DONAL FAGEN - THE NIGHTFLY @ 40

 

Released 40 years ago today, it’s the debut solo LP from Steely Dan co-founder, Donald Fagen. The Nightfly was issued on October 1st, 1982 and immediately established Fagen both critically and commercially as a force to be reckoned with.

After working with Walter Becker for 14 years, first as a staff songwriting team for ABC Records and then founding Steely Dan in 1972, the duo were finding their relationship strained by the grueling experience of recording Gaucho, the 1980 album which would become the studio swansong for Steely Dan until some 20 years later with the 2000 release of their reunion album, Two Against Nature. Gaucho sessions were so difficult that the atmosphere was reported to be downright “depressing”, a situation aggravated the mutual perfectionism of the two and by Becker’s reported substance abuse issues at the time. Though the album ended up being another massive success, its aftermath fostered a mutual understanding that some creative space was needed, with Fagen already contemplating solo projects. Though it would be two decades between Dan LPs, the duo weren’t completely estranged from each other through those years as they would eventually contribute to each other’s subsequent solo albums and engage in some tours as Steely Dan in the interim. However, Becker wasn’t involved at all with Nightfly.

Creatively, Fagen decided to delve into very personal territory for song inspirations on his solo debut, dipping back into his youth and childhood memories. That ended up making the album more optimistic and nostalgic that cynical & ironic, as he was often prone to be. The opener is very much inspired by mid-century modernist & futurist conceptions of the “world of tomorrow”, with that “wheel in space” and “spandex jackets, one for everyone”. It all sounds very naive and overtly innocent, though you can still lightly sense the cynic lurking beneath the star gazing breezy melodies. The move away from irony and into pure “fun” was intentional, as was the shift to a jazzier style. Memories of late nigh jazz radio as a child are reflected in the album's music as well as on the cover, which shows Fagen as a DJ, spinning obscure records for a meager twilight audience, enraptured by his muse while feeling the loneliness of the booth. It may not have the bite of Steely Dan’s work, but it certainly had the ability to be evocative.

Technically, it was something of a groundbreaking record, being one of the first fully digitally produced albums. Much of the production team and many of the musicians were from the Steely Dan stable of producers, engineers and players, having worked on the group’s albums throughout the previous decade, but many had to take special courses with 3M on how to work with the brand new, state-of-the-art digital recording equipment. The challenge of dealing with the tech was only compounded by also having to continue to cater to Fagen’s meticulous perfectionism.

The album was recorded at studios in LA and NYC throughout 1981/82 and Fagen, rather than doing any “live in studio” recording with the band to get bed tracks established, opted to record each component individually, a process that was doubly painstaking as the techs struggled to develop an affinity for the digital tools. At times, recording was derailed by external distractions like a large magnet outside the studio, which was part of the NY subway system, causing a persistent hum in the guitar amp, and then there was the instance where a strange smell drove the staff to gut the studio, removing its air conditioning, carpeting, and recording console until they discovered the cause of the smell: a deceased rat in a drainpipe!

Hurdles surmounted, the album was finally released and its reception was decidedly positive on all fronts, gaining near universal accolades from critics and spawning two major hit singles. Like the preceding Dan LPs, audiophiles have made it a favorite demonstration record for their expensive hi-fi systems, though the initially CD version should be avoided due to having been mastered from a 3rd generation copy of the album. It was actually Stevie Wonder who helped identify that issue by reporting its compromised sound to Fagen. This issue has been, one would assume, remedied by later remastered editions.