The Exotic Escape That Launched a Supergroup: A Whirlwind Journey from English Pop Constraints to American Counterculture Freedom. Few songs capture the bright, infectious optimism of the burgeoning West Coast…
The Lament for a Down-and-Out Patriarch: A Shimmering, Jazz-Flecked Dirge for the Grimy, Irrecoverable Soul of Old New York. The music of Steely Dan has always been a shimmering, sophisticated…
The Last Exit to Optimism: A Lyrical Crossroads Where Our Hero’s Existential Road Trip Stalls, Forcing a Reckoning with the Future. For a certain kind of sophisticated, world-weary listener—the ones…
The Ballad of the Road Warrior’s Regret: A Conflicted Anthem Where Love Is Sacrificed for the Siren Call of Absolute Freedom. The year 1976 was the sweet spot of American…
The Perpetual Traveler’s Lament: A Poignant Reflection on the Inescapable Urge to Wander and the Sacrifice of Connection. The mid-1970s was an era when the earnest, soul-baring intimacy of the…
A Hypnotic, Cynical Jazz-Rock Parable, Chronicling the Disillusioned Return to an Old Flame and the Discovery of Her Deeply Corrupt Nature. The year 1975 found Steely Dan, the perpetually cerebral…
The Mid-’80s Hard Rock Siren: A Flashy, Fuzzed-Out Tale of an Untamable Woman and the Decade’s Shifting Sonic Landscape. The mid-1980s were a dramatic, neon-drenched turning point in rock music,…
The Cynical Allure of the Past: A Smooth-Jazz Examination of Relics from the Cold War’s Romantic Failures. The sophisticated, slightly sinister world of Donald Fagen has always been a place…
The Three-Minute Anthem of Rebellion and Release for the Blue-Collar Rocker, Living for the 48-Hour Escape. The late 1970s was a volatile era, a time when the excesses of stadium…
The Ballad of the Outcast: A Tender, Jazz-Infused Cry for a Sanctuary from the World’s Relentless Disappointment. There are certain songs that, even after decades, feel less like pop music…
Oldies Songs