Home at Last

Album: Aja (1977)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is based on the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer. The hero, Ulysses, is trying to get home across the ocean after the Trojan War, but the gods keep making it difficult:

    Though the danger on the rocks is surely past
    Still I remain tied to the mast


    These lyrics refer to an incident where Ulysses had all his crew block their ears so they wouldn't hear the Sirens' song and crash the boat on the rocks, but Ulysses kept his ears open and had his crew tie him to the mast so he wouldn't dive off the boat.

    Could it be that I have found my home at last?
    Home at last?


    Ulysses is ever hopeful he'll get back to his wife and son. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Ed - Boston, MA
  • Listen for Bernard Purdie's drumming here; that beat is so distinctive that it's called the "Purdie Shuffle." Other musicians to play on this track were:

    Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Synthesizer: Donald Fagen
    Guitar Solo: Walter Becker
    Backing Vocals: Timothy B. Schmit
    Guitar: Larry Carlton
    Bass: Chuck Rainey
    Piano, Vibraphone: Victor Feldman
  • Ken Tucker writes in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll: "What Aja offered was just about the opposite of the quirky, opaque little pop tunes with which Becker and Fagen had commenced their career, and the album allowed lots of pop fans to feel they'd penetrated the cool precincts of jazz at exactly the moment when 'cool' was making a comeback via disco. For the first time, really, a massive audience had gotten a bead on Steely Dan, and millions liked what they'd deduced: hitmakers behaving like cult artists."

    Aja has also been the subject of an episode of Eagle Rock Entertainment's TV series Classic Albums.

Comments: 7

  • Ken from Northern CaliforniaI think that the song concludes with Ulysses realizing, not that he may eventually make it home, but that, a la Dante and Tennyson, that has actually found a "home" in his wanderings. Tied to the mast, having adventures, that is Ulysees' home. His home is on the road, this "superhighway."
  • Larry AbitzThe song is NOT based on a "novel" by Homer, the novel not having been in existence in the bronze or iron age. It is based on an epic poem.
  • Jay from Medford MassI think Fagen’s Home is the key of G minor, which is the key of their first hit Do It Again and now he is finally going back to it again for the first time since Can’t Buy a Thrill.
  • Ronron from IllinoisAja is an all-time classic album that brings back wonderful memories from my youth.
  • Anonymous from Florida Love Donald Fagan and Steely Dan
    ( Little note D.Fagan and I were born on the same day. Jan 10 1948). Love their music
  • Thomas from TxDuring this time period I was in the USMC headed to the Persian Gulf, listening to Aja " Home at Last" I didn't know if I was to ever make it back ! To be "Home at Last", so grateful love this song...
  • John from Kirkland, Wa"Retsina" is a Greek wine with a "pine resin" taste. And trust me - it is an "acquired" taste! The first time I had this wine, I almost choked! But, now I love it!
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