Steely Dan: "Steely Dan's name has been popping up as a hip musical crush. Remember, this glossy bop-pop was the indifferent aristocracy to punk rock's stone-throwing in the late 70's. People fought

WELL THE

pic.twitter.com/hzLKWvfKyZ

— People dancing to Steely Dan (@steelydance) November 21, 2019

haha wow, twitter is good again

Confession: I don't think I've ever knowingly heard a Steely Dan song.

that is a really good twitter account xp

love the Stephen A. Smith appearance.

I want to shamelessly promote my Steely Dan Twitter account

Check out Steely Dan Lyrics (@SteelyDanLyrics): https://twitter.com/SteelyDanLyrics?s=09

UMS, If you ever feel the weight of such a burden of maintaining that acct, I'd gladly usurp it from you.

-Albert

I have been slacking lately! it's a fun little exercise, like trying to make these little haikulike snippets. try to stick to the old Twitter character limits

I followed you, so no pressure!

I've never heard this Steve Gadd story from 2015 before:

An engaging Q&A with Gary Katz, the bone-dry Brooklynite, in which his deep love of music and musicians shines across the orchestra pit at the Bloomsbury Theatre. It was organised by the London Song Company, and its founder Julian Marshall (who has worked with Mr Katz) led the questions. Lots to enjoy, but the heart of it was how much Katz loved working on these great songs with most of America’s greatest musicians a phone call away. It was interesting to note that Katz’s working relationship with Donald Fagen ended after Nightfly because of Fagen’s insistence on using Wendell, the prototype drum machine that engineer Roger Nicholls built by hand on Fagen’s command, instead of the mere humans (aka America’s finest drummers) who had done service on all the Steely Dan records up to Gaucho. One thing that resonated was how many of the great solos on Steely Dan tracks were done in one take, considering the Dan’s penchant for taking months fretting about the placing of one beat. Phil Woods on “Dr Wu”, Wayne Shorter on “Aja”, Jay Graydon on “Peg” – all one pass at the track, pack away the instrument, go home.

Perhaps the most astonishing of all was Steve Gadd’s drumming on “Aja”. Apparently, Becker and Fagen (and Katz) always talked about using him, but every time they came close, one of them would say, “I don’t really love his backbeat…” (laughter) and they wouldn’t call him. Having problems with the drum track (and extended solo) on “Aja”, Katz told us:

“Someone said, ‘Maybe this would be a good time to try Gadd’. (At this time) Steve had a distinct problem with drugs. When he came into the room he said, ‘Let me put the score up…’ It was a very long score, because of the eight minutes, so they set up a semi-circle of music stands. He said, ‘Can we just run it down so I can mark it?’ So Chuck Rainey, Victor Feldman, great musicians, ran it down, Gadd marks it. Said ‘Okay, I’m ready’. Walter and I were in the control room, Donald was outside with his back to us, doing the scratch vocal. He only played it once. The only time he played it, is what you hear (sounds of incredulity from audience). Walter says, ‘You know, we may have made a mistake about Gadd’. (laughter)

“So six months go by, as they usually do on our records, we went back to New York to mix, and we were just about finished mixing the song, and someone said, ‘You know, Gadd’s down the hall working on a Michael Franks record’, and Don says, ‘Go get him, and let him hear this.’ So we go down, say we want to play him something – he was a mess… he sat in front of the console and we played it really loud, really good sound. The track is over, he goes ‘Wow… who’s playing drums?’ We just look at each other, ’cause he wasn’t kidding. I said, ‘You did, Steve’. He said, ‘I’m a motherfucker’ (audience collapses)”.

lmao amazing

That's great. Where'd you find it Josh?

No idea *how* I found it, but I found it here:

https://fivethingsseenandheard.com/tag/steve-gadd/

There was some joking and disbelief on the yacht rock discord the other night when the subject of that “one take” from Gadd on Aja

Wikipedia says it was two takes, but I can totally believe Gadd not remembering that he'd played on the track.

Yeah, that whole "one-take" garbage is just myth-building.

The journo even mentions Graydon's "Peg" solo, which in reality was a series of takes which he was motivated to finish because he was getting exhausted:

http://popdose.com/anatomy-of-a-song-jay-graydon-discusses-steely-dans-peg/

what does he mean by "three punch-ins?" or "a few passes?" is he talking about attempts at the solo, overdubs, just a few tweaks? I'm a little confused.

anyway, looking it up some more everything I read about the gadd story sounds more true than not. It sounds like it really was one take. he may have been called back sometime later to touch up the solo, but it's unclear if he actually did anything else, or if any other work was used.

Wayne Shorter's part was reportedly two takes, and he and gadd were never in the room together.

haha Gadd what a hack having to take TWO WHOLE TAKES

if that’s what it takes ...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/60/If_That%27s_What_It_Takes_%28Michael_McDonald_album%29.jpg

drums on that one: Steve Gadd (mostly)

what does he mean by "three punch-ins?" or "a few passes?" is he talking about attempts at the solo, overdubs, just a few tweaks? I'm a little confused.

I read the interview and here's what I got:

He spent an hour or so playing various things, none of which Becker and Fagen liked. After a break, Fagen said to play something bluesier, so he did, and four bars of that was deemed good enough for the first section (of three) that would make up the final solo.

He did something similar, but slightly different, for the second section.

For the third section, he played something else, faster, that would lead into the return of the vocals.

So it was not a single continuous solo, but three short pieces culled from a full day's fishing around.

Makes sense. That was pretty standard operating procedure for a lot of stuff from that era.

I just watched the VH1 Classic Albums episode on Aja last night, as it turned out. And it answered none of these questions.

I've seen that - they don't cover the title track much at all, but I _LOVED_ hearing the alternate solos for "Peg." The one on the record is cool but I wonder what butterfly-effect impact it would have had on the universe if they'd gone with whichever one had the tasty envelope filter.

Maybe in that timeline we're all healthy and out and about; the White Stripes never happened but unfortunately Jack White is the Secretary of Agriculture.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2176/9085/products/Steely_Dan_1512x1512.jpg

love it

Would wear.

haha nice

On an unrelated note--and I'm sure I'm late to the party--if anyone hasn't heard the 1974 Live at the Record Plant bootleg, check it out ASAP. High-octane run-throughs of material from the first three albums plus one unreleased track and an early version of Your Gold Teeth II. Good sound quality too via radio broadcast. Definitive proof that the OG lineup absolutely slayed live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8DoIC5tJw0

this indeed rips, thank you

is that fagen singing 'any major dude'? if so, damn...

awesome set! thanks j

is that fagen singing 'any major dude'? if so, damn...

It's not Fagen, it's Royce Jones who sang backup and occasional lead on the 74 tour.

yeah further listening made that clear haha. thank you tho.

that’s a fun set. skunk’s solos during “king of the world” yowza

I'm really really tempted to buy that T-shirt upthread for my dad, even though he won't get the Sonic Youth joke.

(he went to h.s. with Skunk Baxter, btw - sez he was hot guitarist even back then)

Traffic’s “low spark” sounds like a Cant Buy a Thrill b side

chorus kinda like “midnight cruiser”?

And the piano figure during the verse

Saxy breakdown

The list I put together a few years ago.

A tape of the "lost" song "Second Arrangement" (from the Gaucho sessions) has been found.

I WANT I WANT I WANT

For a few years there I was hoping that Don & Walt would pull a Van Halen and fabricate a new record from fully-realized recreations of 70s demos. Most hardcore fans of bands apparently don’t want things like this (see “Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE.”) But I did.

I'm obsessed with Kings right now. This is definitely getting played when you-know-who moves on.

Always wondered if that song was a Nixon-Kennedy allegory

i was first getting into steely dan when the big poll ran. i missed it. :( i suppose i'll be here again when the 20th anniversary of the ILM poll comes up

Which probably wouldn’t make sense since King Richard of America came after King John. But the 1972 release date makes you wonder. That’s early Watergate territory - was anyone prescient enough then to see the writing on the wall?

Give us your list dude!