Josie: The Celebration That Closes the Journey
How Steely Dan's uptempo finale transforms the album's perfectionism into pure joy—featuring Chuck Rainey's irrepressible bass and the art of the triumphant exit.
After confrontation (“Black Cow”), transcendence (“Aja”), romantic failure (“Deacon Blues”), commercial brilliance (“Peg”), Homeric meditation (“Home at Last”), and propulsive efficiency (“I Got the News”), Aja needed an ending that provided release. “Josie” delivers: five and a half minutes of pure groove that celebrates a troublemaker’s return without apology or irony.
It’s the album’s most joyful moment, and it took just as much obsessive work to achieve as everything that came before.
The Rainey Groove
Chuck Rainey’s bass on “Josie” is irrepressible. Where his work on “I Got the News” was driving and aggressive, here it’s buoyant—a syncopated line that bounces through the track with barely contained energy.
The bass part is complex but never busy. Rainey finds a groove that’s simultaneously funky and melodic, playing lines that could stand alone as compositions while still serving the song’s rhythmic foundation. This is bass playing that sounds effortless precisely because it’s executed at the highest level.
Listen to the way Rainey interacts with the drums. He’s not just playing with Jim Keltner; he’s conversing with him, anticipating his accents, leaving space for fills, pushing when the song needs momentum. This level of rhythm section communication usually requires bands playing together for years. Steely Dan achieved it with session musicians who might be meeting for the first time.
Keltner’s Feel
Jim Keltner brings a different approach than Bernard Purdie or Steve Gadd. Where Purdie is all about the shuffle and Gadd is all about precision, Keltner plays with a looser, more rock-influenced feel. His groove on “Josie” is propulsive but not tight—there’s air in it, space for the track to breathe.
This looseness was the right choice for the song’s celebratory mood. A tighter drum part might have made “Josie” feel mechanical; Keltner’s approach makes it feel alive. The slight imprecisions (which aren’t really imprecisions—they’re feel) create momentum that carries the listener forward.
The snare sound is warm and full, distinct from the crack of Gadd’s snare on the title track. Nichols’ engineering captured each drummer’s unique tone rather than imposing a uniform sound. You can hear the difference between Keltner’s drums and Gadd’s drums, even without knowing who’s playing.
The Returning Troublemaker
Josie is a character who brings chaos wherever she goes—but she’s loved for it. When she comes home, the fire goes out of control, the law arrives, and nobody cares. The community celebrates rather than judges.
This is unusually warm territory for Steely Dan. Their characters are typically flawed people being observed with ironic distance: losers, narcissists, criminals, burnouts. Josie is flawed too—she’s clearly trouble—but she’s presented with affection. The song likes her. The narrator likes her. We’re meant to like her.
The track’s energy reflects this affection. Where “Black Cow” confronts and “Deacon Blues” mourns, “Josie” welcomes. The groove is a celebration of arrival, a party that starts the moment she walks through the door.
The Piano Solo
Fagen’s piano solo is a rare moment of the frontman stepping out instrumentally. He was primarily a singer and keyboardist, not a soloist, but his playing on “Josie” is confident and melodic.
The solo doesn’t try to compete with the album’s guitar and saxophone showcases. It’s briefer, more focused, integrated into the arrangement rather than dominating it. Fagen plays with the same restraint that characterizes Steely Dan’s approach to everything: enough to serve the song, not enough to overshadow it.
The Guitar Shimmer
The guitar work on “Josie” (likely Larry Carlton, though the sessions were complex) shimmers through the arrangement. There are no featured solos; instead, the guitars add texture and sparkle, filling the high end of the mix with brightness.
This production choice supports the song’s celebratory mood. The guitars sound like sunlight. Combined with the bouncing bass and propulsive drums, they create a sound that’s almost physically uplifting—the audio equivalent of good news.
Album Closer as Resolution
“Josie” works as an album closer because it provides emotional resolution without narrative resolution. We don’t know where these characters go after the music stops. We just know that right now, in this moment, everything is okay.
After the ambiguity of “Home at Last”—where arrival didn’t quite mean peace—“Josie” offers something simpler: joy. Uncomplicated, unsatirical, unironic joy. The perfectionism that created Aja was in service of this moment, this feeling, this groove that makes you want to move.
The fade-out is long and gradual, letting the band play on as the volume decreases. Unlike “Third World Man” on Gaucho, which would fade out in exhaustion, “Josie” fades out in celebration. The party continues; we just can’t hear it anymore.
The Perfectionism of Joy
“Josie” took as many takes as anything else on Aja. The bass line was refined until it bounced exactly right. The drum groove was adjusted until it breathed correctly. The mix was balanced until every element supported the song’s energy.
This is the final lesson of the album: perfectionism can serve joy as well as sophistication. You can spend months crafting a five-minute pop song and emerge with something that feels effortless and alive. The work doesn’t show; the result does.
When Josie comes home, so good. When Aja ends, even better.