I played with Larry Carlton for 5 years starting in 1961. He is still the coolest most laid back musician I ever worked with and he fits Steely Dan like a glove. Jerry LaFavor, drumer
Just recently started studying Larry and let me say...Man what an incredibly tasteful and wonderful guitar player. Needless to say I have a lot to learn lol
This life really throws you some curves, losing Walter had really saddened me, Fagen and Becker are geniuses, they created a new vibrant and unique style and sound of Jazz/vocal/piano and wind instruments we've never heard before. Steely Dan is my favorite instrumental band.
Listening to Steely Dan music slows the aging process. It's just such laid back and sophisticated harmony. It's a single malt triple scotch with no aftereffects.
bernard is a true professional....they give him a bunch of guidelines but say they dont know exactly what they want...and he immediately rises to the occassion
It's great to hear these back-stories: "Essentially, we just wrote a little blues about Ulysees." Intonation meets intelligence...it's a beautiful thing.
Walter Becker's finding himself in the studio with world-class sessions guys for the first time and thinking, "Wow, I'm really outclassed here," is such an education. The moment where you realize that a normal-looking person is a talented, experienced, musical genius...such a Salieri-meets-Mozart-for-the-first-time experience. Add that to the fact that there were several of them in the room.
R.I.P. Walter Becker. your musical genius and exquisite wit will be sorely missed. heaven will be having one heck of a jam session with you on board. I hope Donald will carry on......i know that's what you would have wanted.🎶🎶🎶
I swear Bernard Purdie and Chuck Rainey make one of the best bass-drums duos in Jazz/Funk. Music, period. And this album is only one piece of evidence.
Bernard is a riot. Met him a few times in NYC. A real character. The secret of the Purdie Shuffle is that the Hi hat and Kick are pushing the beat while the snare drum is sightly behind. Sounds easy but very tough to do.
I saw Bernard Purdie sit in and play "Home At Last" and "Babylon Sisters" with a Steely Dan cover band several years ago. When he's at the drums, the dude struts sitting down. It's amazing. His whole body is involved. It's like he's strutting down the street in NYC, or something. It was incredible to see and hear. I think that is what it takes to be so amazing. You have to involve your whole self. Hope you all get to see this master at work in person sometime, if you haven't already.
If you listen to this song one instrument at a time the precision is amazing. If you just close your eyes and take it all in, it is quite a beautiful tune. Kudos to all for a timeless masterpiece!
This examination of the premier Steely Dan 70’s album “Aja” is wonderful because you have the original players here interviewed while still living. Great job VH 1 !!
There's a certain coolness in doing what you love in life. Listening to musicians the caliber of this you can tell it's not done for money or fame, that just happens to come along for the ride. Its the love of music that you feel from these guys that makes you respect them and their artistry.
Purdie: treasure trove of experience. Listening to him play is awesome, but to look at him play makes it inevitable to think of him as just a natural-born player.
It's nice to see the studio-magic explained. Most people have no idea how a real record (CD) is made. Those musicians are great, especially Mr. Bernard Purdie (drummer). Finally, someone is giving him the praise he rightfully deserves.
This DVD was the first time I ever saw Purdie. He won me over with swagger. I love how much it sounds like he's listing all these great artists to compare them to Steely Dan, but it turns out he's just listing his own achievements. It's brilliant
Purdie is such a smooth cat ! Confident but not arrogant, he's the kind of guy any band would love to play with and learn from. He's playing a kind of 6/8 rhythm that doesn't sound like a shuffle but is a hybrid between a shuffle and a Rastafarian reggae feel. He's playing lots of rhythmic notes on his hi-hat which are subtle, behind the instruments which are playing fewer chords on the downbeats. This tune could be a challenge for any recording engineer to blend the instruments, but at no point does Bernard try to make this his tune by overplaying....the importance of the tune comes before the importance of any of it's players, including singers. P.S. I love the fact that Bernard Purdie uses his drumsticks as extensions of his expressive hands as he talks to the camera....any real expressive artist will use their instrument as an extension of their hand when talking......writers with pen in hand, architects with pencil in hand, teachers with chalk in hand, etc.
Was really hoping to hear the isolated Vibraphone track for this song. It's such a beautiful song, and the vibes really make it even if you don't notice them right off the bat.
This is my favourite Steely song! I played it the day we moved to Spain! “..I know this super highway, this bright familiar sun, I guess that I’m the lucky one..”
these guys are classic about ambiguous lyrics which paint an image and a concept which has a loose theme. They leave it up to the imagination of the listener...so to answer your question: to me it is about being homesick for New York while in L.A. ,,,throw a little Homer and a little Purdie shuffle ...and...there it is...
This song and so many DAN songs come from such a sophisticated place. It's a Greek-mythological-half-double-time-shuffle-blues-ballad. Here's one for you: Name that tune: Spanish-pre-historic-cave-painting-hollywood-pop-jazz. God, I love Steely Dan! Love these vids!
Notice Fagan’s comment of “This won’t be easy...” when Becker begins to tout Purdie’s contribution. I took that to mean that, while there’s no doubt of his drumming talents...dealing with his boisterous ego might’ve been challenging. But this is probably my favorite SD tune thanks to Purdie’s gorgeous groove. So that over-abundant “confidence” paid off handsomely.
I think he says "This isn't easy.." just adding to how amazing his playing is. But Bernard is prob quite a character when he's in a session laying down tracks
In the past it was all about love and care, now its all about money. Its a mirror on how humanity lives these days. Purely identifying with their minds and putting childeren in a school to get mind slaves aswell. No room for creativity. Never get enough, destroying the earth to forfill there ever needing more and more. With these video`s you can see what the heart is. Care and attention.
a friend of mine played on a session with Bernard in NYC in the mid 60s. He said Bernard came in with a sidewalk sign (if you know NY, you know that it folds up and is about 3 feet high) that said "World's Greatest Drummer". And he was...I think it was a Monkees session.
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie & Chuck Rainey = One of the THE best drums-bass tandems in Jazz/Funk/Soul/R&B. Just listen to Steely Dan's recordings like this one and The Royal Scam. Somebody back me up please.
I hung out with Bernard a couple of times over the years, and you will not meet a nicer, cooler guy. Being one to the world's most amazing drummers doesn't hurt either.
Waoooow , pretty " Purdie dope !!! The groove cooking lesson , thanks guys! Home at last , still so good , a great moment of music , a pure jewel !! Good Vibes ! THX ( Midnight Ravers Crew/BZH/France)
Wow!. The composition that has gone into this song is immense. I think of Becker/Fagen as composers of the ability of the classical composers of C17, C18, C19 centuries, being able to perform their magic with C20 instrumentation.
oh my but i enjoyed this. it was...sublime. one complaint. wasnt near long enough. i hope you have more stuff like this. thank you and Kai to the Uploader
I read in this new book, The Nightfly, that Fagen based his singing style, even his body language, on Ray Charles. It's one of those things that would never even occur to you but once somebody mentions it, it's so obvious!
@CribNotes None of those guys will own that song any more than the collective. SD has ALWAYS been about the collective. That's why it has always worked so well.
An era of mastermusician's,Larry Carlton,Chuck Rainey,etc,listen to larry's opening rift on Michael Franks-"The Lady want's to know",Chuck's bassline,on Bobbi Humphrey's-"Harlem River Drive".Donald Fagen's piano chord's on "Home at Last",capture the essence of the song.
Thanks for the wonderful reference to Michael Franks. He's always been one of my favorites. Thinking about it, he was similar to Steely Dan in using top flight session players. Carlton added allot to both artists work.
The beat is called the "Purdie Shuffle." Bonham was an awesome enough musician to appreciate it and was discerning and respectful enough to add his own style to it and make it his own... and not merely copy. (Same way with Porcaro.) Good musicians are often inspired by each other's work, and they occasionally quote each other (Another example is Phil Collins drumming for Genesis. He always spoke highly of R&B groups like Kool and the Gang, and he totally gave props to drummers whose beats he adapted for Genesis [like the Weather Report beat he used on "Wot Gorilla" off "Wind and Wuthering."]).
