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
Please take me along when you slide on down
― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 12:07 (sixteen years ago) link
So what the hell is the "Custerdome?"
― Hurting 2, Saturday, 16 June 2007 16:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Becker: 'It's, ah, one of the largest buildings in the world. You know, an extravagant structure with a rotating restaurant on top.'
Fagen: 'It exists only in our collective imagination. In the Steely Dan lexicon it serves as an archetype of a building that houses great corporations...' "
from Reeling in the Years
― will, Saturday, 16 June 2007 17:23 (sixteen years ago) link
i was kinda hoping it would be here. no luck.
― will, Saturday, 16 June 2007 17:24 (sixteen years ago) link
I was just in chat with a certain Alex-in-NYC-type (it's all good, hate on what you wanna hate on), and somehow Dan came up, and I found myself defending them at length (well, length for chat anyway) even though I know it's not like I'm going to create converts that way. But it helped me put a couple of ideas into words that apply well to Gaucho:
I feel like this album gets the same criticism as books that cause people to say things like, "I don't want to read another book about the problems of middle aged white guys." "Oh boo hoo. You're tired of taking young girls home for meaningless cocaine-fueled sex. Poor you." But that criticism doesn't see the forest for the white guys, so to speak.
And of course the haters with the bigger record collections don't like the over-perfect sound, but over-perfect is much more the point than perfect in this case -- it's an intentional counterpoint to how crusty with filth the characters are on the inside. The record is filled with singularly bloodless studio performances, and oh how people love to point that out, but once you get inside the album's point of view, the sound is an uncomfortable defense mechanism, like an overzealous tendency toward gallows humor (which Fagen also has, is the rightful owner of, and is very good at). The songs have the same kind of "mellow" as a violent prisoner on a huge dose of tranquilizers -- lookin' pretty chill right now, but still at high risk for hurting himself or someone else. Oh my god, what happens when all that shit wears off?
There are a lot of SD songs that deal with the same basic theme, but on this album it's distilled: this is a world where everyone wants nothing more than to be presentable, but that's been taken care of, and no one has any good ideas about what to want next. Instead they have some very bad ideas, ideas that victimize young women in the first two tracks, encourage the cycle of drug addiction in another two, foster poisonous and/or jealous relationships throughout, and then in "Third World Man" the coup de grace: giving up the whole game, total retreat, holing up in your house and engaging in some (undefined by the song) solitary, obsessive nuttiness until one day you accidentally blow up the neighborhood. (Of all the scary people on this record, that's the one I'm most afraid of becoming.)
I get grandiose with praise too often, but when will this album get its due as the breezily scathing, horrifyingly easy-going little masterpiece that it is?
― kenan, Friday, 30 May 2008 06:37 (fifteen years ago) link
See above thread.
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, 30 May 2008 07:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, I know, it was just on my mind, is all. Shrug.
― kenan, Friday, 30 May 2008 08:06 (fifteen years ago) link
-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, June 10, 2007 4:06 PM
Which thread in particular?
― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 10:43 (fifteen years ago) link
This one.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 15:31 (fifteen years ago) link
I've come to think there is no album more perfect and brilliant all the way through.
― five six and (man alive), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 16:38 (nine years ago) link
Glamour Profession might be the most underrated Dan song
I'm gonna join sw00ds and Vic Perry's podcast next week during which they'll interrogate me about sharing your feelings.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 16:39 (nine years ago) link
awesome, looking forward to it, please post links when it is up
― Free Me's Electric Trumpet (Moodles), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 16:47 (nine years ago) link
I have been trying to burn out on this album by playing it nonstop for a week, but it's not working
― five six and (man alive), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 01:59 (nine years ago) link
Is "Gaucho" the song a thinly-veiled letter from Donald to Walter about the latter's junk habit?
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 23 November 2016 16:40 (seven years ago) link
― Iago Galdston, Wednesday, 23 November 2016 16:44 (seven years ago) link
I only just got the little "joke" in the bridge of Gaucho (it sounds like a mariachi band)
― the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually (man alive), Saturday, 16 September 2017 02:14 (six years ago) link
There are some drum phrases in this song that are so good that they're like a second set of lyrics
― the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually (man alive), Saturday, 16 September 2017 02:15 (six years ago) link
That wanker Mark Knopfler plays on “time out of mind”
― calstars, Saturday, 15 June 2019 22:28 (four years ago) link
this was the first proper Dan album i bought on vinyl, and it has always, always gotten more play than their other records. i *adore* the title track particularly because it is so mean and brutal and pressed up against this shiny veneer. brilliant shit.
― blue light or electric light (the table is the table), Saturday, 15 June 2019 22:41 (four years ago) link
yeah, barely xp
― flappy bird, Saturday, 15 June 2019 22:49 (four years ago) link
I assume it’s him on the opening bend lick
― calstars, Saturday, 15 June 2019 23:11 (four years ago) link
Anyway the drums own that track anyway
― calstars, Saturday, 15 June 2019 23:14 (four years ago) link
how many songs mention cherry wine besides "time out of mind" & "we don't have to take our clothes off (to have a good time)"?
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 16 June 2019 05:09 (four years ago) link
i guess "babylon sisters" mentions kirschwasser...
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 16 June 2019 05:10 (four years ago) link
I think Knopfler's part is that pretty simple part that comes in later on in the song, I remember reading about how they had him play for hours and hours and what made it onto the song was maybe a few bars, of a very simple phrase
― flappy bird, Sunday, 16 June 2019 05:37 (four years ago) link
not sure what version you jabronis are listening to but MKnopfler does all the leads over almost the entire of the version I have:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwgNbNfO_O8
check the left channel then he hits the phaser on the instrumental chorus then back to the left channel.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 16 June 2019 05:53 (four years ago) link
fuck wrong video, this one:
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 16 June 2019 05:54 (four years ago) link
3rd times a charm?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJW2NH-CTJ8
whew, yeah click that one. left channel, then phasor for the instru-chorus, then back to the left channel. stop listening to mp3s you jabronis.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 16 June 2019 05:55 (four years ago) link
― five six and (man alive), Tuesday, March 10, 2015 9:59 PM (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink
This is where I am right now. I have been immersing myself in the world this album builds--its numb depravity and decadence--for the past three days, and I don't think I can stop.
Someone on hipinion said the title track sounds like "a compilation of unusually well-produced local station IDs" which is spot-on and partly why I love that song so much
― J. Sam, Monday, 21 September 2020 23:27 (three years ago) link
People who "rag" on Gaucho should be taken away and destroyed.
― retort pouch (retort pouch), Saturday, June 11, 2005 1:11 AM (fifteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink
otm
― Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, 22 September 2020 11:24 (three years ago) link
The title track and "Third World Man" compete for best SD song.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 22 September 2020 11:57 (three years ago) link
40 years ago today
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Saturday, 21 November 2020 16:47 (three years ago) link
Mass Romantic yesterday, Gaucho today....what's next in line for the excellent album birthday celebration?
― healthy cocaine off perfect butts (the table is the table), Saturday, 21 November 2020 18:25 (three years ago) link
Seeing the Gaucho show in Morristown, NJ tonight. Has anyone seen them yet on this tour? They haven't done a Gaucho night yet, so I'm not sure exactly what to expect from the second set, but I'm crossing my fingers for "Bad Sneakers" and/or "Deacon Blues" which both seem like realistic possibilities...
― J. Sam, Thursday, 4 November 2021 21:02 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bf7Dr7CzmM
Morris Mobley cover of Glamour Profession
― saer, Thursday, 17 February 2022 16:17 (two years ago) link
fun cover, i like how he says "hoops mccain" instead of "hoops mccann," which makes me think he's talking about a black sheep member of that annoying family
― roflrofl fight (voodoo chili), Thursday, 17 February 2022 16:42 (two years ago) link
We're double-bumping the Gaucho threads tonight.
Seeing the Gaucho show in Morristown, NJ tonight. Has anyone seen them yet on this tour? They haven't done a Gaucho night yet, so I'm not sure exactly what to expect from the second set, but I'm crossing my fingers for "Bad Sneakers" and/or "Deacon Blues" which both seem like realistic possibilities...― J. Sam, Thursday, November 4, 2021 5:02 PM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink
― J. Sam, Thursday, November 4, 2021 5:02 PM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink
In retrospect I was foolish to hope for "Deacon Blues." Looks like they only play it in the Aja shows :(
― J. Sam, Saturday, 27 August 2022 01:40 (one year ago) link
fantastic descriptions from the man himself
Donald explains Gauchonew liner notes from the man himself for the upcoming reissue from Analogue Productions pic.twitter.com/dBlaEsYyZn— Good Steely Dan Takes (@baddantakes) April 12, 2024
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Friday, 12 April 2024 17:35 (one month ago) link