Steely Dan - Aja | REACTION/REVIEW 

Simply put... one of the Top 20 tracks of all-time of any genre.

Steely Dan ; Eargasms

Love Steely Dan !

Unsurpassed! That is all!!❤

Absolutely the BEST ALBUM of all time 😘

That's Steve Gadd at the Drumkit , incidentally . An All - Timer.

This album was often used to test the quality of a new stereo system for average folks and even aficionados when testing a new High Fidelity system. 😊

Such a tasty track! As are a whole lot of Steely Dan's tracks.

Steely in top 4

Their masterpiece of masterpieces. Still fresh, endlessly fascinating RIP Walter Becker

The whole album....just let it play bro....on repeat.

I was soooo lucky to have seen them right before Walter passed at the Hollywood Bowl but l saw them 3 times before then back in their early days 🤘🥰🎶

…..if you ever want to start a record collection, this should be your 1st purchase !!! ❤️

Love all the instruments they work together perfectly so soothing.

This album is perfect.

Complex, jazzy, avant guard, exotic.....this track has it all. Great insightful comments and reaction.

This album is their opus and this song is simply a Vibe . Stunning

Steely Dan (Donald & Walter) always have great session musicians on their songs, but when you add jazz greats like Steve Gadd on the drums and Wayne Shorter on sax, it just takes it to a higher level!

Aja is a masterwork of a song and album. Play more of it Biz!!

A best ever lp.

I heard that Steve Gadd played reading the music in just 2 takes....incredible!

The Sophistication of their work here puts many a record/track in the " Bench warmer category. Watch the documentary they did on the AJA album. 1977. Timeless tracks!

It was told that the late great Wayne Shorter came in and knocked out his solos in under 30 minutes and left!! A true boss!! And Steve Gadd on drums is just spectacular as well. This is one of my top 5 albums of all time. You have to do the rest of the album. You will not regret it.

Steely Dan has some of the best studio musicians involved

Perhaps the greatest outro ever.🖖🏼

Entire album is fire, start to finish!

Steve Gadd... the drummer's drummer

Very classy, sophisticated! Next, The Fez Bodhisattva

Brother Wayne Shorter on the Sax, saying so much with so few notes.

Another great song that's on my playlist. Thank you. 😊

Oh them drums!

You are back!! Deacon Blues next please. Love the reactions mate !!

That was smoooth and Steve Gadd…perfection 👌

I’ve probably seen 8 or 10 reactions to Steely Dan doing this tune but I still watch every one I come across because I love the tune and loved the album from the time it came out.

This LP is still my 'Desert Island Disc'.

Happy and bouncy? "Peg". Deep and thoughtfull? "Deacon Blues". All too familiar story line with mysterious libation? "Black Cow". Total satisfaction? The whole album. I've been totally satisfied since 1977.

Put this on and clean. So enjoyable. WaaalAa! Done.😊

One of my all time favorite tunes, especially the solo drum playing by Steve Gadd!Please react to this whole magical album.

Hi biz ...Wayne shorter on saxophone 🎷 and Steven gadd on drums...

Many Music afficianados have this Album as their most complete , most cohesive in their storied history . A convincing argument can easily be made for that position .

Always enjoy your reactions and always enjoy Steely Dan. The Steve Gadd- Wayne Shorter duet is world class. Would love for you to review Babylon Sisters from their Gaucho album. Great song and the Purdie shuffle is legendary. I'm an old drummer and this song makes me smile. Again, thanks for the reaction. Stay safe.

This tune is a masterpiece. Although it's the most complex song on the album, they said it actually came together faster than all the other tracks. Fagen credited to the super high caliber players on the session.

I'm pretty sure that was a xylophone they were using when you asked what that was. It's a series of bars that graduate from large to small and you use mallets to tap them for the sound. You can use two mallets in each hand. They're pretty cool. And, YES, You should definitely do the entire album! I would enjoy that very much!

The Eagles and Steely Dan are about to embark on a world tour together !

This is one of the most complex songs in terms of music structure that i've ever heard, and it's clearly Jazz heavy. It's almost like 3 different songs blended together, but it works.

I listened to this song so much that I had to stop .... Coming back a few months later - it was so enthralling ..again!!! Wayne Shorter RIP !!!! Steve Gadd !!!! legends

Say Hey Biz, Your in the moment reactions are fun but your ability to express how great the music is that you are witnessing is uncanny...in the sense that you put it into words so beautifully. Aja is about as sophisticated as it gets.

Great song. Was fortunate enough to actually see Steely Dan perform this song live in 1994. They nailed it.

Exactly.

Without those headphones you might have never known 👍

This album is as smooth as a good single malt scotch with a Nat Sherman classic!

:)..I was 17 when this album dropped..Already a big Steely Dan fan...It's a musicians album...Every musician worth their salt, knows this album well...Drummer for 47 years, I can play this whole album. But, Gadd's frantic chops, on the outro, get me every time!

Desert Island, only 5 albums allowed for the rest of my life, this is one of them for me.

YOU GOT TO DO HOME AT LAST OFF THE AJA ALBUM !!

Hell yeah! The whole album is incredible!

🔥🔥🔥🔥🎆🎆🎆

BizMatik-O So glad you were able to experience this magical bouquet of melody, so smoooth, tranquil and ethereal ! Lots of great comments, but know that Steve Gadd is considered an icon in the world of jazz drumming and the interplay with the sax played by Wayne Shorter is delicious! Aja was the charming wife of a friend of Donald's and he and Walter thought that the romanticized name matched the evocative musical work that is Aja. p.s. S.D. has a song called Haitian Divorce...

Anything from Royal Scam as well!

Steve Gadd didn’t remember recording it when he stopped by the studio weeks later maybe because he was doing so much other session work, but he did this in one take because he’s Steve Gadd. It’s iconic and every drummer would benefit by learning those chops he flies through.

Love this song, a great mix of jazz and rock. It's the 2nd song on the album, and you did the 1st song yesterday I think. The funny thing is that the 3rd song on the album, "Deacon Blues", is maybe the biggest song of theirs that you haven't done yet, so you should do it next whether you're doing the whole album or not.

Do the album.

So much ear candy. Wish i hadn't blown out my hearing as a kid with loud music and things that go bang.

Aja was a girl. I can't recall the whole story, but she was the inspiration. There is a video documentary on RU-vid of the making of Aja with both Donald Fsgan and Walter Becker sitting at a mixing board simply breaking down each track of the album and even live mixing in tracks of musicians they decided not to use. When you see and hear this, it's so clear they always made the correct choice for the final cut. It's an amazing documentary. I will look for the link and edit it on to the end of this comment. Thanks for doing this reaction. One of the greatest albums of all time. Here's the link to the video : ru-vid.com/group/PL324F104A39F16841&si=ohtTR9E2i9K10d9r

P. S. Yes! Do the rest of the album!

Went to see them a few times the last time maybe two years ago obviously without Walter Becker it was still great but miss seeing him up there with Donald Fagen

If you haven't done it already, "Haitian Divorce" is another great Steely Dan song...

Check out the live version from Alive in America

Incredible song! I remember reading somewhere that Aja was a beautiful korean woman that I think Donald Fagen knew to some degree. Deacon Blues next. But that whole album is excellent

Too many songs to recommend but one of my favorite is Black Cow

It's a xylophone, I believe. 🙂

Please review "Hatian Divorce" from the album "Royal Scam". Thanks for your honest reactions!😊😊😊😊

Seven songs, and the playing of and discussion of them will go on as long as we survive.

marimba

😂 Yo, just like 🤗 do the whole album. The Dan did Residency Shows every Oct in NYC at the Beacon Theater. Every yr my 3 day pkg included AJA night, Gaucho night & Greatest Hits Night. If I could afford extra days, I'd do Can't Buy A Thrill Night and/or Pretzel Logic Night. 🤩 Seeing Steely Dan perform entire Albums every other night for a month 😔 is something I sincerely miss. 😁 Also Walter Becker produced 3 Albums for my friends China Crisis. 😒 I still can't believe he let them in his house 🤷🏿‍♀️ after they broke his Surf Board. 🤦🏿‍♀️ Seriously, how do you break a Surfboard 😳 especially The Walter Beckers board?!? 😄 He was cool and went on to produce 2 more Albums for them. 🥰🐰

Steely Dan is the band. Biz, you should give Donald Fagen's solo stuff a go. Songs from his album NIGHTFLY, like - RUBY RUBY, THE GOODBYE LOOK, GREEN FLOWER STREET, I.G.Y., and NEW FRONTIER.

Check out former mayor of Compton, Aja Brown.

Al Di Meola. “ Flight Over Rio” dig it ! You will never be the same ! I promise .❤

I got this on cassette 79-80 in Daytona beach

Would love to see your reaction to Steely Dan's Kid Charlemagne....

I heard that Steely Dan would do 80 or 100+ takes on certain sections of songs.

when your sniffing courvosier and smokin a fatty.

A no where near as popular song, but another song that ends with a drum solo is Jonatha Brook and the story, "unconsolable". Truthfully not much more in common with this song beyond that, but a good song in its own right.

I think that the song Deacon Blues from this album is better.

It was actually about his sister-in-law who married his brother.