Again . . . sometimes the label ought to insist. Say, "We are not putting this out without it." Interference with the artist is good when it's the right decision.
If I'm the label guy at that time, I just overrule them and say, "Let it on there or we don't put it out." Sometimes, overruling the artistic vision is the right decision.
I'm 600% certain that if that ultimatum was to be given, they'd have said "Fine, don't put it out". They wouldn't have cared. And MCA would've left money on the table. Becker and Fagen had the ability to dictate what tracks came out and what didn't.
"Because it is stinko" was their explanation. I was able to track down the 12" EP with the two tracks on it. Especially annoying, the Citizen box set that omitted the tracks included a photo of the EP sleeve. So they were fine with people knowing the tracks existed, but drew the line at letting people hear them.
I like 'em both way better than, say, "Babylon Sisters." Put it all out, especially since it's already been released so that barn door ain't closing. I know they were also really annoyed by a load of early songwriting demos that appeared on a series of gray market releases.
And I'm slightly more sympathetic to that position. But "Dallas" and "Sail the Waterway" were released to the public. Naive of them to think people wouldn't want them in that collection.
I love Steely Dan but these songs sound like throwaways to me. Not up to the standards of the songs that made the cut. Better than Babylon Sisters? I don't think so.
As much as I'd like to have everything Steely Dan ever recorded, including this misfire of a single, I have to respect the artist's wishes that it not be considered part of their cannon. Becker & Fagen were rightfully embarrassed by it; it's our job as superfans to find the record on our own. The only way these songs and others like, "Gullywater," are coming out is likely after Fagen has shed his mortal coil.
Both "Dallas" and "Sail The Waterway" were covered to (arguably) better effect by Poco and Denny Doherty respectively. Although the Dan versions did get a limited single release, they really fit better with their demos.
Everyone is certainly entitled to their own tastes and preferences, but it's easier to decide whether you like the songs if they're available for you to hear. Certainly Steely Dan isn't the only act to disown its early material to the point of making it disappear - Alanis Morissette bought the rights to her first two albums and has not re-released them, effectively suppressing her mall-pop period and conveying to casual fans the impression that her career started with Jagged Little Pill. Another major group (whom I won't name because it seems to trigger a few poor souls here) got an injunction to take the 1962 Star-Club tapes off the market.
I like both sides of the Dallas single. It’s Steely Dan after all and therefore easy to like. A band that made no bad records in my view.
I must say I like both of those songs. They are of their time. Yeah they moved on, but these are good songs.
While we’re on the topic of early Steely Dan, this might be of interest: Linda Hoover — I Mean To Shine – Omnivore Recordings Unissued Gary Katz-produced 1970 album featuring members of the original Steely Dan line-up. In the summer of 1970, Linda Hoover, then 19, entered Manhattan’s Advantage Sound Studio to cut her first album with Gary Katz, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen leading a team that also included guitarists (and future Steely Dan members) Denny Dias & Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, and Eric Weissberg, saxophonist Jerome Richardson, plus members of the Dick Cavett Orchestra. I Mean To Shine includes three original compositions by Linda alongside The Band’s “In A Station” (from Music From Big Pink) and Stephen Stills’ “4+20” (which appeared on CSN&Y’s Déjà Vu). Almost half of the album was penned by the pre-Steely Dan songwriting duo of Becker and Fagen, including what would become the album’s title track. After creating a wonderful record, album cover photos were taken and then it all fell apart. The release was shelved over a business disagreement and if that wasn’t heartbreaking enough, Hoover learned that Barbra Streisand also recorded “I Mean To Shine” (which would appear on her album Barbra Joan Streisand). Streisand’s album hit #11 and went gold. For the production team of Katz, Becker, and Fagen one success built on another and they were hired to staff positions at ABC-Dunhill Records in Los Angeles. Hoover continued to pursue musical opportunities in New York, but with her creative team gone and no record release to show for their collective efforts, she wound up returning to her parents’ house in Florida. However, she did take a tape copy of her album home with her. Now, with the blessing from Hoover and original producer Katz, the previously unissued album, I Mean To Shine finally sees the light of day and even features the proposed 1970 cover shot by Joel Brodsky (whose work at that time had already graced the covers of releases from The Doors, Van Morrison, The Stooges, and more). The album has been produced for release by Linda, Jay Willingham, and Grammy®-winner Cheryl Pawelski with audio restoration and mastering by Grammy®-winning engineer Michael Graves. Scott Schinder’s liner notes are informed by new interviews with Hoover and Katz. The album will get a vinyl release for Record Store Day Drop June 19, 2022 with CD and Digital available the following week (June 24).
Nice, I think there's at least one or two unreleased Becker-Fagen co-writes on this album. It's mentioned in the Reelin' In The Years book where Walter Becker recalls the three songs she wrote and finds them amusing.
DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES give it to MoFi - they'll clean it up and make it sound far better than it did on the cassette, but they'll also introduce a trivial d*gital step, thereby rendering it totally worthless
LOL. Don and Walter, I hate to tell you this but, well, we're going to have to let you go from Steely Dan. If you need a reference letter or something let me know. Hey, sudden idea: try one of those small jazz labels. Could you send Mike, Denny and Jeff in on your way out? Thanks!"
Sorry if this has already been posted, but the newly discovered cassette of "The Second Arrangement" has dropped. You can listen to it here and there's also a good essay about the history of the tape: Tale of the tape In the days before a hapless studio technician erased Steely Dan’s “The Second Arrangement” in 1979, Roger Nichols, the band’s late, great longtime engineer, made a rough mix of the track on a cassette tape. The song was nearly complete. Horns and a fade would soon be added. Producer Gary Katz already was imagining it as the band’s next single. When Nichols returned to his apartment at 30 Lincoln Plaza in New York, he set the tape aside and forgot about it.
