 | | |
| | The Nightfly | | | Music Artist : | | Donald Fagen | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | Warner Bros / Wea | | Release Date : | | 1990-10-25 | | Store Price : | | $11.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $10.99 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
|
|
|
|
|
CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. I.G.Y.
2. Green Flower Street
3. Ruby Baby
4. Maxine
5. New Frontier
6. Nightfly
7. Goodbye Look
8. Walk Between Raindrops
9. New Frontier [Video][*][Multimedia Track]
| |
Other Artist Albums
|
|
|
|
Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
|
 EmileSissacJr.
Submitted on: 2009-09-13 |
|
| Back in 1983, I had moved from Chicago to Los Angeles and went into the U.S. Army. I heard this album before I went to service and fell in love with every song! Donald Fagen, you are, indeed, the "M-A-N!" I got through my four-year stint with these songs and I simply love the whole genre expressed in photos and lyrics!...Man!...What an album!...What an Artist!...and the memories!...LOL!....You Da Man Don!..... |
|
|
|
Still Astounds
Submitted on: 2009-08-06 |
|
As I sit here listening to The Nightfly for the thousandth time through my headphones, I'm hearing stuff I haven't heard before. How can that be? The production alone is rightfully famous. What pristine clarity, so layered, full of textures and colors; and what great musicianship all around. But it's the range and sensibility of Fagen's lyrics and composition, his singing, and his vocal and instrumental arrangements that place The Nightfly in its own category of greatness. Like a Steely Dan record with the romance added back in and the cynicism largely deleted, The Nightfly soars musically through various genres without losing its raison d'etre: the creation of an artfully crafted tapestry of jazz, funk and rock 'n roll. Donald Fagen has referred to himself as a "nerd," but I would more accurately describe him as a "genius."
Do I have a favorite track? Nope, the whole thing is my favorite. Although you could listen to parts of The Nightfly as a history lesson on the pie-in-the-sky idealism of the 1960's, you don't have to understand all the funny references to dig the reggae-influenced "IGY" and the lazy funk of "New Frontier." Fagen overdubbing those crunchy jazz-based vocal harmonies with himself on "Ruby Baby" and "Maxine" transforms both doowop and the romantic ballad into transcendent jewels. Then there's the driving, funky bass line on "Green Flower Street," the complicated and rueful tale of "The Nightfly" himself, and the funny, fully-realized problem of "The Goodbye Look." As a closer, "Walk Between Raindrops," with its Hammond organ, vibes, syncopated horns and boogie woogie bass, reminds us again that Fagen loves his jazz and walks between genres with ease. No wonder Mel Torme covered this track, as well as "The Goodbye Look." Yes. That Mel Torme. You heard it here.
Some say the album is too short, which may be objectively true, since it clocks in shy of 39 minutes. But since I will listen to The Nightfly for the rest of my life and be forever delighted, it's just as long as it needs to be. |
|
|
|
A great cd
Submitted on: 2009-06-07 |
|
| I'm a BIG Steely Dan/Donald Fagen fan. The songs on here are excellent. I wish there were more songs. If you are a Steely Dan or Donald Fagen fan and you are needing to replace a record recording of this album it sounds great. This is a must in any cd collection!!! |
|
|
|
Nightfly by D. Fagen
Submitted on: 2009-06-04 |
|
| One of my all time favorite cd's. I've heard probably everything by Fagen, Becker, Steely Dan, and yet this cd is my fave. It's dark, bright, complex and simple. Not a bad tune on the cd. How often can you say that about an album? |
|
|
|
 The NightFly By
Submitted on: 2009-04-06 |
|
Donald Fagan is a musical Genius no doubt, and has been part of a great era of music that I would call the Golden Age of Music. The 60's 70's and 80's were all great years for music that touched us in ways that any era may never quite do so again.
Steely Dan was a great sub pop culture band that struck the chord of wry wittiness that always bit nerves and struck chords in you in a way that felt like a car crash into your psyche; leaving a permanant impact of both pleasure and pain. They were a unique blend of pop rock and pop jazz that drove most of their lp's to platinum status.
Fagans first departure from Steely Dan was The Nightfly.
Appreciating Fagan as a master musician driven by perfectionism and professionalism, naturally at first had me at first listen: loving it. The cover is definitely classic Fagan: creating again, more artsy eye catching humor on his visual perspective of life. But Inside listening to the tunes I soon had mixed feelings, and heres why.
The Nightfly although a nicely arranged album, is signaturte clean in the line of every single Dan recording, but eventually I concluded it was almost too clean, and the material musically I think suffered from fullness that the Dan had always been able to express.
While Steely Dan's arrangements had great hooks and fun fill in between, the Nightfly is slightly lacking in that musical sameness. Thinness and shortcomings seems to predominate not the subject matter, which is good, but creep into the musicality of the album. I think the problem is that Fagan is more of a frontman in instrumentation than are other band members. That makes the tunes less spontaneous I think, for lack of better meaning. Paul Mccartney did the same thing on his first solo LP and it plays out kind of boring mostly in the same way.
IGY, lets say I think its a great tune and a perfect top 40 hit, everyone heard it in almost every grocery store while you shopped in the 80's. But soon after that, the music seems to wane into boredom, lacking the bite and excitement of former Dan arrangements. I think what keeps it going though is Fagans reliable visual recall of events that lay out explicit graphics that take you there on the same trip that he ran.
Greenflower street sort of drags on musically but you dont always realize it because you are taken right into the picture that Fagan is painting, where LuChang's racism has him burning with rage because Fagan hit on his sister...on a darkened ghetto street with crumblinbg buildings and people looking out their windows. The same goes for most of the songs which are visually fulfilling but the music doesnt quite match because it is sort of tedious. Ruby Baby picks it up. It's an even better arrangement than Dion's original. It's a great finger pop bop reminiscent of something Sinatra-esque that has you working your chair a little, and snapping your fingers. I think its his best number on the disk.
New frontier and Nightfly step back again to somewhat reticent, though again they're visually stimulating. The Goodbye look kind of steps up beat again. Maxine has gorgeous piano arrangement but seems to more depress than make you blue. The ending song, walk between the raindrops is a the album's romantic tune thats pretty upbeat as tunes go, and has quasi romantic overtones to it.
In the early days of listening to this CD I was still high on my enthusiasm of Steely Dan of the 70's lyrical hooks like: "clean this mess up else we'll all end up in jail, the test tube and the scale just get it all out of here. Is there gas in the car, I think the people down the hall know who you are. Careful what you carry cuz the man is wise, you are still an outlaw in their eyes..." Wow; fun laughable and biting.
I feel that the nightfly is just not in the same league as the original Dan stuff, and so because I'm a Dan fan doesnt mean I have be enthused about this album. musical sparcity seems to predominate here.
Nevertheless I respect its professionalism that only Fagan could have achieved. I do feel that Kamakyriad is a better album and holds my interest musically and lyrically: what Fagan is renown for. It's also a better recorded than is The Nightfly.
I compare it in the same way to Chicago I and II. Many hard core enthusiasts insist that Chicago I is a better LP than II, and I always disagree. Much in the same way, i feel Kamakyriad is a better LP than is Nightfly, but...in the end both have attributes I can't disgard.
But every so often i get an urge to listen to Nightflys "intriguing" musicality, and then put it away for a time till it hits me again to hear it. So I can't entirely write it off, as it can always take me back to laid back imaginings as has me musing through the lyrics that Fagan is so renowned for.
|
|
|
|
