(Credits: Far Out / Alamy / David Gans)
Fri 21 November 2025 16:30, UK
May I present a theory? I believe that part of the reason why the music of the 1960s and ‘70s, or the music from those who led that era, is so good, is because people truly loved music. Makers weren’t afraid to be fans, like Joni Mitchell and David Crosby, who weren’t shy about the albums they were obsessed with.
Now, people are always playing it cool. Artists aren’t as forthcoming with their musical opinions as the industry demands media-trained niceties, or even if they are fans of someone else, artists don’t want to be seen as being too referential.
What you tend to get is a very polished and keeping-with-the-times answer where one band will merely hype up and already hyped band, jumping on the bandwagon rather than genuinely letting people in on who and what they’re listening to, and exactly how much they love it.
Back in the day, that wasn’t the case. Back then, you had Jimi Hendrix racing out to buy Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, obsessing over it all night and then deciding he loved the album so much that he must play the title track at his own gig the next day. You had people like Patti Smith being open about her complete worship of her peers like Tom Verlaine and Bob Dylan.
You had people like Joni Mitchell and David Crosby both loudly loving an album, declaring it one of the best ever made despite the fact that the band itself sometimes splits opinion.
Joni Mitchell and David Crosby. (Credits: Far Out / Asylum Records / MUBI)
However, Mitchell and Crosby were both loud and proud Steely Dan fans. “We Steely Dan’d it right into the middle distance,” Crosby once said in an interview, completely and utterly overjoyed as he recounted time spent jamming with the band, recalling it like a true fan boy.
But he was. First, his praise fell mostly at the feet of Aja, the band’s 1977 record as he told Spin, it was “Stunning writing. Stunning production, stunning singing, outstanding playing, but songs. Unbelievable goddamn songs. It’s too good. They’re all fantastic.”
However, 1980s Gaucho somehow beat that as he declared, “Best goddamn writing anybody was doing or has done. Nobody’s topped it.”
Joni Mitchell completely and utterly agreed. “I never understood why Gaucho didn’t receive the critical acclaim of Aja. I’m convinced that if Gaucho had come first and then Aja, the same thing would have happened in reverse,” she said as she was also wowed by Aja, but completely blown away by their follow up.
To her, the treatment of Gaucho was representative of a broken industry. “To maintain this high standard of musicality and storytelling through two projects is most praiseworthy – but there is something ignorant and arbitrary in rock journalism – editorial policy maybe – like ‘We were kind last time, let’s kill ’em this time!’” she said, as if Gaucho going somewhat underappreciated was a conspiracy. To her, it must have been as in her mind, that album was one of the best ever made.
Both celebrating the 1980 album as one of their favourite records of all time, neither were shy about making their position as Steely Dan super fans known.
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