So it started a little later, when songs from Aja as well as the song FM began airing on 'Album-Oriented Radio'... Then I suddenly had a new favorite band, perhaps my first departure from the guitar rock of my earlier youth.

The next installment came in the mid-80's when an officemate loaned me Gaucho (on cassette tape)... I'd always listened to music at work but only instrumental stuff, partly because I assumed I needed "distractionless" music to work to, and partly because I was in the throes of my jazz-fusion years. Steely Dan's Gaucho taught me that I could work and listen and feel all at the same time, and I was even more indebted than ever to those guys... I bought the vinyl of pretty much everything they'd put out (including Fagen's The Nightfly) and then a few years later bought the Citizen Dan CD box set when it came out. Their permanent place in my all-time favorites was secure.