Aja, Black Cow and Home at Last are enduring favorites, always, from that outstanding album. Deacon Blues is a good song, too, but radio ruined it for me forever by playing it every fuckin' 15 minutes back then. Peg is good, and Josie too, but radio played them into the ground, too. Still and always, a stellar album from top to bottom. But what the fuck does "Call me Deacon Blues" mean, or matter? That line lost me the first time I ever heard the song, and every other time to this day. Funny/sad how one line can ruin a song, etc. But I'll list to that album anytime and anywhere. It's just that good.
Fagen said it occurred to him that if winners can have grandiose names, losers should be able to have grandiose names too. The character in the song is a loser. Hence the full line: They got a name for the winners in the world I want a name when I lose They call Alabama the Crimson Tide Call me Deacon Blues.
Slight sidetrack … but stations/programs playing a “Yacht Rock” format like to slide Steely Dan songs into the mix, especially Deacon Blues. IMHO, the lyrics of Steely Dan songs are way too nasty (and good) to be considered Yacht Rock.
Don’t get me started on what Yacht Rock is or isn’t. A fair percentage of people absolutely do not get it. Watch the original Youtube series. It’s simply supposed to be smooth music with Michael McDonald as the template. The yacht part is because of the perception that people who would like that music are well off, and, that it was a status symbol in the late 70s/early 80s to have a yacht. If McDonald is the template, Steely Dan is yacht, because McDonald was all over their records, especially “Peg”, and they traded in their NYC roots for that El Lay vibe. What isn’t yacht is “Ride Captain Ride”, “Rock The Boat”, “Brandy” or anything else with a vaguely nautical theme. The Sirius Yacht rock channel plays those songs and it’s so dumb. It’s a shame the Yacht Nyacht website isn’t around anymore. Created by the dudes who did the Yacht Rock series, it listed what was and wasn’t yacht. The Dan definitely made the cut. Edit: Someone compiled their list in a Google doc. Yachtski Scale - Google Drive
Hey, Koko got impaled by his lucky harpoon because of Christopher Cross, dammit! Now that's real smoooooth.
My favorite, too, when it first hit, but then radio beat it to death, and now once every five years is fine by me. But the album's title song, Aja – man, the musical path that song takes is Steely Dan at it's finest.
