Aja was the group's first album to give credit to the musicians on each individual track. Becker was one of three guitarists on the track, along with Larry Carlton, and Dias.Breithaupt, 102 Both had worked with him and Fagen before. Carlton had played some guitar solos on the band's previous album, The Royal Scam, and done arrangements for Aja; Dias had played in bands with them before becoming one of the founding members of Steely Dan. Parts of performances by all three were edited together into the final mix. In the 1999 Classic Albums segment on Aja, Dias recalled the song as being particularly challenging for the guitarists, claiming that "its very existence is a contradiction. I mean, when have you ever heard a song on a rock'n'roll record that absolutely cannot be played on a guitar?" Specifically, he cited "clusters where the notes are so close together that you can't stretch your fingers far enough to get all the notes out at the same time ... [and] open voicings that are so wide apart that you can't reach the notes."Levens, at 43:53 The final recording used much of his work, including the long solo during the song's instrumental break; it was his last appearance with Steely Dan, and thus the last appearance of any of the group's original members besides Becker and Fagen on their records. Becker's blues phrases are used over the next statement of the main theme.
