Deacon Blues is a 1977 jazz rock song by Steely Dan from the album Aja. It was written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen and released as a single on 24 March 1978. The track runs 7:36 on the album and features Larry Carlton on guitar, Tom Scott horn arrangements, and a tenor sax solo by Pete Christlieb, recorded at Village Recorders in Los Angeles. Lyrically it follows an aging, midlife dreamer who imagines himself as a great jazz musician, an outsider seeking a grand identity; the opening line "This is the day of the expanding man" nods to Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man, and the name Deacon Blues was inspired by Deacon Jones to capture a grandiose vibe (changed to avoid legal trouble). The song peaked at No 19 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No 14 in Canada, and in 2021 Rolling Stone ranked it No 214 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It is celebrated for its sophisticated jazz-rock sound and studio craftsmanship, and its legacy includes inspiring the name of the Scottish band Deacon Blue and covers by other artists.
