Steely Dan: cassettes of missing track "Second Arrangement" found

Very good stuff for Steely Dan fans (especially since Steely isn't really recording anymore). I'll link some examples:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb0SO9wC7xo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKpl90myX-E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zio_F6f_rCM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGgKwWAyZAw

 

This is an improvement on the song over the sloppy Fagen vocal above. It's still only a decent song to me, not one of their better ones.

 

I recently found this video of Roger Nichol's daughter showing the cassette and other ephemera from her father's archives.

(She doesn't play the cassette.)

 

I watched her livestream about this last week or so for about ten minutes. It was all I could take as I felt it was a waste of time. It was like watching Geraldo and Al Capone's vault.

 

But hosted by a woman who appeared to be super high.

 

I agree, it's a fun curiosity, but not a lost masterpiece. Steely Dan's quality control was part of why they were so great.

 

The Second Arrangement would have fit perfectly on Gaucho and made the album even better.

 

Yeah, she seems like a sincere person, but it could have been much shorter.

I didn't like the part where she picked up the cassette to show it and shook the tape so that it rattled.
Probably not the best way to treat a cheap cassette tape that contains a rare recording.

 

I guess the difference here is that -- as the legend has it -- "The Second Arrangement" would most definitely have been on Gaucho, had the original master take been preserved. Supposedly the re-recorded version didn't capture whatever magic was on the tape that was partially erased, and that's the only reason we didn't get the song on the album.

In this case, I think the legend is far more powerful than the reality. Seems way too convenient that the incredible, other-worldly, life-altering recording was lost forever...while the attempt to recreate it was so much less successful that they left it off the record.

 

Yes, I agree it required a third arrangement, which it never got.

 

I wonder if anything was ever done with this tape. Would love to hear it if it's the real deal.

 

Does anyone know what versions of Second Arrangement have been used on the forthcoming Lost Gaucho cd due out in June? Maybe the recently found cassette version?

 

The Lost Gaucho is coming out legitimately? I find that hard to believe.

Or is this just another bootleg?

 

It's currently up for pre order at Amazon.

 

That is a bootleg.

 

Looks like a European bootleg, likely a sketchy “remaster” of a YouTube rip of what already circulates. Anything official would be on Universal Music.

 

Yes, but it's freely available to order from a number of outlets rather like the series of Bowie live CDs, so I 3xpect the quality to be pretty good. Just wondering what versions of Second Arrangement will be included. Will also be available at HMV.

 

They won’t have access to anything new. It will be what’s been bootlegged forever.

 

Didn’t know there was an ABC single that preceded “Do It Again”,
“Dallas”, sung by the drummer. Interesting, never heard it.

 

This song sounds like it would have been better suited to The Nightfly, rather than Gaucho, but I really like it.

 

Expect it to be mastered from existing bootlegs that circulate for free--nothing better.

If you want to pay a bootlegger for putting a pretty cover on it, that's your call.

 

Except for the lyrics have Walter Becker all over them.

 

The B-side is better, and it's sung by Fagen:

 

I agree. It was a major disappointment to not get Sail the Waterway on the box set. Whoever made that decision ought to get fired. Sometimes the record company should just insist (and pay the licensing fee, if needed).