“Maxine”—last song, side one of The Nightfly (Donald Fagen) (1982)

I really like how this song has a brief piano intro, that then just disappears into the song. This is a really pretty ballad, with piano and jazz guitar, and then subtle horns. There’s a really nice sax solo. Also—you kind of have to listen for it—a bit of cocktail lounge organ. You can really imagine, actually, stopping in for a drink at a dark lounge with all single people in the shadows, and an old-timer band off in a corner. Of course, that would be your lucky evening, to stumble across a band that sounded this good, and a place that let them play. The story in this song sounds like an earlier era, when young people were discouraged from “getting too serious”—meaning, of course, having babies while still working at the department store. They’re young, and they have big dreams of travel, and a “place in Manhattan,” while they meet at “Lincoln Mall” and “try to make sense of the suburban sprawl.” It’s a simple song with a simple sentiment, but naturally, coming from Donald Fagen, it all takes on a slightly off, subtly bizarre flavor—which I really like, because that’s the way I see the world, too. Nothing, really, is simple—not all all—not when you look at it closely enough.

—Randy Russell 12.31.20