Needing the name of a prototypical winner, Steely Dan‘s Donald Fagen and Walter Becker went to the world of college football. When they needed to contrast that, they borrowed the name of a famous pro football player.
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That said, the somber sensibilities coursing through “Deacon Blues,” the song they created, came entirely from this unique songwriting team. Combined with a luxurious musical arrangement, the song stands as one of the crowning achievements in Steely Dan’s career.
“Blues” in the Night
By the time Steely Dan settled in to make the album Aja, released in 1977, they had mastered their unique approach. Fagen and Becker, the only constant members of the outfit, wrote the words and music and imagined all the different instrumental parts, and then would cherry-pick the best musicians of the era to come and play on the sessions.
For example, on “Deacon Blues,” a song where a saxophone is involved in the narrative, they decided on a whim to use Pete Christlieb for the sax solo after hearing him play on The Tonight Show. His elegant yet bluesy solo captures the mood of the lyrics, which hang somewhere between exultation and disappointment.
The refrain (They call Alabama the Crimson Tide / Call me Deacon Blues) has confused fans over the years. “Deacon,” as in famous NFL player Deacon Jones, was a name Fagen and Becker thought sounded right for the meter. As for the college football reference, Fagen explained the choice in Marc Myers’ book Anatomy of a Song:
“One day I had an idea for a chorus. If a college football team like the University of Alabama could have a grandiose name like the Crimson Tide, the nerds and losers should be entitled to a grandiose name as well.”
Exploring the Lyrics of “Deacon Blues”
The lush music of “Deacon Blues” can lull you into a false sense of security and make you view the narrator as someone who’s achieving all the goals and dreams he delineates in the verses. That’s why understanding that refrain is so important. He’s identifying himself not with the champions, but with those who are destined to come up short, hoping they can be dignified with a clever nickname as well.
He certainly means to move up in the world, as evidenced by the first line: This is the day of the expanding man. His expansion is met with extreme skepticism, but there’s no turning back: So useless to ask me why / Throw a kiss and say goodbye. I’m ready to cross that fine line, he insists, hoping to make the switch into some sort of self-fulfillment.
What does he hope to achieve? Cheap, fleeting thrills: I crawl like a viper through these suburban streets / Make love to these women, languid and bittersweet. I’ll rise when the sun goes down, Fagen sings. Cover every game in town. This nocturnal existence is what he envisions as a home sweet home.
In the final verse, his emotions get the better of him: I cried when I wrote this song / Sue me if I play too long. His liberation is complete, at least in his mind: This brother is free / I’ll be what I want to be. With that, he goes back to his reverie about smooth saxophones, Scotch whiskey, and some kind of acknowledgement for his efforts, even if he doesn’t ever fulfill his promise.
The consensus is Aja is Steely Dan at their very peak, and it’s hard to argue against that when you hear songs like “Deacon Blues.” With music that’s complex yet accessible, and lyrics that are intricate yet relatable, they found a winning combination, even while detailing the exploits of one of life’s losers.
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