Line #34 Music/TheNightfly


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/91gwxsxpgcl_sl1425.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:An ''independent station'' / ''WJAZ'' / ''With jazz and conversation'' / ''From the foot of Mt. Belzoni'']]
3
4	''The Nightfly'' is the debut solo album by American artist Donald Fagen. It was released in 1982 through Creator/WarnerBrosRecords, following his departure from the band Music/SteelyDan.
5
6	Slightly different from the JazzFusion work of Steely Dan, ''The Nightfly'' features a softer, groovier jazz sound punctuated by semi-autobiographical lyrics based on his youth in the suburbs of New Jersey. It is one of the first studio albums to be produced digitally, making its recording difficult since the technology was nascent (though it was also blamed on Fagen's perfectionism and his will to record each part of a song via overdubs). Putting aside a cover of Music/LeiberAndStoller's "Ruby Baby", all songs are written by Fagen and don't feature his former Steely Dan bandmate Walter Becker. The two would eventually reunite for the album's belated follow-up, ''Kamakiriad'', in 1993.
7
8	!!Tracklist
9	[[AC: Side one]]
10	# "I.G.Y." (6:03)
11	# "Green Flower Street" (3:42)
12	# "Ruby Baby" (5:38)
13	# "Maxine" (3:50)
14
15	[[AC: Side two]]
16	# "New Frontier" (6:23)
17	# "The Nightfly" (5:37)
18	# "The Goodbye Look" (4:50)
19	# "Walk Between Raindrops" (2:38)
20	----
21	!!''What beautiful tropes those will be'':
22	* AlbumTitleDrop: On the first lyrics of the TitleTrack:
23	--> ''I'm Lester '''the Nightfly'''''
24	* AlliterativeTitle: "Ru'''by''' Ba'''by'''".
25	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: While there have been several American radio stations with the call letters WJAZ, none of them were located anywhere near Baton Rouge.
26	* AnimatedMusicVideo: The video for "New Frontier" is a mix of animation and live action.
27	* BenevolentAI: Among the fantastical {{zeerust}} inventions that the narrator anticipates in "I.G.Y." are "machines to make big decisions, programmed by fellows with compassion and vision."
28	* BreakUpSong: Subverted with "Walk Between Raindrops". At first, the song lists all the trials and tribulations the narrator and his partner have gone through over the course of their relationship, but then the TitleDrop appears, revealing that the two of them actually learned how to weather it all and strengthen their bond.
29	* CharacterTitle: "Maxine".
30	* ConceptAlbum: The album's material openly centers around Fagen's upbringing in the 1950s, combining his own memories and experiences with those of the people who were around him during that time.
31	* ConceptVideo: The music video for "New Frontier" portrays a 1950s couple having a romantic night in a nuclear bunker, interspersed with animations portraying both the cautious optimism of the era and the omnipresent threat of nuclear war.
32	* CoverVersion: "Ruby Baby" is originally a [[TheFifties 50s]] song written by Music/LeiberAndStoller.
33	* DigitalDestruction: The first CD copies in 1983 were noticeably thin and muted compared to the original LP, despite the album being fully digital. After getting a letter from Music/StevieWonder complaining that his CD sounded "funny," engineer Roger Nichols discovered that copies on the format were in such high demand that Creator/WarnerBrosRecords had resorted to using analog safety tapes generations removed from the master, leading him to publicly criticize the myriad of record labels that were partaking in this practice. Warner would rectify the issue shortly after: starting in 1984, all later CD copies of ''The Nightfly'' would be sourced directly from the digital master.
34	* DramaticIrony: In "I.G.Y.", the narrator notes how "by '76, we'll be A-OK;" the song was released in 1982, and the line's impact hinges on the listener's living memory of the actual 1976, which was one of many turbulent years in a highly turbulent decade for the vast majority of Americans.
35	* {{Eagleland}}: "I.G.Y." takes the "America the beautiful" perspective, reflecting the cautious optimism and heightened patriotism of the 1950s (especially during the song's namesake, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Geophysical_Year International Geophysical Year]]). Such a climate is reflected in the song's opening lines:
36	--> ''Standing tough under stars and stripes''
37	--> ''We can tell''
38	--> ''This dream's in sight''
39	--> ''You've got to admit it''
40	* FaceOnTheCover: Donald posing as a radio DJ (which references the TitleTrack).
41	* LocationSong: "Green Flower Street"
42	* MalignedMixedMarriage: "Green Flower Street" talks about an interracial couple from the perspective of someone who isn't Asian:
43	--> ''Lou Chang''
44	--> ''Her brother he's burning with rage''
45	--> ''I'd like to know what's on his mind''
46	--> ''He says "Hey buddy, you're not my kind"''
47	* TheMountainsOfIllinois: The title track says WJAZ in Baton Rouge broadcasts “from the foot of Mount Belzoni”, but Louisiana (one of the flattest and lowest-lying states) has no mountains at all.
48	* NonAppearingTitle: Neither "International Geophysical Year" nor its initialism appear in the lyrics of "I.G.Y." The single release of the song addresses this by including the parenthetical subtitle "(What a Beautiful World)", after the first line in the chorus.
49	* OneWomanSong: "Maxine"
50	* OneWordTitle: "Maxine"
51	* ThePowerOfLove: "Green Flower Street":
52	--> ''In that sunny room she soothes me''
53	--> ''Cools me with her fan''
54	--> ''We're drifting''
55	--> ''A thousand years roll by''
56	* ProductPlacement: "New Frontier" mentions TheFifties perfume Ambush.
57	* RomanAClef: The message at the top of the liner notes:
58	--> "The songs on this album represent certain fantasies that might have been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties, i.e., one of my general height, weight and build."
59	* ShoutOut:
60	** "Green Flower Street" takes its name from the 1947 jazz standard "On Green Dolphin Street".
61	** "New Frontier" showcases many:
62	*** As a whole, the song refers to a speech by UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy in which he advocated a "new frontier" where progress shall prevail. But in this song, it has turned into an excuse by a guy who wants to make out with a girl in a fallout bunker.
63	----> ''And when I really get to know you''\
64	''We'll open up the doors and climb into the dawn''\
65	''Confess your passion, your secret fear''\
66	''Prepare to meet the challenge of the new frontier''
67	*** The second verse depicts a girl who looks like American actress Tuesday Weld.
68	*** The third verse references {{Jazz}} pianist Dave Brubeck. Accordingly, the song's music video features a short animated sequence that morphs into the cover art for Brubeck's album ''Time Out''.
69	----> ''I've heard you're mad about Brubeck''\
70	''I like your eyes, I like him too''\
71	''He's an artist, a pioneer''\
72	''We've got to have some music on the new frontier''
73	* TimeTitle: "I.G.Y." is named after the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Geophysical_Year International Geophysical Year]], a global science project spanning from mid-1957 to the end of 1958 in which researchers on both sides of the Iron Curtain collaborated on various scientific efforts across eleven different fields. The symbolism of the year and the innovations that it led to (most notably the ''Sputnik 1'' satellite launch by the Soviet Union) are both reflected in the song's optimistic and intentionally {{Zeerust}}y lyrics.
74	* TitleTrack: "The Nightfly".
75	* {{WPUN}}: The TitleTrack is narrated by the DJ for a jazz station with the call sign WJAZ.
76	* {{Zeerust}}: "I.G.Y." is about an optimistic view of the future through the scope of TheFifties, mentioning inventions such as programming the weather, a solar-powered city, a "train of graphite and glitter," and being able to travel from New York to Paris in ninety minutes.

Context Music / TheNightfly