Music 🎼: Lounge Acts! Nostalgia For The 1980s: Donald Fagen – The Nightfly (1982)

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It’s been several months since I’ve posted a new music topic, and have been feeling a lot of nostalgia about popular musicians from the 80s who have seemingly faded into obscurity. Or have they? At any rate, during these past three weeks I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to early 1980s pop & rock hits, and watching a slew of music videos that bring back mostly good memories. With this in mind I feel like rediscovering and writing about musicians from that era, and Donald Fagen came to mind first. Although he is better known to many as one of the founding members of Steely Dan, a leading jazzy, soft rock band in the 1970s, I still like his first solo work The Nightfly better than his previous collaborative efforts.

The Nightfly was Fagen’s first solo album released in October, 1982 to critical acclaim and commercial success. The album’s photo cover is one of my favorites from any artist of the 80s, as I’ve always had a special fondness for disc jockeys — especially the night owls. That was a career I always fantasized about for myself, but never had the self confidence to pursue it. The black & white cover photography is reminiscent of the 1950s era which I’ve always had a strong affinity for as well. Fagen himself is a child of the 50s and 60s and The Nightfly is autobiographical to a degree. The liner notes in the album allude to this as Fagen states that this recording isn’t entirely about him, but is also based on composite characters and people he knew growing up.

The back cover of the album depicts a suburban neighborhood of tract homes at night and may also be a representation of Fagen’s childhood home. The Nightfly exudes the general air of 1950s optimism and wonders of technological progress as best exemplified in the album’s first track and biggest hit “I.G.Y (What A Beautiful World”). The title refers to the International Geophysical Year, a scientific event which spanned the globe during 1957-58. Many topics related to Earth were studied then and especially those which related to meteorology, cosmic rays, solar systems and the like. These would have been among the fascinating subjects that many young boys like Fagen would likely have expressed keen interest in during that era.

The Nightfly was a great debut for Fagen as one of the best feel-good, confident musical efforts of the decade from any artist. It’s too bad, though, that a music video was never created for “IGY” as it would have been intriguing as to how the song would have been interpreted. However, videos were created for two other songs from the album which got heavy play on MTV and no doubt boosted sales of The Nightfly which was certified platinum. It has sold over one million copies in the U.S. and with total sales around the world is approaching another half million. Fagen’s freshman debut also earned an impressive seven nominations at the 1983 Grammy Awards ceremony.

Innovative for the time, The Nightfly was one of the first entirely digital recordings of mass-produced music and was a complex undertaking with considerable trial and error before it was suitable for release. The record has that lush, jazzy-funk pop, “UltraLounge” sound and the three videos for “New Frontier” and “Tomorrow’s Girls”, and “Century’s End” bear this out. “New Frontier” especially has that dreamy, soft-focus photography that compliments the 1950s inspired teenage romance of the video so well. The setting of this budding romance in a fallout shelter has a unique charm and cheer all its own as there is scarcely a hint of impending nuclear catastrophe. “New Frontier” also has an underlying snarky tone that still gives it an endearing quality.

Overall, though, “I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World)” is the most memorable and popular track on The Nightfly and my own favorite. Whenever I listen to “I.G.Y.” it transports me to a delightful vision of floating down a canal in Amsterdam, Bangkok, Venice, or Upstate New York with a breezy spring in full bloom. The sun would be sparking like jewels on the water, a picnic of wine & cheese would be on the horizon — and life is good!