― Reilly Barratt, Sunday, 23 April 2006 16:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― kevinod (odtron5000), Sunday, 23 April 2006 17:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alex in Baltimore (Alex in Baltimore), Sunday, 23 April 2006 17:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― kevinod (odtron5000), Sunday, 23 April 2006 18:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― Reilly, Tuesday, 25 April 2006 18:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― Reilly, Tuesday, 25 April 2006 18:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― Reilly, Tuesday, 25 April 2006 18:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― brianh, Sunday, 30 April 2006 12:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alex in Baltimore (Alex in Baltimore), Sunday, 30 April 2006 13:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― kevinod (odtron5000), Sunday, 30 April 2006 18:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― O-Keigh (O-Keigh), Sunday, 30 April 2006 19:32 (eighteen years ago) link
But that's what's so hellish about it. It's Los Fucking Angeles.
A thought I had on another thread:
T/S: The best album about LA
Guns n' Roses Appetite for Destruction or Steely Dan Gaucho? Two sides of the same coin, I think.
― sinful caesar sipped his snifter (kenan), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 01:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― Baaderonixx immer wieder (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 11:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 11:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― jinx hijinks (sanskrit), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 23:49 (seventeen years ago) link
Story:http://www.bigomagazine.com/archive/ARrarities/ARsdgaucho.html
'Second arrangement' is probably my most listened to Steely Dan song. 'The Bear' is also good. If they had been finished and included, I think Gaucho would be an easy consensus for best Steely Dan album
― starke (starke), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 01:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― Baaderonixx immer wieder (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 07:29 (seventeen years ago) link
READ THE FUCKING THREAD
― aimee semple mcmansion (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 07:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marmot 4-Tay: forth-coming, my child. forth-coming most righteous champion (mar, Wednesday, 28 June 2006 07:50 (seventeen years ago) link
however i had "deacon blues" stuck in my head this afternoon. i usually hate songs with long choruses (and repeating long choruses, at that), but "deacon blues" is just perfect. something about how assuredly bewildered fagen's delivery seems supersedes any possible klutziness.
― aimee semple mcmansion (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 08:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marmot 4-Tay: forth-coming, my child. forth-coming most righteous champion (mar, Wednesday, 28 June 2006 08:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marmot 4-Tay: forth-coming, my child. forth-coming most righteous champion (mar, Wednesday, 28 June 2006 08:08 (seventeen years ago) link
And am I just imagining that Streisand covered "Barrytown"? I know she did the early-Becker/Fagen "I Mean to Shine," but I love the idea of her sticking it to the Archie Bunker type of "Barrytown."
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 08:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 08:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― aimee semple mcmansion (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 08:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marmot 4-Tay: forth-coming, my child. forth-coming most righteous champion (mar, Wednesday, 28 June 2006 08:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― aimee semple mcmansion (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 08:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marmot 4-Tay: forth-coming, my child. forth-coming most righteous champion (mar, Wednesday, 28 June 2006 09:08 (seventeen years ago) link
It's funny reading this sentiment toward these two albums. Having grown up in a very Dan-friendly house, I've always loved their music, and The Royal Scam and Gaucho are my favorite albums. Scam is certainly not their greatest album, but, more so with Steely Dan than with most bands, certain songs tend to make indelible marks on your memory and hold such strong connections. Whenever I hear "Kid Charlemagne" or "Caves of Altamira" I'm instantly reminded of a rather fond period of my life. Whether it is because of how often I listened to that record then or some meaning within those songs I do not know.
Also, on the talk of Scam upthread as neo-hippie favorite I can attest, as me and my friends were deep into our Phish phase and spun the album hundreds of times (I was 16....). Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the album seems to be the only one where they focused mroe on texture and groove and funk (in some places) than on their usual character sketches and dark contemporary commentary. It's easy to listen to "The Fez" when you've taken 8 bong hits.
Gaucho on the other hand is no guilty pleasure. It is a work of pure yet restrained genius, with loads of sleaze, contempt, antipathy... over the most sophisticated, glossy, presicse sounds...it's a gripping album.
― Magna Gardner (New Media Intern), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ (chaki), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 16:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― gear (gear), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 16:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ (chaki), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 17:44 (seventeen years ago) link
Alright, last time I read it (admittedly a while ago) nobody had, and a text search for 'bootleg' came up empty. Sorry for ruining your day.
That being said:
the lost gaucho album >>>>>> gaucho
is very true.
― starke (starke), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 19:50 (seventeen years ago) link
is it safe to like "since u been gone" yet?
― aimee semple mcmansion (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 29 June 2006 00:12 (seventeen years ago) link
You can find the source for the title track in 'Long as You Know You're Living Yours' from the Keith Jarrett and co album Belonging. Jarrett noticed this as well, sued and now receives a co-writing credit on the track.
― calstars, Sunday, 3 June 2007 02:26 (sixteen years ago) link
AMG:
Themes: Night Driving At the Office!!!! Late Night
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Sunday, 3 June 2007 02:38 (sixteen years ago) link
I just ordered a cheap used copy of this.
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 3 June 2007 03:13 (sixteen years ago) link
In an advance copy of Marooned[ that a friend managed to snag, Phil Freeman devotes a third of his Motorhead essay to Gaucho; it's mostly an excellent encapsulation of this discussion.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 3 June 2007 12:49 (sixteen years ago) link
This is great (from the Stylus piece):
Consummate critics in their own right, Walter Becker himself nails Gaucho above. It wasn’t the peak of their sound, it was more like its implosion: a spotless album not only portraying and mocking, but literally embodying the shellacked vapidity of their Los Angeles lifestyles and the escape—a fantasy of breezy opulence—that their music offered to their fans.
It says exactly what I've always felt about them - that while satirizing a scene, they also create a perfect picture of it, so that I can feel like I'm in on the jokes even though they're about a lifestyle and time I never knew.
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 3 June 2007 13:06 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah that's a good piece.
phish's golden age (imo) is 97 when they were deep in funk
stop it.
― will, Sunday, 3 June 2007 13:56 (sixteen years ago) link
"Brut and charisma poured from the shadow where he stood"
really, these guys were The Best.
― will, Sunday, 3 June 2007 13:59 (sixteen years ago) link
"Szechuan dumplings, now that the deal has been done. I'm the one."
My favorite Dan album.
― Jon Lewis, Sunday, 3 June 2007 14:35 (sixteen years ago) link
In an advance copy of Marooned that a friend managed to snag, Phil Freeman devotes a third of his Motorhead essay to Gaucho; it's mostly an excellent encapsulation of this discussion.
Well, as I said in the piece, I had originally thought long and hard about making Gaucho my album pick for the book. It's still absolutely my favorite SD album; for me it works like a short story collection, something like Bret Easton Ellis's The Informers (a very underrated book, btw).
― unperson, Sunday, 3 June 2007 18:04 (sixteen years ago) link
for me it works like a short story collection
absolutely OTM. The fullest flowering of their weird lyrical specificity.
Apologies for using the word "specificity".
― Jon Lewis, Sunday, 3 June 2007 18:07 (sixteen years ago) link
I finally picked up a copy and I think it's great.
I had never caught one of the best lines in "Hey Nineteen" before:
The Cuervo Gold The fine Colombian Make tonight a wonderful thing
The way he phrases it is so spot-on -- he really sounds drunk and depressed, as though the tequila and coke are the only things propping him up.
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 10 June 2007 15:26 (sixteen years ago) link
I think "Columbian" at the time meant weed - not that there isn't plenty of coke on the album, but "Columbian" was a common designator for weed at the time
― J0hn D., Sunday, 10 June 2007 15:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Ah, ok. Actually drunk/stoned fits that line better than drunk/coked-up.
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 10 June 2007 15:50 (sixteen years ago) link
And the whole mood of the song too - resigned rather than grandiose.
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 10 June 2007 15:51 (sixteen years ago) link
I made myself coffee and read the OTHER Steely Dan thread again; it really is the most amazing thing on ILM.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 10 June 2007 16:06 (sixteen years ago) link