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

I mean sure fuck the eagles or whatever but going after Joe Walsh or Susanna Hoffs for not respecting composition or technique is a tall order

Ideally Walsh just sits in on the entire Dan set, fingers crossed

turn up the neighbors the eagles are listening

I am almost certainly out of the loop but why are we even talking about the Bangles? I love the Bangles.

Donald Fagen (and his management team and close associates) can certainly find the old-ass jazzbos who can play things the way he wants them to sound. There are loads of session dudes out there still.

Steve Gadd, Larry Carlton, lots of those doodz are still available, no?

turn up the neighbors the eagles are listening

steve gadd tours with james taylor these days

need a box set of rejected Steely Dan guitar solos & rhythm tracks, though tbf Graydon's solo blows this outta the water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6yBHFjy04

Deflatormouse I have watched that footage several times, and every time I wonder what criteria they had in mind. Like, how did they decide what the precise right solo was? They just immediately settled on the one we all know now.

But the world would have been fine had they chosen any of the others. I think.

"It speaks for itself really"

lol

there's a world of difference imo. the solo in the video sounds like someone soloing over the track to fill space as though on autopilot and there are some smart moves but they're delicate. the solo on the record sounds like a mini-composition with its own structure and bold dynamic contours.

sure, in the grand scheme of things it's not the answer to our prayers.

like i dunno one is hugging the contour of the track and making tiny little ripples and the other is big, broad gestures.

In the first solo the guitarist soon gets hung up playing the same two notes, it's pretty clear he's spinning his wheels.

yeah and it feels like the second solo is reacting to the changes, not really playing with the changes

like, the solo melody lags a half step behind the band's changes

"wouldn't you hate it if someone did this to you?"

smh at folks itt being so complacent about the dan opening for the eagles. it's almost like they forgot people fought and died

stabbed with steely knives iirc

according to jay graydon donald never even told him that he liked the solo, or that that was the take they would go with. first time he found out was when he heard the song on the radio lol

that's what the money's for, Jay

last time i saw the dan freddie jackson was on bass (he kicked f'n ass). otherwise they have been pretty consistent since the reunion.

I spent some time on a NJ Transit train with Walt Weiskopf, who's been their tenor sax player for a million years. Dan money pays for his jazz career — he's able to maintain two working bands, one in the US and one in Europe, off his touring salary.

Circling back to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4y2y2gTNWw

James Brown finally getting those no-dancing Midnight Special audiences to get up an jam.

Ffw to 22:33 for a David Palmer-assisted "Reelin'..."

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

"wouldn't you hate it if someone did this to you?"

― flopson, Friday, July 7, 2023 3:26 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've seen speculation that one of the rejected "Peg" solos in that clip was played by Becker, which would make this even funnier if true.

love that we finally get to hear what this album would have sounded like with quality production standards

https://t.co/yPCsZPjtad

— lead metro ambassador (@lakersenjoyer) July 11, 2023

pretty solid imho. if you set aside the extremely canned sound of the digital bass and certain other elements, it'd be presentable as "oh, yeah, in the mid 90s, Fagen & Becker briefly reunited to organize an instrumental version of Aja as a PBS fundraiser."

"Dismissed at the time as an adult-contemporary easy-listening curio, it has since developed a devoted following among the particularly audiophilic wing of the Dan's fanbase."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR6OsrzbHHY

^^ Re: the N64 covers. Sounds like they need to get someone else to come in and work on the Peg solo.

this rips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCX635Z7_PE

Becker even gets a shot of his own in this taping.

Becker gets a decent amount of screentime in the earlier clip from the Cosby-hosted ep linked above, also viewable here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC2je7T9pLQ

^^Fagen is also doing that head tic thing between lines here. Maybe it was a breath-intake thing?

Looks like he got some help though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iD4kgO1-gE

Hi I'm Cari Cole. I'm a celebrity vocal coach and artist development expert. And I help artist find their voice, craft their music, and create successful music careers. I've worked with Donald Fagen from Steely Dan, Courtney Love from Hole, I've worked with the band Journey. I'm going to teach you how to be a better singer and performer.

So I'm gonna teach you a little bit about using microphones.

Since it was last pointed out, I can't unsee it.

Rather than a breath-intake thing, I suspect it is more about breath outgo. I don't sing a lot but if a mic is sensitive, I prefer that only my intended noises reach it and get amplified.

If a singer is snapping abruptly into and out if mic range, perhaps they are subconsciously trying for a kind of gate effect.

Singers who are noisy or snuffly of sniffly in between lines should absolutely back away from the mic when they are not singing.

You don't need to be dramatic about it, though, you can just ease away gently. For singers like Fagen it becomes part of the stage presence. Perhaps he wants to indicate that he has "instrumental mode" and he has "singer mode."

A singer who is not also playing an instrument sometimes doesn't know what to do with him or herself when. Not delivering lines. Fagen pretty much always has a keyboard.

Tl;dr: When I am singing I tend to stay away from the mic when not actually delivering lines, because I don't want my breath and/or random noises getting into the mix. It makes the performance more crisp. Just a thought.

large diaphragm condensers are sooo fucking sensitive, drives me nuts. trying to record solo acoustic instrumental stuff i have to battle having my breathing showing up...found that n95 masks are a good tool for that.

"Learn to work the microphone..."

Some years ago, I had a recording where the click track was apparently bleeding into other tracks, long after it had been muted / deleted.

Then I realized it was there because the vocal mic was picking up clicks that were in the vocalist's headphones. They leaked out just enough to be captured by the vocal mic.

Gates and such can help but this is part of why I don't record to click tracks if I have any say in the matter.

https://i.imgur.com/HU7I8Gp.jpg

lmao

p sure I remember Freddie Mercury doing a lot of that breath stuff whenever he would sing and play piano live

Dias was working with his own band out of his basement in Hicksville, New York, when he placed an ad in The Village Voice[1] in the summer of 1970 that read: "Looking for keyboardist and bassist. Must have jazz chops! Assholes need not apply".[2] Donald Fagen and Walter Becker responded to the advertisement.

They joined his band and immediately began playing their own material.

lol

Well, yeah.

per a YouTube interview I've just learned that it's Denny Die-ass, not Denny Dee-ass as I have been hearing in my head for some decades

Planning to tour in support of Aja, Steely Dan assembled a live band. Rehearsal ended and the tour was canceled when backing musicians began comparing pay.

Happy to report I just got pegged to ‘Peg’

Sure looks good on you.

They joined his band and immediately began playing their own material.

It wasn't like they usurped the band, though. Dias said he recognized that Becker and Fagen's songs were much better than their own material.

"Must have jazz chops! Assholes need not apply"

Can totally hear Fagen singing this to the tune of "Aja"

“Up on the hill, ain’t nobody got time for assholes”