Absolutely no sign of SD releasing remasters or box sets with early demos, alt takes etc.
I assume they are just so chuffed with the released versions they don’t see a need for this.
Or has anyone heard otherwise?
Musings on the byways of popular culture
Absolutely no sign of SD releasing remasters or box sets with early demos, alt takes etc.
I assume they are just so chuffed with the released versions they don’t see a need for this.
Or has anyone heard otherwise?
Here’s hoping Steely Dan seize the moment to do a few gigs on their own whilst they are over here. They’d easily sell out the RAH. I’d be disappointed if the ‘Dan were SUPPORTED by The Eagles.
“People think I’m crazy, but I’m just growing old.”
https://planetradio.co.uk/planet-rock/news/rock-news/eagles-manchester-co-op-live/
Listening to the spanking new remaster of Little Feat’s Dixie Chicken, I was struck by Walkin’ All Night, in which the protagonist mistakes a business arrangement for a potential romance. There must have been something in the water in 1973. Steely Dan use the same premise in Pearl Of The Quarter. It’s the closest they ever came to writing a love song. Elton John, however, is brutally clear eyed about his Sweet Painted Lady. On the other hand, the Southern Belle in Dixie Chicken seems happy to share her favours without a financial transaction, as long as she is paid in kind.
Somehow, I can’t imagine these kind of songs being written today, except from a totally different perspective, maybe by the likes of Lana Del Ray.
Any other examples of songs they don’t write like they used to?
You know you love a list.
You know you love Steely Dan.
QED.
(something to argue about, if you get bored watching the rolling 24 hour political news…)
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/oct/20/steely-dans-20-greatest-songs-ranked
Pre-Dan Fagan, Bexter and Becker record album with teenage songwriter.
(afterword server explodes)
I’ve just heard. To be truthful, I thought he died a long time ago. The man who is credited with inventing ‘lateral thinking’ has finally flatlined his brainwaves. He made a very good living out of thinking. Hats off to him for that. However, he never underestimated his own talent, referring to himself as a genius even when he was still a child.
I always thought of him and one of his committee meetings whenever I heard Steely Dan’s The Fez. Any excuse.
by Twang 10 Comments
I thought that might get a few people’s attentions. Anthony Robustelli is a guy with serious muso chops who wrote a fairly definitive guide to Steely Dan in “The Steely Dan FAQ” which exhaustively gets down and nerdy on the Dan.
However, as if that wasn’t enough, he then took the various unfinished Dan demos which are knocking around on the internet and on shonky CD “releases” and recorded them properly with a seriously good set of musicians to create an album called “Steely Dan – Interpretations of Unrealised Classics”. And it’s really good!
There’s a good podcast where he talks about it at some length, but in a nutshell where the Dan demo was a clear statement of intent he was faithful to their arrangement etc, but where it is more of a sketch he took artistic liberties adding sections, lyrics and grooves to where he thought it would have gone had Walt and Don fully developed it. Then recorded it in Royal Scam/Aja style analogue sonic quality (i.e. avoiding the slightly glassy sound of Gaucho and to a degree Two Against Nature).
Those who know the demos will recognise them here and spot the additions, and if you » Continue Reading.
Once upon a time it was an axiom of this place that people liked a band’s “earlier stuff”. You know, being old and in the way and generally grumpy about this ‘ere modern music an’ all.
So let’s share our thoughts on this. Only TWO bands per category so it doesn’t become an endless unreadable list.
It’s very general, for example I have The Beatles as “later”, which doesn’t mean I don’t like their earlier stuff. It’s just that thinking of their overall oeuvre I prefer listening to MMT to WTB.
Here’s mine
EARLY
Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention Pink Floyd
LATE
The Beatles
ALL
Steely Dan XTC
by niallb 4 Comments
As we all know, Steely Dan recorded that one great album, completed a short tour, and then split up. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had a huge falling out (apparently over the ownership of a Bill Evans album) and never spoke again.
Following Walter’s death, last year, Donald gave his blessing to producer Gary Katz to go through the tapes of those album sessions, to see if there was anything worth saving. What Katz found blew his mind. “Man, we were all smoking so much weed back then that even I don’t remember one day to the next. I had a vague recollection of some song about pretzels but not much else. When I opened the box that Don had sent me the first thing I found was the final master tapes of the mixed album. Below them was another three reels of jams, conversations, rows and Skunk ordering pizzas. Lots of pizzas. Then, right at the bottom of the box was a blanket. I stacked all the tapes on my kitchen table and moved the empty box into the hallway. Man, it was heavy. Too heavy. I stopped and pulled at the blanket. Underneath, I got a glimpse of » Continue Reading.
by Mousey 3 Comments
Almost revealing interview with Unca Donald. Worth a listen for Dan fans. Heartwarming and simpatico
by Chris 17 Comments
Another in Uncut’s UMG series, out today in all good newsagents.
http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/introducing-ultimate-music-guide-steely-dan-102278
by Mousey 6 Comments
OK so I suspect many of us have been revisiting the Dan recently in the light of the tragically sad passing of Walter Becker.
One thing that’s missing from the tributes/discussion is any kind of analysis of who wrote what. The Becker/Fagen partnership seems to have been much more collaborative than other more famous songwriting partnerships e.g. the HJH.
Still, I’m curious. It seems to me as a longtime Dan fan that we could possibly assign the major dude in various songs.
Here’s my suggestions for Walter
This is not a definitive list, but I reckon WB was the Principal Lyrical Instigator of these –
Do It Again
Everything You Did
Sign In Stranger
Hey Nineteen
Deacon Blues Janie Runaway
OOAA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OPjqteoPHU
This is a rather nice article about our louche hipster fantasy friends which i think mostly nails their appeal (and why others may not get it).
Have other folks hoping to attend this received their tickets yet? We haven’t.
Please advise.
Also, should we try to engineer a mingle at this event? i will have junior and the only teenage girl – my daughter, sauceboxes – in the audience with me.
Again, please advise.
Haven’t seen anyone posting about this. Not everyday two of my heroes work together, and it has added political piquancy. This, from a recent interview in a Variety:
Variety – Donald Fagen sings lead on the anti-Trump song “Man in the Tin Foil Hat,” but it’s hard to tell who wrote what in the tune, because the chord progressions and biting humor both sound like both of you.
TR – That was one of the more interesting collaborations on the record, because it’s the only one in which me and my collaborator were in the same physical place at the same time. I’ve known Donald since he spent some time living out at Kauai, where I still live, and he just happened to be on vacation on the island in January. We went out to dinner, and I thought, well, geez, why don’t I just spring it on him? The song was primarily driven by our common frustration with what happened in the recent election. It was still pretty fresh, and we were still pretty mad about it, so it happened pretty organically. So who knows? If I’m actually in the room with a collaborator, a lot of things can » Continue Reading.
Tix on sale thursday
The idiots cant clarify if this is 28 or 29th October and there are only two date: one date is in Dublin, one in London, but the basic info is thus:
28/ 29 OCT 2017 BluesFest presents Steely Dan & The Doobie Brothers
The O2, London
Given they haven’t been here for 8 years, this is probably obligatory – though i hope appeal is sufficiently selective it can be moved to the more intimate Wembley Arena.
Gotta hope Micheal McDonald is back with the Doobies for this one.
Of course I don’t mean that but, hey, got your attention, right? I love every Dan album. They all have surprises, quirks and tweaks. Yes, they all have the odd duffer but, shit, who doesn’t? But the Dan I fell head over heels in love with is the one on Can’t Buy A Thrill. The warm, multi-harmonied rock band. The band I thought would save the world. The band that wasn’t so aware of just how feckin’ good they were. The band that weren’t so knowing. CBAT is packed with warmth, in the sound, the recording, the guitar tones and the drum sound. Everything afterwards, though brilliant, sounds a tiny bit colder. A tiny bit cleverer (is that even a word?) A tiny bit more knowing. There is no duffer on CBAT. I adore all of the references, the nods, the winks. They don’t feel ‘placed’. They feel completely natural, completely real. Can’t Buy A Thrill is the sound of a band at the height of their powers. After it, Steely Dan sound amazing, clever, heroic. But they no longer sound like a band.
You may have your own opinion, so hit me with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea3Bofkmwlc
by niallb 2 Comments
Keith Carlock, Steely Dan’s wonderful drummer, tweeted this photo, this afternoon. So, you rock up at the beautiful Beacon Theatre, with your Dan ticket in your hand, floating on air. You look up at the billing on the marquee. ‘Special Guest…’
You faint dead away.
http://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w479/niallbrannigan/9ebb20a1a235dae6384a82aa6c236036_zpsyi2kcxjm.jpg
Disappointing news. Not that people behave well in the dying moments of a relationship.
http://www.music-news.com/news/UK/94546/Steely-Dan-s-Donald-Fagen-arrested-for-assaulting-wife
excellent piece from the WSJ on how Becker and Fagen created the song – great stuff throughout, including – “We told him we wanted the horns to have a tight, romantic “Duke Ellington cloud” feel.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-steely-dan-created-deacon-blues-1441727645
Didn’t realise the song was about him
http://sfist.com/2015/07/20/san_francisco_show_and_tell_steely.php
just in case anybody missed last night’s Johnnie Walker’s Long Player, it featured The Dan & Toto. with added comments from David Hepworth, it focused on Pretzel Logic and I found it to be an interesting sixty mins. it’s on the i-player for the next month, i believe
by daff 15 Comments
For anyone who might be interested there is a new album in April – it’s called Southland.