Gaucho Poll

Like the rest of ILM, I feel this is the most underrated Steely Dan album. While I still like "Aja" and "Pretzel Logic" better, the first three tracks here are downright fantastic. But I still come back to "Babylon Sisters" because it has some fantastic chords and chord changes, and is also possibly the ultimate hi-fi classic among the Steely Dan tracks.

you gotta give Geir an OTM when he's OTM: I've sat down with the sheet music to "Babylon Sisters," and those changes are fucking CHOICE.

Easily the title track for me (the glowing vocals of the chorus, fantastic lyrics), followed by "Time Out of Mind" or "Babylon Sisters"

title track wins it for me.

It's the last song I "got." It's all about the backing vocals.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, July 14, 2008 3:21 PM (6 hours ago)

man, this is just a general steely dan truth! just saw them live and people were FLIPPING OUT during the "you'vegottoshakeitbaby" bits in babylon sisters.

skate a little lower

I have a theory that his rival in My Rival is Billy Joel, though I don't think I can prove that it's true...

I can imagine Billy Joel stinking like a prickly pear.

Good as it is, this is where they started to run out of melodies and had to settle for grooves instead. (But I have to admit I considered voting for "Glamour Profession" before picking "Time Out of Mind."

If My Rival was replaced with The Second Arrangement, this would be the best album ever, period.

yeah, I like "Second Arrangement" more than most of the songs that made the cut.

where is it available?

I got it off of some Steely Dan Archive site that appears to no longer exist, but it seems to be out there on bootlegs as much as any other SD outtakes/demos.

I'll leave my Soulseek on tonight if anyone wants it

I forgot to mention that I voted for "Hey Nineteen." I'm surprised by the love for the title track, which I find a little boring.

my rival is pretty dope, i think. love the keyboards.

it's got that great tinny synth solo.

one dollar used to be a whole lot but it hardly worth shit today

2nd Arrangement is pretty overrated, I find

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I went with "Babylon Sisters" mostly because you can hear Green Gartside and his chirpers in the exchange "So fine so young/Tell me I'm the only one." Think maybe he got the idea for Cupid & Psyche 85, if not his entire career, from listening to Steely Dan?

"Babylon Sisters" for me

Man I love the Dan so much

I decided to go with Gaucho, mostly because it proves that they were not out of melodies. That song has so many hooks it could make an album.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

mostly because it proves that they were not out of melodies.

Keith Jarrett begged to differ.

whoa, surprising that babylon sisters didn't take this.

I am shocked that Hey Nineteen didn't walk away with it.

yeah, weird that this is the first SD album poll to not have a single finish in 1st or 2nd place, and by such a wide margin.

I went for hey nineteen but then what do I know, I heard this record for the first time about a week ago

One of the most unexpected poll results I've seen here

Gaucho is the illest, but i am surprised, too.

Where the hell can I get a decent sounding copy of "The Second Arrangement (full band version)"??? All the slsk version seem to be bootleg, they sound like they were recorded with a mic up to a radio speaker...

::shrug:: mine sounds like that too

I think they all do. Legend has it the master tape was accidentally erased

That's crazy. I was hoping it would have turned up by now on some 'deluxe' reissue. It's such an amazing song. Surely SOMEONE made a backup way back then?

the version of "the second arrangement" that I have sounds OK but just has vox+bass+piano+little electric piano flourishes. is there another version out the with the full band that's poorly recorded? confusing.

listening to steely dan bootlegs is a little weird for me. the pristine production is such a huge part of their sound that it really throws me off!

It's a shame, it seems like there's potential for a great compilation of SD demos and studio outtakes and songs that only exist on live bootlegs, but given their perfectionism and embarrassment about the sound on Katy Lied that kind of thing would probably never happen in any official capacity.

xpost - the "Second Arrangement" I have is full band.

OK, just did some research. Apparently, the relatively widely circulated 'full band' version (the only one I've heard!) was their attempt to RE-record the track that got erased by the engineer. This raises sme questions, most obviously, if it was re-recorded, how come the "sound" on this second version is still such poor quality? The version we're probably all hearing is likely a nth generation bootleg, digitized to sound even worse.

I understand the original take is gone, but can't we get a decent sounding version of this re-recorded version??

Also - what's this about another version sans drums?

I hate that "Everyone's Gone To The Movies" demo on the Citizen box, but at least its placement on that gives me hope that they're open to more official releases of that stuff.

I don't like to imagine a band like SD leaving demos around. How messy!

Also - what's this about another version sans drums?

yeah, that's the only one I've ever known. it sounds nothing like this...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VRSU59uxi1U

...which is what I'm assuming everyone else has heard. I'll upload the one I have later. if that youtube clip is any indication, the sound quality is way better.

something a little fishy about the story behind this track...

I don't understand the conspiracy theory attitude here. As I understand it back in the analog age before unlimited hard drive space, it was pretty common to erase and tape over master tapes of tracks that the artist had no intention of releasing, and there are tons of stories of studio mishaps involving erasing accidents.

And there's usually a very good reason why bands don't allow songs to progress past the demo phase.

it just strikes me a little odd that the song was never properly re-recorded.

has you browser ever crashed in the middle of drafting a long post? sometimes you boot right back up and re-do it from memory as quickly as you can, and sometimes you just throw up your hands and say "fuck it, it wasn't that important."

Man I have been in a studio and had stuff wiped that I wasn't ready to use let. It's hard to describe what that does to your morale. You kinda never want to hear the song again at that point - certainly you're not about to revisit it during those sessions. Finding out that something you tracked and thought you liked has been wiped is like being informed that your effort, your hard effort toward something lasting, was literally for nothing. So the story behind this track not only strikes me as believable; I'm certain it's true.

"...that I wasn't ready to let go of," I mean.

holy cow "related videos" yields another Gaucho outtake that sounds like it would have been stellar:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BtkHAdOZSaQ&feature=related

The irony of this result is that Hey Nineteen is a microcosm of what makes SD so great in the first place: a smooth, catchy pop tune with sardonic lyrics and perfect production, plus Michael McDonald.

Those interested should check out: http://www.bigozine2.com/archive/ARrarities/ARsdgaucho.html

if you guys haven't heard 'second arrangement' ya prob should

yeah Second Arrangement KILLS.

I heard it a few years ago, but I prefer "The Bear" for the clavinet and Fagen's vocal.

yeah, "second arrangement" is killer, no doubt about it. and though I find the low fidelity on both of the takes I've heard charming, I can't help but wonder what the song would sound like given the pristine dan treatment. it really seems to beg for it - it just pops.

but "the bear" is a sparser, dirtier groove. I may prefer it as well, given the circumstances.

man, the riff that kicks off "second arrangement" is SO GOOD. love it!!

I'll repeat: "The Bear" is terrific, especially how it builds to the chorus punch line.

it's true. gaucho has slowly worked its way to the top of the dan releases for me. but if "second arrangement" and "the bear" were on it too? damn.

Alfred's repping for "Third World Man" in other threads has really raised its reputation in my view

― dyao, Monday, October 12, 2009

I never saw this post but am getting teary about it. Thanks!

I'm listening to "Time Out of Mind."

Would probably switch my vote to "Third World Man" nowadays.

I love this album but will always consider Aja its superior

it really is mind-blowing that fagen and becker were 32 and 30 respectively when this album was released. the recording sessions began when they were 30 and 28!

glamour profession got fucking robbed here

it's been six years i think we're due for another gaucho poll

If you're gonna do one make it weighted

I'll have to give that title track another chance. I'm not a fan of this album (a lot of it feels boring), but even though it's the least of their 1972-1980 run of releases, it's still okay. There's some fine stuff, and "Hey Nineteen" and "Time Out of Mind" are great singles. (The latter was even the highlight of both Steely Dan shows that I've seen over the years, thanks to the addition of an extended solo from Fagen.)

Title track is my favorite, too.

soon you’ll throw down your disguise
we’ll see behind those briiiiiight eyes

Gaucho outtakes poll would be more interesting

glamour profession got fucking robbed here

― i also enjoy in line skateing (spazzmatazz), Monday, 5 May 2014 07:55 (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

for me, the right answer is clearly track 1 or track 2

I regret to inform you that not enough people are shaking it

Qualifier 64!

1 Roxy Music! https://t.co/MkrBGspvVb
2 Steely Dan! https://t.co/BxjQIGI5vX
3 Robert Palmer! https://t.co/Pc9h8kVMiD
4 John Lennon! https://t.co/iw7xbSyiS4

— World Cup Of 1980 (@peoples_pop) November 15, 2020

40 years old today

Man the instrumental outro of "Gaucho" is so amazing. It's like they heard the theme from Donohue and said "let's show that Mike Post hack how it's done" (yeah I know the timeline doesn't work out but I'd imagine the inspiration was something along those lines)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv4SkB72XdA

lmao they do have a similar melody

mike post rocks though

the "my rival" guitar sounds like it got repurposed in sheryl crow's "my favorite mistake"

xp yeah no disrespect to Mike Post. For some reason I imagined Becker and Fagen turning their noses up at him, but on second thought that's a flimsy assumption; I remember Fagen talking in an interview about how TV music was a major inspiration for him. I would bet that he appreciated Post's work in a kitschy way

Basically "let's take this kinda cheesy TV theme music and make it super harmonically complex"