this is THE REAL Steely Dan

[hal]

I remember back in the early 90s being so excited to know that Steely Dan was going to tour for the first time since 1974. OMG! I know they got a little mushy near the end of their run, but I had an old cassette bootleg of one 1974 show and they kicked ass! No mousey little sax solos, no... Skunk Baxter on guitar - yeah! and the rest of the band was just a knock-out band that could floor you with raw power. Not your daddy's Steely Dan... um... something like that. That Steely Dan show in 1993? God it sucked! It was like they were playing Muzak versions of their own songs. They had the 'mellow' turned up to 11. Yuck!

So I was telling a buddy about that 74 tour and I was just now digging around youtube looking for a version of it to forward to him. It's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nht4T7tgy0o

Then I stumble on this one - even better! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS9hj3S2h4Q and then THIS ONE from the UK - a few months after that one that I knew of that was really a pre-tour party show. That UK show is also has very good sound quality, but now the band has a few months of road experience and they are TIGHT! These newer shows were nowhere to be found a few years ago. I gotta remember to keep checking...

I know there are a lot old SD fans that love all of the albums and never knew about this other Steely Dan band, but to me, this is the real Steely Dan. Listen and enjoy... if you don't like it - too bad!

:-)

Highlights imo: Bodhisattva, The Boston Rag, Do It Again , King of the World (wow!), Instrumental aka Your Gold Teeth II (except the UK version is just an abbreviation), Reelin in the Years, but really, there aren't many duds.

[Black]

For whatever reason I don't have much of a concept of what Steely Dan looks like....
what the heck is going on in here?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzfwtX2kgOA

[RgrF]

Hadn't heard it for quite a while (once had the vinyl), thanks Hal.

[eustacetilley]

Um, the real Steely Dan was a creation of William Burroughs, and it was a... well...
You better read it for yourself:
http://www.granatino.com/sdresource/burrough.htm

As strange as it may seem, this article actually snows some literary cred on the band and their lyrics.

Eustace

[DP]

I liked their later work and think Aja is one of the best albums ever. The earlier stuff, while good, was pop.
You want to understand things individually, listen to "11 Tracks of Whack", Walter Becker's solo album. Definitely different. Very different...

[flightdelayedagain]

Always like them - I read somewhere or maybe saw this documentary about how Fagen and Becker would do countless takes in the studio to get a part just right. Real perfectionists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8GwEX7nn6o

[deckeda]

flightdelayedagain wrote:
Always like them - I read somewhere or maybe saw this documentary about how Fagen and Becker would do countless takes in the studio to get a part just right. Real perfectionists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8GwEX7nn6o

Yeah, and another one who comes to mind like that is Brian Wilson.

The Hey Nineteen clip posted above is a curiosity but I did read once in a Fagen interview that he never really listens again to his past recordings. I didn't take it as not warning to wallow in past glories so much as not being interested in the music and moving on to something new. That might "explain" why concert songs later get new arrangements and interpretations. To keep the sanity.

hal wrote: Then I stumble on this one - even better! [www.youtube.com]

Jeff Porcaro at 20, his pro career only started 3 years earlier, and knocking it out of the park.

[Will Collier]

I have a bunch of those old '74 shows. They're a blast.

We were lucky enough to catch them in Boston a few years ago for the first of the "full album" sets, where they played multiple nights in a venue and picked out a full LP (Aja, The Royal Scam, or Gaucho) to start the set list. They opened with all of Aja (awesome), then Fagen noted that a local newspaper critic had complained the band wasn't going to do "The Royal Scam" on that Boston run. "But we've got some time, so let's play it now!" So they did, full album, followed by a long encore set of other tunes. Great, great show.

Dig around for the Quad versions of the first few albums; they've been made into digital versions available in certain corners of the interwebs. Lot of different takes and instrumental parts that didn't make the stereo mixes.

[Lux Interior]

eustacetilley wrote:
Um, the real Steely Dan was a creation of William Burroughs, and it was a... well...

lol! That is just what I was expecting when I clicked.

[rgG]

Lux Interior wrote:
[quote=eustacetilley]
Um, the real Steely Dan was a creation of William Burroughs, and it was a... well...

lol! That is just what I was expecting when I clicked.
OK, that makes me feel better, because that is what I was expecting, too.