050: Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstasy (1973) and Aja (1977)
“We don't think of ourselves as being perfectionists, really. To us it's more about desperately trying to have it sound more or less OK.” –Donald Fagen
SCOOBITY WAH! Returning guest Libby Cudmore’s love for Steely Dan is so immense that we needed two albums to contain it. Much like the Oscars, we’re going without a host for our 50th episode, with Libby joining Rich, Mike, and Dan for 2+ hours of free-for-all Dansplaining. We’re specifically focusing on 1973’s Countdown to Ecstasy, where the Dan functioned as a full band under the command of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, and 1977’s Aja, by which point Becker and Fagen had gone studio-only and ditched the band for a revolving door of experienced session musicians. Aja is a much smoother, “FM radio” album in contrast with Countdown’s breezy “AM radio” rock band vibes, but Becker and Fagen’s musical sensibilities and biting sense of humor made sure the Steely Dan identity remained intact throughout. So grab either a big black cow or a glass of scotch whisky and join us, because this is a really fun one.
Miscellany
Instead of focusing squarely on one album, our episodes “on the 25’s” compare and contrast two albums by a band or artist. We first experimented with this format on co-host John McFerrin’s episode on Yes’s The Yes Album and Drama, featuring Dave Weigel, and it was a blast.
Steely Dan’s Classic Albums episode is available on both YouTube and Amazon Prime. One thing we didn’t note is that it was filmed in New York in 1999, and is filled with establishing shots of the World Trade Center, so fair warning. It wouldn’t be Steely Dan without something unsettling.
There are a few things Mike had planned to mention but forgot about in all the excitement of recording. First, the “battle apple” in “Josie” is a weapon that Becker and Fagen made up, because they’re nerds. The other is that the recording of “The Boston Rag” was delayed because the tape they were using had somehow arrived from the factory with a drop of mustard underneath the oxide layer.
Rich never resists the opportunity to make a spreadsheet, so we’re happy to share this cheat sheet for the session musicians on Aja. We also neglected to mention the excellent horn section that performs throughout the album, consisting of Bill Perkins, Jim Horn, Plas Johnson, Jackie Kelso, Chuck Findley, Lou McCreary, Dick Hyde, with arrangements by Tom Scott.
The Yacht Rock web series is hilarious and takes an hour and change to watch. If you want to skip straight to Steely Dan, check out episode 10, “FM,” about their feud with the Eagles (excuse me, Eagles). Libby’s “eat, bat, prick” line from our cold open is a reference to the only intelligible line in the episode from Donald Fagen (played by Myke Chilian).
And we forgot to mention, but “Josie” received an 86.75 on the Yachtski Scale.
Steely Dan can take on some rather ribald subject matter, and the Super Furry Animals clip alone breaks our record for f-bombs, so this episode has the bleeps off and the explicit tag on.
Other links
Steely Dan’s official website (steelydan.com)
Something Else!’s Steely Dan Sundays archive (somethingelsereviews.com)
Libby’s Albumism pieces, featuring numerous Dan articles (Albumism.com)
How Steely Dan Got Wayne Shorter (Marc Myers, JazzWax.com)
Discord & Rhyme’s Steely Dan playlist (Spotify)
Discord & Rhyme Roll Call
Rich Bunnell (moderator)
Libby Cudmore (special guest)
Mike DeFabio
Dan Watkins
“AM Radio” John McFerrin (guest appearance)
Countdown to Ecstasy tracklist
Bodhisattva
Razor Boy
The Boston Rag
Your Gold Teeth
Show Biz Kids
My Old School
Pearl of the Quarter
King of the World
Aja tracklist
Black Cow
Aja
Deacon Blues
Peg
Home at Last
I Got the News
Josie
Other clips used
Steely Dan:
Dirty Work
F.M. (No Static at All)
Black Friday (instrumental)
Hey Nineteen
Pretzel Logic
Do It Again
Bodhisattva (live in 1974)
Almost Gothic
Any Major Dude Will Tell You
Doctor Wu
Others:
Ween – Don’t Laugh (I Love You)
Todd Rundgren – Dogfight Giggle
The Beatles – Got to Get You into My Life
Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz – Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)
Tone Loc – Cutting Rhythms
Beyoncé feat. Grafh – Me, Myself and I (J'Ty Remix)
MF Doom – Gas Drawls
James Gandolfini – Dirty Work (from The Sopranos)
Ween – Pandy Fackler
De La Soul – Eye Know
Colin Stetson – Reborn
Super Furry Animals – The Man Don’t Give a Fuck
Boz Scaggs – Pearl of the Quarter
Josie and the Pussycats – Pretend to Be Nice
Joe Jackson – King of the World
Personnel
Countdown to Ecstasy
Donald Fagen – acoustic and electric pianos, synthesizer, lead and backing vocals
Walter Becker – electric bass, harmonica, backing vocals
Denny Dias – electric guitar, mixing
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter – electric and pedal steel guitars
Jim Hodder – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Additional musicians
Ray Brown – string bass (2)
Ben Benay – acoustic guitar
Rick Derringer – slide guitar (5)
Victor Feldman – vibraphone, marimba, percussion
Ernie Watts, Johnny Rotella, Lanny Morgan, Bill Perkins – saxophones (6)
Sherlie Matthews (6), Myrna Matthews (6), Patricia Hall (6), David Palmer, James Rolleston, Michael Fennelly – backing vocals
Gary Katz – production
Roger Nichols – engineering
Miss Natalie – assistant engineer
Dotty of Hollywood – album design
Ed Caraeff – photography
Aja
Donald Fagen – lead vocals (all tracks), synthesizer (all tracks but 4), police whistle (2), backing vocals (2, 5, 7)
Walter Becker – bass guitar (3), guitar (2), guitar solo (5, 6, 7)
Victor Feldman – Fender Rhodes (1, 3, 7), vibraphone (5, 6), piano (5, 6), percussion (2, 4)
Joe Sample – Fender Rhodes (2), clavinet (1)
Paul Griffin – Fender Rhodes (4), backing vocals (4)
Michael Omartian – piano (2)
Don Grolnick – clavinet (4)
Larry Carlton – guitar (1, 2, 3, 5, 7), guitar solo (6)
Lee Ritenour – guitar (3)
Dean Parks – guitar (3, 6, 7)
Steve Khan – guitar (4)
Denny Dias – guitar (2)
Paul Humphrey – drums (1)
Rick Marotta – drums (4)
Ed Greene – drums (6)
Steve Gadd – drums (2)
Bernard Purdie – drums (3, 5)
Jay Graydon – guitar solo (4)
Chuck Rainey – bass guitar (all but track 3)
Jim Keltner – drums, percussion (7)
Gary Coleman – percussion (4)
Tom Scott – tenor saxophone (1), Lyricon (4), horn arrangements
Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophone (2)
Pete Christlieb – tenor saxophone (3)
Jim Horn, Bill Perkins, Plas Johnson, Jackie Kelso – saxophone, flute
Chuck Findley, Lou McCreary, Dick Hyde – brass
Michael McDonald (4, 6), Timothy B. Schmit (2, 5, 7), Clydie King (1, 3, 6), Sherlie Matthews (1, 3, 6), Venetta Fields (1, 3, 6), Rebecca Louis (1, 6) – backing vocals
Stephen Diener – executive producer
Gary Katz – production
Roger Nichols, Elliot Scheiner, Al Schmitt, Bill Schnee – engineering
Joe Bellamy, Lenise Bent, Ken Klinger, Ron Pangaliman, Ed Rack, Linda Tyler – assistant engineers
Bernie Grundman – mastering
Barbara Miller – production coordination
Dinky Dawson – sound consultant
Daniel Levitin – consultant
Tom Scott – horn arrangements
Oz Studios – art direction
Patricia Mitsui, Geoff Westen – design
Hideki Fujii (cover photo), Walter Becker, Dorothy A. White – photography
Credits
“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
Steely Dan - Josie (this episode only)
You can buy or stream Countdown to Ecstasy, Aja, and other albums by Steely Dan at steelydan.com, your local record store, or at the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.