Aja Track by Track: The Most Expensive Album Ever Made
A deep dive into every song on Steely Dan's 1977 masterpiece and the obsession behind it
The Album That Changed Everything
On September 23, 1977, ABC Records released what would become one of the most meticulously crafted albums in rock history. Steely Dan’s sixth studio album, Aja, wasn’t just a record—it was an obsession made audible.
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker spent over a year recording seven tracks across six different studios: Village Recorders, Producer’s Workshop, ABC Studios, Sound Labs in Los Angeles, and A&R Studios in New York City, among others. They cycled through nearly 40 session musicians to capture exactly what they heard in their heads.
The result? Their first platinum album. A Grammy Award for Best Engineered Recording. And in 2010, induction into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as a recording of cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.
This is what happens when perfectionism meets unlimited studio time.
Track 1: “Black Cow”
The album opens with a syncopated groove that immediately announces something different is happening here. That Fender Rhodes electric piano—played by the legendary Victor Feldman—establishes the sonic palette that defines Aja.
Bernard Purdie’s drums lock in with a feel that’s loose but absolutely precise. Paul Griffin’s organ work adds warmth underneath. Larry Carlton’s guitar lines weave through the arrangement with understated sophistication.
Lyrically, it’s a confrontation scene. Someone’s being called out at a bar for their behavior, their excuses, their drinking. “I can’t cry anymore while you run around.” It’s sardonic, weary, and quintessentially Steely Dan.
The production is pristine without being sterile. Every instrument occupies its own space in the mix. This is the template for everything that follows.
Track 2: “Aja”
At nearly eight minutes, the title track is the album’s centerpiece and its most ambitious statement. It’s where Steely Dan’s rock sensibilities fully merge with jazz composition.
The mythology around this track is extensive, and some of it needs correcting. Steve Gadd’s legendary drum performance—widely considered one of the greatest in rock history—was actually edited together from two takes, not performed in a single pass as the legend sometimes claims. The same is true of Wayne Shorter’s extraordinary soprano saxophone solo.
This doesn’t diminish either performance. The editing was done by engineer Roger Nichols with surgical precision, and what emerges is transcendent. Gadd’s drum solo during the breakdown, with its impossible fills and dynamic control, remains a reference point for drummers decades later.
Joe Sample’s piano work provides harmonic foundation for the complex jazz changes. The song modulates through keys, employs sophisticated chord substitutions, and somehow remains accessible. It’s pop music that happens to be incredibly difficult to play.
Track 3: “Deacon Blues”
“I want to be called a loser.”
That line captures the entire philosophy of “Deacon Blues”—a song about wanting to fail on your own terms rather than succeed on someone else’s. The narrator dreams of being a jazz musician, drinking scotch whisky all night long, dying behind the wheel. It’s romantic self-destruction as aspiration.
Pete Christlieb’s tenor saxophone solo is one of the album’s defining moments. Christlieb was playing with Weather Report at the time, and his tone—warm, slightly rough, deeply expressive—fits the song’s melancholy perfectly. Tom Scott also contributes saxophone work.
Larry Carlton’s guitar is again present, navigating the song’s complex chord changes with what sounds like effortless sophistication. The harmonic movement in “Deacon Blues” is relentless—the song never quite settles, always pushing toward the next change.
The production is dense but clear. Every listen reveals another layer.
Track 4: “Peg”
Here’s where the obsession becomes legendary.
Seven guitarists attempted the solo on “Peg” before Fagen and Becker were satisfied. Seven. Walter Becker himself tried. Larry Carlton, who had nailed everything else on the album, couldn’t crack it. Rick Derringer. Robben Ford. Denny Dias. Elliott Randall (who had played the iconic solo on “Reelin’ in the Years”).
Finally, Jay Graydon walked in and delivered what they’d been hearing. His approach was different: double-stop bends, moving fluidly between major and blues tonalities, with a tone that sat perfectly in the track’s bright, punchy mix.
The rest of the arrangement is equally stellar. Chuck Rainey’s bass line is a masterclass in pocket playing—never overplaying, always grooving. Michael McDonald’s backing vocals add that smooth harmonic sheen that would define late-70s California pop.
“Peg” became one of Steely Dan’s most commercially successful tracks, and it’s not hard to hear why. It’s immediately catchy while remaining harmonically interesting. The perfectionism paid off.
Track 5: “Home at Last”
Bernard Purdie returns on drums, and his performance here has become so influential it has a name: the Purdie Shuffle.
It’s a half-time feel with ghost notes—those quiet, almost-not-there snare hits between the main beats that create a sense of constant, subtle motion. Drummers have studied this groove for decades. It sounds simple. It is extraordinarily difficult to replicate with the same feel.
The song draws on Homer’s Odyssey, casting the narrator as Ulysses finally returning home after years of wandering. “Well the danger on the rocks is surely past / Still I remain tied to the mast.” Even safe harbor doesn’t bring peace.
Larry Carlton and Dean Parks handle guitar duties, their lines conversational and restrained. The arrangement breathes. There’s space between the notes, and that space is as important as the notes themselves.
Track 6: “I Got the News”
The most conventionally structured song on Aja—by Steely Dan standards, anyway.
Chuck Rainey’s bass line drives the track with propulsive energy. Steve Gadd is back on drums, locked in tight. Paul Griffin’s piano work is punchy and rhythmic. The horn section adds accents that punctuate rather than dominate.
It’s the closest thing to straightforward pop on the album, and it still features harmonic sophistication that most bands couldn’t approach. The song moves quickly, efficiently, without the extended explorations of “Aja” or “Deacon Blues.”
Sometimes perfectionism means knowing when to keep things tight.
Track 7: “Josie”
The album closes on an uptempo high. “Josie” is about a girl who brings trouble wherever she goes—but everyone loves her anyway. “When Josie comes home, so good.”
Chuck Rainey’s bass is again central, his syncopated line pushing the track forward with restless energy. Jim Keltner handles drums here, bringing a slightly different feel than Purdie or Gadd—looser, more rock-influenced.
Fagen’s piano solo is a rare moment of the frontman stepping out instrumentally. The guitar work shimmers. The whole track feels like a celebration, the perfect release after the album’s journey through melancholy, confrontation, and longing.
It ends Aja on a note of pure groove.
The Team Behind the Sound
None of this happens without Gary Katz. The producer had been with Steely Dan since their debut, and his role was to translate Fagen and Becker’s exacting vision into reality. That meant managing sessions, wrangling musicians, and maintaining quality control across months of recording.
Engineer Roger Nichols was equally essential. Nichols didn’t just record the album—he built custom equipment when existing gear couldn’t do what he needed. His technical innovations would influence recording technology for years.
The final product was mastered at A&M Studios, the last step in a process that prioritized sonic perfection at every stage.
Legacy
Aja sold over five million copies. It defined the “Steely Dan sound” that would influence production across genres for decades—that pristine clarity, that jazz-inflected harmony, that willingness to pursue a vision until it was exactly right.
The album proved that perfectionism could create art, not just polish. That taking a year to make seven songs could result in something that endures for fifty years. That hiring seven guitarists until one nailed your vision wasn’t crazy—it was commitment.
Every immaculately produced album since owes something to Aja. Every artist who’s spent months chasing a sound is walking a path that Fagen and Becker carved.
Some obsessions are worth it.