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Dave's Side One · September 3 · 5 min

Read the Back Cover Before You Drop the Needle

Your next favorite record may already be hiding in the credits of one you own. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses Steely Dan’s Aja for the next Art of Listening experiment: read the back cover before you drop the needle. Before recommendation algorithms, listeners could follow musicians, producers, engineers, studios and arrangers from one record to another. Aja is an ideal example because one album can send a listener in dozens of directions through the people who helped make it. Dave introduces The Credits Test: Play a record you already know. Wait until one musical detail catches your attention. Then read the credits and identify the person responsible. Follow that person to one other album. One sound. One name. One new record. The track list tells you what you’re about to hear. The credits can tell you where to go next. Side One Spin: What musician, producer or engineer did you discover because you read the credits?

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Your next favorite record may already be hiding in the credits of one you own.

In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses Steely Dan’s Aja for the next Art of Listening experiment: read the back cover before you drop the needle.

Before recommendation algorithms, listeners could follow musicians, producers, engineers, studios and arrangers from one record to another. Aja is an ideal example because one album can send a listener in dozens of directions through the people who helped make it.

Dave introduces The Credits Test:

Play a record you already know.
Wait until one musical detail catches your attention.
Then read the credits and identify the person responsible.
Follow that person to one other album.
One sound.
One name.
One new record.

The track list tells you what you’re about to hear. The credits can tell you where to go next.

Side One Spin: What musician, producer or engineer did you discover because you read the credits?

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