Music / The Nightfly

An independent station / WJAZ / With jazz and conversation / From the foot of Mt. Belzoni

The Nightfly is the debut solo album by American artist Donald Fagen. It was released in 1982 through Warner (Bros.) Records, following his departure from the band Steely Dan.

Slightly different from the Jazz Fusion 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 Leiber and Stoller'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.

Tracklist

Side one

1. "I.G.Y." (6:03)
2. "Green Flower Street" (3:42)
3. "Ruby Baby" (5:38)
4. "Maxine" (3:50)

Side two

1. "New Frontier" (6:23)
2. "The Nightfly" (5:37)
3. "The Goodbye Look" (4:50)
4. "Walk Between Raindrops" (2:38)

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What beautiful tropes those will be:

• Album Title Drop: On the first lyrics of the Title Track:
  I'm Lester the Nightfly
• Alliterative Title: "Ruby Baby".
• Artistic License – Geography: While there have been several American radio stations with the call letters WJAZ, none of them were located anywhere near Baton Rouge.
• Animated Music Video: The video for "New Frontier" is a mix of animation and live action.
• Benevolent A.I.: 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."
• Break Up Song: 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 Title Drop appears, revealing that the two of them actually learned how to weather it all and strengthen their bond.
• Character Title: "Maxine".
• Concept Album: 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.
• Concept Video: 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.
• Cover Version: "Ruby Baby" is originally a 50s song written by Leiber and Stoller.
• Digital Destruction: 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 Stevie Wonder complaining that his CD sounded "funny," engineer Roger Nichols discovered that copies on the format were in such high demand that Warner (Bros.) Records 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.
• Dramatic Irony: 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.
• 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 International Geophysical Year). Such a climate is reflected in the song's opening lines:
  Standing tough under stars and stripes
  We can tell
  This dream's in sight
  You've got to admit it
• Face on the Cover: Donald posing as a radio DJ (which references the Title Track).
• Location Song: "Green Flower Street"
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: "Green Flower Street" talks about an interracial couple from the perspective of someone who isn't Asian:
  Lou Chang
  Her brother he's burning with rage
  I'd like to know what's on his mind
  He says "Hey buddy, you're not my kind"
• The Mountains of Illinois: 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.
• Non-Appearing Title: 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.
• One-Woman Song: "Maxine"
• One-Word Title: "Maxine"
• The Power of Love: "Green Flower Street":
  In that sunny room she soothes me
  Cools me with her fan
  We're drifting
  A thousand years roll by
• Product Placement: "New Frontier" mentions The '50s perfume Ambush.
• Roman à Clef: The message at the top of the liner notes:
  "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."
• Shout-Out:
  • "Green Flower Street" takes its name from the 1947 jazz standard "On Green Dolphin Street".
  • "New Frontier" showcases many:
    • As a whole, the song refers to a speech by John F. Kennedy 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.
      And when I really get to know you
      We'll open up the doors and climb into the dawn
      Confess your passion, your secret fear
      Prepare to meet the challenge of the new frontier
    • The second verse depicts a girl who looks like American actress Tuesday Weld.
    • 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.
      I've heard you're mad about Brubeck
      I like your eyes, I like him too
      He's an artist, a pioneer
      We've got to have some music on the new frontier
• Time Title: "I.G.Y." is named after the 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 Zeerusty lyrics.
• Title Track: "The Nightfly".
• WPUN: The Title Track is narrated by the DJ for a jazz station with the call sign WJAZ.
• Zeerust: "I.G.Y." is about an optimistic view of the future through the scope of The '50s, 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.

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