Ear Check: Steely Dan's "Any Major Dude..." 1999 MCA

I've always thought that this song from the 1999 MCA remaster of Pretzel Logic is one of the best sounding recordings that I have. How off are my ears, or is it technically a good recording?

 

The most important thing is: trust your ears.

Some here prefer the 1980's MCA discs, other the early 90's discs, or Citizen box, or the late 90's remasters. None of them are awful or bad, but it comes down to what one's ears prefer.

Edit: I like the 1999, is a little more bright but doesn't bother me. You'll get many opinion here on which Dan discs are preferred.

 

Yes one of the favorites, of course all of the Steel Dan albums are in another league in comparison to most their contemporaries. Just put it on, and most of their tracks, defy you try not toe tap or head node.

 

Have Steely Dan ever released anything less than good-sounding?

 

It's not 100% theirs, but the 2005 Piano Jazz CD of their session with Marian McPartland (also their most recent release of new material!) is not terrific.

 

I haven't listened to that in awhile. Are you referring to SQ or content?

 

How off are your ears?

Why, any major dude with half a heart surely would tell you my friend...

 

I have a CD-R that was recorded off the actual radio broadcast (I think from a forum member here...) that is my go-to, despite owning the released CD. I actually prefer it with the radio compression.

 

My go to version is the Japanese SHM-CD which uses the 1999 remaster.

 

It's how I lived with it for almost a year until the CD came out. And said CD is very...lacking...IMHO.

 

And you know the bottom line is if you like how it sounds that's all that matters. I thought you were being facetious. Now I may have track down the damn radio version!

 

The only '99 remastered Steely Dan disc I still own is Countdown to Ecstasy. I used to own them all but replaced them with originals. Compared to all of the other albums of theirs which I own on original MCA CD's, I thought the remaster sounded noticeably brighter, and worse, to my ears.

 

I don't know about that particular mastering, but the song rules. I have to hear it back-to-back with Barrytown.

 

Regarding the recording quality, I have a couple of different releases of this song, and they all have a click at the very first second of the track. I always wondered what happened there. I'm assuming it's just tape damage, or is it maybe a click track they forgot to mute on the intro?

 

I love those double tracked acoustic guitars on the intro. Becker and Fagen sure knew how to make great sounding albums (even if they did get a little Kubrickian about it!)

 

I've had the unremastered MCA CD since 1998 and am listening to it now, having just listened to the remasters of CTE and CBAT. I would really struggle to choose between the original discs and the remasters on this evidence.