This is the day of the expanding man...

Steely Dan - "Aja" (1977) - ABC Records

Hello Friends,

We're chilling out on this cool November evening with some strong red wine and some Steelies on the turntable.

Steely Dan's sixth album is also probably their best album and its biggest claim to fame is being the "go to" record for audiophiles in the late 70's & early 80's for testing/showing off their Hi Fi systems.

(Personally, I think this was just a ploy to lure a young lady back to your apartment to "hear your sound system"... the 70's were so f'ing creepy!)

Seven songs in Steely's signature soft-rock/jazz style.  "Black Cow", "Aja" & "Deacon Blues" on Side One; Side Two is home to "Peg", "Home at Last", "I Got The News" & "Josie".

Sonically, the album does bring you back to a certain time and place: a dark-lit, late 70's love den, a whiff of incense, a hanging tapestry painted with a stalking puma and a box of Chinese medicine balls sitting atop a coffee table.

Lyrically, its literally insane what these guys were able to get away with:

Learn to work the saxophone
I'll play just what I feel
Drink Scotch Whisky all night long
And die behind wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues

Wow!

RATING: 4 chinese music under banyan trees here at the dude ranch above the sea out of 5