"Deacon Blues" is a song written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen in 1976 and recorded by their group Steely Dan on their 1977 album Aja.

The guy in the song imagines himself ascending to the levels of evolution, "expanding" his mind, his spiritual possibilities, and his options in life.

[2] In his 2013 memoir Eminent Hipsters, Fagen gives credit to Norman Mailer as inspiration for the narrator's persona: [It] toyed with the cliché of the jazz musician as antihero.

the alienated white suburban kid thinks that if he learns how to play bebop, he'll throw off the chains of repression and live the authentic life, unleash the wild seeds of art and passion and so on.

Saxophonist Tom Scott wrote the horn arrangements for not only "Deacon Blues" but for all of the songs on Aja, a task that he completed in less than two weeks.

At the time, neither Becker nor Fagen knew Christlieb by name, only by his reputation as a musician on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.

[2] The song was the duo's fifth Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US, where it peaked at number 19 the weeks of June 10 and 17, 1978.

[15] Cash Box praised the production, "jazzy guitar licks," lead vocals and "tasty keyboard touches.

"[17] Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote that "not only is "Deacon Blues" one of their strongest songs ever, it's also one of their warmest.

"[18] In a 1994 AOL chat interview, Becker discussed the inspiration for the song, "It was an outgrowth of a specific mood that pertained at a given time," and later added, "I remember the night that we mixed that one thinking that it was really good and wanting to hear it over and over which is never the case.

"[19] Music critic Marc Myers writes "As midlife-crisis songs go, Steely Dan's 'Deacon Blues' ranks among the most melodic and existential.