Many have speculated on the real story behind this historic 70s classic. Peg by Steely Dan is an all-time. But the duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have been famously tight-lipped about it. Well, today we try to solve this mystery from the two foremost perfectionists of modern music. The song is historic for myriad reasons. It contained 40 of the greatest musicians in the world. It introduced the world to one of music’s most legendary singers in Micheal McDonald who actually sang backup on it and to top it all off they had 7 of the top session guitarists record the iconic solo before they chose the one that made the cut and then he had to play if for 6 hours before the band was satisfied… a band that was once called sociopaths masquerading as benign dictators.
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Steely Dan’s 6th studio album Aja, is regarded by many music professionals as one of the best-produced albums of all time. The record won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Recording in ’78, In 2010, the Library of Congress selected Aja for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being culturally, historically, and artistically significant.
FORTY of the finest session musicians that money can buy collaborated with Steely Dan founders Walter Becker & Donald Fagen to create that high-fidelity masterpiece. By the time the 3rd studio LP Pretzel Logic was released, Fagen & Becker made the decision to forego the idea of having a core band unit, in favor of enlisting session players.
I’m sure the financial benefits of not having to pay royalties to additional members were attractive to Walter & Donald, but evolving to contracting outside musicians was more about their meticulous nature, and their desire to experiment to find perfect sounds. Hiring the best studio players meant that they could work with inventive artists who had specialized talent.
They could simply audition until they found the player that flawlessly produced the sounds they were looking for. For the two long-time compadres, it was fulfilling to experiment with different combinations of revolving musicians to advance their music into enlightened territory.
When they had an idea for something exciting, they found the musicians who had the skill to turn that idea into reality. The process seemed arduous to some, but the final result was worth the exercise. The lead single from Aja was Peg, an artfully designed track that cleverly blended atonal Steely Dan sophistication with an irresistible pop eurhythmic.
It was a prime example of the discriminating retentiveness of Donald Fagen & the wizard who preferred to stay behind the curtain, away from the spotlight, the late Walter Becker. For the recording of Peg, the duo brought in a group of first-rate musicians, and if they weren’t completely satisfied with what was played, they'd scrap every performance track and bring in new
28 авг 2024