- Deacon Blues
-
"Deacon Blues" Single by Steely Dan from the album Aja B-side "Home at Last" Released 1977 Format Single Recorded 1977 Genre Jazz-Rock Length 7:36
6:33 (7" version)Label ABC Writer(s) Walter Becker, Donald Fagen Producer Gary Katz Steely Dan singles chronology "Peg"
(1977)"Deacon Blues"
(1977)"FM (No Static At All)
(1978)Aja track listing "Aja"
(2)"Deacon Blues"
(3)"Peg"
(4)"Deacon Blues" is a song by Steely Dan from their 1977 album Aja.
The song contains the lines:
- They've got a name for the winners in the world
- I want a name when I lose
- They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
- Call me Deacon Blues[1]
The song, while contrasting winning and losing in life, does so by taking as an image the contrast between the perennial powerhouse, Crimson Tide football team, and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. In the five years before the song was written, the Crimson Tide had lost only 8 games total, while Wake Forest had a losing record every season. Group member Donald Fagen said, "Walter (Becker) and I had been working on that song at a house in Malibu. I played him that line, and he said, 'You mean it's like, they call these cracker assholes this grandiose name like the Crimson Tide, and I'm this loser, so they call me this other grandiose name, Deacon Blues?' And I said, 'Yeah!' He said, 'Cool! Let's finish it!'"[2]
In a 1994 AOL chat interview with Becker, someone asked him about the inspiration for "Deacon Blues". He answered, "It was an outgrowth of a specific mood that pertained at a given time," and later added, "...I remember the night that we mixed that one thinking that it was really good and wanting to hear it over and over which is never the case."[3]
"Deacon Blues" was Steely Dan's fifth Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US, where it peaked at #19 in 1978. The song remained in the Top 40 for eight weeks.[4]
The Scottish pop/rock band Deacon Blue are thought to have taken their name from this song.[5]. William Gibson's book Mona Lisa Overdrive features a gang called the Deacon Blues.
Personnel
- Walter Becker - bass
- Donald Fagen - synthesizer, vocals, whistle
- Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour - guitar, electric guitar
- Pete Christlieb - tenor saxophone
- Victor Feldman - percussion, piano, keyboards, electric piano, vibraphone
- Venetta Fields - backup vocals
- Clydie King - backup vocals
- Sherlie Matthews - backup vocals
- Bernard "Pretty" Purdie - drums
References
- ^ Aja CD insert.
- ^ [1]
- ^ '94 AOL chat interview at SteelyDan.com
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications)
- ^ "Deacon Blues". Songfacts.com. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4042. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
External links
Steely Dan Walter Becker • Donald Fagen
Denny Dias · Michael McDonald · Jeff Porcaro · Royce Jones · Jeff "Skunk" Baxter · Jim Hodder · David PalmerStudio albums Can't Buy a Thrill (1972) · Countdown to Ecstasy (1973) · Pretzel Logic (1974) · Katy Lied (1975) · The Royal Scam (1976) · Aja (1977) · Gaucho (1980) · Two Against Nature (2000) · Everything Must Go (2003)EPs Four Tracks from Steely Dan (1977)Live albums Singles "Dallas" · "Do It Again" · "Reelin' In the Years" · "Show Biz Kids" · "My Old School" · "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" · "Pretzel Logic" · "Black Friday" · "Bad Sneakers" · "Kid Charlemagne" · "The Fez" · "Haitian Divorce" · "Peg" · "Deacon Blues" · "FM (No Static at All)" · "Josie" · "Hey Nineteen" · "Babylon Sisters" · "Time Out of Mind" · "Reelin' In the Years" (Live) · "Cousin Dupree" · "What a Shame About Me" · "Jack of Speed" · "Janie Runaway" · "The Last Mall" · "Blues Beach" · "Things I Miss the Most"Compilations Greatest Hits (1978) · Steely Dan (1978) · Gold (1982/91) · A Decade of Steely Dan (1985) · Reelin' In the Years (1987) · Do It Again (1987) · Citizen Steely Dan (1993) · Then and Now (1993) · Showbiz Kids (2000) · The Definitive Collection (2006) · The Very Best of Steely Dan (2009)Related articles Book · Category Categories:- Steely Dan songs
- 1978 singles
- Songs written by Donald Fagen
- Songs written by Walter Becker
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