song of the week 10: steely dan - here at the western world

An outtake from the Royal Scam album, this track first saw the light of day on the 1978 Greatest Hits package and features the Dan at their most rhapsodic...



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i'm it?

Over at Cocktails and Records, it seems I have been challenged--in what the youngsters I believe are calling a "meme"--to come up with a song which makes me smile and to share it with the many hundreds of individuals who regularly log on to this here blog. Thanks for your kind words, Cocktails. You're absolutely right. I can't say I'm proud of it, but I can't justifiably deny my occasional penchant for tuneful soft rock.

Not wanting to disappoint on that score then, might I respectfully point you towards the Doobie Brothers, very much in a similar vein to Steely Dan who as you say I hold dear to my heart. Indeed the two bands have shared at least two band members during the course of their respective careers: mighty solo guitar wizard Jeff "Skunk" Baxter--of "Reeling in the Years" fame--and Michael McDonald, backing vocalist on The Dan's Aja and Katy Lied albums and later lead singer, keyboardist and songwriter for the Doobies.

Sadly, neither of these two feature in this 2004 footage of my favourite Doobies song, McDonald having recently been busy peddling unnecessary Motown covers and Baxter as long ago as the mid 1980s having gone on to great things as consultant to the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency. As you do...

Enough blathering then. There was a pointless drum-machine-heavy remix in 1993 and apparently, Lord help us, a Bananarama cover two years earlier, but this is the definitive Doobies version of the song. There's a certain amount of stadium rock posturing in this clip as is sometimes the way with men in late middle age attempting to recreate the glory days of their youth, but the playing is pretty spot on and that guitar riff just gets my toes a-tapping every time. Enjoy...

and finally...

While I'm on the subject of New York (and I promise to move on soon), I can't really pass up the opportunity to include a musical offering by these two grouchy old New Yorkers. This comes from their first album Can't Buy A Thrill, before Donald Fagen took over lead vocal duties. David Palmer gets the gig here.

This is a great clip I think. Enjoy...

reelin' in the years

On a bit of a Steely Dan kick at the moment, I finally got through Brian Sweet's not-very-imaginatively-titled biography, which has been gathering dust on my bookshelves for ages. Predictably, really only anally retentives need apply. Also, scandal mongers will have to look elsewhere for the dirt to be dished.

Frustratingly, until the solo recordings of recent years, Becker and Fagen seem to have had their tongues so firmly planted in their cheeks that anything they said about their work had to be taken with a huge bag full of salt. Legendary for their attention to detail in the recording studio, they would often ask musicians to play the same song as many as 20 or 30 times until they got what they considered to be an acceptable take. Yet there are no accounts of their bad tempered nature or that they were even considered difficult to work with (not in this book anyway), and the finest session musicians of the time queued up for a chance to play on their albums.

A couple of interesting facts which came to light:
- after "Gaucho" Donald Fagen applied for a job as pianist in Bob Dylan's touring band. (He lost interest before hearing back about it.)
- Michael Omartian's piano solo on "Ruby Baby", one of my highlights of "The Nightfly" is based on the Kinks' "You really got me going". (It's true. Listen to it.)

Some more stuff:
- discussions about the book on Amazon.
- info about the updated edition which goes up to the "Two Against Nature" album.

live stuff: nearly dan at the jazz cafe, 14/01/07

"We're a review, not a tribute band!" shouts lead singer Steve Hayes. Nearly Dan are one half of Steely Dan's gigging presence in the UK (the other lot are the less succint Stealing Dan and Don). When I've been to their annual Jazz Cafe gig before, middle-aged blokes on their own usually make up the greater part of the audience. This year though a fair number of twenty-somethings also seem to have shown up. Particularly pleasing that most of them seem to know the words and join in when they feel the urge. Is it just me or are Steely Dan songs also really good to dance to? I'm sure I'm in the minority here. And no doubt Becker and Fagen would not approve. These nearly men can play though. And they sound just like the records. And what's so wrong with that?

This bloke from the Financial Times (of all places) is impressed too.

Don & Walt sites:

• Official
  
• The Steely Dan Dictionary - "An A to Z glossary of obscure and confusing words taken from the lyrics of Steely Dan songs"
• Some YouTube clips
• Just Google it for the rest...

live stuff: stealing dan & don at the bull's head, 7/3/06

In their blurb Stealing Dan & Don, playing their monthly residency tonight at the Bull's Head, are described as "London's only Steely Dan tribute band". Presumably Nearly Dan, who I've seen previously at the Jazz Cafe, are from out of town. Very tight, very proficient, as they'd need to be to do justice to the music. Covering the usual favourites from the 70s albums, as well as quite a few from the first Fagen solo records, they also serve up jazz versions of "Deacon Blue" and "Do It Again". Personally, I'd prefer if they stuck to the original arrangements. They can play though...