Anything about Steely Dan

UMG: Steely Dan ~ Special UnCut issue is out.

 

Did you like "Your Gold Teeth I"?

 

Thanks! I done ordered it up.

 

I was there too and absolutely dreading it, having had some very poor gig experiences before. The venue is just unpleasant and I won’t be back.

But. They were just so good! We were waaaay up in the Gods, and it actually sounded pretty fine; previously, for example, when I saw Stevie Wonder, all the power in the sound and audience atmosphere had dissipated by the time it got up to our seats.

Here, though, we got a good mix, and even Freddie Washington was audible properly. I could’ve done with a shorter Doobie Brothers set, and some more Dan (it’s a crime we didn’t get ‘Book Of Liars’ and ‘Green Flower Street’), but also the 90 minutes we did get was nearly-perfect. Just drop the extended band intro Joe Tex cover, though.

I’d also forgotten how cool Donald Fagen is as a frontman, and funny. Want to see them all again now.

 

Here's the Holy Grail...leaked yesterday morning on the 'Tube. Catch it till it disappears...

 

Introduction to "Do it again" album version.



I've been listening to this song for 40 years and suddenly heard something I've never noticed before through my phone and the first 15 seconds of the intro I can hear a looping "I've got it" in heavily distorted audio or perhaps it's just me? If not I am curious to know how is that sound made? Did a google for this and nothing came up...

 

Thought folks would be interested in the fact that there is a NEW Steely Dan site: Steely Dan
The old site, Official Steely Dan , points to the new and to [ARCHIVE] Steely Dan | [ARCHIVE] Siteguide , the latter is © 1996-2017 The Estate of Walter Becker.

 

I like 'em!

 

Wow. Just wow. That's a good thing I think.

edit: there's a new bio
Steely Dan

 

well for one thing, walter becker passed away.....

 

would be nice to finally get some Hi rez releases!

 

For another thing, even if Becker hadn't died, he and Fagen are both on record as saying that given the current state of the record business and sales, there was no percentage in it for them, either separately or as Steely Dan, to bust their asses making new music, especially with the way they liked to record. They realized the money lie in touring, so that's what they did. Quite frankly I don't expect to see another Donald Fagen album coming out at this point any more than I would Fagen under the "Steely Dan" name (although I would be more than happy for Fagen to prove me wrong on that score!) With luck we might get some kind of archival Steely Dan release, outtakes and whatnot (at last) or a live album, but that's about it.

 

If anyone here traverses thetradersden, this MAY be of interest. Details I received via email, which I have pasted below in full; I do not have a tradersden account.

New SD Outtakes via Village Recorders

The Traders' Den

Steely Dan
Four Outtakes circa 1972/Can't Buy A Thrill
New 5" Demo Reels Source via JEMS

JEMS 2017 Transfer: 5" demo reels > Otari 5050 mk2 > Sound Devices USBPre
2 capture (24/96) > iZotope RX and Ozone > MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1 > Peak
Pro XT / volume smoothing / edit / index) > xACT 2.35 > FLAC

01 Any World (early version, different from circulating demo)
02 Running Child (no fadeout)
03 Megashine City (early version of "Talkin' 'Bout My Home")
04 Come Back Baby > instrumental fragment

In the spirit of the holidays, we are releasing something special for
Steely Dan fans, four newly transferred outtakes circa 1972, which we
believe were made before or just after the band's debut album, Can't Buy A
Thrill.

The source of these songs are two 5", 1/4-track reels marked "Becker &
Fagen Tunes" which were likely compiled as publishing demos. Each contains
three tracks (the other two are the A- and B-sides of the rare single
"Dallas"/"Sail The Waterway"). JEMS obtained a handful of tapes from the
estate of someone who worked at Village Recorders where Can't Buy A Thrill
was recorded. Given the other material we obtained, the age of the tapes,
the person who had them and the content therein, the provenance strongly
suggests publishing demos.

While I am no expert on Steely Dan, what follows is based on web research
I have done and consultation with a major Dan collector. Corrections and
additions welcome.

From Tape One:

"Any World" is an early version of a song that would later be re-recorded
for Katy Lied. The key is changed and on some level it sounds more like a
full-blown Steely Dan song to me than the eventual released track. Note
that there is a circulating unreleased "demo" version of "Any World," but
it too is different from this, which lacks the new keyboard sound of the
demo. Even with fixes, there are still some subtle channel fluctuations
here, but otherwise the sound is quite good. We believe this has never
circulated before.

"Running Child" is the same recording as the circulating outtake from
Can't Buy A Thrill, but in higher quality here and with no fade out.
Instead it just ends abruptly.

"Megashine City" is a big surprise. It's a radically different version of
a song that would later evolve into the Gaucho outtake "Talkin' 'Bout My
Home," but in a completely different and more up-tempo arrangement. Singer
David Palmer apparently played "Talkin' 'Bout My Home" in concert, so he
must have liked the song. The vocal on this is quite affected, almost as
if he is singing with an intentional accent. Again, we believe this
version has never circulated before.

From Tape Two:

"Come Back Baby" is another outtake that's been in circulation for some
time, but the quality here is an upgrade. The extant versions of the song
are pitched higher; I can't tell you definitively which is correct, but
the other songs on the reels appear to be correct.

"Come Back Baby" is on the same tape as "Dallas" and "Sail The Waterway,"
and all three have surface noise. Given that "Dallas" and "Sail" were both
issued on a 45, I initially presumed the reel was a transfer of that
single. But on closer review, "Dallas" starts with a bit of studio chatter
not present on the single. It dawns on me: the second reel is a recording
of studio acetates, which explains the surface noise on the unreleased
"Come Back Baby." The version here has been de-clicked and de-crackled for
improved listenability (because "Dallas" and "Sail the Waterway" are
released, they can't be included). When it ends, there's a pause followed
by nearly a minute of acoustic guitar playing on another track I didn't
recognize. Maybe you will.

 

Cool! I didn't know "Any World That I'm Welcome To" is another "old" song they pulled out of mothballs to use on Katy Lied...

 

Well, check this out. Silent 8mm footage from January, 1974 - the St. Paul Winter Carnival. Wow.

 

Wow. Now I see why they thought the remake wasn’t that good as this take is phenominal.

Fagen really should release an album of remade unreleased Becker/Fagen tunes.

 

Seems like Skunk and Denny would recycle the same stage outfits repeatedly

 

If Irving Azoff can't persuade Fagen to do it, it'll never happen.

 

Where did that come from?! I've never heard it sound that good.

 

The hell of it is, even if Fagen didn't trawl through the archives and lash together an album of unreleased Dan songs and actually went so far as to rerecord them, a project like that is probably the only thing that could possibly compel Fagen to get back into the studio and make another record, because he'd be well aware that an album of archival Steely Dan material would sell better than a new "Donald Fagen" solo record would.

And yet Donald Fagen -or, to be fair, Walter Becker when he was still with us- could make their comments about not wanting to record new music because there wasn't any money in it and I still can't bring myself to call them greedy, money grubbing bastids like I would certain other musicians...I can understand why they wouldn't want to dedicate two years and a decent chunk of change to making a record very few people would actually buy. I mean, we'd buy it, but I can hear Fagen now: "Well, of course you would..."

 

Back in my teens I got into Steely Dan (much to many of my friend's dismay).

Of all the music that I was listening to in college, Steely Dan has passed the test of time. To me they are just as amazing today as they were when I was 17

I also agree with those of you that think Katy Lied is one of their best albums.

 

Thanks for that, they're amazing. "Megashine City" sounds releaseable and was clearly the basis of "Bodhisattva" and "Chain Lightning". Makes me wonder why they didn't release any tracks like this as B-Sides. The "Talkin' Bout My Home" demo that gets put with the Gaucho demos is pre-Thrill, IMO. It just got bootlegged alongside the Gaucho ones, in much the same way as the "Don't Let Me In" that got leaked with the early demos is a later (probably Katy Lied era) demo they sent the band Sneaker in 1981.

"Runnin' Child" is a different mix from the previously leaked outtake, it lacks the guitar in the intro, has fewer harmonies has more propulsive drums. The end suggests the tape cut off. Supposedly, the version that previously leaked was an acetate version under consideration for Citizen Steely Dan.

"Any World", though it follows the arrangement of the synth demo, is the first piano and drum led demo of it and sounds pretty good.

"Come Back Baby" is simply a rough mix of the well known outtake, except for the studio noodling after the fade.

 

Couldn't resist the Fagen bug after perusing through the thread.
The production on this surpasses most that I've heard, can't
put my finger on it but the bottom end and highs particularly
sparkle, but not in that bright digital way. It's not Nightfly, but
I do like this one.

 

All of the first seven are "one of their best albums"!