The Nightfly

The most Steely Dan-sounding song on Nightfly, the title track is a jazz-influenced slice of pop/rock that finds Donald Fagen recalling his adolescent dream of being a late-night radio DJ. I'm Lester the Nightfly Hello Baton Rouge Won't you turn your radio down Respect the seven second delay we use

The Nightfly was the first solo album by the Steely Dan co-founder. Unlike most of Donald Fagen's previous work, the songs are all autobiographical. "I was compelled to make this," he told Uncut in 2016. "I'd reached a certain age where I could feel some kind of internal dissonance compelling me to examine where I came from, who I was, that kind of thing." "t was essentially an identity crisis – a little late-coming identity crisis," Fagen continued. "But it was that all the same. Musicians being a kind of perpetual adolescent, I was able to postpone my appointment with the reality principle. It just happened."