All language subtitles for Classic Albums Steely Dan Aja.English

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "REELIN' IN
THE YEARS"]

Your everlasting summer,
you can see it fading fast.

So you grab a bit of
something that you

think is going to last.

WALTER BECKER (VOICEOVER):
The Original Steely

Dan band was formed in 1971.

There were five of us, and
Donald and I wrote the songs.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "REELIN' IN
THE YEARS"]

Are you reelin' in the year?

Stowin' away the time?

Are you gathering up the tears?

Have you had enough of mine?

WALTER BECKER (VOICEOVER):
We toured for a while

to support the first
couple of albums,

but we didn't really like
it, so we stopped in 1974,

and didn't tour
again for 19 years.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN,"REELIN' IN
THE YEARS"]

Are you gathering up the tears?

Have you had enough of mine?

WALTER BECKER (VOICEOVER): By
the time we released "Aja,"

the other members
of the band were

gone except for Denny Dyess.

And we had replaced them with
session musicians and some

of our favorite soloists.

We started recording the "Aja"
album in 1977 in California

and it took a little
over a year to finish.

Around the time
we made "Aja," we'd

figured out what it was we
sort of wanted to do, you know,

musically.

We realized that we needed
a session musicians who

had a larger palette
of things they could

do who were also good
readers, because they

were coming in cold.

I think the "Aja" album has
so much great playing in terms

of what we are trying to do
with combining you know, session

players and soloists
and so on to produce

these little ideal
tracks for a song.

It was sort of the best and most
consistent and most successful

example of that.

The songs started
to become more

sophisticated and
individual to themselves.

And so there'd be
a particular piece

that we felt X musician
would really shine on

and we wanted the
opportunity to be

able to utilize the
musicians who were available.

[music - steely dan, "josie"]

We're going to break
out the hats and hooters

when Josie comes home.

We're gonna rev up the motor
scooters when Josie comes home.

I kind of like Josie because
Josie sounds like a good rhythm

and blues record.

You know, it has all the
stuff I like about, you know,

a good, like, Junior
Parker record or a Bobby

Bland record or something.

Has a lot of stuff in it
plus some other stuff.

[music - steely dan, "josie"]

When Josie comes home, so good.

She's the pride of
the neighborhood.

She's the raw flame, the
live wire, prays like a Roman

with her eyes on fire.

Of the tunes from
this album, that's

the one I like playing the most
nowadays, sort of a minor blues

based thing, that has a
lot of typical writing

devices in the way
it's played I think

as a sort of prototypical
Steely Dan record.

And it's just fun to play.

Josie is one of
those songs that's

right in the middle of
everything, a perfect fusion

record, good dance record.

It seems to be
pretty funky or seems

to be pretty basic,
but great players who

are revoicing certain chords.

The bass line is a lot of
me and a lot of Walter.

Great bass line.

Chuck Rainey.

I remember you and
him working that out.

Yeah.

You had a basic thing
and then you were a mix.

Well there's
another thing where

the first eight was a sort of
a written part that I gave him

and then.

Now this is da, dah, dum.

That just a regular kind of
little old funk groove that

more or less would sound
like a bass guitar,

just a straight ahead.

OK, that's very, very normal.

But like his ideas were for
the bass line were things

like that play something like.

Which was more or
less his idea to try

and do something like that.

And if I recall, he hum
those parts to me, like.

[humming]

This way.

Guitar doubling the bass,
common arranging tool

of the [inaudible].

Generation.

Henry Mancini have been proud.

Early detective type
of thing happening.

That's that/

[music - steely dan, "josie"]

When Josie comes
home, so good, she's

the pride of the neighborhood.

She's the raw flame,
the live wire.

She prays like a Roman,
with her eyes on fire.

I remember on the "Aja"
album we would have six hour

sessions, two
three hour sessions

with a lunch break in between.

And we'd rehearse for
the morning session.

And I would have the distinct
feeling that we would never

get a take with this band.

It would never happen.

The song would probably
not end up on the album.

And it was going
to all be failed.

We'd go to lunch, come back
and everything was in place

and we got a bunch of really
good takes after lunch.

[music - steely dan, "josie"]

She's the raw flame,
the live wire.

She prays like a Roman
with her eyes on fire.

The amount of information
we processed to put this track

together, and you know, and
the various permutations,

so I have to say most of the
scrutiny was on the drummer.

What they really wanted was
to get a great drum track.

And we got some
big drops here.

This was Tim Keltner.

Tim Keltner on this one.

Check this thing out.

Heartstring ensemble of sort
of primitive string simulator.

Sounds just as bad
now as it did then.

But now of course we
listen to it ironically.

How about this?

Over dub.

Over dub, garbage can lid.

Garbage can lid, Tim Keltner.

[inaudible] got sound
that lifts your heart up.

And it's the most consistently
upful, heartwarming,

even though it is a
classic LA kind of sound,

you wouldn't think it was
recorded anywhere else

in the world, I don't think.

It's got California
through its blood,

even though they're
boys from New York.

And it's a record that
sends my spirits up.

And really when I
listen to music,

that's really what I want.

I don't really want
to hear people moaning

and I don't want to hear
music that moans, you know.

[music - steely dan, "josie"]

She's the raw flame,
the live wire.

She prays like a Roman
with her eyes on fire.

We moved out to the
West Coast in '71 or '72.

And we've got a job
there, staff writing

for ABC Dunhill records.

And we're sort of these
two English major type

guys, you know, out
in LA that was a much

more visual culture in a way.

You know, I think the sort of
cliched illustration of that

is Woody Allen movies where he's
transported out to Los Angeles

and becomes very ill, you know,
and feels very disoriented.

I think that probably is
as close to our experience

as well.

We ended up working with
bands that had New York and LA

musicians, because there
were elements we were finding

in an LA session
players that were great,

you know, that kind of precision
and the savviness about

recording processes, and so on.

Back when we
started in New York,

the drummer would show
up with his trap case,

right, and with the snare drum
and his symbols and his pedals

or whatever, and some sticks.

In Los Angeles when we got
there, a drummer would show up

you know, a truck would show
up and two guys would come out

and set up a huge
drum set and you know,

and the guy had two more sets
like that you know so that he

could make the
next date that was

all set up when he got there.

So we loved that
about the LA players.

At the same time, a lot
of the New York musicians

had a musical style or a
sort of hard hitting attitude

or they took chances
during their performances

in a way that didn't
happen on the West Coast.

Jazz was a fundamental part
of the 70s musical landscape.

On the one hand, you've got
groups which are basically

rock bands with horn
sections like Chicago,

Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

On the other, you've got some
jazz musicians who, following

Miles Davis's lead
were working in an area

which was then called fusion,
people like Herbie Hancock.

Chick Corea, and Stanley
Clark, and preeminently

Weather Report.

And Steely Dan were
unlike either of those.

They weren't-- it
wasn't rock music

with ideas above its station
and it wasn't jazzers slumming.

It was a very well-forged
alloy of the two.

You couldn't separate
the pop music

from the jazz in their music.

[music - steely dan, "peg"]

I've seen your picture, your
name in lights above it.

This is your big debut.

I feel nothing but
pride from that track.

That was one of the best
tracks I ever played on.

As far as drums were
going at that time,

it was like, if you had
a club in your right hand

and a club in your left hand and
clubs for feet you could play.

[music - steely dan, "peg"]

I keep it with your letter.

I had just opened my hi-hat
a hair, every couple of beats.

With what I was playing with
my right hand, on the hi-hat

I had created this little sound.

Now, I've done that, but never,
ever heard it on the record

that I had done it because
engineers and sounds

at the time, you know
it was, it was one

of those things
where it's a nuance

and those things didn't exist.

[music - steely dan, "peg"]

Shutter falls.

You see it all in 3D.

It's your favorite
foreign movie.

As I remember, this was
kind of a written bass part,

but he fixed it up in his own--

Parts of it were written.

This part was written,
this first part.

Just a great musician,
slapping, and also

fretting with his thumb.

Chuck had a really unique--
there's the chorus, which

was-- you'd have to ask Chuck
about the thumb business,

you know.

They didn't want me
to slap I think mainly

because at that time slapping,
was just becoming popular

and it wasn't on
a lot of records.

However, by me being a player,
I think there's some songs

that slapping sounds good.

And no matter who you are
you want to keep in the fold

of what's happening.

"Peg," that bridge
there just seemed

to be a slapping thing for me.

They said, well, no
play with your fingers,

you know, something like that.

And then you play these song so
many times that after a while

I remember just turning just a
little bit this way or this way

and putting up a partition,
they were about that high,

of course, sitting in
a much lower chair.

And I remember
you know slapping.

They never knew it went down.

They never knew it.

Except afterwards you
can tell there was

a difference in that bridge.

Right in here.

See how put in the keyboards
again here till you

got right here's your little--

Rhythm section.

Little trio here.

That's Rick Maratta.

I'll tell you one thing that's
interesting that I'm listening

to now is that you don't
really hear in a lot of groups

that you here, there's a lot
of doubling between the bass

and the kick drum.

And you can hear
here that the kick

drum is all sort of syncopated.

It's not really, you
know what I mean?

It's not doubling so
much the strong beats

that the bass is playing.

You got to love them.

But it's not like,
you go in there

and you're just
really good friends

and you play and you'll
try to get into it

and they'll say, yeah,
that's really good.

And then the next day,
somebody else is doing it,

a whole other band.

It wasn't like they played
musical chairs with the guys

in the band.

They played musical bands.

Whole band would go and a
whole incredible other band

would come in.

We never came up
with a band of our own

that we felt was the
right combination of guys

that it was stable.

It was just me and Walter.

You hear somebody in a record,
and they say, wow, listen

to this guy's a great soloist.

Let's have him come in.

You know, what
would he be good on?

You know, what would
suit his style?

That's the fun.

This tune I think, is infamous
among studio players in that we

hired a couple of guitar
players to play the solo

and it wasn't quite what
we were looking for.

So we got through three,
four, five, players.

Six, six or seven.

Six or seven, eight players.

To me it was sort of
like, you know, some of it

started getting boggy.

I would come into the studio
and go, OK, we got another day

of this that we have to do.

And so some of it
would just go by like,

you, know days of the week.

Here we go again,
another guitar solo.

Something else soloed, or--

oh, there it is.

Let's check this out.

Go back and let's
hear it in the track.

There you go.

Speaks for itself, really.

Let's see if we can
find another one.

This is probably the last guy
to try it before Jay did it.

Here's another one.

What is that, some kind
of little envelope filter

thing he's got going
there on his guitar?

Wouldn't you hate it if
someone did this to you?

And then finally, Jay
Graber came in and did it

with no difficulty whatsoever.

Kind of Hawaiian.

Yeah, kind of Polynesian.

Prefigured my own later
residence in Hawaii.

(SINGING) Shutter
fall all in 3D.

I had worked with them
enough to kind of know

when I was in for, you know?

Certain words that they just
wanted to hear a certain way,

that you know normally
under normal circumstances,

people wouldn't you know, they'd
kind of, this is the words.

You hear the parts.

You sing it, and you
know that's the phrasing.

But for those guys, phrasing
could have such a nuance,

you know, that you know,
singing a line like half as much

as you'd think, how many
different ways can you say it

in that phrasing rhythmically.

But it would come down
to such fine points,

like pronunciation and
exact rhythmic, you know,

vibrato, no vibrato, you
know things like that.

And so it was always
real challenging.

He did a couple parts
on top of himself.

(SINGING) All in 3D.

Foreign movie.

Let's check it out [inaudible]
just to embarrass him.

(SINGING) Back to you.

Peg.

Back to you.

Sorry, Mike.

There it is.

(SINGING) All in 3D.

Favorite movie.

Peg.

Back to you.

Peg.

It doesn't sound
like much of a part,

but the harmonies
were so close but that

was a real learning experience
for me to sing a chord

part by part with myself.

You know, when you're going back
in to sing that next harmony,

it's so close to the
note you're singing.

It was just real hard for
me to discern that interval

and keep it in pitch.

(SINGING) Back to you.

Peg.

Back to you.

We had a pretty
specific idea about this,

how these background
parts would work

and the sort of swing band,
rhythmic approach and how

we wanted it phrased and so on.

[music - steely dan, "peg"]

Peg, it will come back to you.

Then the shutter falls
you see it all in 3D.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "DEACON
BLUES"]

This is the day of the
of the expanding man.

That shape is my shade
there where I used to stand.

It seems like only yesterday
I gazed through the glass

at ramblers, wild gambler.

That's all in the past.

You call me a fool.

You say it's a crazy scheme.

This one's for real.

I already bought the dream.

So useless to ask me why.

Throw a kiss and say goodbye.

I'll make it this time.

I'm ready to cross
that fine line.

Learn to work the saxophone.

I'll play just what I feel.

Drink Scotch whiskey
all night long.

And die behind the wheel.

I'm only hearing one of them.

That's when I was singing
a little like Jerry Lewis,

remember that?

Yeah.

What can you do?

That was a very
fertile period for you.

I need to check
these out solo now.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "DEACON
BLUES"]

Call me Deacon Blues.

Deacon Blues.

Deacon Blues is a great track.

They've always had an
affection for these kind

of faded hipsters.

But I think Deacon Blues takes
that affection to an almost

philosophical level.

It's become a-- it brings
a nobility to that kind

of faded hipster attitude which
I think has very deep roots

in their own personalities.

They were both young kids,
most influenced really

by bohemian beatnik attitudes
of the late '50s and early '60s.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "DEACON
BLUES"]

Throw a kiss and say goodbye.

I'll make it this time.

Guitar.

There's our electric
guitar over here.

Larry Carlton.

Tasty.

Yeah.

Larry played live on
a lot of the tapes.

And he had a--

he was very good on rhythm dates
at really holding, holding,

being a core pulse for tunes
and holding them from moving

around too much rhythmically.

And he had usually done
the charts on tunes

that he was playing on.

I think of myself
as the person

that they wanted to be the
liaison between themselves

and the studio musicians.

They would give
me their demo tape

and it had those wonderful
piano parts on it.

And many of the bass
parts were on there also.

And I would be the person that
would take those notes off

of the tape, fill in the
blanks where they weren't sure

what they wanted to be
played, and then I would

take that chart to the session.

And I would be the person who
was familiar with the song out

in the studio with
the studio musicians.

So if Donald or
Walter would say,

Larry, when we go to the
bridge at the such and such,

I would be able to tell the
musicians, that's bar 19

B-flat 7th with a raised nine.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "DEACON
BLUES"]

You call me a fool.

You say it's a crazy scheme.

This one's for real.

I already bought the dream.

You can hear the bass
just sort of floating along.

You know, I was overdubbing
over an existing track.

Usually a bass player has
to work a little harder

to drive the track.

But it was already there
and for some reason

I kind of liked the
idea of just floating

along here in the chorus.

And here it goes to sort
of a more conventional--

Later we added--

- Rhythmic beat.

We added acoustic
guitar in parts.

Yeah.

It's nice.

One interesting thing
about Donald and Walter

is that perfection is
not what they're after.

They're after something
that you want to listen

to over and over again.

So we would work then
past the perfection point

until it became natural, until
it sounded almost improvised

in a way.

So it was like a 2-step process.

One was to get to perfection.

And then the other
is to get beyond it

and to loosen it up a little
bit so that it didn't have to be

the perfect squeaky clean goal.

It is quite an amalgamation,
that's for sure.

And it's interesting to
note that it can be a hit.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "DEACON
BLUES"]

This is for me the
essence of true romance.

Deacon Blues is about
as close to autobiography

as our tunes get.

You know we were both kids
who grew up in the suburbs.

We both felt you know
fairly alienated.

But like a lot of
kids in the '50s,

we were looking for some
kind of alternative culture,

some kind of escape really
from where we found ourselves.

And I think Deacon Blues is a
nice kind of example of that.

The protagonist
is not a musician.

He just sort of imagines
that there would

be one of the mythic
forms of loserdom

to which he might aspire.

And you know, who's to
say that he's not right,

a thing like that?

There's a synthesizer
pad on here somewhere.

Yeah.

What the hell
was that all about?

Roll back a second.

There it is.

Department store.

That's what I'm thinking of.

It's like that bing, bing.

It's like, you know, what's the
big toy store on 59th Street?

FAO Schwartz.

FAO Schwartz.

It it's like you know,
they play that same song

over and over with those
kinds of sounds in them.

Kids like it because
it's like Christmasy.

It's The equivalent of-- the
audio equivalent of a primary

color kind of thing, you know.

It's kind of a pheromone
for tots, bring them in.

We put that in-- why
did we put that in there?

Because, you know why?

To fatten up the horns?

I think maybe there was
a flute part on the top

and we needed trumpets
that didn't cut.

We wanted to cover up.

So we wanted to put a
little high end on the--

- To brighten and clarify.
- Right.

So then here's this
without the synthesizer.

It goes like this.

Or maybe we couldn't find a
flute player or something.

OK.

Now, play it again and
I'll put this guy in here.

Sort of a flute simulation,
wouldn't you say?

Or it's marked here as a
[inaudible] So maybe we are

thinking of it
reason as though it

were like a bell or something
going along with that thing.

Although it doesn't sound the
least bit like a [inaudible]

I was always amazed
that they pretty

much heard in
their heads what it

was going to be like completed.

So they knew right away, when
you get a bunch of musicians

together and they're
cutting the tracks,

and Donald and Walter
would be sitting

in the control room going, no.

This is not it.

It's not going to happen.

So maybe we'll try this
other tune with these guys.

Then they's get
another band in to try

the tunes that didn't work out.

And all through the
project, they wouldn't

know no, that's not it.

That's not working.

This is what I want.

And it was amazing that when
the thing got done finally,

I could see what everything
was going to be like.

But they knew from
the very beginning.

(SINGING) I play
just what I feel.

It's beautiful.

Basic Gospel,
response, counterpoint.

(SINGING) Die behind the wheel.

Put in the lead and we'll see.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "DEACON
BLUES"]

I want a name when I lose.

They call Alabama
the Crimson Tide.

Call me Deacon Blues.

Deacon Blues.

Part of the reason I
was driven towards jazz

was when the radio
stopped playing

Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

And this when I was quite young.

But I still noticed
that that something

was wrong with the
music after a while,

when they started playing
white singers like Frankie

Avalon and that kind of thing.

I like black music,
essentially, whether it

be R&B, Gospel, or jazz.

My mom was a singer in the
hotels in the Catskills

when she was a little girl.

Used to do it in the summers
until she was a teenager.

And she used to sing
around the house.

So I'm familiar with the
repertoire, you know.

Both Walter and I
have a background

that includes songwriting
from the '20s, '30s, and '40s,

and '50s, mostly
in jazz versions

I mean there are people
who have read books

and there's people
who ain't read books.

They've got a skill
that can make images

that aren't puerile
and don't make you

think you've heard it before.

Very Hollywood filming in a way.

The imagery is very
imaginable in a visual sense.

Uptown, baby.

uptown, baby, it gets down baby.

Find a crown, baby.

(RAPPING) Uptown baby, uptown,
baby, we gets down, baby.

For the crown, baby.

Now if it wasn't for the
Bronx, this rap probably

never would be going on.

So tell me where you from.

Upton, baby, uptown,
baby, we gets down, baby.

For the crown, baby.

That does sound
familiar, doesn't it?

Yeah.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "BLACK
COW"]

In the corner of my
eye, I saw you and Rudy.

I saw you and Rudy.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "BLACK
COW"]

You were very high.

You were very high.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "BLACK
COW"]

You were high.
- You were high.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "BLACK
COW"]

It was a crying disgrace.

Crying disgrace.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "BLACK
COW"]

They saw your face.

On the counter by your keys--

Well, it starts out, this
guy's talking about this girl

that he was involved with.

And she's sitting at a counter
and he describes her behavior

and habits and out of that,
you begin to see her character

their relationship.

I can't cry any more
while you run around.

Self-explanatory.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "BLACK
COW"]

Break away.

This tune really does speak
for itself in a way that--

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "BLACK
COW"]

--over now.

Drink your big black
cow and get out of

Is black cow an ice
cream soda or-- we were

confused about this, actually.

I thought it was a soda.

There seem to be regional,
regional variations

on the formula.

But it's root beer and
vanilla ice cream or soft drink.

Something like that.

Frothy soft drink.

Very big in the soda
fountains when we were kids.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "BLACK
COW"]

How all the pros play the game.

You change your name
like a gangster.

Like a gangster on the run.

you'll stagger homeward
to your precious one.

I'm doing everything right OK

Walter and I both grew up in
and around the New York area.

Walter's originally
from Westchester

and then moves out to Queens.

But Went to school in Manhattan.

And I'm from New Jersey, maybe
20 minutes over the bridge.

So we both grew up in this area.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "BLACK
COW"]

Drink your big black
cow and get out of here.

So I think New York life
is what we most know about.

There's just a sole
but Victor, very good

solo by Victor Feldman.

Live on the tracking day.

We answered an ad in "The
Village Voice" that said,

you know must have jazz chops.

- Keyboard.
- No hangups.

Right.

Keyboard.

[laughter]

Keyboard, keyboard
and bass player

needed for working, and working
you know, jazz rock combo.

Something like that.

You know.

Must have jazz chops.

No hangups.

No hangups.

So we answered
the ad and we called

and we went up to Hicksville
Long Island, which

for us was quite
a haul, you know,

because we never left Manhattan.

We went out and we
went in the basement.

You know, it was like a
kid with a basement band.

And we liked some
of the material.

It was kind of early
fusion type material

before there was
jazz fusion in a way.

You know it's
like when they're

in the same room
at the same time,

it's like one person
with two brains,

you know some highbrow
intellectual humor.

You know you don't get any fart
jokes or anything of the kind.

They can usually finish
each other's sentences.

Well, I first met them when
I put an ad in "The Village

Voice" because I
had a band and we

were looking for a bass
player and a piano player

and they answered the ad.

So they joined my band at first.

And then one by one, we realized
that there was a deficiency

in certain of the
players that you know,

wasn't quite up to this.

You know.

We started playing
their songs right away.

Then I immediately saw that
these were great songs.

If truth be told, we
kind of took over his band.

We kind of--

We wrecked it.

Towards the end of
the first rehearsal--

Started throwing out the
other guys and kept Denny.

And that's in a way it was the
core of the Steely Dan group.

Because when we got a job
out in LA, we sent for Denny.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "HOME AT
LAST"]

When we got to
California, I don't

know that we were nostalgic
in general sort of way for New

York so much as we were
nostalgic as writers

for this milieu that
we had left behind

and we weren't finished
writing songs with New

York characters in them yet.

So we kept doing that and by
the time we were finished,

we had moved back to
New York, at which point

we immediately started writing
lyrics about California.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "HOME AT
LAST"]

Who wrote that tired sea song
set on this peaceful shore?

You think you've
heard this one before.

A lot of our songs
were about being

homesick I think for New York.

I've noticed that.

I guess it's just was our
natural inclination to write

these sort of stories really.

Home at Last, the
central metaphor

was taken from
Ulysses big problem,

trying to get back home.

But we didn't take
it that seriously.

It's essentially
just the idea of it

and maybe write a little
blues about Ulysses.

There's a guitar riff sort of
a Chicago blues sort of item.

Larry Carlton.

Donald and Walter love
sophisticated harmony,

but they're rock and roll guys.

We're contemporaries as far as
age so we all were brought up

listening in the '60s.

And I know that they
love rock and roll

but they also have a
passion for harmony, which

as do I. All the
players they use,

we love great feeling rock and
roll music but we love harmony.

When we did "Pretzel Logic"
it was first album we did

with studio players, we
had done a couple of albums

with our little band.

And we had you know
heard these players

and done overdubs
and stuff with them.

But I found myself in
a room with these guys

and I thought like, wow,
I'm really outclassed here,

you know?

Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone,
Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway,

James Brown, Lloyd Price , Ray
Charles, Frank Sinatra, Hines,

Hines, and Ford, Barry
Manilow Dionne Warwick,

The Animals, The
Monkees, the Beatles,

BB King, Bobbie [inaudible].

Now they already told me
that they didn't want a show.

They didn't want the Motown.

They didn't want the Chicago.

But they weren't sure
how and what they wanted,

but they did want halftime.

I said, fine.

Then let me do the
Purdie Shuffle.

And they said,
well, what is that?

I said, well, I'll show you
where you can feel comfortable

with it and you end up
getting exactly what you asked

for, halftime, funky, laid
back, without thinking

that it's a shuffle.

And it goes something like this.

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "HOME AT
LAST"]

Who wrote that tired sea song
set on this peaceful shore.

Let's isolate Bernard
for a second, because let's

listen to that beat.

Bernard, you know,
this isn't easy.

You'd come in with
they tune it and have

sort of something in mind.

But the way Bernard
played stuff was always--

he always has some
unique stylistic thing

that he did that you would
never imagine in advance

and that nobody else would do.

This tune was a good
example of that.

A lot of Bernard's hi-hat
in this tune particularly,

a real driving kind of.

You got the back beat.

You got double time.

And you have an almost shuffle.

Bernard Harris, there's a
famous story where he would

come to a session in the
early '60s and he'd have

two signs with him.

And he'd set up these signs.

One side of drugs
would say, you done it

and then the sign on the
other side would say, you done

hired the hit maker,
Bernard Prettie Purdie.

So it's that kind of
confidence that you need,

you know, to get good R&B track.

[skat]

[music - steely dan, "aja"]

Up on the hill,
people never stare.

They just don't care.

Aja starts in a very
peaceful way, up on a hill.

And it's kind of a, kind of a
trip really to listen to it.

It's--

Yeah, journey
through space and time.

Journey through

[music - steely dan, "aja"]

Chinese music
under banyan trees.

Here at the dude ranch--

Aja was a combination of
a number of different tunes

that we had that were
sewn together to make kind

of a little suite, if you will.

And it was kind of
sweet, wasn't it?

We were feeling
lucky that year

and we thought, you know,
there wouldn't be any problem

with moving into a
slightly more ambitious

sort of extended composition.

But we immediately
regrouped after that

and went back to concise.

You know, we wouldn't want
too much of a good thing.

[music - steely dan, "aja"]

Double helix in the sky tonight.

Throw out the hardware.

Let's do it right.

Aja, when all my dime dancing
is through, I run to you.

Aja is the name of a woman.

I had a friend in high school,
he had an older brother who

went to Korea and
married a Korean girl

and brought her back
and her name was Aja.

And we thought that
was a good name,

just it was a very romantic sort
image, the sort of tranquility

that can come of a
quiet relationship

with a beautiful woman.

Its very existence
is a contradiction.

I mean, when have
you ever heard a song

on a rock and roll
record that absolutely

cannot be played on a guitar?

I think of me playing
the guitar there.

That's Walter
playing the guitar.

Freshly released piece
of outboard equipment.

Denny again.

Those clusters where the notes
are so close together that you

can't stretch your fingers
far enough to get all

the notes out at the same time.

There's these open voicings
that are so wide apart

that you can't reach the notes.

All you can do is pick
a few and play them,

and even still you don't quite
get the flavor of the chord

because it requires that
contrast of a cluster chord

and then an open chord
in the way it progresses.

Jazz is a dangerous,
double edged thing.

You mustn't take too much of it.

And I think Steely Dan
do do too much of it.

I think I use that knowledge
and that love they've obviously

got, you know, Parker,
Mingus, I can hear in there,

lots of really--

I can hear Blake, I can hear
Jazz Messengers in there.

I can hear lots and lots of--

Bobby Timmons I
can hear in there.

The subject matter
doesn't matter.

It's the sound they're making.

And then we also added Wayne
Shorter on tenor saxophone,

that we were very
glad that he came in.

It took a while as I recall.

To persuade him to come down.

And--

He didn't really do dates.

And I think he felt that the
chances were that we would be

asking him to do
something that is

not particularly appropriate.

Well, you know, a reasonable
fear under the circumstances.

I was invited to
play on the record.

It was quite matter of fact.

You know, I said yes, you know.

And they asked me how
I wanted to do it.

And I said, just roll the tape,
just you know in the section

where I'm supposed to be
playing and I'll get a reference

from what's going on,
what's going on before

and what comes after.

I listened to it and then
I started to perform.

He was a little
worried about playing--

getting into how he
used to play with Miles.

And of course, that
didn't bother us at all.

I walk in the studio,
they were sitting

and they had the lights down
and everything like that.

My mission was to do
what I'm going to do.

I'd sit down and say, hey,
how you, do, do, do, you know,

in fact, when we grew
up, we thought that was

corny in my neighborhood.

You don't, you know,
Miles said, don't

wear your heart on your sleeve.

He said, don't
give too much away.

Musicians were
a key to the music

that eventually got put out.

I think "Aja"
probably was a point,

you know a turning point,
where the music really

became another level
of sophistication

of writing and performing
for Donald and Walter.

It was the most seamless
joining of jazz and pop

that there had ever been.

There's nothing else quite
as sophisticated as that

in all of rock music.

When we first
started, we were more

writing pop songs
of the time that

maybe had an infusion of our
interest in jazz and so on.

But by the time we did
"Aja," I think we knew more

what we enjoyed doing really.

Certainly through
the "Aja" album,

I think you know
our stuff improved.

The "Aja" album was
the most successful

example of what we were trying
to do using studio bands.

And you know there's a
very good possibility

that something like that
will fall flat on its face

and that it won't work.

And that was just sort
of a spectacular success

and we all knew it.

And that's what I hear when
I listen to that record.

[music - steely dan, "peg"]

If you ask songwriters
from my generation, my

and Donald's generation
about who is, you know,

who were the important lyricists
from their time, you know,

Bob Dylan is always
going to be mentioned.

And if only, and you know I
don't think that what we do we

do sound much like Bob Dylan.

But he was the guy that sort
of opened the door to a larger

world of possibilities and
realized that by superimposing

more interesting or more
literate or more obscure

or more extravagant lyrics
on rock and roll beats,

you would end up with
something you know, intriguing.

We were sort of the
first TV generation.

I was interested in TV
music, movie soundtracks.

You know, I could sometimes
tell who wrote the score, just

from hearing the
music, if it was

Elmer Bernstein or
Dave Grusin or you

know, Alex North or whoever.

And also there was like
sort of cheap music,

like TV music or movie music.

By cheap I simply mean, not
really in a disparaging way,

but it's written to
support something else.

It's not pure music,
but rather written

to support visual information.

I kind of-- there was something
funny about that music.

There was something
funny about the theme

from "The Twilight
Zone," you know,

something funny about the
jazz score for "The Sweet

Smell of Success" you know,
because it was like fake jazz

essentially.

And so I both like real
jazz and also fake jazz

and also fake,
fake jazz you know?

[music - steely dan,"peg"]

[MUSIC - STEELY DAN, "I GOT THE
NEWS"]

You in your Lark, you're
a mark, you're a screamer.

You know how to hustle.

Daddy is a rare millionaire.

I don't care.

Yeah, you've got the muscle.

I got the news.

Yes, dear.

How did you know?

Can't you see our
love will grow?

You know what my favorite
thing is, is when they come up

and they say, hey, are you
that guy in Steely Dan?

And you say, yeah.

And they say, no, you're not.

You're not him.

That's what I like.