end sax solo - amazing as it fades.

Larry Carlton guitar fills are magical

I crawl like a viper thru these suburban streets is the prelude to 80% of all court ordered AA meetings.

The song is about acceptance of who he truly is. In the beginning he is basically admitting his flaws, but reaches a point in the second half of the song where he just embraces who he is. "This brother is free, I'll be what I want to be...."

Love this reaction, having fun with lyrics and amazing song writing. We should smile like you all are no ? Fuxking right !

Steely Dan music perfectionist making perfect music!!!

Hey SAD,On the making of Aja Bernard Perdie does the Purdy shuffle and says he put out signs saying "You done it now" You hired the hit maker" Real funky guy.

This guy is talking about his music life , nightclubs, wine woman and song . his music is getting him this

"This is a song about saying I'm going to be my own man, so screw you! Saying "hey, even if what I do makes me a loser in other people's eyes (whether it be drinking whiskey and dying behind the wheel or being a jazz musician), I'm a winner because I'm my own man " Winning is, in the words of William Ernest Henley being "the master of my fate, the captain of my soul" even if that means being a loser in the eyes of others. I even like the whole "expanding man" portion... of a person being more than the sum of their parts, of no longer sitting back and watching life, but making the decision to get out there an do it themselves! (from the line "I gaze through the glass at ramblers, wild gamblers, that's all in the past")".

I always thought it was about a young jazz musician burning the candle at both ends , living a mythical lifestyle of drinking scotch all night sleep all day , no strings sex one night stands and if he dies young it doesn't matter because his legend will be assured.

The absolute perfect mood for a party. A house party a BBQ or a club. Chill and Don't take it too serious.

The way I look at it I will listen to this song for decades now and I compared it to my own life., I think what they are saying is this is an individual who isn't a loser he's someone who finally figured out his place in life and he's satisfied with where he is that's where his contentment coming from he didn't lose everyone else's game he won at his own

He's a musician taking his shot at the big time, imagining what it will be like. Wine women and song, or simply die behind the wheel after drinking too much. But he's determined to do it, win or lose. That's my take on it...

"They call Alabama the Crimson tide..." You jus have to look it up and in the worst case, read some books. :-)

Great song ! Loved it 5he moment I heard it after purchasing it on it’s release!👍🏻❤️☮️☮️🎼

I like you're smirk when they play the Am#5add5 to E7b9 change the first time. That is the appropriate reaction to that chord change!

The song is an homage to Jazz and Blues musicians. The stereotype (which is true) of many them living hard lives. Drinking, gambling, drugging, fornicating. One of the most famous and beloved Jazz musicians was trumpeter Clifford Brown. He didn't curse, drink or do drugs (a rarity in the 1950's for a jazz musician) but he died in an auto accident. It shocked the jazz world because he was so loved by other musicians. " And die behind the wheel." The line is probably about Clifford Brown.

Adding to the confusion, Fagen has said “ the expanding man” is hero character in an underground comic. When i visualise Dan lyrics i see them as comic frames. Also said the “ crimson tyde is the collage football team and “Deacon “ has something to do with another sports team.

He literally is a guy who learns the saxophone and plays in nightclubs and lives that lifestyle (he already bought the dream)

the song is a string of metaphors

I think the Pete Christlieb solo was worth a mention

The sax player in the video was the one who actually played sax in the song.

Suggestions, be sure to also read the lyrics while playing: Steely Dan-- Glamour Profession Boz Scaggs--Jojo The Whispers--Olivia (Lost and Turned Out)

he never says he staring through the glass at whisky

he didnt die in a car crash its just a metaphor for the his old school days.

He just like to have fun his way

This is an anthem by the young artists to be free. This is the musings and dreams of a young artist romanticizing the nature of true unadulterated art...using the metaphor of the jazz musician. :)

And to add to other comments: this is a very big part of you American musical history.

Sisters 6 years older than me. So I have listened since I was 7-8 to Bowie, Steely Dan , Eagles , everything is rock, no, rock's a homogeneous mixture of styles of other music, WBCN BOSTON 360° OF ROCK AND ROLL. They played Sabbath then Willie Nelson, Peter Wolfe ,J.GEILS original DJ. ANYWAY!!! I thought he said drink scotch whiskey All night LONG AND DINE ???? BEHIND THE WHEEL go figure. Ha. 1976 Automatic Man ,My Pearl 1 album wonder !! I'll pay you when you say that you don't like it.

this is where you go to when you want to hear music.........

The character is a musician living a musician lifestyle. Yea he might be an alcoholic too, but true musician giving up everything to play what he feels 😎

I'm not sure there's a right answer as to what this truly means, but if there's a consistent theme it is the protagonist giving up or being a "winner" and embracing/romanticizing his failure.

THANK YOU TRY, ROY HARGROVE HORNS, BOZ SCAGGS VOCALS, MISS RIDDLE

Everyone likes to analyze the lyrics and try to come up with their ideas on what the lyrics mean. Which is fine for those on that plane. But when it comes down to it. This Plain and Simple, "GROOVY MUSIC"... THIS GOES FOR DOZENS OF SONGS....BY THE FANTASTIC STEELY DAN...✌

Donald Fagen's Springtime is also worth a video.

This song is like...I don't know...a bittersweet fairytale for the affluent self-disenfranchised?

The song should be listened to without watching a video.

Crazy innovative band of the 70’s! Great jazz/rock fusion. You have to do my beloved Led Zeppelin. Start with the 73 Garden concert. Was there a better two decades then the 60’s and 70’s. from Motown, Rockabilly, Pop, the English Invasion, Americana (Cali Sound) etc. The genre was music...Period. 😎👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

people drink some our lucking enogh not to die behind the wheel ... ... ..

It's Scotch Whisky!!!!! Lol

I always thought they were saying "and DINE behind the wheel"; as in never any time, on the road, eat in the car as you go from town to town.

You two are a very beautiful couple

This is why they say Americans have no sense of irony (except The Dan)

By expanded I think the more he knew the more it drove him to drink

This is a song you turn up at the end to hear every note.

Don't overthink 'Steely' Donald - in his own words this is some guys fantasy about making the scene as a pro musician. And, sometimes his lyrics are too enigmatic, so some verses really just fit the rhyme and the time.

"They call Alabama the Crimson Tide" That's the winning football team. They are winners. He wants a name when he loses which is pretty much all the time. Call him Deacon Blues. (Deacon or President of being a blue depressed loser)

Don't ever listen to "Kid Charlemagne". You'll never understand it. :-)

People used to love that I played this song, particularly, acoustic solo, also 'Kid Charlemagne', tho' minus the solo sections. I cry when I hear this song, now.

Wake Forest, unlike Alabama, had a record LOSING streak in football and their mascot is known as Demon Deacon - ergo, Deacon Blues as opposed to Crimson Tide.

You want a song about time travel? Who else but Steely Dan would do one? Give Pretzel Logic a listen.

Steely Dan was influenced by 50s jazz and beat literature. They're all about midcentury American hip. My wife won't listen to them because they're so sleazy (See "Hey Nineteen.") I once read a review of Steely Dan that said that the band became popular anytime a cocaine scene pops up.

Hey y'all, when you get back to more Steely Dan, check out "Green Earrings." Very funky, very choice guitar work, very nice pocket. Here's a link: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nr-Urdpn2anNj5s.html

Nice job guys! One tip, always have the lyrics when you listen to Steely Dan. They're very different and subtle, so easy to misunderstand

Gotta play “do it again” another steely great

have you ever been in old Las Vegas you would know .....

I think he’s talking about a Roulette wheel not a car

Here's Bernard "Pretty" Purdie explaining where the beat came from Home At Last. He comes on :20 in. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ldKUp8yWuKvdgYE.html

Incredible musicians. it's also got that " do as thou wilt" anti God hollywood city/night life hungover on the stage trying to cheer oneself out of a long depression kind of vibe. An attempt at convincing himself that his high risk life choices are just fine, and the discomfort shall be as comfortable as home sweet home, and just what he's used to. Sad in a way. The instruments, complex chords and timing, harmonies, everything is absolute perfection. Could have chosen the song lyrics to be about anything.

I used to go out with a dyslexic girl or two .they would understand the backwards lyrics . Me not so much so . I need to up my game .

I would like to hear a metal cover of this. Not sure why. Story of my life too, btw.

This song is about a boy and his dog on an epic adventure.

an aging hipster musician who realized he will never make it big but is content with it