{"id":15,"date":"2004-10-01T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2004-10-01T17:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briantroutman.com\/experimental\/?p=15"},"modified":"2010-02-13T18:11:22","modified_gmt":"2010-02-13T23:11:22","slug":"international-geophysical-year-donald-fagen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/international-geophysical-year-donald-fagen\/","title":{"rendered":"International Geophysical Year (I.G.Y.) – Donald Fagen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Donald

Donald Fagen - The Nightfly<\/p><\/div>\n

Donald Fagen is perhaps best known as one of the two principals behind the ’70s jazz-rock fusion (I hate that term) group, Steely Dan. As listeners follow Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, and a rotating group of highly skilled hired hands through the group’s discography, they will note that each successive album becomes more polished, more calculated, and that rock and roll stylings take a back seat to blues-inspired riffs and jazz-based chords that are ingeniously interwoven with enigmatic lyrics to create unique and captivating musical experiences.<\/p>\n

The 1980 release Gaucho<\/em> marked Steely Dan’s last studio album (for the next two decades, at least), and someone searching a database only for “Steely Dan” would miss one of the greatest entries in Fagen’s entire career. A solo effort, The Nightfly<\/em>, was released in 1982, and the entire album deserves a “Greatest” mention, but the standout is Fagen’s most successful solo single, “I.G.Y.”<\/p>\n

The International Geophysical Year was an actual event in world history. Taking place from July 1957 to December 1958, the I.G.Y. centered on a global series of events highlighting physical sciences and their applications, including seismology, meteorology, and rocketry.<\/p>\n

Like a middle-aged man revisiting the “Futurama” he saw at a world’s fair in his youth, Fagen’s “I.G.Y.” captures the essence of this postwar world in an almost regretful retrospective. The seemingly hopeful yet internally disenchanted aura that marks the song represents a society’s aspirations of greatness while also reflecting a deeper understanding of the imperfection inherent in reality.<\/p>\n

This paradoxical relationship between promising dreams and discouraging truths is brought out in the lyrics of the song. The refrain: “what a beautiful world this will be; what a glorious time to be free” fills the listener with an uneasy desire to believe the narrator’s na\u00efve optimism. The lyric: “well by ’76, we’ll be A-O-K,” when looking at the ’50s with the eyes of ’82, reveals a somber sense of the long road ahead.<\/p>\n

Though the words are interesting and thought-provoking, the shining strength of “I.G.Y.” is its captivating world of musical textures. From the song’s mystical, engaging, and almost cosmic intro to the wistful and gently piercing synth-harmonica that reappears throughout, “I.G.Y.” invites the listener into its realm and immerses him in a rich sonic landscape. The experience is greatly enhanced when the song is played in a high-quality stereo surround setup; brilliantly defined instrumental and vocal tracks separated among speakers give an added dimension to Fagen’s ingenious arrangements.<\/p>\n

Years after hearing this song for the first time, I found myself watching the movie October Sky<\/em>, which was based on the childhood of rocket pioneer Homer Hickam. When Homer’s achievements were recognized in a school assembly, a large banner was seen hanging in the packed auditorium proclaiming “International Geophysical Year.” I couldn’t keep myself from believing that all of the young people present must have had a touch of that same optimism, though their hopes were yet unclouded by any worries of their future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Fagen is perhaps best known as one of the two principals behind the ’70s jazz-rock fusion (I hate that term) group, Steely Dan. As listeners follow Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, and a rotating group of highly skilled hired hands through the group’s discography, they will note that each successive album becomes more polished, more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[14,16,15,17],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-greatest","tag-donald-fagen","tag-igy","tag-steely-dan","tag-the-nightfly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57,"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}