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.
