Added: 2 years ago
From: warnerbrosrecords
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  • 11 dislikes = 11 Lady Gaga fans.

  • Hard to believe it's been 30 years!

  • All things considered, this is one of the best videos....and in the end, we win!

  • wasn't there a different version of this video? I seem to remember a slightly different animation at the ending..the general had a flag behind him or some such...yes?

  • This is song is a trip down memory lane !!!!

  • That piano progression after every verse is indescribably cool!

  • @StanleyKu I love that too. If you can buy the tab book for it (which I have somewhere) it shows you what the harmonies are for it. the dominant notes are A, D, and A flat but there are other notes in there too to give it more resonance.

  • sublime - video and song!

  • I think they edited the wrong verse out for the single.

  • Legend

  • So sad that there are no new Donald Fagens, Beatles, or anything resembling real music coming out now. Poor kids today have to endure Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber.

  • @jeremyjones1971 Just putting them in the same paragraph feels like blasphemy. lol

  • This stuff's available to everyone. I'm not old and I enjoy better music than 90% of people twice my age, so age is irrelevant. It's more a matter of intellect and taste; just because some music is popular shouldn't make you like it. The Beatles kinda suck in my opinion. If popularity were a function of musicianship and quality music the Beatles would be nothing, there was much better music happening at the time. The Beatles were just the biggest pop/rock band of all time.

  • @Foosh222 That may be your opinion, but you cannot deny that The Beatles were the band that changed everything. They influenced thousands of musicians from all genres of music which is why they're still highly revered to this day. Even Ozzy Osborne and Lemmy from Motorhead cite the Beatles as one of their biggest influences.

  • Let's Dance....

  • There's nothing better than cycling downhill on a mountain bike with DF in your ears. The Nightlfy is for all real lovers of music.

  • Ironic that Warner deliberately distorts the sound on some of the best music they've ever sold. Idiots...

  • Damn, this is funky. All I've heard up until now was his song "Heavy Metal" from the movie.

  • i love this song but forget about that asshole chapelle

  • classic

    

  • Hey njnorth1, don't forget about Herb Alpert's song "Rise," which hit number one on the Hot 100 chart in the fall of 1979... not bad for a jazz instrumental, huh?

  • Great groove :)

  • Makes me want to build a bomb shelter just as a make-out cave.

    The 50s animation in this is so great. Some of it has to be authentic, such as the general surrounded by "red" missiles who uses a 6-gun to shoot his way out.

    And of course the blond babe!

    Real art, all the way 'round.

    It's a wonder WMG hasn't banned this. Hope they never do!

    (and that I haven't jinxed it)

  • @KutWrite They didn't ban this because they're the ones who put it!

  • Comment removed

  • nice jumpy rhythm

  • The references in this video makes so much more sense if you lived in the late Fifty's,when they thought the next big thing in music was going to be Jazz., and early Sixty's before the Beatles scored with "I Want To Hold Your Hand".

  • @njnorth1

    regarding Dave Brubeck, he had the first Jazz single* to go to number one with "Take Five".

    * the only other Jazz single to go to number one on the Pop charts was Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" in the Seventies.

  • The Nightfly is my favorite album of ALL TIME!

  • One of the best songs from this, or any era. A absolute timeless classic.

  • Love this song and the era its from (the era the music was released-80's) **And yes, the music is faint.**

  • this video is like an episode of "Mad Men"

  • I hear nothing wrong with the sound on this video? Sounds great to me.

  • tell me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the first music video anyone from steely dan has done?

  • Delete this from you tube please. What a horrible sound.

  • A song that seems to get more relevant as time goes by. The tension between peaceful technological singularity and total annihilation seems greater than ever. And 'we've got to have some music on the New Frontieeer.'

  • Sounds like Steely Dan from what little I heard due to the video messing up..

  • Comment removed

  • Great song, really captures the feel of the era well. The "New Frontier" was a phrase coined by JFK back in the early 60s btw.

  • i miss the goove

  • @bennra26008 what is a goove?

  • I thought Donald Fagan faded away when Steely Dan stop making hit music but this song has a lasting rhythmic soulful feel that can play on & on I like this

  • Great video for a great song from a great album with a great cover.

  • beautiful

    

  • God I fucking hate 30 second pre rolls.

  • Joe Bossanova

    Grande Video,Donald probabilmente il più raffinato musicista che io conosca

  • Great song for a great remembers. Thx a lot for sharing!

  • I LOVE THIS VIDEO! It is so dang cute!! Makes me feel happy!

  • Funny how I never read any negative comments about Fagen's music! Genius...simply Genius!

  • @csjaugiedog

    It´s impossible to not appreciate and adore Don and Walt and their music!

    2 absolute geniuses!

  • I think that this song, is the best song ever created. From Elvis to Hu-Sker DU....this is the best piece of music and vid ever created  .

  • I recently read Robert Heinlein's Farnham's Freehold and it reminded me of this song.

  • Wasn't the shot at 0:34 (without the car), or something like it, on the back cover of the Nightfly cd?

  • this video is basically an episode of "Mad Men," almost 30 years ahead of time.

  • I've always loved this video. It has a real 1950s "feel" to it.

  • You are not a serious music fan if you do not own Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly"!!!!

  • I agree... really bad audio. Shame on you Warner Music Group!

  • @2:53 = boss. All hail the atomic age.

  • Cool song.

  • Fuck video. Donald is awesom. Walter is awesom too. Video is for children with no imagination.

  • @pdxbiker2009 Actually, this video has pretty strong production values for the era in which it was made. Remember just how bad MTV looked back in 1982?

  • Real songwriting here. Just timeless.

    About the sound quality - not bad for youtube; in fact, it's just about as good as I've heard. This is one album that is worth picking up if nothing more than for the listening experience. (Vinyl gives you all the cool pics, too!)

  • Does anyone else remember seeing this on Night Flight?

  • @glimmer2158 Yeah, somewhere in my boxes of old crap I still have a VHS tape of a bunch of episodes of Night Flight, and this video was definitely on it. I don't think I ever saw it anywhere else. I never really cared for the song, but I always liked the video.

    I'm not hearing anything wrong with the audio here... what exactly is the problem everyone is crying about?

  • @Druffmaul Never mind, I hear it now. Nowhere near as bad as people are making it seem.

  • @Druffmaul Yes, I definitely remember watching this on Night Flight somewhere around 82 or 83. About ten years later, there was a small station here in LA that had a music video program called Night Flight, but was unrelated to the Night Flight on cable TV. This show was only an hour long, at midnight, and hosted by various KROQ dj s. They also would play this song.

  • YOU GOTTA LOVE THE WAY THIS SONG ENDS NO MATTER HOW IT SOUNDS!

  • @73Calirobo the sound is important.....The sound is more important than the video

  • Anything by Fagen or the Dan is always cool...and The Nightfly is one of my desert island discs...but why the awful sound quality that's below their standards?

  • steely dan? Thanks I'll have some...

  • thanks.....

  • Great song and classic 80's video

  • if i could get this album on vinyl i'd be happy as hell!

  • Just might be the best album ever created.

  • For me Donald Fagen is a Genius !The Nightfly is a fantastic album ! Fabulous Songs , Amazing Sounds featuring The Best Musicians ! I like This Guy ! Thanks Donald ! Blue Moon ( From France )

  • Agreed. I have this on vinyl and it is immaculate,

  • @THCannibal1986 Wouldn't want him to die from that. He's probably got relatives and loved ones who'd wanna see him quit.

  • 2:36 great moves

  • I hadn't seen that video in for over 25 years. Wow, that brings back memories. BTW, Steely Dan are touring again. Get your tickets, Danfans. I've got mine for Minneapolis August 30th. Can't wait to see them again.

  • I remember the insanity of the cold, duck and cover under my desk in elementary school 1963. Cuban missle crisis, like hiding under your desk is going to do any good if they drop the "Big One", 25 megaton, bend over and kiss your ass good bye.

  • excellente !!

  • we've gotta have some music on the new frontier!

  • I just can't help but wonder if Donald has wisely quit smokin', since he took that picture on his '82 album, 'NIghtfly'. Somebody let me know, if he has. God bless ya, for your efforts.

  • That house looks just like one from the movie "Blast from the past" not sure....

  • no ads thank you

  • I just love this,  i love the music, love the cheezy 50's US atomic cold war imagery.. nice juxtaposition between the love of the young couple there, and the total hate and war-like insanity that humans are capable of .and the last few notes are reminiscent of those creepy notes at the end of the UK's 'Protect & Survive' cold war er, adverts. an interesting and hugely enjoyable work :)

  • that song makes me wish i was at YANKEE STADIUM for game 6 of the 1977 world series when REGGIE JACKSON (#44) hit THREE homeruns to help my beloved NEW YORK YANKEES win the world series and jackson was named 1977 WORLD SERIES MVP! i also LOVE to look at the woman's hair, makeup (ESPECIALLY her ice blue eye shadow) and the dress she wore in the video!

  • @MsKeith1969 Was there on July 24th 1977 to watch them play the KC Royals. The Yankees won the game 3-1. Fortunately I did not take Summer vacation to Montauk Long Island the weekend before. You know about the Blackout fallout hellhole in NYC.

  • @BBQFanNo1 oh, yes i do most certainly remember the blackout. i was up at my papaw's in camden, arkansas and i watched footage of the blackout on the today show with jane pauley and tom brokaw. it was a MESS, to put it mildly. thanks for the message - i am REALLY glad that you got to see the YANKEES win! take care, god bless.

  • that song makes me wish i was at YANKEE STADIUM for game 6 of the 1977 world series when REGGIE JACKSON (#44) hit THREE homeruns to help my beloved NEW YORK YANKEES win the world series and jackson was named 1977 WORLD SERIES MVP!

  • Great video, BUT WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE TO THE SOUND???

    Come on Warner Bros - The Nightfly was one of the first (if not *the* first) digitally-recorded albums; this sounds like it's being played on a cassette that someone found in a ditch =(

  • @GlowWorm1962 he's an artist, a pioneer

  • @GlowWorm1962 You'll have to forgive me but I rather like music that sounds like it's coming from a cassette found in a ditch. Adds a certain element of awesome to it. But, that's just me.

  • @GlowWorm1962

    Forgive them. Digital music was in its infancy at the time. And anyways, music itself is analog. The note leaving an instrument, the resultant wave hitting an eardrum is all analog.

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  • @GlowWorm1962 : who cares? you're all trying to rip audio from youtube vids, believing you're entitled to free music, etc. it's a video on youtube, not a CD you purchased. if, on the other hand, you actually bought the music and had an issue with your purchase, your "complaint" would be valid. do you email NBC when the audio on your Golden Girls TV reruns cuts out? of course not - you have zero reason to complain. People who complain something free isn't good enough - don't deserve it...

  • @SuperBoogalooShrimp the sound is important. Always

  • @PascalOnoff Of course it is. And if I purchased a new CD that was scrambled or an LP that skipped or sounded poor, I'd return it. When I click on a link and get something for free, I'm happy with what I paid. WMG would probably prefer you to pay for what they, in turn, paid for, and just give you a taste. I assume any complainers here are working at McDonald's and guaranteed their minimum wage. Such a fulfilling life you lead.

  • @SuperBoogalooShrimp I understand... Respect and share your thoughts. Good vibrations to you :)

  • this song reminds me of new york city in the 80's

  • This is my favorite cut off my favorite album of ALL TIME. I saw the video exactly twice: once when it debut on MTV (back when it was still MTV)... and JUST NOW. It made my night!

  • @RickWolff MTV used to run this video into the ground. I got to liking it after a while.

  • Fallout.

  • What happened to the original with rick moranis?

  • @LtProfty You mean "Tomorrow's Girls" from the "Kamakiriad" album? Your guess is as good as mine. I don't see the videos for "I.G.Y." or "Snowbound". One would think being that Warner Bros. Records has their own channel, those videos would have been posted a long time ago.

  • Everytime I go to the Museum of American History in D.C. and I see the bomb shelter I think of this song.

  • The video fits this song perfectly!

  • Thank You Mr. Fagen. Have All your music. Have sustained me for years,

  • Fagen for President in 2016....the key word is "survival" on The New Frontier!

  • @oDECIMATIONo Oh, you are?

  • @oDECIMATIONo you suck

  • The man who engineered this tune, Roger Nichols (who won a total of 6 Grammys with Steely Dan) has been battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer and after many months in the hospital is destitute. If you can, please help Roger by going to his website rogernichols dot c o m and giving generously! Thanks.

  • Healthcare represents sick and dying persons.

  • totally underestimated piece of musical genius. this music has power to transport you right into 1981 to 1983 era with such vivid detail this music is highly rated in the supreme volume of record history. thank you Mr Fagan for this work.

  • I first saw this video as a short preceding Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise at the New York Film Festival, around 1984. One of my favorite-ever music videos... plus The Nightfly is one of my favorite albums. Not a bad cut on it.

  • yupp groovy

  • @dlorahch I would have liked to be there... sitting in the cinema listening to this through the theatre's sound system... Must have been nice

  • great video, told a great story!

  • Genius class.

  • 3:26 Y-E-S... awesome.

  • 4 people didn't like this song? How could they not like? I love this song!

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  • This song is about as close to perfect as it gets.

  • Aw man I remember this from MTV a LONG time ago! I just heard this in the Kevin Smith movie "Zack and Miri Make a Porno", thinking it was familiar and definitely remember this video.

  • Gotta love that Fender Rhodes electric piano throughout

  • I love this song!!!! During the Cuban Missile Crisis my father actually said in a half joking manner, "What do you think about a bunker in the backyard?"

    Ahhhh the good old days.

  • yano what this song needs? more cow bell :))

  • Introduce me to that Big Blonde (Tuesday Weld) !!!

  • cute video.

    donald fagen's songs are so cute.

    and the duo of Fagen and Brecker

    

  • cute video.

    donald fagen's songs are so cute.

    and the duo of Fagen and Brecker

  • Hell yeah...I'm ready for a WING DING!!!

  • Excelente video. Recuerdo la primera vez que lo escuché. Eso fué por 1984 y me impacto la armonia que manejaba este tema musical. Recuerdo que le preguntuntaron al beisbolista Gary Carter (Montreal Expos), que dijera cual era uno de sus temas musicales favoritos, y el mencionó esta excelente joya musical de Donal Fagen "New Frontier". Viva la música!!!

  • I remember watching this as a teenager and thinking to myself how cool it would be to have that bunker, drink beer, smoke and bang hot chicks.

  • MrTonedef hit the nail right on the head. One of the few songs wherein Larry Carlton is allowed to solo throughout and he comes up with some brilliant melodic meanderings. He's so capable of playing the daylights out of the guitar but I think his best work comes on the slower, bluesy, and more heartfelt stuff like New Frontier and Ruby from "The Nightfly".

  • Thank you for posting this vid! I had never seen it and The Nightfly has become my favorite all-time album, which for me is saying a lot after being a Rock FM DJ for 35+ years. The Nightfly is one of those rare, highly listenable albums you can enjoy straight through, and now, without flipping the LP since its on CD.  I take it camping, fishing, traveling. A true timeless masterpiece of music and production. Thanks, Gere

  • Donald is my hero. there is no one else...

  • i first saw this on vh1 and fell in love with this immediatly. i also remember night tracks except it was on for two hours every weekend on one of the st.louis channels.

    i also remember that show on tbs. saw it back in 1982

  • @jw12061 I used to stay up way too late in the morning to wait for this video.

  • @tjohnson94134 wow...me too!

  • Nice original pressing LP of "Time Out".

    I bought "The Nightfly" back when it came out - just for this song. Still have that LP, plus I have a vinyl-rip of the same pressing that was done using a Scoutmaster Signature Plus (which has incredible separation) - SMOKES the CD versions... even the Mobile Fidelity CD (Vinyl's the way to go with this one - It's one of the earliest digitally-recorded albums and the mix tends to sound a bit bright and bass-lacking IMO).

  • this should have been on Fallout3

  • Great very Great...

  • One of the best videos ever.

  • He's got some of the most intelligent lyrics in music ( as were those of Steely Dan)

  • I got a fever, and the only cure is more COWBELL!

  • 4 people never appreciated an excellent 'wingding'.

  • utterly briiliant video

    truely great album

  • It took me almost 10 years to remember who did this song, and the name. I found it this morn. by searching Google "Donald Fagan Atomic" LOL I really dig it. Brings back my childhood memories.

  • funky sounds/moods of my childhood...the easy days

  • Who's the blonde...???? She's got FANTASTIC hair....Not that I have a fetish or anything...Ahem....Cough....*L­OL*

  • @Cheops2112 I think its Rosie Vela (Electric Light Orchestra back up singer on Zoom, songwriter and model)

  • Plus de 4 minutes de bonheur acoustique...superbe sonorité, j'en ai des frissons !

  • Some of the most profound piano composition in pop music! Just too cool!!

  • It is about time someone posted this video. As a Steely Dan/Donald Fagen fan, this was a first. A video. A classic 'spacey/futuristic' video perfect for Donald. I had VHS taped this video way back in the 80's and I haven't seen it since. Thank you to who ever posted it. It was a real precursor to a lot of Donald's future work. I love all the cold war and jazz references. Donald must of worried about stuff like nuclear fallout.... have you ever listened to King of the World.

  • It is about time someone posted this video. As a Steely Dan/Donald Fagen fan, this was a first. A video. A classic 'spacey/futuristic' video perfect for Donald. I had VHS taped this video way back in the 80's and I haven't seen it since. Thank you to who ever posted it. It was a real precursor to a lot of Donald's future work.

  • Love this song... forgot how good the video was.

  • I believe MTV used to start this video at about the :20 mark.

  • The jazz band animation here is similar to that in the 1962 Disney short "A Symposium On Popular Songs".

  • I suppose we ought to decide where we're going...

  • Maravilha!!

  • Makes you wanta go out and dance in the Dark !!!

  • very nice, good video

  • The master of modern jazz you could listern to for the rest of your life

    and it never dates.

  • This came out in 1982. It was one of the best videos of MTV's early days.

  • IT's Tuesday Weld. She was a hottie in the 60's. Wearing Ambush and a French twist. I wore the perfume Ambush for years! I first heard this solo album by Donald Fagen in the mid 80's....an English friend gave me the cassette; I'd never heard of it here in the states so it was great to finally hear it. I can listen to his music over and over again. I believe the album is called "Night Fly", check it out. The lyrics and music are incredible as always. Donald is a genius as is Walter Becker!

  • well done on a good job well done the sound is so clear and the vidio is just brill thank you

  • I've got to admit, Steely Dan had some of the craziest lyrics, but if you LISTEN carefully, they ALL tell a deep story that makes since in a crazy way. I love it.

  • One of the best.......

  • The world being what it is, I'm starting to think maybe I could use a pad like that...any stocking-wearing honey wanna hunker down in my bunker?

  • Wow This is all new music for me :D

    21century and i like it XD

  • In reference to comments below, the actress mentioned in the song is Tuesday Weld. I.e., last name Weld. You can "Google" her for more info; Wikipedia gives her bio. She was very pretty in her acting days. That is one of the reasons I picked up on the song when I first heard it!