Advise Me Please - pre 'Steely Dan' Becker-Fagen tracks

Can any of you give me a reasonable description, not a quick dismissal, of the cd's out there of pre-SD Becker-Fagen material? I have nearly bought one version or another several times, including the other night at FYE in Atlanta.

Whether the cd is usually sourced from bad sounding tapes or old vinyl/acetate might also be of note . .
And of course whether the material was well written or performed.

thanks in advance, everyone!

 

BUMP!

BUMP! Surely one of you has heard these tracks!!!

 

My own opinion: they're only for die-hard Steely Dan fans. Demo tape quality, lukewarm performances, but sometimes the songs themselves are interesting. Can't provide a track-by-track rundown as, quite frankly, I've only listened to them a couple of times and lost interest. One was an LP called "The Early Years", and the other was a CD called "Berrytown". The LP "You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It" was at least a little more cohesive musically.

 

I think the most comprehensive collection of these tunes is on Catalyst, a British import. Unfortunately, I believe it is out of print. Still, if you can find it cheap, it's worth picking up just to hear Becker and Fagen sing about "Steely Dan" before forming the group.

 

Many of the recordings sound as if they were made on a $2 tape recorder in someone's bathroom. They are generally very skeletal instrumentation, like just a piano, or just a couple of instruments. The only reason to get them is if you like listening to the historical genesis of an artists songs, even if the early versions were sonically and instrumentally lousy. I bought one of the compilations, listened to it once, and probably won't again. I say pass, you aren't missing anything.

 

This is the one I have. It's nothing special, but it is pretty complete IIRC. PM me if you can't find it anywhere (I grabbed it from a cutout bin, I think, it's on the Magnum music label).