Donald Fagan-The Nightfly (1983)


 

Artist: Donald Fagan

Title: The Nightfly

Label: Warner Bros.

Format: CD

Cat #: 9 23696-2

Year of Release: 1983

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US  1983 Target Label

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 3/12/21

Sell Price: $11.99

Discogs Last Sold: 8/31/21 NM?VG+ $15.00

Low: $4.98

Median: $13.99

Average: $13.98

High:$25.00

Current low price:$9.99

Current Number on Sale at Discogs:3

Have/Want: 245/126

Where Sold:Sacramento, CA

Time it took to sell:10 years

Where and When Bought: Columbia House sometime in 90's

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B

Sad To See It Go: No

Donald Fagan's The Nightfly, an ode to the late night Jazz DJ, made little impact on me when it was released.  You might say I even actively didn’t like it.  At some point I got a record club cd copy in the 90’s just to have it, but it didn't make it beyond a spin.

Now that Steely Dan is without the late Walter Becker, The Nightfly has been incorporated into it's overall oeuvre for consideration live.  In it's day it was considered a great critic record.  I seem to remember 4 1/2 stars out the gate in Rolling Stone.  The lead off track "I.G.Y" was a big top 40 hit, but there was no AOR action for The Nightfly.  There was another massive hit on the record in the Boston area, as "New Frontier" was used as an audio bed for a television promo or maybe a WBCN newscast, I forget for exactly what and never really realized it was Fagan at the time until I listened to the album start to finish recently.

Being in the Steely Dan deep listening mode from Two Against Nature, I wanted to re-revisit The Nightfly and see if I could muster anything to say about it.  One thing that stood out in the another headphone listen.  WJAZ the imaginary Jazz and Conversation Station that Fagan discusses in the title track seems to have never existed although in the early 1930's there was a WJAZ in Chicago and also Temple University has one.  I have to say for 1983 this album wasn't overlaid with electronic garbage and outsized drums, which makes it quite listenable for a mid 80's commercial rock production.

I was a bit worried that I mislisted this when I sold it and shipped it, then seeing the "Target" that was used on CD pressings, but the buyer gave me a good rating. When I entered my cd collection on Discogs starting 6 years ago it was strictly by catalog number, and over the years, matrix and splinter pressing details have taken on bigger meaning for collectors as that information has been added over the years.   It's always the listing mistakes you worry about that are fine with the buyer.  Usually someone has an issue with a $5-$10 item that you would've never guessed to have a problem.

An independent station that WJAZ!



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