The Nightfly by Donald Fagen. The only LP that I own on cassette, CD and vinyl. First purchased after the video of one of the songs, New Frontier was played a few times on The Tube in 1983, I’m guessing.
That song struck a chord straight away for some reason. Odd, given that my musical listening tastes at that time were New Order, ACR, Echo and the Bunnymen, Orange Juice etc. I rushed out and bought the cassette, as cassettes were THE thing then. I soon realised that in addition to New Frontier, that there were some gems on here; I.G.Y. is something else, as is the title track (I always thought Mount Belzoni was a real thing, until years after the internet was a thing, I Googled it and realised it was a figment of Mr. Fagen’s vivid imagination).
I’d obviously heard Reelin’ in the years and Rikki don’t lose that number on the radio as a nipper, but I didn’t realise that Donald Fagen was the lead singer of Steely Dan for a year or so later (once I’d properly found out about them, Pink Floyd, early Genesis et al [oh, and squidgy black 😉]).
The CD followed c. 1985/6 and I bought the vinyl about 15 years ago when I re-assembled my turntable, in an attempt to capture something or other.
Yes, there are one or two under par tracks on there, but these are far outweighed by the abundance of pure gold.
