Posted on 05/17/2024 3:10:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Produced by longtime collaborator Gary Katz, the album went on to be the band’s most successful, and their first platinum disc.
The recordings of Steely Dan are so superbly crafted that it’s no surprise they have won honors for their studio engineering as well as their superior musicianship.
The band’s magnificent Aja album, released on September 23, 1977, went on to win a Grammy Award the following February 23. It was for Best Engineered Recording, Non Classical, for Al Schmitt, Bill Schnee, Elliot Scheiner, and Roger Nichols.
This masterwork, which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003, came as Steely Dan were making their transition from their original hit style of the “Reeling In The Years” period to an ever more sophisticated and quite jazzy sound. At the same time, they not only retained great commercial appeal, but heightened it. Aja, produced by their longtime collaborator Gary Katz, went on to be the band’s most successful album and their first platinum disc.
The sixth Steely Dan LP, Aja made the US charts in October 1977, and within a few weeks, they had a hit on their hands from it. The catchy “Peg,” with distinctive harmony vocals by another friend of long-standing, Michael McDonald, began climbing the Hot 100 on its way to No.11. Early in the new year, a second hit was forthcoming in the shape of “Deacon Blues.”
En route to double platinum
No wonder, then, that the album became their highest-charting record in America, spending no fewer than seven weeks at No.3, en route to double platinum status. Rolling Stone placed at as high as No.145 in the magazine’s 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
As writer Chris Morris opined in Variety, when the album hit its 40th anniversary in September 2017: “To be sure, Fagen and Becker were being true to their studio-obsessive, perfectionist natures as they sculpted their bestselling and most widely admired record. In a 2000 video about the making of the album, the pair can be seen offering tart commentary as they audition the rejected guitar solos cut for ‘Peg,’ finally performed with angular precision by Jay Graydon. They knew what they wanted, and they laboured hard to find the sweet spot.”
The urbane, airy sound of the signature hits, the title track, the spirited “Josie” and others made Aja a must-have for any album-buying record buff of the time. The presence of A-list musicians such as Joe Sample, Wayne Shorter, Larry Carlton, Jim Keltner, and Tom Scott only added to the elegant sound of an album that will never go out of date.
too bad Fagan’s a big lib, very talented
Just call me ‘Deacon Blue..’ Still love that song...
For precision, I would put Boston up there.
They left off the best story of that album…Steve Gadd and the drums on Aja.
After a little while, Steve said to Joe and Chuck, “Just play it so I can hear how the song goes and I’ll make some notations on the chart for myself.” Donald went out as he usually did and stood in some corner and would sing a scratch vocal low, so the guys could hear it while they are playing. Walter and I were in the control room with Bill Schnee, a very famous engineer and producer at Producer’s Workshop, which was really his studio and he was the only one who knew how to make it work. He said, “Okay, let’s do one.” The track you hear is the only time he played it.
Once. As it’s going on, both Walter and I [are looking at each other]. For whatever reasons each of us had, we had never hired Steve [before this session]. And as we got to the end, it was just so fantastic, Walter turned to me and he said, “Maybe we’ve made a mistake.” That’s the only time he played that track, was the first time. Months go by and we were mixing in New York because we’re not particularly fast about how we do things. We were just about finished with the mix of “Aja” at A&R with Elliot Scheiner. It’s as good as you can imagine something sounding on those speakers in the control room. It was magically great. Someone walked in and said, “Hey, you know Steve is down the hall, he’s playing with Michael Franks.” I said, “Oh, cool, Donald, I’ll go down and let him know we’re here.” I did that and he was finishing up. When he was done, he came in and said [his greetings].
He was feeling good. I said, “Sit down, I want to play you something.” We played him “Aja,” which was finished. He sat right between the Altec 604 Utility [speaker] cabinets. It was great sounding. The track ends and he said, “Wow, who is playing drums?” Donald, Walter and I, Roger Nichols and Elliot, are just looking at each other. Because he wasn’t kidding. I say, “You are, stupid!” He went, “Really? I’m a motherf%5555!” It’s the best laugh we had in all of the years.
Read More: The Steely Dan Song Steve Gadd Didn’t Remember Playing On | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/gary-katz-steely-dan-aja-interview-2022/
He probably is, but I don’t hear that he talks about it much.
I played that album non stop for weeks when I first got it.
The older I get the more I like Steely Dan
Excellent. But still partial to “The Royal Scam”.
I was lucky to have acquired the MFSL release of this LP.
Funny coincidence. I just mentioned that album in a post over an article about some jealous WNBA player named Aja.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4237624/posts?page=46#46
I don’t claim to have listened to all of every album ever, but for my money, the Greatest Album I Ever Heard.
Perfection is only in The Bible, The Constitution falls a bit short, and bringing up the rear is Aja.
/HURL!
Always hated Steely Dan.
Aja was a masterpiece. Boston had a formula, canned quality to it. in fact, if you told AI to make a Rock Album l think you would end up with something like the Boston LP.
Virtual Bands are already a thing.
I suppose he is, but I don’t think I’ve heard him say anything. Steely Dan is one of my all time favorite bands. One of my earliest memories from childhood: three years old and living in FLorida in the early 70s. Riding home, sitting shotgun no less, in the little van the teacher used to bus kids to and fro from the little montessori pre-school I attended.
Riding along the New River Road in Ft. Lauderdale, all wooded area and scattered housess then, while on the radio, the intro to Do It Again began. Rainy, foggy day, through an undeveloped, kind of bohemian area...
To quote Blade Runner, “All those memories lost in time, like tears in rain...”
Cool story and Thanks for sharing! I’ve gotta say that that drum work is just some of the best. Combined with the piano and the whistle - just wow!
One of my all time favorite tracks.
In fact, I’m going to listen to it right now
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