Today’s classic song of the day is another stellar track from Steely Dan’s Aja album. Released as a single in November of 1977, “Peg” peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #8 on the Cash Box Top 100 early in 1978.
“Peg,” written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, is about an aspiring actress trying to break into the business, presented from the perspective of her jealous ex-boyfriend. It’s notable for several things, including Michael McDonald’s distinctive background vocals, Rick Marotta’s bouncy drum groove, and Jay Graydon’s killer guitar solo. It is fine.
First, Michael McDonald. The sound he got was from multitracking his voice singing very tight harmonies. He remembers it this way:
“‘Peg’ was maddening! It was really hard to keep those close harmony parts in my head. Then the phrasing could have such nuance—fine points of pronunciation, vibrato, no vibrato. I said, ‘Donald, if you don’t mind, can I just sing one part at a time, double it, then move on, without hearing the previous one?’ But hearing it back after hours of work, it just sounded great… It created kind of an ethereal–sounding harmony—almost like they made a keyboard from my voice.”
Next, that guitar solo. This is the solo for which Becker and Fagen supposedly enlisted seven different name-brand guitarists, including Larry Carlton and Robben Ford, but were dissatisfied with all of them. (The Danners were notoriously picky about the musicianship on their classic recordings.) Jay Graydon was the last guitar slinger called and the first they liked, even though it took him six hours in the studio to get an “acceptable” take. In Mr. Graydon’s words:
“For about an hour and a half, I’m playing my hip, melodic kind of jazz style. Then Donald says to me, ‘Naw, man. Try to play the blues.’ I’m thinking, if I gotta play blues in this solo, I can’t use a B‑flat. Because B is in that chord. I can’t use an F unless it’s running through the chord… So I can make it be a believable seventh chord by using the seventh in part of the line. I play bluesy for a while. I get melodic for a while. I get bluesy again. Then I get melodic and bluesy.”
(For all you guitarists out there, here’s a link to a transcription of Mr. Graydon’s solo: Jay Graydon guitar solo on “Peg.”)
Then there’s Rick Marotta’s famous drum groove, with the upbeat sixteenth-note hi-hat and ride cymbal chirps. Marotta’s funky drumming was enabled by Chuck Rainey’s equally funky bass playing, complete with the requisite slapping (apparently something he snuck by Becker and Fagen, who didn’t want the slaps). Here’s how Rick Marotta remembers the session:
“Chuck Rainey and I got into this groove that was really unstoppable. We had this groove for the verses, and then the chorus came and everything just lifted. It just went that way every time. Everything was just working—my hands, my feet—it was just one of those days. On ‘Peg,’ I could hear every single nuance that I had played, as well as what everyone else had played. What amazed me was how they could mix those records like that. You could hear everything perfectly. The snare on that song is an old wooden Ludwig with Canasonic heads. It used to be Buddy Rich’s drum.”
For “Peg,” the Dan went through a small army of musicians (including noted drummer Jim Keltner) before they settled on the final ensemble for the recording. The final list of musicians includes Donald Fagen on lead vocals, Michael McDonald on backing vocals, Tom Scott on Lyricon, Jay Graydon on lead guitar, Steve Khan on rhythm guitar, Paul Griffin on Fender Rhodes electric piano, Don Grolnick on clavinet, Chuck Rainey on bass, Rick Marotta on drums, and Victor Feldman on percussion. They cooked.
Which brings us to today’s daily bonus video of the day, a short documentary on the making of “Peg,” complete with reminisces from Michael McDonald, Rick Marotta, Chuck Rainey, and Walter Becker and Donald Fagen themselves. They all put a lot of work into this one—and it was well worth it.
