Donald Fagen - 1982 - The Nightfly

The lead single of the debut solo album by Donald Fagen, "I.G.Y.", is one of my favorite songs of all-time. The album as a whole, is fantastic as well, essentially a slightly more jazzy version of the work Fagen did as half of Steely Dan for the prior decade, but this song would be on my jukebox. The album's theme is largely autobiographical, focusing on the promising "future" as viewed from the late 1950s, during his childhood. "I.G.Y." stands for International Geophysical Year, which, well, I'll let the Wikipedia entry sum it up: 

The International Geophysical Year (IGY; French: Année géophysique internationale) was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific interchange between East and West had been seriously interrupted. Sixty-seven countries participated in IGY projects, although one notable exception was the mainland People's Republic of China, which was protesting against the participation of the Republic of China (Taiwan). East and West agreed to nominate the Belgian Marcel Nicolet as secretary general of the associated international organization.[1][2]  The IGY encompassed eleven Earth sciences: aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, gravity, ionospheric physics, longitude and latitude determinations (precision mapping), meteorology, oceanography, seismology, and solar activity.[2] The timing of the IGY was particularly suited for studying some of these phenomena, since it covered the peak of solar cycle 19. 

Pretty cool, and so they lyrics probably make a lot more sense knowing it. The album is also one of the earliest that was digital. The engineers had to learn the process at 3M in St. Paul, MN. It sounds incredibly warm and rich for a fully digital recording.

Donald Fagen and Steely Dan always make me feel like I am time-traveling.

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