2. The Nightfly by Donald Fagen

 2. The Nightfly by Donald Fagen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ueivjr3f8xg&list=OLAK5uy_kJmuqJb6DRctnv0NEBJNkhfwy8aSqrYA8

As perfect as Toto IV is, The Nightfly is even more perfecter. That's because it's written and performed by one of those masters of perfection--Steely Dan. When Steely Dan broke up after Gaucho--due in large part to Walter Becker's ongoing heroine addiction--Donald Fagen went out on his own to produce his first solo album. If you like the perfectionism of the Steely Dan sound, but you're a little tired of all the veiled (and not-so-veiled) drug and sex references in Steely Dan lyrics, then you'll absolutely love The Nightfly. It doesn't have to disguise the subjects of the songs in veiled lyrics, and that makes the songs much more accessible to the listener. 

While the album was digitally recorded, when it was released on October 1, 1982, they did not release it on CD. That's probably because it was October 1, 1982 when Sony and Philips began to market their CD players--in Japan! So there wasn't a big market for CDs in the U.S. until the following year. 

By the way, there was one visionary artist that had the balls to market the first CD on October 1, 1982 to all of his fans in Japan. Billy Joel released the CDs of 52nd Street and The Stranger as part of a group of 50 albums released on that day. But 52nd Street had the first catalogue number, so it's commonly cited as the first CD marketed.

The first hit off The Nightfly was "I.G.Y." Well, it really wasn't that big of a hit, as it only got up to #26 on the Top 40 chart. I think that's due in part to the weird title of the song. The letters I.G.Y. stood for International Geophysical Year--an international event concocted up by science nerds to promote cooperation and collaboration between science nerds to improve the world. The event ran from July 1957 to December 1958--so right during the good old days of the Cold War. The song got nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year, but lost to Willie Nelson's "Always on My Mind," which was a remake of a 1972 song that was recorded by a bunch of artists including Brenda Lee and Elvis Presley. So I guess if you wait ten years and do a remake on an old beat up guitar, then you're chances of winning a Grammy for the song go up. The other main reason Fagen's song didn't do better on the charts is because it clocked in at 6:03 long, and everyone knows if you wanna have a hit, you've got to make it fit, so he should have cut it down to 3:05. 

"New Frontier" and "Ruby Baby" got released as singles in 1983. "New Frontier" didn't perform well on the charts, but it did have an excellent music video that got significant air play on the MTV, because what kid in the 80s didn't have fantasies of taking part in a wing-ding in a bomb shelter?! And if you look at the cover of the album the kiddies are listening to in the bomb shelter, you'll see that it's Dave Brubeck's Time Out, which I listed as #58 on this Top 60 album list. (I don't know why, but in my original write up, I called it Out of Time, which is not its correct name. I've now made that correction thanks to watching the "New Frontiers" video.) 

I didn't buy this album when it first came out. But on my mission in Sweden I heard songs from the album while shopping in a store, and I thought to myself, "Hey! I really like these songs! I'm going to buy this album when I get home!" And I did. I listened to it a lot during the next few years of college. And when my old mission companion Elder Adam Skinner came for a visit, this was the only album in my collection that he would listen to. He was going to study music (saxophone and piano) at the Berklee College of Music, which is one of the top music colleges in the nation, and this album was the only one that he found musically interesting. All of the other albums he said were boring, except for my Billy Joel albums, which he knew enough to not criticize in front of my face. A year or so ago I saw a YouTube video of him singing Billy's "New York State of Mind," so he's come around to appreciate Billy since then. 

I listened to this album a lot while I was teaching at Irving Jr. High. It's one of those albums I can let play over and over and never get sick of listening to it, so it got me through lots of after-school grading marathons. I also would just press play on this album and then sit back on my classroom couch, stare at all the tables and chairs in the room, and think about different kinds of learning activities I could do with my students. My principle once told a group of visitors that saw my unique classroom set up that I was the most innovative teacher in the school district. (I heard that he said that from one of the visitors later on.) If I was that innovative, it was only because this album inspired me to turn my basement classroom into a place where me and the kids could have a real wing-ding. 

I think the other reason I like "The Nightfly" so much is that the titular song reminds me of that time in high school when I wanted to be a DJ. And I guess I still kind of would like to try my hand at it. You know. Be a DJ on RadioJoe--the station that plays the best songs you ain't never heard. I'd probably play songs off this album a lot, only I wouldn't be broadcasting from the foot of Mount Belzoni. I'd be broadcasting from the top of Old Tom.

Nardo