Deacon Blues
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Deacon Blues” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Single by Steely Dan from the album Aja |
|||||
| Released | January, 1978 | ||||
| Format | Single | ||||
| Recorded | 1977 | ||||
| Genre | Jazz-Rock | ||||
| Length | 7:36 | ||||
| Label | ABC | ||||
| Producer | Gary Katz | ||||
| Steely Dan singles chronology | |||||
|
|||||
"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]
It was originally speculated that the song was written about the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons, but in a Rolling Stone interview, Donald Fagen said "Walter 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!"
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."[2]
The title of the song is the inspiration for the name of Scottish pop band Deacon Blue.
[edit] 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
[edit] References
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/donaldfagen/articles/story/9519861/donald_fagen_gets_inspired
- ^ Aja CD insert.
- ^ '94 AOL chat interview at SteelyDan.com
[edit] External links
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
