Cover of Aja

Aja

33 1/3 series

Aja was the album that made Steely Dan a commercial force on the order of contemporaries like Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and Chicago. A double-platinum, Grammy-winning bestseller, it lingered on the Billboard charts for more than a year and spawned three hit singles. Odd, then, that its creators saw it as an "ambitious, extended" work, the apotheosis of their anti-rock, anti-band, anti-glamour aesthetic. Populated by thirty-fi ve mostly jazz session players, Aja served up prewar song forms, mixed meters and extended solos to a generation whose idea of pop daring was Paul letting Linda sing lead once in a while. And, impossibly, it sold. Including an in-depth interview with Donald Fagen, this book paints a detailed picture of the making of a masterpiece.

Audience
adult
Length
short · 144 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Aja? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Aja. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Harvest Shares music, nonfiction
  2. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn Shares music, nonfiction
  3. Perfect Sound Forever: The Story of Pavement Shares music, nonfiction
  4. Exile on Main St. Shares music, nonfiction

“People who read Aja tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Murmur
  2. Pet Sounds
  3. Low
  4. Swordfishtrombones

“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music
  2. Blown Away: The Rolling Stones and the Death of the Sixties
  3. Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story
  4. Bang Your Head: The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal

“If it was the music that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Stairway To Hell
  2. Wowee Zowee
  3. In Utero
  4. Forever Changes

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain
  2. Rush: Chemistry: The Definitive Biography
  3. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia Of Rock & Roll
  4. Starting Over: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy