Vinyl Heatstroke

There are albums you remember hearing. Then there are albums that remember you. Aja by Steely Dan is one of those records. I can’t quite recall the first time the needle dropped on it — sometime in Germany, mid-80s — but I know the feeling it left behind. Smooth, mysterious, flawless. It became the unofficial soundtrack for late nights, cheap hefeweizen, and the small group of us who connected over Steely Dan’s sophisticated masterpiece of jazz-rock fusion.

To better understand why music was such a central part of this group of GIs, you have to know a little of the backstory. Through luck—dumb or good—two weeks after landing in the country, I was assigned to a special platoon that was being transferred from Stuttgart to a small German Kaserne military base outside of Würzburg.

Maybe part of some PR move or better relations with our ally, someone in charge had the idea to send a U.S. Army platoon to a German base and send the sister German platoon to the U.S. base. A peacetime version of Trading Places. The thing about the German military is most of their soldiers are assigned to bases based near where they live, so most of our counterparts were local. They all went home on the weekends, leaving the Americans to fend for ourselves. So all we had was each other — playing Spades till the sun came up, telling stories of our homes and lies about girls, and drinking legendary German beer while the soundtrack played in the background.

I played Aja so much that when our company captain gave us the green light to stencil names on our trucks — like fighter pilots marking their birds — there was no question what my RaTT Rig would be called: Deacon Blues.

That's me standing with Deacon Blues

The day had finally come. I was in the office in early October and casually brought up to my friend Dara that I was looking for some old albums. She immediately asked if I had been to Broken Anchor in Youngsville. I lit up and said I was going today!  Driving over to the record store, I was jamming my playlist in the car and singing like a GenX front man. I had a million thoughts running through my head — what would I find? Would it be something rare? Would it be anything at all? Would it feel worthy enough to be the first record in the new collection? The closer I got, the more it hit me — this wasn’t just a record run, it was the start of something I didn’t even know I’d been missing - and probably the start of a new addiction. When I asked Shawn, the owner of Broken Anchor Music & Media in Youngsville, if he had any Steely Dan, he thought for a second and went in the back. He walked out with Aja. I nearly yelled out loud! There was no question — it had to be the first record to kick off the new collection. This album isn’t just music; it’s a masterclass in craftsmanship.

Steely Dan’s Aja is a bravura exercise in production, effortlessly weaving together jazz, rock, funk, and R&B into something sleek, complex, and timeless. Every note feels deliberate, every instrument perfectly placed, creating the kind of sonic clarity that makes audiophiles grin — it’s the record people use to test sound systems for a reason. I couldn’t wait to get home and see how it would sound on the old speakers — a true time machine back to the ’80s in Germany. Lyrically, it’s sophisticated and mysterious, matching the musical precision with words that draw you in deeper each time you listen. Even with tracks stretching past the five-minute mark, Aja never drags; it glides — proof that perfection doesn’t have to be cold.

With all the time spent in radio, going to concerts, working shows, and attending events was part of the job. But it wasn’t until after I was off the air that I got to see Steely Dan live for the first time. It was the summer of 2015, and they were touring with Elvis Costello as part of their Rockabye Gollie Angel tour at the Walnut Creek Amphitheatre in Raleigh, NC. The night was electric. Elvis sounded fantastic. His set was tight and full of energy, perfectly warming up the crowd. 20,000 strong singing to "Radio-Radio", "Alison", "Watching the Detectives" and "Everyday I Write the Book".

Then came Steely Dan. Their set included “Black Cow,” “Aja,” and “Peg” from the legendary album. Other favorites included “Hey Nineteen,” “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” “Time Out of Mind,” “Babylon Sisters,” “Josie,” and “Reelin’ In the Years,” but no “Deacon Blues.”

It was such an amazing concert. The band was hitting every note to perfection. For a group that has been around so long and that was really built with studio players, this tour was just perfection for me — a bucket list show.

The next year, when The Dan Who Knew Too Much tour was announced with Steve Winwood in Charlotte on July 2nd, I knew I had to go. With the memory of that first show fresh in my mind, I convinced my wife and my two early-teen boys they should go too. I was trying to recreate that magical moment. We’d make it a family weekend trip for the Fourth of July in Charlotte.

It turned out to be one of the hottest nights of my life! Temps hit 100, and the July sun was beating us down. Poor Steve Winwood opened while the sun was high but setting, and the humidity was unbearable. But despite the heat — and a few family members who left in search of shade and cool drinks — I stuck it out and was rewarded with a sweltering set from both Steve and Steely Dan. It was a great setlist with many of the same songs from the Raleigh show.

I learned a great lesson, though: in trying to recreate a special moment, I flew too close to the sun — literally. That night taught me you can’t replay perfection — only remember it.

But as Aja spins here in the Groove Den, the heat fades, and for a moment, the music brings it all back.