Steely Dan : The Making of Aja

ChrisMusic

Duration 59:37 (replacement as original post video is now private only, with Japanese subtitles)

joneve

Love this doc. 

Panama_Jack666

It's a great documentary! Good post!

equalsql

Quite Brilliant... these guys were just THE benchmark at the time.
Thanks for posting the link.. damn good!

ChrisMusic

Thanks all   

I thought it was pretty special.  I love the deconstructions and uncertainties.

It feels both honest and enjoyable.  I still think the tracks sound good, and there are some excellent guitarists on there too, bonus !

bigjon

The "Purdie Shuffle" segment is vastly entertaining. IIRC correctly it's about half-way through

dindude

Ooh, something for the weekend, cool

EricTheWeary

All the Classic Album programmes are worth watching regardless of what you feel about the band.

Chuffola

Superb. Hadn't seen that before.  Bravo.

Stunning album.

richardhomer

I saw Chuck Rainey playing at the 1990 Winter NAMM show. He was unbelievable - playing on his own he could create the most incredible groove. The players on Steely Dan records are the cream of the crop.

I presume this is quite old, as Ian Dury has (sadly) not been with us for many years.

I must admit, he seemed an odd person to be involved in this - until you consider the sophistication of some of The Blockheads' tracks. They also had some amazing players (Norman Watt-Roy's bass line in 'Rhythm Stick' is astonishing).

Thanks for posting. Really interesting.

Fretwired

One of the greatest albums ever made.

monquixote

Awesome album. 

Kebabkid

Simply (it ain't to play) brilliant.Great album. Great band.

I loved listening to the breakdown of Michael McDonald's backing vocals.

There's at least 3 Steely Dan tribute bands doing the rounds at the mo
Nearly Dan - http://www.nearlydan.co.uk/
Stanley Dee - http://www.stanleydee.co.uk/
Gas in the car - http://www.gasinthecar.com/home.php

Blueingreen

Yeah possibly my favourite of the Classic Album series (actually I think the one on The Band is a better film but Aja is more to my taste these days as an album).

One of the amazing things from my p of v as a guitarist is that SD managed to consistently get great solos, many among my favourites on the instrument, from players whose music I have close to zero interest in other contexts. Don't get me wrong, these guys are all great players but left to their own devices their music is mainly generic and uninteresting.  Current SD standby Jon Herington is another case in point. Loved his playing on Fagen's last solo album but his other projects totally lack interest, for me at least.

I've been reading Brian Sweet's "Reelin' in the Years" a bio of the band.  Sweet's prose is workmanlike, he has no talent for criticism and he didn't have direct access to Fagen or Becker, so it's a book for fans only. But it's enthusiastic, diligently researched and readable enough to be recommendable for fans who want more information about the band.

(There's a remarkable shortage of quality writing about SD, in book form at least, for a band who were so successful and so literate. Fagen himself is a far better writer than Sweet as he proves in "Eminent Hipsters".  Shame he's only written somewhat tangentially about the history of the band.)