I.G.Y.: The Future That Never Arrived
The opening track of The Nightfly promises a tomorrow of spandex jackets and undersea rail, delivered with the bittersweet knowledge that 1982 knows how the story ends.
The opening track of The Nightfly promises a tomorrow of spandex jackets and undersea rail, delivered with the bittersweet knowledge that 1982 knows how the story ends.
How the first track of Aja establishes the sonic template for perfection: Victor Feldman's Rhodes, Bernard Purdie's pocket, and a narrator who's had enough.
How Steely Dan built the strangest track on The Royal Scam around Dean Parks' talk box guitar, a Caribbean narrative of marital collapse, and a groove that became their biggest UK hit.
How the title track of Steely Dan's fifth album closes the record with a six-and-a-half-minute epic about immigrant disillusionment, urban predation, and the most hideous album cover of the seventies.
How Steely Dan turned a song about heroin addiction into a polished pop gem, featuring Mark Knopfler and the most aggressive use of digital sampling on the album.
A deep dive into every song on Steely Dan's 1977 masterpiece and the obsession behind it
How two perfectionists dissolved their band to build the cleanest sound in rock
Why those smooth late-70s records sound so good on boat speakers—and everywhere else