August 2012 Posts

Date: Sat, September 01, 2012, 06:24:44 ET
Posted by: Funkaholic1972, The Hague, Holland

We need more info on Sunken Condos!!!

And perhaps one or more audio samples of the actual tracks. Something to analyse and keep us busy for the coming 44 days.

Bring it on, I am so excited!

Date: Fri, August 31, 2012, 22:56:53 ET
Posted by: owattagoo,

cyan

Date: Fri, August 31, 2012, 15:37:11 ET
Posted by: Hal Asperger, Texasan

Have to agree w/ Michael. WTF are you discussing color schemes so intently for? It all sounds a little too autistic to me.

Date: Fri, August 31, 2012, 12:22:43 ET
Posted by: Graphic, Designer

To assess if the central blue color is cyan, we would need the original art files. It's impossible to guess using reproductions on the web. It is cyan if the CMYK coordinates are:
C=100
M=0
Y=0
K=0

Date: Fri, August 31, 2012, 08:12:31 ET
Posted by: would the Sunken Condos cover color qualify as Cyan?,

Date: Fri, August 31, 2012, 07:04:38 ET
Posted by: SS, HK

Sorry if I haven't scrolled back far enough but Hutch, you know the story behind the Gaucho drum track, right ? Many many little pieces stitched together. Gotta love the effort on something like that.

Date: Thurs, August 30, 2012, 17:03:54 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Wow. Just wow.

Bored much?

Date: Thurs, August 30, 2012, 16:29:19 ET
Posted by: RP, NC

Closest match is Cadet Blue..
http://rogercortesi.com/athleticlog_help/html_multi/node16.html

Valspar makes a paint called Bayside that is very close..
http://www.valsparpaint.com/en/explore-colors/color-selector/index.html?source=p&mcode=Search_Google#2

Date: Thurs, August 30, 2012, 11:50:48 ET
Posted by: Just, Sayin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyan

Also, my old Commodore 64's idea of cyan is consistent with the color of this board.

Date: Thurs, August 30, 2012, 11:46:15 ET
Posted by: jungle music was the one who said it was cyan,

Date: Thurs, August 30, 2012, 10:47:11 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

I've been wrong many times--but I don't recall ever saying this site was cyan. In fact, you are the only one who has used "cyan" on this page, from what I can see, TROLL.

Date: Thurs, August 30, 2012, 10:29:39 ET
Posted by: color chip,

Dean is WRONG again. Keep quiet if you don't know.

Cyan is blue, not dark blue, but clearly a blue. Like the hyperlinks on this posting page.

The Blue background here is closer to chartreuse, but a little bluer. It could qualify to be in the turquoise apectrum. But no fucking way is it Cyan, which was coined from the brilliant blue color that results from the titration of cyannic acid with ammonium anhydride as well as that of the aqueous form of cyanide.

Cyan is also the title of Three Dog Night's 1973 LP which gave us the megahit Shambala, which was mentioned a few months ago here. The cover is dominated both sides by a radiant blue sky in keeping with the Cyan theme.

Date: Thurs, August 30, 2012, 01:28:01 ET
Posted by: ,

should add Carlock does channel a bit of Stax on What I Do

Date: Thurs, August 30, 2012, 01:16:43 ET
Posted by: Doc Mu,

Purdie is an R&B drummer. He lays back well into the backbeat, sometimes too well (ex. intro i Kid C).

Carlock sometimes locks in the metronome too well - he need to lay back a bit.

Porcaro IMO always got it just right as a Steely Dan drummer with fill and backbeat laid back a little, but not too much. Although his emulation of the Purdie shuffle in Rosanna bore him the most accolades, I'd consider his work in Lowdown some of the best ever in the annals of R&B and pop music history

Date: Wed, August 29, 2012, 22:49:27 ET
Posted by: kzkzkz, NYC

On sale now (Blurb copied from Ticketmaster)
"Love For Levon" Benefit show.
October 3rd @ Izod Center, East Rutherford, NJ.

Benefit Concert Will Feature a Star-Studded Lineup Including John Mayer, My Morning Jacket, Ray LaMontagne, Eric Church, Gregg Allman, Dierks Bentley, Marc Cohn, Patty Griffin, Warren Haynes, John Hiatt, Bruce Hornsby, Jorma Kaukonen, The Levon Helm Band, Robert Randolph, Mavis Staples, Joe Walsh, Lucinda Williams and More Legendary Surprise Guests to be Announced

Anyone know if The Donald will attend? Anyone going either way? Sounds cool.

Date: Wed, August 29, 2012, 04:43:59 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin,

Now we only need the Dukes version of course. Would be cool to hear it someday.

Date: Wed, August 29, 2012, 04:41:45 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, @Sweat

Stomp!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPBDMihPRJA

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 22:31:00 ET
Posted by: Sweat, Santa Barbara

Glad to hear the Dukes covered Stomp! by the Brothers Johnson. A personal favorite while growing up in the 80's. I'm hoping that somebody out there might upload it on YouTube.

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 21:38:43 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, Except No Substitutes

Been off the grid since Sunday. Isaac flooded
my buildings electrical room. No cable, no internet.
Again, I only post under my own name.

Carl,

Please except my apologies if the Dukes did in fact
play STOMP. Sounds great! I would have loved to have
been there. Especially since they jettisoned the other
Brother's John tune after only performing it once on
Fallon. I just wonder why you wouldn't report that
after the show, especially since it was the only final
Encore tune change pretty much the ENTIRE tour and
they never played it again? You obviously like this
great site like the rest of us, didn't Hoops ask us to
please post "all things Dukes" this summer? He does
host this site for us all and I would think that would
be pretty big news here. But perhaps I am in the minority.

So again, please except my apology.

As to the trolls how think I am "sponging food from his mum's kitchen" that sounds very British, to me. Like bad teeth?
No, unfortunately my "mum" whom I would love to see more of,
lives very far away from me. Hoops knows where she lives.

Cheerio...

Carry on....

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 21:12:01 ET
Posted by: JungleMusic, Downtown Cyan

The Dean:

YES! That's the one.

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 20:52:44 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

JungleMusic,

Like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoPL7BExSQU

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 20:11:15 ET
Posted by: JungleMusic, Greene Street

The Dean.

I agree, it's somewhere between blue and green. But for the BlueBook there's awfully much green in the blue. Or was it blue in green. Not that I'm complaining. Just wondering.

Your remedies are on the counter. By your keys.

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 19:51:07 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Manatee Bar. It's Happy Hour!

JungleMusic, one of us needs to get our monitors checked. It looks a bit more blue than green to me--but I have some trouble with those two colors, especially when they are aqua-esque. More importantly, I am looking around the bar and can't tell which guy/gal is you. I seem to be the only idiot on his/her computer.

That's a pretty provocative picture of Martha on the cover of her new one, wouldn't you say? There's a woman at the end of the bar who looks a bit like her, but I think that just may be the booze vision.

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 19:23:45 ET
Posted by: JungleMusic, Manatee Bar

I've been wondering for a while. Why is the Bluebook called the Bluebook? And why is it green?

In other news: I don't believe for a second that they will have programmed drums on SC but we will find out soon enough.

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 13:57:21 ET
Posted by: I Was There, in '06

Why does this seem like such a bad omen?

http://tinyurl.com/8hckvsl

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 12:41:57 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, @Michael, the bluebooker

Sorry for the incovenience. Should've specified better, of course.

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 12:21:24 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, wrong address ...

Michael,
unless your last name is Leonhart, my last comment was not addressed to you, but rather a guy known to actually play on, and sit in the producer's chair of, Sunken Condos.

He might actually answer some of the questions prepared by some of us via fagenism for the "Ask Me Anything" interview.
I agree he will probably not reveal top graded info from neither the Condos Sessions nor sensitive stuff he may or may not have been entrusted by Jeff Baxter on a Steely Family Reunion Party Afterparty.

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 12:09:10 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Ok, I'll play. Let's expound upon Jazzassin's last point for a moment. Even if I already knew everything about SC, do you really think I'd spill the beans and piss off one of my favorite artists, Donald Fagen? I think not. Besides, October 16th is just around the corner, so soundclips, album credits and other info will be forthcoming in the weeks ahead.

At any rate, I was just writing out some album ideas. That's all there was to it; frankly, that all has nothing to do with SC.

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 11:41:33 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, in your spangled leather poncho and your elevator shoes

Re: Walter on Gaucho

Hutch, I totally agree. Walter is otherwordly on Gaucho. Pure genious bass line. Brilliant Walter-esque guitar solo too. Jeff should be smacked for runnin' off from the party way too early.

Re: Jamie Leonhart

Exciting! Just waiting for Michael to throw us a bone via fagenism one of these days! More to speculate over! ;o)

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 11:28:01 ET
Posted by: PGE, "Who's on Sunken Condos?"

Apparently Jamie Leonhart. Quote:

"I've sung on some great recordings including Donald Fagen's new record, "Sunken Condos" coming out on October 16 (which happens to be my birthday) and Jane Siberry's newest oeuvre. Some gorgeous material. Also did some singing on another big record, but I will disclose this when and if the song makes it on the record! (Fingers crossed.)"

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Finally--a-show--And-some-exciting-news-.html?soid=1101860542619&aid=_FmZvkHXHnU

Date: Tues, August 28, 2012, 11:11:37 ET
Posted by: Hutch,

Listening to the song Gaucho a lot lately. I fully understand Donald's insistance on getting the perfect drum track for this song. Porcaro surely delivered it. A lot of just kick, hi-hat and snare. Toms used tastefully and sparingly. Not an easy drum track to get just right.
Also, I would say (and I'm sure most would agree) that Walter Becker is by far one of the best bass players Steely Dan has ever had. Focus in on his bassline on Gaucho. Brilliant choice of notes.

Date: Mon, August 27, 2012, 12:17:50 ET
Posted by: Michael,

I wonder if the Japanese release of Sunken Condos will receive a bonus track.

Whether real, programmed or in the absence of drums, anything Donald composes I'm interested to hear. We can only hope that he creates music on a more frequent basis, but of course that's his decision.

Some ideas I've thought about:

--A Dukes album w/ live in the studio cuts of their favorite tracks performed on tour. Perhaps even a live concert on DVD. Would be swell.

--A collaboration album featuring Donald composing and performing tunes alongside fellow musicians, not dissimilar to Burt Bacharach's catalog. I'm sure many an artist would jump at the chance to work with such a great songwriter.

--An album of Donald doing covers of some of his favorite tunes. Why not?

--Donald ...by himself. Just a piano/Rhodes, a mic and Don playing music the way he wants.

Date: Mon, August 27, 2012, 11:34:10 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

With respect to Carlock's drumming, I believe he is exceptionally versatile. Obviously Don and Walt think the world of him. He's also very highly thought of by other musicians (look at who he has performed with) I know that he isn't universally loved by some of the posters on The Blue. Still I think the reason he has been with SD for so long is, he sounds good playing all of their tunes--a pretty difficult feat if you ask me. He can also play well without being overly flashy/busy, and I think Don appreciates that. Don lets drummers have their moments, but most of the time he's looking for a rhythm guy, not a soloist.

Bernard Purdie is a great drummer, especially for certain types of music. I don't think Purdie would shine on a song like Aja, for example--or Two Against Nature. He might be perfect for an album with a strong funk groove, though.

Date: Mon, August 27, 2012, 10:16:52 ET
Posted by: Greg M,

<< Or, use a drum machine that feels and sounds like Mr. Purdie.>>

Highly doubt there is such a thing! maybe in a thousand years...but no sooner.

Date: Mon, August 27, 2012, 10:07:25 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Capturing amazing performances out of session musicians has always been one of the key ingredients. That said, it's ok to come around and admit that the essential ingredient is Donald's unique songwriting skill.

Date: Mon, August 27, 2012, 03:13:59 ET
Posted by: Me,, again

Does it really matter whether the drums on Donald's new album are real or fake?

Surely all that matters is that the music sounds, and more importantly, feels good?

If the drums are distracting because they're fake, then Donald surely will have made a mistake.

But I'm really hoping Donald, on this album, will show the world that he's capable of making programmed drums sound and feel like a real drummer � or even better than a real drummer, if that's possible which, in theory, I think it is.

A lot of people on this board rave about Carlock. I think a lot of his playing for Don and Walt feels sterile, like a drum machine, (albeit a very good one), and I don't like it. D&W must be happy with that, so who am I?

Anyway, I'd love to see them hook up again with Mr. Purdie. Or, use a drum machine that feels and sounds like Mr. Purdie.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 20:59:41 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Regardless what Carlock may've said, even if Don and Mike did initially program drums (perhaps for demo purposes), that still doesn't rule out a real drummer for the final cut. I seriously doubt you'll see 'Drummer: Wendel' in the album credits.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 20:40:28 ET
Posted by: PGE, sunken vinyl sighting

First mention I've seen of an actual vinyl release of Sunken Condos.

HMV Japan has it listed with an October 16 release date and as a two dic European import:

http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/artist_Donald-Fagen_000000000003264/item_Sunken-Condos_5158498

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 20:38:33 ET
Posted by: Chris, nh

Michael -

The poster who supplied the info re: programmed drums is a friend of mine who was not making it up. He went to a drum clinic Carlock gave in NH and asked what his involvement was on Sunken Condos. Carlock told him that he was not involved and that Fagen and Leonhart programmed the drums.

That's all we know. Maybe Carlock was mistaken or maybe something changed - but these are the facts. Ok?

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 20:27:59 ET
Posted by: Real.....or implants?,

I can see debating the academic point of drums or no drums, but from an auditory experience, what difference does it make?

Further, if there is a difference that can be detected (doubtful) it may be that a fake drum is better suited to the song than a real drum. The Big 80s sound as well as the British synth bands of that era had a distinctive synth sound that was suitable for the genre.

Howard Stern once performed a test and had 5 nekkid women lie on their backs and even the experts had trouble determining which had implants. Correct answers were given less than a third of the time by the judges. The implants had performed the desired function more than 2/3 of the time.

Fake drums probably are not detectable, and in some cases may be intentionally used for a piece of music.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 20:04:03 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Ok, I'm through with this senseless debate. We'll see who's right.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 19:37:02 ET
Posted by: Doc Mu, erratum

...confirmed by Carlock rather than M. Leonhart (although that may be the case).


So....here's our question to Michael Leonhart via Fagenism:



"Are there any real drums in the final mix for Sunken Condos?"

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 19:32:33 ET
Posted by: Doc Mu,

Oh Michael, Oh Jesus,

Believe me, I'd love to hear the wetside story on the drums. But Donald described the process for this one years ago (morphing from home demos using Garage Band, a strategy confirmed by the producer.


One of the best aspects about Circus $ is that it sounds like Larry Klein took the crack band and had them lay down the tracks in just a handful of takes for each song. No monkey bidness - just clean, organic fun.


I'd rather have the cover art drawn on MS Paint and lay down real drums, but this is Donald we're talkin' 'bout. On the Dunes with Chris Parker's on the kit is the only track on Kama that isn't heavily WENDEL-ized and programmed. Walk Between the Raindrops sounds like the only exception on the Nightfly, and the title track (still spliced), Babylon Sisters (sound massaged), and Third World Man (recorded for Aja or Royal Scam) the primary escapees on Gaucho.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 19:29:11 ET
Posted by: moray eel, bill

John: The answer to your question is "Yes, there are video and audio recordings of Steely Dan playing live that pre-date 1974."

Boots tend to be a a bit of a sore spot on this board, but they are out there if you search a little bit.

Here's Bill Cosby and SD in January of 1973.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKOq7-mNeaE

m.e.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 19:23:24 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

I'm not going to go round-and-round with you, Michael. So this will be my last post on the matter.

I'm not sure why you think $$ will be the reason Don will use programmed drums, if he decides to do so. I'm sure should he used programmed drums it will be for artistic purposes. While none of the "trilogy" albums uses programmed drums on all the songs, Don has recorded many songs in his career with programmed drums. Some when they could spend all the money they wanted and I doubt the others were solely for money reasons, either. So it's certainly possible Don has decided to go that route for the new one. It is also possible he added drums. Your disbelief plays no part in the matter, whatsoever.

And I don't think anyone claimed there are programmed drums because Carlock isn't on the album. They said Carlock told them the album uses only programmed drums. Big difference. Reading is fundamental!

Again, the point is, we will know when it is released/credits are available/Don or Michael L gives an interview, etc. Until then, we KNOW very little. You can believe you know whatever you choose, I suppose.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 19:06:32 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Well let's put it this way. Can you name a single DF album that incorporated all programmed drums? I can't. Therefore, yes, it's speculation but it's LOGICAL that Don would prefer live tracks. People make it sound like he's straphanded for cash and can't afford a drummer. Heck, indie artists with no budgets can even manage to find a drummer, yet I'm supposed to sit here and buy this notion that Donald can't just because Carlock's not on it? Give me a break.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 18:58:30 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Michael, I don't think any of us knows much of anything about the new one--other than the few things Don has said. With regard to the drums, Carlock told a Blue poster that it was going to be all programmed drums...or so we were told.

Studio time is used for many things, and it is possible one of them is for real drums. The only semi-legit info we have so far is that programmed drums are being used, but it is possible there will be real drums. Perhaps Don planned to use only programmed drums, but then changed his mind and had them dubbed in. Perhaps Carlock is having a bit of fun with us. Perhaps the poster who gave us the info is lying (though I doubt that in this case).

My point remains,you don't KNOW there will be real drums, as your earlier post seems to indicate. If you have followed the conversation for the past month or so, I think it's obvious we are speculating about the drums, based on what we have heard so far. Then, given that speculation--if true--we engaged in a discussion of what it might sound like, if the drums were programmed.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 18:42:02 ET
Posted by: Michael, @The Dean

I never said I heard SC nor knew who is on it. Did or did not Donald rent studio time? If so, why couldn't Donald have hired a session drummer? It's you people who are speculating about programmed drums, so I say, how do YOU know?

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 18:18:31 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Sunday Happy Hour!

Michael,

You seem pretty certain about some elements of SC. You claim there will not be programmed drums, that it will be better/more diverse/etc than Morph--and a few other things you claim to KNOW.

My question is, have you actually heard some or all of the mew one, or are you merely speculating? If you are speculating, then perhaps it would be better form to not pretend you actually know these things. If you honestly have heard the stuff, or have true inside info, then I guess i should thank you for the early tips.

I'd hate to think you are misrepresenting yourself. We have plenty of trolls and bullshit artist here already. We certainly don't need any more.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 18:06:20 ET
Posted by: Michael, @Doc Mu

"Michael: So the Funkmaster Donald pronouncement is a ruse?"

No, that's not what I meant. I meant that it's got a real drummer on it. Just because Keith Carlock is not onboard for the affair doesn't rule out literally thousands of other drummers.

Besides, it's already known that Don did overdubbing in studio, so why is it inconceivable that Don brought in a session musician?

"I'm still amused by the irony of a more organic R&B approach to arrangements on the new one, assumably influenced by touring and concerts with the Dukes/Boz, Levon, and Stevie Winwood... bottomed with more fake drums for the groove"

I'm telling you, it's not going to be programmed drums.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 17:36:13 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, @Doc Mu

Oh dear, was it THAT bad... I probably gave it up before I got to that part the first time!
Thanks for setting it straight. ;o)

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 17:30:05 ET
Posted by: Doc Mu,

jazzassasin - the iTunes Bio refers to ***both Nightfly and Kama.**** Neither set of comparisons bears much credibility (not to mention the Dan toured on and off for 7 years before TvN was released).

I'm still amused by the irony of a more organic R&B approach to arrangements on the new one, assumably influenced by touring and concerts with the Dukes/Boz, Levon, and Stevie Winwood... bottomed with more fake drums for the groove




Biography
Donald Fagen was one of the two masterminds behind Steely Dan, the seminal jazz-pop band of the '70s. Fagen's solo work has been a continuation of the band's work of the early '80s � carefully constructed and arranged, intricately detailed pop songs that are more substantial than their stylish surface may indicate. ****His 1982 solo debut, The Nightfly, was the best album he had made in years; it covered the same ground as the last two Steely Dan albums, yet surpassed them in terms of ambition and achievement.****

After the success of The Nightfly, Fagen suffered a case of writer's block; for the rest of the decade he contributed music to the occasional film and briefly wrote a column for Premiere magazine in the mid-'80s. In the early '90s, he toured with the New York Rock and Soul Revue as he finished the material for his second album. With his former Steely Dan partner Walter Becker producing, *****1993's Kamakiriad sounded like Aja recorded with '90s technology.***** It had some success on the adult contemporary charts, but it was overshadowed by the duo's decision to re-form Steely Dan and tour for the first time in nearly 20 years; the tour was a massive success. One more album � 2003's Everything Must Go � came out of the reunion before Fagen decided to begin work on his third solo album. With death as its main theme, Morph the Cat appeared in March 2006. Soon after the album's release, Fagen embarked on his first solo tour.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 17:18:28 ET
Posted by: jeb, lincoln NE

if you have been on here any length you should not be surprised by Lurker Ray whose picture is in the encyclopedia under a-hole. He is a cow pattie, a real piece of dung.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 16:43:44 ET
Posted by: John, Denver

Has anyone ever heard or seen any live recordings of the Dan from '72 or '73? The only ones I've ever run into start in '74. I guess it's possible that no one ever captured those early tours, but would love to know if they exist.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 13:50:51 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, Planet Aja

Doc Mu,

The bad bio actually referred to The Nightfly, not Kama.

But however much more general enthusiasm and immediate cult status Donald's first solo album was recieved with, compared to any subsequent Don/ Dan album (except maybe 2vN), the point still stands; that part of the bio can't be taken seriously.
Sounds more like a salesman's (fairy)tale on behalf of Donald's solo albums as such.

Heck, I 'm sure they even study Aja on some planet orbiting Sirius or somewhere up that alley. ;o)

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 12:39:20 ET
Posted by: Doc Mu,

Michael: So the Funkmaster Donald pronouncement is a ruse?

We'll see, or hear really, on October 16th (or whenever clips are leaked/introduced)...

Any lead single?



I wouldn't treat the Bio as serious. Kama sounds almost nothing like Aja.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 12:34:55 ET
Posted by: carl,

Well back again, first off the set list for milwaukee below is wrong.

they did not play summer in the city, they played the buck owens tune

lurker ray- The example I can give you that they played STOMP is simple. I was there and I reported it on the bluebook like true fans should.

If you want to call donald or carolyn or shannon forest go ahead

I am sure you have their phone numbers,you are of course

THE lurker ray.

p.s STOMP rocked

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 11:45:27 ET
Posted by: Hossenpepper Incorporated, Suds Town

Ray is right, Carl is a liar just stirring the pot. Here is the complete setlist from The Riverside --------


1. Who's That Lady (Isley Brothers)

2. Sweet Soul Music (Arthur Conley) - sung by Michael

3. I Keep Forgettin' (Michael McDonald)

4. Trouble Man (Marvin Gaye) - sung by Donald

5. Kid Charlemagne (Steely Dan) - sung by Donald

6. The Same Thing (Muddy Waters) - sung by Boz

7. Miss Sun (David Paich - Boz hit) - sung by Boz

8. I Heard it Through the Grapevine - sung by Caroline Leonhart

9. You Never Can Tell (Chuck Berry)

10. Summer in the City (Lovin' Spoonful)

11. If You Don't Know Me By Now (Harold Melvin & Blue Notes)

12. What a Fool Believes (Michael McDonald)

13. Hey Nineteen (Steely Dan)

14. Love TKO (Teddy Pendergrass)

15. (Take a Little) Piece of My Heart (Emma Wilkinson)

16. Tell the Truth (Ray Charles)

17. Lowdown (Boz Scaggs)

18. Takin' It To The Streets (Michael McDonald)

19. Reeling in the Years (Steely Dan)

Encore:
20. Lido Shuffle (Boz Scaggs)

21. Peg (Steely Dan)

22. Pretzel Logic (Steely Dan)

23. Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice...)

24. Them Changes (Buddy Miles)


No STOMP But Lido was played. Great show!

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 11:19:24 ET
Posted by: the real reason,

Lurker Ray was evicted from Malibu for non-payment and ended up sleeping on a cot and sponging food from his mum's kitchen in Miami.

Can you really blame him for acting out?

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 07:31:51 ET
Posted by: Michael, @Doc Mu

"Good pick up. Yep - That's what we're gonna hear on SC. Righteous fake Al Jackson, Jr Stax drum groove laid down by WENDEL XXVI"

I wouldn't count on that.

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 04:51:55 ET
Posted by: KD, fix

Lurker Ray,

online weirdness aside ... what the hell is wrong with you?

Date: Sun, August 26, 2012, 01:55:17 ET
Posted by: Lurker SOB, Sobe mom's kitchen

The set list Nazi is back!!!!! Enough exclamation marks?????
Get's off on that stuff, it's all he's got.
Disrespectful and self righteous.
What an annoying nuisance.
Never shows his face though - a real keyboard warrior. The humpback of SoBe?

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 23:41:19 ET
Posted by: WasThere, NYC

Carl was right. Stomp was played that night.

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 23:30:37 ET
Posted by: Doc Mu,

Good pick up. Yep - That's what we're gonna hear on SC. Righteous fake Al Jackson, Jr Stax drum groove laid down by WENDEL XXVI


Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 23:55:25 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Rhymes--programmed drums and funky.
Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 21:43:26 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, @ Greg M

Rhymes have programmed drums.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZAbOO6jt2c

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 22:58:32 ET
Posted by: T.O. Danfan, at home

Lido was not part of the regular set in Toronto. It was the first encore and it was the first time played on the tour.

Last night I saw Bruce at Rogers Centre. What a show...3:38 of pure joy. He did what he always does...play a half dozen from the new one...play the classics....and best of all a few deep cuts. 40k crowd were on their feet for the whole show. Cindy was excellent as usual and stepped up to the mike with Bruce on the runway in the crowd for a great duet. Looking forward to seeing her on Don's tour.

Cheers

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 22:36:38 ET
Posted by: Lurks around and lays little children Ray, Texas

Steely Dan warned everyone in the liner notes to Countdown to Ecstacy about obsessive, possibly autistic man-children like Ray. LR, no amount of tough guy posturing is ever going to scare anyone into changing their opinions. I've witnessed this guy time and time again badmouth other SD fans with dissenting opinions and it's time he hides his pompous warty ass from full view.

Walter and Donald would be afraid of you, Ray. You're a freak of nature.

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 19:47:24 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe

Hoops! PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU POST!!!!!
Carl is soooooooo full of shit!
Show me any example that they played the
Bros Johnson tune Stomp at Milwaukee!!!

THEY DIDN'T!!! Man look before you leap
dude. He is such a douche.

Looks like "Lido" was first played in
Toronto as part of the regular set.

It later rocked the Encore at CMAC
and was part of the Encore for the
rest of the tour!

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 19:17:20 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Big Brother at its finest.

Seriously, who do they think is paying their bills?

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 17:45:32 ET
Posted by: hoops, chicago

Apparently, a handful of subscribers (about a dozen of 3,200+) are having delivery of the latest Dandom Digest auto-blocked by their ISP or employer where they get email because the word "fuck" and variants are mentioned three or four times.

Fuck those ISPs!

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 17:12:36 ET
Posted by: hoops, chicago

The latest edition of the Dandom Digest was just mailed a few minutes ago. This one covered from from August 1-25, 2012. (The previous Dandom Digest was dated July 25-31, 2012.)

If you are a subscriber, you should see it in your email box in the next couple of hours. If you don't receive it, check your spam filters first; then, if it's not there, please email me.

As I regularly remind subscribers, some people have problems with delivery of the Dandom Digest, usually because of their spam filters, firewalls, etc. That's why this sort of notice is posted here--so you can look for it.

The following are the subject headlines of the Dandom Digest for August 1-25, 2012.

=======

- Autumn Dukes Dates in Hawaii & Japan
- SUNKEN CONDOS: Official PR, Info from DF.com
- SUNKEN CONDOS: Reuters link to PR, Album cover
- SUNKEN CONDOS: Track Listing, Pre-Order on iTunes
- SUNKEN CONDOS: New df album
- SUNKEN CONDOS!!!! NEW Fagen Album! JamBands.com story
- SUNKEN CONDOS: JamBands.com story
- SUNKEN CONDOS: Pre-Order at Kmart
- NPR: "Being influenced by SD
- Great 1974 Steely concert on Wolfgang's Vault
- Jon Herington returns to Inside MusiCast
- Vote for Herington's "Best Blues Song"
- Jon's got a band. They stop on cue.
- 10/11/12: Krantz/Carlock/Woods Play Chicago

- SPOILER: 7/24-Clearwater Show
- SPOILER: 7/25 & 7/27: Florida Shows
- SPOILER: 7/27-St Augustine Show
- SPOILER: 7/24-Clearwater Show
- SPOILER: 7/28-Tuscaloosa
- SPOILER: 8/2-NYC/Beacon review
- SPOILER: 8/2-NYC/Beacon Theatre Show
- SPOILEResque: Philly News: Dukes offers surprise package, too
- SPOILER: 8/4-Red Bank, NJ
- SPOILEResque: The New Yorker's Love Letter to the Dukes
SPOILEResque: Mike McD interview with Boston Media
- SPOILER: 8/6-Wolftrap
- SPOILER: 8/12-Toronto
- SPOILER: 8/14-Cleveland
- SPOILER: 8/20-Milwaukee
- SPOILER: 8/23-Highland Park/Chicago
- SPOILER: 8/24-Indianapolis


=======

If you are not currently a subscriber but would like to receive the free Dandom Digest email newsletter, please email me at hoops AT dandom DOT com or see http://www.dandom.com/dandomdigest.

For the record, the Dandom Digest is a newsletter with unofficial content written by and for the fans of Steely Dan. The newsletter is independent of, nor to be confused with, the glorious and much more glamorous official newsletters from steelydan.com, walterbecker.com, donaldfagen.com and other sites of Steely Dan associates.

Thanks for your support through the years, especially Pete and Shari, as well as Keith & Janet and Mr. & Mrs. Winterbottom, and remembering Mark and Bill, and not to mention one or two people who request anonymity.

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 16:41:42 ET
Posted by: LR, SoBe

Sounds like a blast Dan. Especially since Boz
has been the secret weapon of this tour!

I'm just trying to find out when "Lido" was
first added. They definitely have been playing
it nightly since CMAC.

After seeing the shows last month, that was the
one song blaringly missing from the Encore and
I even posted about it here.

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 15:49:54 ET
Posted by: Dan Belcher, Louisville, KY

Lido was the first encore last night. The audience ate it up, and for good reason!

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 15:10:42 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe

Thanks for the report Dan!

With such spotty to little reports from
the Dukes tour this year it's sad that it
took until today to find out that Boz
played "Lido" in Canandaiga, NY!

What a treat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=327lfLV8tV4

Anyone have the complete setlist from CMAC???

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 15:08:04 ET
Posted by: dark man X,

Sources say that an Sunken Condos DVD package is in the works including bonus tracks with Don doing a cover of this tune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v40ainAHkRo

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 14:54:12 ET
Posted by: No point, beyond the obvious SD relevance of the title

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/08/25/159990177/a-guide-to-spotting-pretzel-logic-on-the-campaign-trail

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 13:37:01 ET
Posted by: Dan Belcher, Louisville, KY

I was at the Indy Dukes show last night. It was a GREAT show in my opinion. Mike McDonald's pipes are pretty much gone unfortunately and he has to sing way behind the beat and shorten each line to hit any high notes, but aside from that, the band was really locked in last night. No setlist surprises. The Buck Owens tune Lurker Ray linked to one post ago showed up. Lido was the first song of the encore and it was pretty much perfect. The crowd went crazy for Hey 19, Peg, and Reelin'. Lowdown was the song that really got everyone buzzin'. Security kept stopping people from dancing in front of the stage until Don told everyone between songs he loves seeing everyone dance. Then half the reserved seats swarmed to the front right by the stage and stayed there the rest of the show. And during the encores, fireworks were set off just a few hundred yards away at a baseball stadium after their game ended. Jon Herington was laughing at pointing at the sky behind us where the fireworks were while everyone was cheering at the band on the stage. Also worth noting: this was the first time I've seen the Dukes, Steely Dan, or Donald Fagen and the bass was actually very crisp and clear and mixed well. In fact, the sound was absolutely fantastic except for the treble on the vocals and cymbals sounded hyped and a little harsh.

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 13:25:18 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe

Donald Fagen - Dukes of September - Buck Owens'
"Love's Gonna Live Here" Live at CMAC on 8-11-2012 IN HD!

Great "Hee-Haw/Bob Dylan" Story!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Iu44_pvOSI

In fact here is pretty much the ENTIRE SHOW IN HD!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/RTMorasonMD2/videos?flow=grid&view=0

Why not also enjoy pretty much the entire Shuffle Diplomacy 2011
Show from the same venue in HD while you are at it!!!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD512A34541E5C83D

Thanks again to Dr. Morason!

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 13:03:01 ET
Posted by: Funkaholic1972, The Hague, Holland

I was hoping already that the new DF album would be a bit more upbeat, and not "all the songs in the same laidback groove", like Michael said earlier here about MTC.

Good to hear that most likely we will have something "fresh sounding" coming our way. I can't wait, Sunken Condos should be album of the year for me!

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 12:56:28 ET
Posted by: carl,

One Dukes of september update: in milwaukee

The last encore song was STOMP from the brothers johnson.

donald led the vocals with the band following in.

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 12:05:00 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe - Battening Down The Hatches

Well that's it for this Summer's terrific Dukes tour.

Thanks again to Donald, Mike, Boz and the entire band.

Sounds like the tour was out of gas.

Any reports from Chicago? Kettering? Indy?

This reviewer says that Don's voice was "gone" in
Chicago and Mike was "struggling":

http://chicagomusicmagazine.com/music-review/boz-is-boss-raises-roof-at-ravinia-festival/

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 11:23:09 ET
Posted by: UU, U

Donald should cover Lou Reed's I Want To be Black.

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 10:54:54 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Morph was a good album; I enjoyed it despite most of the tracks being locked in the same laid-back groove. The best tracks are MTC, Nitegown, Pagoda, Joan, Mona, and Mary. Don't care much for H Gang though.

Sunken Condos will be a far better album all-around. :)

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 10:38:02 ET
Posted by: Pete Evans, Manchester UK

Grandmaster Funk, sorry mate can't agree that there were only three or four great songs on Morph. There were at least six or seven high class tunes and it received excellent reviews on the whole.

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 07:53:33 ET
Posted by: Michael,

It will be smart and funky. Maybe there will be one or two tracks which aren't too special but overall expect a truly great album. I think it's foolish to approach SC with the expectation of hearing another Nightfly or what-have-you DF/SD album -- those albums are already set and done. Therefore, SC will offer a new expression, a departure of sorts, concocted from the first-rate imagination of Donald (and now Michael L. as well).

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 07:36:25 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, SD funk clinic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvAO3fr5Q4c

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 01:41:51 ET
Posted by: deja vu, all over again

Someone posted this link for Out of the Ghetto, the lone cover tune on SC. Give it a good listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjfQjGky_4M

The verse reminds me of a song in the Trilogy with a similar vibe. It would be wild if DF was inspired by Out of the Ghetto to compose the song in the Trilogy, and now returns years later only to cover it!

This might be a good question to ask Leonhart...

Date: Sat, August 25, 2012, 00:29:07 ET
Posted by: Grandmaster Funk,

We cannot have a repeat of Morph of which there were only 3 or 4 good songs on it. Back in the day Morph would have been in the corner cutout bin within six months of its release for $1.99, sorry to say. The Fagen "Trilogy", if there ever was one to begin with (marketing tool?) is OVER.

There has been talk of funk, funk flavor, and lite funk and that Sunken Condos overall is a departure from the Trilogy. Over the years there have been claims of "funkiness" on various albums by many artists that we forget what the real deal funk once was, if many of us ever knew in the first place. Kinda like what has been done to jazz by such people as Dave Koz and the like.

In the same manner you have Jazz Standards, well there are Funk Standards as well to which musical genre are compared. In today's world of moral, fiscal and other relativism, such as for what now passes for jazz or FUNK, sometimes you need to revisit the actual scripture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HeWITJ9eZ8

The closest Fagen has come to funk since 2000 has been Lunch with Gina and Brite Nightgown, which were fairly decent. Even those were relativistic funk.

It is encouraging that Mike Leonhart. a HORN player is a producer on Sunken Condos. And horns, for those in the know, though not entirely essential, are highly "instrumental" to achieving the TRUE funk...








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HeWITJ9eZ8

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 21:53:36 ET
Posted by: Michael, @The Dean

What I mean by flavor-filled is a more melodically rich approach in conjunction with more playful harmonies in order to establish a more upbeat, bouncy mood. That is to say, the polar opposite of MTC, more or less.

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 20:43:14 ET
Posted by: fagenism, -

JungleMusic:

You make a valid point. I just felt some of us here are falling apart with anticipation, and Michael seemed enthusiastic about doing it now. Besides, many questions so far have been about 2vN and EMG. Also, why not throw a second AMA after we all have digested and assimilated the album?

*

hoops:

Not sure all this is newsletter-worthy, but feel free to include the original post in your next digest.

*

This kid right here is not used to posting this heavily to the Blue, so I shall retrieve back into my vault now. Thanks for being cool, dandom. Over and out.

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 19:04:32 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Manatee Bar. It's Happy Hour!

Michael, you said:

"Maybe in some ways it will be a departure from those last few albums, i.e. brighter, more funky and flavor-filled."

Well, Morph was relatively dark, although I would also argue that it was pretty funky. Still we have been told SC will be lighter (same as brighter, perhaps?) and funky.

But what is "flavor-filled"? I was pretty happy with the flavor of the last few. Strong, complex and with a wonderful aroma. Are you suggesting the new release have a different flavor profile? Remember New Coke!

:#)

Next shot is on me.

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 18:48:23 ET
Posted by: Michael, @PGE

"But SC won't be that far away from Morph, Everything Must Go or Two Against Nature. :)"

Maybe in some ways it will be a departure from those last few albums, i.e. brighter, more funky and flavor-filled.

:)

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 17:14:31 ET
Posted by: JungleMusic, T-fiftysomething

Fagenism: Great work! Awesome!

But can we post our questions after we've heard the album? Somehow I imagine that by then the questions will be more relevant. If I was to ask questions now it would be something in the line of the instrumentation (like drum issues, live? sampled?) that will be answered anyway when we hear the album.

But after we've heard it there will be tons of questions about various things in the songs.

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 15:33:55 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, Re: Reddit AMA

fagenism,

Great initiative! Thanks a lot! Questions will be emailed.
Thanks also to Michael L for his kind decision to look at the questions! :o)

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 14:43:32 ET
Posted by: Chris, nh

Thank you Fagenism - I just emailed you far too many long winded questions.

I love what Leonheart has done with Steely Dan so far. His horn charts/arrangements (live and on the records) are so tasty and well composed. I checked out his solo stuff and it's just great - an original voice in instrumental music, not trying to sound like anyone, not showoffy, totally unexpected. I can't wait to see what he does with Fagen's tunes on Sunken Condos.

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 14:04:46 ET
Posted by: fagenism, -

GR:

1) this was the way Michael suggested, and

2) Reddit AMA:s without mainstream appeal (think "I am Hollywood director so-and-so") easily get buried.

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 13:53:56 ET
Posted by: GR, AMA

Can't he just do it over at Reddit?

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 13:11:35 ET
Posted by: fagenism, -

*** Possibly exciting Sunken Condos news ***

As soon as news got out that Michael Leonhart is producing the new Don album, I emailed him about the possibility of doing an "ask me anything" format interview; that is, where the fans contribute the questions. As an avid user and moderator over at Reddit, this is a format I really have grown fond of. Michael emailed me back right away saying he liked the idea, but had to wait until the album was finished.

Earlier today I emailed him a second time reminding him about the proposal, and he immediately replied asking me to send over the questions.

So! If you want your question(s) about Sunken Condos answered by Michael, please email me at thedawnkid@gmail.com and put the tag "sunkencondos" in the topic. How much time Michael wants to devote to this and what medium the interview will be carried out in remains to be seen; I guess we will just make up the rules as we go along. I will compile a list of your questions in a few days.

This is not some weird prank, by the way.

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 12:34:06 ET
Posted by: PGE, 1 month 22 days 15 hours and counting

@Billie Rubin: Thanks for the Alabama Shakes link. Have managaed to miss them and this was just what I needed on a rainy end-of-August day.

@The Dean: I do agree with your thoughts on all that Trilogy talk that popped up around the time of Morph The Cat. And I doubt that whatever new beginning Sunken Condos might signal doesn't mean it will sound that much different from what we've heard from Donald and Steely Dan so far/lately.

What I look forward to is hearing what Michael Leonhart brings to the finished album. Apart from co-producing I would think he might have something to do with the arrangements as well, but if I read the press release correctly the Fagen originals have no co-writers.

So the music will be strictly Fagen but perhaps dressed up a bit differently if some of Michael's experimental touches have been added. "Funky" could mean that we'll get extended grooves and intrumental passages stretching the songs?

But SC won't be that far away from Morph, Everything Must Go or Two Against Nature.
That what we have the next Walter Becker solo record for. :)

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 11:43:25 ET
Posted by: Michael,

August is almost over. It's getting closer...

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 11:25:48 ET
Posted by: Young Wu, Buffalo

Wow... I didn't think Rashida Jones could get MORE attractive. Christ, I love her.

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 11:17:24 ET
Posted by: WD, DDD

If you need the Don counter, enter this formula into Excel and take care of your needs privately.

=-(TODAY()-DATE(2012,10,16))

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 11:09:58 ET
Posted by: Coastie, El Dorado Hills

Saw Madeleine Peyroux and Rebecca Pidgeon last night. As mentioned below, Walter was involved in Peyroux's "Bare Bones" album, and he played guitar in Pidgeon's "Tough on Crime."

It was a small venue (Three Stages, Folsom, CA), so there were no bad seats. Rebecca was the opening act. In fact, she's the reason I went--and I was not disappointed. She's lovely to look at, bubbly, talented, and writes some of the cleverest lyrics you'll ever hear (perhaps more WB influence). The downside: she played only 30 minutes.

The next 90 minutes were Madeleine's. She's good, and her accompanying musicians are good, but their set was strangely flat. Toward the end of her program, she admitted that they'd just gotten into town after a ten hour flight from Europe. Maybe they were jet-lagged.
She has a wonderful voice, and amazing control over it, however, I do get tired of her nasal delivery.

Bottom line: I wish I'd had 90 minutes of Rebecca and 30 of Madeleine.
PS: none of WB's songs were played.

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 09:24:59 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Jazzassin,

Good catch on the similarities between Selfish Gene and You Can't Do Me--particularly the into of both songs. Of course Walter is all over those YCDM lyrics. I think I may even hear a touch of influence from Darkling Down on the Peyroux song--hard to describe really, but it has to do with the phrasing, I think.

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 08:53:33 ET
Posted by: DYLYNFAN, HARRISBURG, PA

Where the hell is the countdown clock, I need to know when I can get
the album????????????? ps: Is that a anachronism or a acronym (album)

Date: Fri, August 24, 2012, 04:32:22 ET
Posted by: fagenism, on a night like this.

suedave:

Great find, thank you for that. Jones played a small part in one of my all-time favorite TV series, the American version of The Office.

(Disclaimer: bashing that series based on how its first season ripped off the UK version, would be akin to saying Becker and Fagen never really brought anything new to the music world - they just did that one novelty album named after some random Dylan lyrics.)

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 23:08:34 ET
Posted by: Security Joan, between the raindrops

I just got to vicariously experience something that points out how Steely Dan fans are an extra special breed: Called my sister, turns out she's outdoors in MN (state fair grandstand) at a Bonnie Raitt concert, and she's disgusted because most everyone in the audience is leaving because of rain...she held out the phone and I could hear Bonnie urging people to stay, yet they were leaving. Compare this to last year when she & I were at the same location, listening to Steely Dan in the pouring rain, and nary an audience member left -- *everyone* stuck around. Even the band was getting wet (Donald was wiping down his keyboard) but they put on one of the best performances ever, and the crowd didn't give a damn about getting soaked.

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 22:55:26 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

"SC is supposed to be Fagen's breakout album"

Really? Don is 64 years old with an extremely successful career. I'm fairly certain Nightfly was Fagen's "breakout album", that is if you don't consider his impressive body of work with Steely Dan.

Using song titles as an indication of anything seems rather bizarre IMO.

Also, as I have noted before, this departure from "the trilogy" really doesn't mean that much to me. I never heard word one about a trilogy after the Nightfly or Kamakiriad. I really think this trilogy talk was merely a convenient way for Don to talk about the different perspectives of his first three albums--and of course, a hook for the marketing folks to make a three CD package. I suspect by proclaiming SC to be outside of the "trilogy" he is attempting to short-circuit the discussion of how this fits with the past three releases. And perhaps he is letting us know this doesn't fit into any timeline with regard to perspective. Yes, there could be more to this "not part of the trilogy" talk--but I wouldn't get all wrapped up in it until we hear the music.

Don has NOTHING to prove at this point in his life and career. And as far as I can tell, his entire focus is on making music he enjoys. What else do we really need to know?

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 22:36:08 ET
Posted by: we need to get real here,

SC is supposed to be Fagen's breakout album, the major departure from his trilogy. so far the artwork is boffo as he has gotten away from using photos. It is a throwback to the 1970's, and as Don has said in interviews he operates under a 1970's regimen, his most productive years and he will march on and put out material without Walt--which he has done. Walt has been kicking back, relatively speaking. As a result, we may never see another Steely Dan album. Even though this one took at least six years, it must have been tough to put it out with all of the touring that Don has done.

We don't know very much just yet, but if the titles are a clue, only about about three of the songs seem like something way different from what we have seen to back up the hype behind Sunken Condos.

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 21:07:54 ET
Posted by: suedave, sunny skies

Just heard this little ditty on NPR about being influenced by Steely Dan:

http://www.npr.org/2012/08/23/159915544/how-rashida-jones-found-her-inner-music-nerd

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 14:36:11 ET
Posted by: Fagenette, Brighton

@Billie

Alabama Shakes! What a voice that Brittany's got, I hope they stick together as a band and she doesn't go off soloing, they work as one tight tight animal.

And they're playing my home town next month and its sold out :-(

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 13:23:11 ET
Posted by: Some People Can't Read, Trans Island Passsing Through

errr.....learn to read perhaps?

Boz was clearly talking about "CHICAGO" the "PLACE" and NOT "Chicago" the band. Did school start back up yet? Get on thhe bus Gus!

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 12:09:19 ET
Posted by: S, G

Tangentially Walt, Richard Dawkins is this month's playboy interview.

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 11:18:12 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, Selfish Gene Can't Do Me

Walter Becker & his co-writer/producer on C$, Larry Klein, wrote "Selfish Gene", released in 2008.

In 2009 Madeleine Peyroux released an album called "Bare Bones". The title track and also a song called "You Can't Do Me" was co-penned by the very same Becker & Klein.

Another chapter in the book of musical recycling/ self quotation.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Selfish+Gene/4wXM4C?src=5

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/You+Can+t+Do+Me/21z8qX?src=5

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 10:12:08 ET
Posted by: Michael, P.S.

Seeing as the SC release predates the Dukes shows in Hawaii and Japan, perhaps there's a chance Donald will throw in a number or two for those audiences.

Also, wonder if Don and Walt will meet up when they swing around his neck of the woods.

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 10:06:46 ET
Posted by: Michael,

October 16th isn't that far away. Sweet treats and surprises for all the little buckaroos.

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 08:43:08 ET
Posted by: Hutch,

I don't know about the subject matter on the new DF record, but if the grooves are anything like this I'm on board.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs0CaocFAfs

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 08:36:23 ET
Posted by: vic, x

same old, same old- Sounds to me that you're the "same old" idiot!

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 08:22:32 ET
Posted by: Knock, X2

It was recorded for Royal Scam, but didn't fit.

Funny you bring it up. This morning I was picking some SD songs from my Ipod I felt like hearing, and realized it was all stuff with Omartian on piano. HAWW was one of them.

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 07:48:39 ET
Posted by: fagenism, Warm & cozy.

Do we know why Here At The Western World was never put on an album? As ridiculous as it is to rank Dan tunes, it is certainly in that intimidating League Of Perfectly Penned Becker/Fagen Compositions.

Date: Thurs, August 23, 2012, 02:04:25 ET
Posted by: Chrs, nh

Fagenism - so that's why he's been so much more relaxed on stage recently, eh? ;)

Date: Wed, August 22, 2012, 23:18:45 ET
Posted by: Ben, Indy

Didn't Boz say in '10 that the Dukes were going to record something for PBS? I would have to pledge my support and get a hip canvas tote if that ever materializes! Great wknd in Indy @ The Lawn w/ The Dukes Friday and Dylan Saturday.

http://inwhiteriver.wrsp.in.gov/ATTRACTIONS/Attraction/AttractionID/10

Also, the Grooves of September:

http://indyjazzfest.net/

Date: Wed, August 22, 2012, 22:11:34 ET
Posted by: Billie Rubin, Hold on

Fifty something days till the release huh? Guess you'll have to hold on... Here's something to hold on with...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le-3MIBxQTw

Date: Wed, August 22, 2012, 20:41:54 ET
Posted by: errr, no,

@Jerker Ray

Chicago IS Robert Lamm

Date: Wed, August 22, 2012, 18:45:46 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, Sobe But Wish I Was Back In Chicago Tonight

The Dukes of September, a little early.....

"One of the opening songs on the set is a heavy nod to Chicago -- and it's one of the key elements that we really look to fill in our set -- but I'm not going to tell you what it is. There's an awful lot of Chicago, from Joe Simon -- Joe Simon was Chicago, right?"

- Boz Scaggs

http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/2012/08/the_dukes_of_september_a_littl.html

Date: Wed, August 22, 2012, 18:04:50 ET
Posted by: Duke of Late August, Stafe right

Just heard the soundcheck here at Ravinia....tight as usual. Boz and Michael M. can still bring it too.

Date: Wed, August 22, 2012, 17:53:42 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Manatee Bar. It's Happy Hour!

No matter how many different usernames NY Bill uses, you can always tell it's him. Trolls will be trolls I guess. Maybe a change in meds is in order.

Judging an album by the song titles--really?

And I think MTC is fantastic all the way through. Of course, I have taste.

:#)

Date: Wed, August 22, 2012, 16:48:21 ET
Posted by: D. Paker,

How many DF fans were disappointed w/ the 1st three songs on MTC? Also, how many feel that "Security Joan" and "Mary Shut.." could/should've been something more "special"? Those songs esp. sound too "comfortable".

Date: Wed, August 22, 2012, 14:44:46 ET
Posted by: fagenism, Making up the rules as we went along.

Good Stuff is probably a reference to those mysterious cigarettes Don was seen smoking before shows during the last Dan tour.

Date: Wed, August 22, 2012, 09:34:52 ET
Posted by: Art Work,

@Moray eel

It would be great to have a vinyl version which featured the cover art in various forms such as a booklet, liner jacket, large poster of the Sunken COndos cover etc., you know like the kind of cool stuff they used to give you back in the day with the 12 inch vinyl. The music itself could even be pressed onto aquamarine colored vinyl for example. Remember when Sticky Fingers had an actual zipper fitted into the album cover?

It is all speculation at this point for such a vinyl package as far as can be seen.

Date: Wed, August 22, 2012, 08:56:34 ET
Posted by: Michael, @Bob

As I recall, there was a countdown banner at the top of the Bluebook before Walt's last album came out. I don't think it's such a big deal. How about we let Hoops decide whether or not to put up another countdown banner for SC?

Date: Wed, August 22, 2012, 03:38:39 ET
Posted by: Fagenette, Brighton, UK

Well just imagine if you have wait another SIX days on top for a UK release! At the moment, Amazon UK is showing Condos as an import with no UK release date but I'm guessing there will be a UK release and it will probably be six days later, on the Monday, when most new albums hit the shops.

Now that is frustrating.

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 22:30:32 ET
Posted by: same old, same old,

Going by the Sunken Condos song titles, DF appears to be stuck to his same formula he has used for his post 2000 Steely Dan and Morph the Cat solo work. I could be wrong, and I hope so, but here's what we might be experiencing, at least topically on these songs

1 Slinky Thing--probable heart-sick boy similar to Lunch with Gina or Negative Girl, Almost Gothic, Maxine, etc.


2 I'm Not the Same Without You--Ditto #1 above


3 Memorabilia--probably like Things I miss the Most, Second Arrangement waxing nostalgic about things from break=up, broken-hearted. If not this could be interesting.


4 Weather in My Head--This could be a game changer, an environmental song


5 The New Breed--Could be like Change of the Guard, or Tomorrow's Girls


6 Out of the Ghetto--Though it is a cover, breaks the formula somewhat


7 Miss Marlene--Another psycho or slutty chick song, like The Night Belongs to Mona, Jamie Runaway,


8 Good Stuff--Maybe and hopefully a good DRUG song, which would be getting back to the REAL ROOTS of Steely Dan, like Charlie Freak, Kid C, Dr. Wu, etc.


9 Planet D'Rhonda---Extra terrestrial or idealized, super-chicks like Tomorrow's Girls, Pixeleen,

DF is beyond the Trilogy, so it is touted. Hopefully he has broken the cycle as far as topics. The best hope is to bring on the funk, as has also been portrayed and would live up to the billing.

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 22:22:01 ET
Posted by: moray eel, vinyl

I remember someone said that Sunken Condos was also coming out on vinyl. Any further confirmation of this?

Has anyone seen any mention of a surround sound mix?

m.e.

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 21:46:01 ET
Posted by: hoops, still at work, where looking out my window, I see fireworks because the White Sox just scored...

It maybe 50-someything days, but everyday until Sunken Condos comes out will seem like an eternity. I want it now! :-)

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 18:56:07 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Manatee Bar. It's Happy Hour!

I can't speak for anyone else, but the countdown has no bearing on how long it feels to me. It's a once-a-day thing--not exactly intolerable.

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 12:57:31 ET
Posted by: Bob Newhart, green eyeshade factory

Michael -

I'm a CPA - you may have heard Donald & Walter boast about having the accounting profession all sewn up as loyal listeners - and so I know a little something about deadlines. Nothing makes the arrival of a deadline as interminable as counting down the days. Doing so makes a day seem like a week, a week like a month, and a month, well, interminable.

So carry on if you must, but know that your daily reminders are causing the rest of us to wonder if the calendar is moving backwards.

Bob Newhart

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 11:23:53 ET
Posted by: pixeleen,

May have already been posted......

Dukes show in Maui on October 25

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 10:47:44 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Yeah, that's a cool name for a song.

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 10:47:01 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Counting down to an album release is a jinx? C'mon now, don't be superstitious.

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 10:44:25 ET
Posted by: JungleMusic, T-56

The Jinx of Egypt! There's a song name for you!

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 10:31:17 ET
Posted by: Stop!, w

Michael. That's a jinx.

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 08:40:54 ET
Posted by: question mark???,

Don and Walt conceive these themes and songs in such a way that there could be multiple conclusions for meanings. The title Weather in my Head does put a spin toward global warming and does look like the front runner, but real estate and others cannot be ruled out. But the cool thing is that there are going to be multiple possibilities for both album and each song which will challenge the greatest minds on the Blue to figure out.

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 07:42:02 ET
Posted by: Michael,

56 days away.

Date: Tues, August 21, 2012, 05:11:18 ET
Posted by: Ann, Borneo

This one's for Doc Mu (he'll know why!)
First time in 25 years.... the band considered to be SDUK:

http://www.sadcafe.co.uk/tourdatesmain.html?mcframe=http://www.sadcafe.co.uk/index.html

:)

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 23:47:32 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

The meaning of Sunken Condos?

I suppose we won't know until the album arrives (and as has already been noted, maybe not even then)--but I also thought it probably about real estate rather than climate change. Chances are it is about both, and neither. Some out there (and in here) seem to think EVERY Steely Dan/Don/Walt song is about drugs, in one way or another. So there is that.

I'm always amused about people who KNOW THE TRUTH, especially when it is before there is any real evidence. About the only thing I think I know is, I don't know very much of anything for certain. I suspect a few things, but I could always be mistaken.

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 21:28:51 ET
Posted by: Evan G., caribou

Sunken Condos can have multiple meanings, but given Fagen's track record for contemporary social commentary i would say that the Condos are certainly about underwater real estate, particularly in NYC, which was also the frame of reference for Morph the Cat. The real estate crash circa 2008-09 fits the time lines for the selection of the title/theme for this record. Secondary and tertiary meanings for the theme could include rising sea levels as an Environmental message (although Fagen has never been portrayed as a strident "greenie") and the rising National Debt.

However, the "underwater" real estate theme was the FIRST one to pop up at me. NYC real estate is virtually all apartments and condos. Fagen did not title the album "Sunken McMansions", which really describes much of today's suburbia in the US as a whole, the oversized houses that many stretched to buy and are now stuck with or foreclosed upon.

A listen to the actual cuts post Oct 16th should, but may not reveal the album theme, considering that we are still pondering the meanings of Steely Dan songs 40 years after their release.

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 16:32:54 ET
Posted by: Little Joe,

RIP Phillus Diller, founder of the H-Gang, and then Pussy Riot.

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 16:29:49 ET
Posted by: Hoss, Texas

RIP Phyllis Diller

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 13:36:07 ET
Posted by: Fred,

Rest in peace, Victor Poor.

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 13:35:55 ET
Posted by: Fred,

Rest in peace, Brent Grulke.

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 13:35:42 ET
Posted by: Fred,

Rest in peace, William Windom.

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 13:32:16 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, A

RIP director Tony Scott

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 08:47:15 ET
Posted by: Q, .

RIP. (Dangential link: Crimson Tide)

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 08:12:12 ET
Posted by: Michael,

57 days.

According to the press release, 'Out of the Ghetto' is the only cover song; the other eight songs are originals by Donald, including 'Slinky Thing'.

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 05:13:36 ET
Posted by: Oniense,

Hello again.

Slinky, sorry.

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 05:02:51 ET
Posted by: Oniense,

The "other" Stinky Thing, I mean

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 05:02:46 ET
Posted by: Oniense,

The "other" Stinky Thing, I mean

Date: Mon, August 20, 2012, 04:30:04 ET
Posted by: Oniense, Spain

Slinky Thing is a jazz song from Nate Aronow Nextet.

You can listen to a clip of the song in this page (the album containing it is named Adding Fuel To the Fire)

http://www.aronowmusic.com/cds.html

It sounds good.

Date: Sun, August 19, 2012, 19:23:19 ET
Posted by: Pat Duanby,

Tell us why Uncle Vert?

Date: Sun, August 19, 2012, 14:39:30 ET
Posted by: Vert, Firestone Dealer

If Donald were to put an instrumental track on this one, it wouldn't fly as the opener.

Date: Sun, August 19, 2012, 10:29:14 ET
Posted by: Michael,

58 days...

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 22:21:41 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

I wonder if Sunken Condos is as much of a reference to mortgages being underwater as it is to climate change.

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 20:13:06 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Doing some Googling for 'Slinky Thing' shows somebody named Simon Whiteside has a jazz(?) piece of the same name.

There's a 'Weather in My Head' song by some hip-hop group called Phraydoe Peans (I kid you not).

There is both an artist named 'Miss Marlene' and a song of the same name by another group/duo called Sorch & Jo. (Wow, these track titles are bringing out the strange side of the internet.)

'Planet D'Rhonda' results in Google showing results for Planet Honda.

The other titles are too commonplace to even bother, although I must admit that the first thing I thought about when I saw 'The New Breed' was when the police commissioner in Death Wish 3 is telling Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson, R.I.P.) to be careful because there's a new breed on the streets.

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 20:07:40 ET
Posted by: Delvin Paul,

I'm betting at least 100 quid that "Slinky Thing" is an instrumental.

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 19:58:57 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Eh, I don't buy the global warming thing. Weather fluctuations happen once in awhile, big deal. Besides, it's been a mild summer over here on the east coast.

Thanks DB for pointing us to the tracklist. I really like those titles. Perhaps this album's subject matter represents more of a well-rounded bag than the concept-basis of the trilogy albums. With song titles like 'Slinky Thing,' 'Weather in my Head' and 'The New Breed,' SC is going to make for a VERY interesting listen.

I haven't been this excited about a new album release in a long time.

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 19:31:55 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Manatee Bar. It's Happy Hour!

Billie, you ain't kidding. Back Bay in Boston would be in trouble as would areas of other cities (San Francisco included, if I'm not mistaken).

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 16:38:44 ET
Posted by: LR, SoBe It

More Terrific Dukes Photos & Reviews From

Cleveland, Toledo & Detroit

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2012/08/15/slideshow-dukes-of-september-at-jacobs-pavilion

http://www.toledoblade.com/Music-Theater-Dance/2012/08/16/Songs-flow-flawlessly-for-Dukes-of-September.html

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2012/08/18/entertainment/doc502fbd262aed0746260927.txt

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 16:18:04 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, Soggy SoBe

Agreed Steve!

And a BIG Thank You to DB16!

SUNKEN CONDOS

1 Slinky Thing


2 I'm Not the Same Without You


3 Memorabilia


4 Weather in My Head


5 The New Breed


6 Out of the Ghetto


7 Miss Marlene


8 Good Stuff


9 Planet D'Rhonda

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 14:20:29 ET
Posted by: Steve M, Scotland

Great titles too ... always fun imagining what the songs will sound like ...

Indeed, I'm thinking back to hearing the titles for 'Morph' for the first time and trying to figure what the hell "The Great Pagoda of Funn" was going to sound like?

Having said that, I just know I am going to like "Slinky Thing"!

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 14:01:52 ET
Posted by: hoops, chicago

Thanks for the iTunes heads up, DeaconBlues16! Much appreciated.

Am I the only one who thinks of Donald's H-Gang when Pussy Riot comes up in the news?

I had this weird dream where Donald's album was called "Drunken Condors." I guess I could use that one myself.

I also wonder how this album will be different from the "autobiographical" Nightfly trilogy. I never did quite figure out the autobiographical nature of H Gang, but but most of the previous songs I get what they are about. I'm guessing that Sunken will have fictional lyrics like those in Sign In Stranger, Kid C, etc., etc., etc. and many more etc.'s.

Bests,

Jim

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 13:10:32 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Deacon, I echo Crhis' thanks and sentiments.

In a few minutes I am heading to my local music store to order Condos and Van Morrison's upcoming release, Born to Sing: No Plan B. October is going to be a fun music month.

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 13:03:56 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, Oh really?

DeaconBlues16,

Thanks for that link. Very exciting indeed! :o)

One thing I've wondered a lot about is that artist bio on the iTunes page (which I've also seen identical on other pages, like Amazon).

Quote:
"The Nightfly, was the best album he had made in years; it covered the same ground as the last two Steely Dan albums, yet surpassed them in terms of ambition and achievement."

Who "decided" that The Nightfly is "better" than Aja and Gaucho? Donald himself? A random reviewer once wrote it? God says so?
One thing is for sure; it's not an objective truth.
I absolutely love every Dan/Don/Walt album, but think I'm not alone when I think of Aja as the one album that has written itself into the great music history book as THE greatest masterpiece of them all. It's the one they write books about, the one they make TV-documentarys about, the one that's included in listings of the hundred most important albums of all times, the one that was deemed by the Library of Congress to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" and added to the United States National Recording Registry for the year 2010.
It was a groundbreaking album, a milestone in history of popular music, and includes some of the best players ever doing the performances of their lives. Every song is a modern classic, and they're well known by diehard fans like us and the more average listeners alike. As durable as a diamond (comparision not randomly chosen). Wendel wasn't even invented yet, so they had to use real drummers no matter how tough and downright traumatic D&W thinks it was/is to get those "perfect" drum tracks.

I hate to compare Steely Dan/ Donald Fagen albums, because to me they all have their different charms and personalities, and I think they're all masterpieces of their respective days. But independent of my personal taste, I believe Aja was and is the one that will live and shine brightest of them all until all condos is sunken, amen.

If Don himself regards The Nightfly to be a significantly better album than both Aja and Gaucho, I guess that must be defined as a case of artistic myopia. I guess it's hard to maintain an objective view of your own creations, and also maybe his ambitions for Aja was more different from the final result than was the case for The Nightfly? For Gaucho, we know that they were never as satisfied themselves as the fans were. But it became a hi-fi reference album overnight.
Once released, any given album stops being the artist's private affair and becomes common property. History have made it's judgement on Aja I think.

Saying that The Nightfly was Donalds best album in years is a bold statement when you take in consideration its "competitors".

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 12:45:19 ET
Posted by: Chris, nh

Thanks Deacon - great find.

Great titles too ... always fun imagining what the songs will sound like ...

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 11:19:36 ET
Posted by: DeaconBlues16,

Sunken Condos is now available for pre-order on ITunes, and the link below contains the track listing. I think it's the first time I've seen the track listing and the first time it's been made public, but I apologize if that's not the case. Here's the link:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/preorder/sunken-condos/id554243981

To answer a poster's previous inquiry, it appears there is no title track. But I wonder if the album title will appear as a lyric somewhere, a la Katy Lied and Kamakiriad.

Date: Sat, August 18, 2012, 08:07:48 ET
Posted by: Michael,

59 days to go.

I'm interested to know how distinct Sunken Condos is from his Nightfly trilogy, seeing as it's not part of it. Time will tell.

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 23:55:25 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Rhymes--programmed drums and funky.

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 21:43:26 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, @ Greg M

Rhymes have programmed drums.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZAbOO6jt2c

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 20:41:42 ET
Posted by: Greg M, ny

Does "Rhymes" have fake drums? I haven't listened in a while but I seem to recall that it does. This may be in line with what we will be hearing...

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 19:37:48 ET
Posted by: Tim Downesti,

I should have prefaced/mentioned WHY I submitted my last post. I've been re-listening to WENDEL/drum machine efforts by SD in anticipated prep for DF's Sunken Condos. Consequently while listening to the drum track reflected on those potent lyrics.
I'm hoping that the song's main character is NOT based on WB, but if so - that's some nasty tale.

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 19:14:46 ET
Posted by: Tim Downesti,

Do the lyrics to "Time Out Of Mind" concern uncle Walt, personally?

If so, what a great example of fine line cool vs.fool or up&up vs.fuck-up.

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 15:38:46 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, @ what (it) (& everyone who cares)

Re: Drummer credits

On Al Jarreau's 1984 album "High Crime" some well known musicians from the Steely Family played, like Jay Graydon and Chuck Findley amongst others. Also, they used mostly drum machines, and the drummer creds for those songs were:

Raging Water: Drums - Skinsoh Umor
Imagination: Drums - Chip McSticks
Tell Me: Drums - Tyrone B. Feedback
Let's Pretend: Drums � O. Rapage, Rug Toup�
Sticky Wicket: Drums � U. L. Blowby
Love Speaks Louder Than Words: Drums � Champ Time
Fallin': Drums � Tubs Margranate

In addition, a couple of real drummers played on some other songs and some cymbals were added manually on a few.

An oddity is, some websites claim "Tubs Margranate" also plays drums on Bela Fleck & The Flecktones self titled 1990 album. No such "official credit" on the album though, and no real drums either. ;o)

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 12:29:08 ET
Posted by: info, o

This looks like an interesting film if you're able to find a theater showing it. I'm not familiar with the artist in question.

http://rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120808/REVIEWS/120809984

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 12:09:16 ET
Posted by: what, it

They will probably give credit to a real drummer for appearances. I can't imagine song credits listing people for guitars and horns then drums: Garage Band 6.2.

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 11:06:33 ET
Posted by: Michael, @The Dean

I can't argue with that.

As for the drums, I don't mind either way. Perhaps it's because I grew up listening to a lot of video game music and work a great deal with MIDI. Heck, even if Donald programmed all the music I'd still want to hear it because of his unique composing skills. The man has a natural inclination towards the obscure and the sophisticated.

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 10:17:11 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Michael, I used the grooveshark link because of the superior sound quality compared to the washed-out sound on that youtube video. Why use youtube when there is no video, when a better audio link is available elsewhere?

And Scam, I think we all prefer real drums (and drummers) for the most part. With that said, I will wait until I hear the result before passing judgement on how they sound on Sunken Condos. Are we even completely sure there are only programmed drums on Condos?

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 09:41:38 ET
Posted by: RoyalScam, Brooklyn owns this charmer...

I like some of what Fagen has done with programmed drums in the past. I just prefer the SOUND of a real drum set. So many tracks in the '80s sound so dated now and were absolutely ruined with fake drums, IMO.

I love Michael Franks, but once he switched from John Guerin to the "synth-drum-robot-2000", his work became virtually unlistenable to me. Thankfully he came back to real musicians in recent years.

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 09:03:34 ET
Posted by: DYLYNFAN, HARRISBURG PA

I give up Klauss, who is the bald dude with the hottie??????

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012, 08:37:35 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Err, you people ever hear of something called YouTube?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjfQjGky_4M

Kind of generic, stripped-to-the-bone funk. Has an almost disco feel.

60 days...

Date: Thurs, August 16, 2012, 22:30:51 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

You can hear the entire Out of the Ghetto here:

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Out+Of+The+Ghetto/2fSNpz?src=5

If it doesn't load the song for some reason, go to grooveshark.com and search for Out of the Ghetto

Date: Thurs, August 16, 2012, 17:10:20 ET
Posted by: Hicnic,

Here's a link to a sample of Out of the Ghetto from Isaac Hayes, can't wait to hear what Donald does with it:

http://www.amazon.com/Out-Of-The-Ghetto/dp/B001NZCEGY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345151154&sr=8-2&keywords=isaac+hayes+out+of+the+ghetto

Date: Thurs, August 16, 2012, 16:52:23 ET
Posted by: erf, p

re: the Guitar International review. F-A-G-A-N. nuff said.

Date: Thurs, August 16, 2012, 15:55:32 ET
Posted by: B. Laranth,

Are there any real/lush vocal harmonies on C$ (excluding the girls singing in parallel octaves)?

I think this (harmonies/voicings) is another area where DF concentrates w/ more diligence than WB.

Date: Thurs, August 16, 2012, 14:40:23 ET
Posted by: JungleMusic, Swedeland

Have you seen this yet?
Yet another critic bites the dust at Donald's site in a Letter To a TV Baby: http://donaldfagen.com/feature_items.php?itemID=145

Date: Thurs, August 16, 2012, 11:37:32 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, remote mesmerized

Klaus, I'm so glad you had a great night with the Dukes! I imagine it's the kind of concert that, if you are the least bit reserved in advance, efficiently blows out the deceptive flame of doubt within minutes. Gotta be rather blase concert-wise not to dig a Dukes gig I guess. Me I know I would've loved it anyway. I wish I could've been there.
Of course you were mesmerized by Don. That's one of the things the old cat does best. The magic works on a very long distance, all the way to Norway! And I wasn't even there! ;o) Fortunately, Jon is hard to ignore no matter what else is going on!

Have a great day everyone!

Date: Thurs, August 16, 2012, 09:43:23 ET
Posted by: Klaus and the new rooster, Ohio

Damn Jazzman nice review you would have been proud of Don and Jon last nite they were smoking to be honest for the first time in years I did not pay attention to Jon I was right in front of Donald and he mesmerized me but you dont have to pay attention to Jon he is so good he is just there.

Date: Thurs, August 16, 2012, 08:30:44 ET
Posted by: Michael,

61 days and counting...

Date: Thurs, August 16, 2012, 06:59:40 ET
Posted by: Klaus and the new rooster, Ohio

Hey Dean and Tommy/ Donald was smoking last night check out toledoblade.com and you may see a certain bald head fellow w a beautiful woman right in the center gazing up at Donald God life is good sometimes!! The band was hotso Boz was great and Michael was predictable Donald is def the leader of the band and he wears it well. Shit I didnt even miss Walt/ well maybe a little Viva Donald Fagen and bring on sunken condos!

Date: Thurs, August 16, 2012, 06:35:31 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, Jon's got a band. They stop on cue.

Listening to Jon's Time On My Hands right now. What an insane vitamin B12 injection. Turn up the Jon Band, the neighbors are listening!
It's the perfect kind of album to tear down both your own and all the neighbors' condos, sunken or not.
It makes me approximataly 15 1/2 years old again and air-guitar suddenly replaces my physical guitars as my main instrument.
There's tons of rock'n'roll history embedded in every track on Time On My Hands and they really wipe the barroom floor with most guitar based good-time rock'n'roll bands. A ruthless power demonstration, it is.
Add that Jon sings fantastic and also is the coolest guy ever ...
Not many new hard-hitting rock rock albums makes me smile and even break out in uncontrolled laughter like this one. Absolutely LOVE it.
It IS love, a love declaration to everything rock'n'roll ever was, to the electric guitar, to his fans and to the fattest comp imaginable.
Only problem is it's too short! Fortunately the songs are so damned good you just put it on again, and all is well. And again. And again.
I realize it's actually fourty-one and a half minute, but so much fun is happening that it appears as five minutes.

As for drum sound, Frank Pagano's fat, punchy sound on this record should require a carrier license, really.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 23:47:28 ET
Posted by: Evan G., caribou

Will Sunken Condos have a title track?

Of all Steely Dan, Fagen and Becker releases, 64% have had title tracks, so the odds are in favor of title track.

Tough to imagine a song with such a title. But hey, if Walter could compose and record a title like "Hat Too Flat", anything is possible.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 23:07:18 ET
Posted by: Doc Mu,

That reminds me. The phony drums sound much better on DVD-A than CD for Kama, Nightfly, and even Gaucho.

BTW, the drums on On the Dunes, Gaucho (title track) and Babylon Sisters are REAL (as well as the erased 2nd A) and they're SPECTACULAR

[cue Teri Hatcher from Seinfeld episode]


For $100k, I'll use Microsoft Paint for the cover art and buy a little studio time for Carlock, Vinnie, and Erskine

As I said - dem phony drums have come a long way - we'll live.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 21:30:18 ET
Posted by: Lutz, SF

Sunken Condos is now $ 11.99 at Amazon.
There is no way the artwork came in at $ 300K.
not even in artsy France...
Some nifty student from an art college did it as a project - more likely.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 20:31:46 ET
Posted by: HouDanFan, Houston

I haven't had a desire to attend the Dukes shows but if Don does a solo tour I'm definitely in. I did the VIP last time and it was a pretty special. Went to the sound check and got to meet and greet the band (Krantz, Young, Carolyn as well as many SD fans. Had a blast with two lovely sisters from I think Milwaukee??

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 20:00:02 ET
Posted by: T.O.Danfan, Toronto setlist

Ray thanks for posting those reviews. As per the Toronto one.... Lido was in fact the first encore. My setlist had it before Reelin'.
I stand corrected. (using late night inebriation as an excuse of course)

Cheers

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 18:53:33 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe

Cleveland Dukes Review w/some really
nice pix:

http://wncx.cbslocal.com/2012/08/15/concert-review-dukes-of-september-bring-sounds-of-soul-early-rock-n-roll-to-jacobs-pavilion/

Toronto Dukes Review:

http://northernheads.blogspot.com/2012/08/dukes-of-september-toronto-review.html

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 18:37:25 ET
Posted by: Hutch,

Jazzassin & The Dean - Great posts by both of you. Yes, Michael Leonhart's input is huge and it's going to make this album something worth waiting for.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 18:26:37 ET
Posted by: Hee Haw Mike, San Diego

Start saving your money for Donald's (most likely) Sunken Condos tour. I remember that 2006 Morph the Cat tour was pretty expensive with those VIP packages.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 14:31:27 ET
Posted by: tommytomato, Columbus OH

@ Klaus and the new rooster

No "Dukes" for me this time around. I just can't get excited about it. My 2010 experience in Cincy with the "Dukes" was luke warm at best. Just a matter of my personal taste in song selection...however I hope you enjoy the show and I look forward to seeing you someday at a DF (hopefully) or a Dan show.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 13:41:23 ET
Posted by: Klaus and the new rooster, Ohio

hEY dAN OR tOMMY tOMATO ARE YOU GUYS HEADING TO THE ZOO TONIGHT? i AM LEAVING IN A HOUR AND A HALF BE IN THE 8TH ROW CENTER LOOK ME UP IF YOU GUYS GO.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 11:13:17 ET
Posted by: Art Critic,

The Dukes tour is winding down and there are about two months before the record release. Fagen is a wily coyote who is probably reading our suggestions and there would be time to make changes to the picture. Considering the fact that he took the time, thousands of dollars, euros or whatevah and effort he is probably going to offer a vinyl version for the average geriatric Steely Dan fan who still has a turntable. A bonus would be more graphics and other stuff included, maybe a even stand-up cardboard cutout of the sunken condo building.

I would be happy just to get a 2 foot by 3 foot pull out poster of that cover for my parents basement wall.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 11:04:39 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, pre-release psychothic

As usual I think The Dean's words makes much sense. 'nuff said.

One thing I forgot to stress in my speculations on how the unheard album sounds is the fact that Jon plays guitar on Sunken Condos. 'nuff said again. ;o)

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 10:50:52 ET
Posted by: Biff, P

I hear that picture comes with some kind of music disc inside. Might be worth a listen.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 10:39:02 ET
Posted by: not the same,

Digitizing a photo with Photoshop is easier, easier than painting by numbers which at least requires a steady hand to stay within the lines. And no creativity, almost robotic. Starting with a blank canvas, digital or not requires the vision artistry and intellect from which the Sunken Condo painting obviously originated.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 10:38:40 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Has a cover ever been more analyzed (and more bizarrely analyzed) in the first few days?

300,000 Euro? A few hundred dollars? Don and the band hidden in the underwater imagery?

Add remarks like "Since Gaucho most Steely Dan or Donald Fagen or Becker covers and art were mainly photos slapped together at midnite the day before the albums release." and I think the entire Blue community has gone bonkers!

I suppose it's a bit more harmless than commenting on how bad the programmed drums sound before the album has seen the light of day.

BTW, I understand it's the pre-release excitement--and there are no clips to analyze. So we gotta talk about something. I just find it all pretty amusing.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 10:36:11 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, playing with the kids

Re: Cover art
I had no idea Don was into graphic design and artwork himself, but I'll take your word for it unless otherwise proven, cover girl! However, such things takes time and skills, and Donald has had other things to do lately, hasn't he? The internet is full of pages with quite fantastic digital artwork for free download, much of it just as well done and nice to look at as the Condos cover. I don't say any half skilled 14-year old geek could've done it, but it's no $150.000 piece of art either, unless the artist is not Don or someone in his inner circles after all, but rather an internationally acclaimed big shot artist who's name alone "justifies" such a ridiculous price.
Technically, my guess is it's based on a real underwater photo and a photo of a real building (or maybe a CAD model), then transformed and enhanced by the digital artist, whoever she/he is. I love the result.

Re: Programmed drums
I adore good drummers too, and especially in a live context they're one of the most important resources of any band, if not THE most important. But:
Thanks Dan Belcher, for your excellent example of sampled, programmed drum loops anno 2012. IMO the final result when using this technology depends on more than the drumming/programming and drum sounds alone.
For some kind of recordings, e.g. typical "live in the studio" recordings it could be devastating to the overall result, but it's rarely used in that context at all.
But when layer-upon-layer perfectionist Don co-operates with a very playful, modern thinking jazz/electronica hybrid artist like Michael Leonhart, because he is really that when making his own music outside the SD universe, I guess we can expect those programmed drums to be incorporated within an exciting and very fascinating whole that will make them sound absolutely right for the music. Context is extremely important here, and I think no one should be the least worried that these guys don't deliver a fantastic album. Only imagination and the will and ability to realize inner visions limits what you can do with todays music technology. I'd say Don has proven through 40 years to have both - more than 99% of anyone who was even close to a studio. Have faith, my friends! Wait and see!
As many have already pointed out, Don was never afraid of using programmed drums, not even back in the days when they sounded way more crappy than is the case today. I curb my enthusiasm for much of the drum sounds of the '80s- early '90's recordings, including some classics from our heroes, but hey, it's really not like that anymore!
I hereby predict that after Oct.16th there won't be much complaints about programmed drums in the right context here on the Bluebook. Exceptions will probably be made for people who haven't been interested in anything new for the last 30 years anyway, but with all respect, I think it's those who are out of sync with reality, not Don at least. Not many of us are able to differ between programmed and played drums in any good, modern production. With the less adventurous and wild drum style of almost all studio recorded modern pop music, there IS in fact not much technical difference. The loops sounds like drummers if they want it to, and many drummers sound like loops if they want them to. The sounds are often replaced in the editing process anyway, they copy/paste and fine adjust/quantify the timing on the drum tracks in both cases. Much of todays pop sounds crappy to me, but it's mostly because of the artists lack of creativity and imagination in the songwriting dept., not because of the drumming/programming as such.

If what you want is very obvious live, organic sounding recordings like acoustic jazz combos with drum brushing, acoustic bass and piano etc., revealing all those charming little noises, and where the musical quality emerges out of the musicians spontaneous interplay, I can understand that. I love that genre too. But a 2012 Donald Fagen album is not the right place to look for it.
If you're able to appreciate a very complex, funky, playful recording taking advantage of modern technology in the most innovative way not imaginable by any of us yet, I hope and sincerely believe that Sunken Condos will become a milestone.
Last but not least, I think this is being realized in the best of ways and will have a very unique quality thanks to Michael Leonhart. I imagine him and Don sitting in Michael's studio experimenting with all sorts of sounds and effects in a way never heard from Donald before at least. Just speculations I know, but so are all the negative predictions based on prejudice against programmed drums.
Please forget everything about yesterdays immature versions of that technology. You're several years behind. But please DON'T forget what a genious songwriter and perfectionist Don always was. You're in for a treat I'm sure.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 10:23:07 ET
Posted by: DYLNFAN, HARRISBURG PA

I have studied the album cover like the zaprooder film and in
fact there is still only one shooter!! sincerely L.H.O.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 10:09:18 ET
Posted by: cover girl, closer still

the Circus Money cover image was an intense amount of work over a long period. It was a digital re-creation of an actual photo of an actual mask (which wasn't itself used due to permissions issues).

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 10:06:16 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Ok, get real people. There's no way that they spent over 100 grand on an album cover. They probably commissioned somebody for a few hundred bucks. Heck, anyone with even a modicum of artistry and Photoshop experience could create comporable work, if not better.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 09:25:08 ET
Posted by: kane,

The cover is definitely cool and a welcome sight compared to the low effort, cheap art work that has been put out since about the time of gaucho. Since Gaucho most Steely Dan or Donald Fagen or Becker covers and art were mainly photos slapped together at midnite the day before the albums release.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 09:00:56 ET
Posted by: Art Nouveau, Poitiers FR

I can say personally that if such a piece of art for the SC cover was commissioned it would cost in the neighbourhood of 300 thousand Euro, and would take a significant effort. It would be difficult for DF to do it himself with all of the touring, rehearsing, performing and composing that he has done since the release of Morph the Cat. He would also have to teach himself, or be taught and subsequently become highly proficient to produce that level of detail whether or not the painting was digitally crafted. The album credits will most likely inform us. If DF did do this piece by himself with no help from the teacher. he would be a true Renaissance man, and my hat would be off to him.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 08:26:16 ET
Posted by: cover girl, tour city

About the SC cover -- you guys are a riot. That cover is the work, mainly, of DF himself, who has over several years become a more skillful digital doodler. Maybe it was punched up by an art director somewhere (or prepared for printing , which is a more advanced skill), but the bones of that art is DFs. I'd bet my bippy on it.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 08:02:01 ET
Posted by: Michael,

62 days.

Don't forget that SC is his final album under contract with Reprise.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 07:57:17 ET
Posted by: Dan Belcher, Louisville, KY

Thanks Dean. Just to clarify I didn't actually play those drums in the clip, those were stock MIDI loops. I can't actually play that well... haha. That actually was me playing Rhodes in the other stuff on my page, however.

Date: Wed, August 15, 2012, 07:47:57 ET
Posted by: Nicholas Urfe, Out of Touch

I guess I'm out of touch here in the backwater of Phraxos, but if DF "has probably put $100 to $150 thousand, maybe more into that artistic album cover," I want to get into that business. Cool image? Sure. $100,000 art? Really?

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 23:35:11 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Dan, nice stuff. I like your other clips, too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of real drummers. But I will withhold judgement until I hear the results on the new one. As has been mentioned, Don has used programmed drums in the past, with varying results--none of them terrible, though IMO.

And while I have no inside knowledge, I can't believe Don cares more about the cover than he does about the music. Doesn't ring true, to me. I don't think Don gives two shits about the current trends.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 23:06:48 ET
Posted by: Chris, nh

sorry (not really) for my poor grammar - I meant, obviously, that someone was told about programmed drums a few weeks ago (turns out its a few months ago - again, not sorry), not that the drums were programmed a few weeks ago. Durrrrrrr

And I say again to the naysayers: Gaucho, The Nightfly, and Kama are all chock full of programmed drums.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 22:35:15 ET
Posted by: Dan Belcher, Louisville, KY

If the drums really are sequenced on Sunken Condos, it might not be the end of the world. Sequenced drums have come a long way in the past couple of decades.

Quick example. I play drums (poorly) on an electronic drum kit since my neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate the sound of a real acoustic drum kit, and instead of using the built-in sounds on my e-drums, I hook it up to my computer and trigger some really nice quality sounds in a tool called Superior Drummer. I took some of the stock MIDI drum loops that came with Superior and used them to play back the sounds I have tweaked with just basic mixing knowledge (EQ, compression, reverb, and moving the volume faders).

Take a quick listen: http://soundcloud.com/dan-belcher/superior-drummer-custom

It's not Keith Carlock on a real drum set, but it's a hell of a lot closer than you might expect, especially considering I am completely self taught on audio mixing, so imagine what a pro could do with something like this.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 21:18:10 ET
Posted by: Evan G., Caribou ME

Sunken Condos will be lucky to sell 30 or 40 thousand copies. Fagen earns his bread by touring. He has probably put $100 to $150 thousand, maybe more into that artistic album cover. After the year 2000, the TVN, EMG, Kamakiriad used photography for the most part. There is a movement by classic rock artists to do a throwback to the golden age 60's and 70's vinyl when the cover art, inner jackets, booklets, etc, were and important part of the music experience. The fold-out poster from Dark Side of The Moon comes to mind. The Sunken Condos cover is a bold statement, a throwback to the mysterious album covers of the first seven Steely Dan albums, such as Royal Scam, that still have people talking about and interpreting.

Fagen may want to cut costs by using the programmed drums to offset the costs of the art, a theme which maybe he wants to emphasize. He is most likely going to be lucky to break even on this record financially.

But you never know for sure. This new funky direction or Fagen has taken on Sunken Condos may have wild appeal to the hip-hop, electronica genration of today, who love synth drums and auto tune. A hot single off Condos may blow up the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the R&B, Dance and other charts.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 21:07:00 ET
Posted by: Doc Mu,

It really wouldn't cost that much for Carlock to overdub the central drum tracks in studio time. Hell, he could do it in 2 days and probably wouldn't even charge for his services. Especially if you want to do funk or R&B because you have to lay back on the beat. Too perfect, and we have the Martian funk of Countermoon.

It'll be fine I guess...better than Big Noise New York. Phony drum technology has come a long way since the 90s.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 20:49:17 ET
Posted by: ,

Steely Dan and Roger Nichols is credited with essentially realizing modern programmed drums. Donald kept wanting a steadier and steadier beat and Roger came up with WENDL.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 20:05:18 ET
Posted by: Hee Haw Mike, San Diego

Can't stand pre-programmed drums. It helped usher in the smooth jazz schmaltz of Kenny G and Dave Koz.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 19:47:38 ET
Posted by: ,

Can't see Donald saying "ehhhh....let's go with the chintzy fake drums... what the heck...whaddafuk? Does it matter?" This is a guy who obsesses. MAYBE it won't suit your tastes but he's very clear and precise about executing his vision.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 18:48:27 ET
Posted by: snare mary, tightening down those skins

How would programmed drums weaken the funk? For example, Cypress Hill, KC and the Sunshine Band, and others have used them. I believe James Brown used them toward the end.

Programmed drums might have been the way for Don to achieve his meticulous produced sound that he wants as well as to reduce costs. He did make comments during his most recent solo tour about having to par heavy cata, i.e. the session musicians while making short bread.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 18:34:29 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, FYI: The original post

Date: Wed, May 02, 2012, 22:13:22 ET
Posted by: Sebastian, New Hampshire

A long time lurker coming out of the woodwork to say that I just got back from saw a fantastic clinic with Keith Carlock tonight in Portsmouth, NH. I asked about the new DF album and he said he is NOT on it and claimed that Fagen and Leonhart programmed the drum parts themselves. Interesting! Is this a return to the mid-period of Shanghai Confidential and Century's End-type tracks? Can anybody else confirm this?

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 18:23:21 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, Off the record ...

A programmer told that Keith Carlock did the postman for a few weeks at the drum clinic.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 18:17:54 ET
Posted by: Edit, A

"Keith Carlock did tell a poster that all drums were programmed on the record at a drum clinic a few weeks back."

would be clearer as

"Keith Carlock did tell a poster at a drum clinic a few weeks back that all the drums on the record were programmed."

Less clear

"On the record, Keith Carlock did tell a poster all the drums were programmed a few weeks back at a drum clinic."

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 17:53:21 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, a few seconds ago

Royal Scam,

I think the "few weeks ago" part meant that the actual poster got the information from Carlock at a drum clinic a few weeks ago, not that the programming was done at that time.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 16:57:18 ET
Posted by: RoyalScam, Brooklyn owns this charmer...

Re: Drums on Sunken Condos were programmed at a drum clinic a few weeks ago

But the album was mastered a few MONTHS ago, not weeks, so the info seems fishy to me.

My proof: http://www.sonicscoop.com/2012/04/17/session-buzz-whos-recording-in-around-nyc-a-monthly-report-8/

Quote: "(Scott) Hull has also recently mastered the new Donald Fagen album (for CD, vinyl and iTunes) � produced by Michael Leonhart for Warner"

This was posted to the above linked blog in APRIL.

Just sayin'...

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 15:33:00 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Manatee Bar. Startin' Early!

Dunno how the Doobies sound in concert these days, but I think Patrick Simmons and Tom Johnston are still with the group--and they ARE the Doobie Brothers, IMO. Skunk was a great addition, but didn't come on board until their 4th album, I think. Mike's contributions changed the sound of the band to a such a degree, they might as well have changed the name of the band during those years. I'm not saying the McMike Brothers didn't make a few decent tunes, but I'll take the original Doobies every time.


As for funk, I think plenty of Dan/Donald songs contain elements of funk, including the tunes already cited. From Morph alone there are several examples, IMO. Brite Nightgown is pure funk. Morph, What I Do and to an extent Security Joan all have some funk elements.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 15:21:33 ET
Posted by: Greg M, ny

One wonders how funky we can get with FAKE drums. I'm hoping this a false rumor.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 14:33:18 ET
Posted by: ,

Springtime and Teahouse On the Tracks are indeed funk...Donald's brand of cerebral funk.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 14:18:41 ET
Posted by: Sad, O

RIP Horshack. (Dangential link: Freddie Washington was a sweathog.)

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 14:01:30 ET
Posted by: Dr, Funkenstein, Great Pagoda of Funk

There has been some speculation in the articles about the new Fagen release containing much Funk. One wonders how someone knows enough about this in order to speculate. And Sunken Condos sounds pretty depressing, on balance, the working record title for something deep, dark and depressing like much of Dan, Fagen and Becker discography.

The Fagen, Dan and Becker catalogues are fairly devoid of Funk, but some notable funky songs might be Trans island Skyway, Countermoon and some of Walt's reggae dubs on Circus Money; all of which being "lite" Funk. Lunch with Gina and Brite Nightgown are probably the strongest examples of heavier Funk.

As always, Don has got something up his sleeve, and after producing the mostly depressing funeral dirge tracks on Morph, maybe it is time for him to

"Give us some Funked-up music, it's PARTY TIME"

After all, Walt already gave us "some Hungry Reggae", No?

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 12:49:38 ET
Posted by: T.O. Danfan, Dukes review

Here's the Toronto Sun review of Sunday's show.

http://www.torontosun.com/dukes

I see the Doobies are touring and playing Massey Hall Oct 12 with tix $60-$100. I believe they have been a casino show for the last few years. Does anyone know if any of the big boys are joining them on this tour? If they are not, I can't believe people will pony up to see what amounts to a cover band a la Creedence Clearwater Revisited. Now if Skunk was along for the ride that would be a different story!

Cheers

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 07:45:33 ET
Posted by: Michael,

63 days. That's 9 weeks. 1512 hours. 90720 seconds.

Date: Tues, August 14, 2012, 02:49:19 ET
Posted by: JungleMusic, T-63

These are great thoughts about the cover. We really don't need the music, the cover will do!

To be clear, what I did with the high-res pic I linked to was to take screenshots and then match them down to a pixel in PS. But nothing more. No enhancements of any sort. My only regret is that when I was finished I realized that I could have done one more zoom on Amazon before taking the screenshots, resulting in even more hi-res but by then I had spent so much time on it I didn't have it in me to start again.

The style of the cover really reminds me of covers of books I read in my childhood, french adventure books with sci-fi theme about Bob Morane, a hero that stumbles into adventures and saves the world in most every book. By some reason they got translated to Icelandic in the 60's which left an adventure thirst youngster in the 80's some affordable second hand bookstore thrills.

Here's a sample of the artwork: http://static.livre-rare-book.com/pictures/SEV/11540_1.jpg

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 21:49:18 ET
Posted by: Coastie, El Dorado Hills

More obsession with the cover.
Rotate the image 90 clockwise, zoom in, change the contrast, and the tower begins to look like a score sheet, with Donald looking at it.

Who says I have no life?

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 21:31:14 ET
Posted by: Coastie, El Dorado Hills

Resuming the album analysis now that I have a higher rez photo (thanks JungleMusic):
1. Looks like the back-up singers could be represented by the two kelp on the right (didn't see them in the low rez pic).
2. Right side of the tower in the background looks like a keyboard (sort of), or the frets on a guitar, or both.

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 19:18:06 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, yeah yeah I know. Obviously obsessed.

Correction:
The colors are definately not more vivid on tonight's version, that was just me being tricked by the browser's rendering. When I downloaded it and compared, it turned out to be less over-saturated and actually with quite a lot more details, especially in the upper middle water surface part. Also less turquoise/green-ish and more pure light blue in that part.
Damned, it's a fascinating and beautiful image!

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 19:05:02 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, obsessed. Fortunately I'm not alone.

JungelMusic,

That picture was 1425x1425 px. The one that you most kindly provided the other day after spending a little time in Photoshop and putting together the parts from your different cropped screeenshots was 1523x1520, which means, if you did not enlarge it during the PS'ing, that the picture from Amazon that you re-created full size was 100 px larger vertically & horizontally. Tonight's picture seems to have a slightly different color profile; a bit more vivid, at least on my screen.

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 18:16:13 ET
Posted by: JungleMusic, Out Of Town

Here's a link to the highest resolution to be found online yet. Interesting that they seem to have forgotten to rename the photo before sending it to the press, its name being: "73667_2_DFCOVERfinal.jpg" Instead of simply SunkenCondosLarge.jpg or something.

http://media.marketwire.com/attachments/201208/73667_2_DFCOVERfinal.jpg

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 15:51:34 ET
Posted by: Nicholas Urfe, Phraxos

To put it another way, perhaps: Mr. Fagen is serious about making music, but he's not stoking the star maker machinery behind the popular song.

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 15:36:02 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Off to the Manatee Bar for Happy Hour

Michael, I know you weren't suggesting Don go commercial. And yes it would be nice to see a solo tour and a bit of press/interviews (even though most are pretty much the same) and a bit of airplay. I was just setting expectations for how much a label will really push an album when the only thing they really have to sell is the music--and when the artist won't resort to a stint on American Idol.

For Morph some formats played H-Gang and I think I read another tune was featured on a different format--but I can't remember what it was. I always thought Security Joan would have made the best single, for commercial purposes. I'm unlikely to hear it on the radio unless one of the Flagler College station jocks play it during the jazz show--which is not too likely.

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 15:04:22 ET
Posted by: hoops, chicago, really, really, really on the quick

Just glanced DF's new album cover. Just a passing thought if even given that much consideration: if global warming continues, my retirement condo in Florida or some place in the tropics will certainly be underwater. Ditto if there's another mortgage crisis. Like I said, fleeting, passing thought.

Be well and be kind to one another.

Jim

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 13:24:48 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, with my Handicam in tow

I think you guys are right regarding the difficulties of commercially actively promoting artists like Donald. Considering Don's strictly musical reasons for being in the business at all (I know all "artists" say so about themselves too, but in Dons case it's undoubtly actually true). Even more because of big labels' lack of out-of-the-box thinking, and most of all because of their strictly economic reason for everything they do. Don just don't sell like Lady Gaga no matter what the labels do because so many people's musical taste and refinement sucks, always has and always will.
He puts it best himself on EMG:

"It's high time for a walk on the real side
Let's admit the bastards beat us"

And in the last verse:

"And if somewhere on the way
We got a few good licks in
No one's ever gonna know"

But despite the above there is a few things that could actually happen, like a little solo/promo tour sometimes after the Dukes return from Japan, and maybe a song will be picked as a single for airplay prior to the album release. The H Gang was out as a single (digital release only I think) from Morph, and some apocalyptic funk masterpiece might maybe be released separately from Sunken Condos too.
Wouldn't surprise me much if that single will eventually be Out Of The Ghetto. We live in an era where recycling of music, looking back and emphasizing one's musical roots and inspirations is as big a part of the art and the industry as the production of brand new stuff. Maybe it's the apocalyptic feeling that has subtly invaded many people's minds even if very few except conspiracy theorists like to talk about it. No one likes to look forward anymore. Can't exactly blame them either, the way the world seems to go.

However, since our civilisation is going under anyway, I am willing to help out with the promoting of Sunken Condos by making and leaking a sex tape on Donald's behalf since that seems to boost the interest of the lame masses. I'm thinking of something along the alley of a blurred three-minute video of me wearing a Fagen mask, doing things that would make Frank Zappa rotate in his grave. Then, a little hint to the infamous Perez Hilton, and Donalds pension should be well and safe! ;o)

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 12:03:36 ET
Posted by: Michael, @The Dean

I'm not implying that Don should go all commercial, just that his label should make some noise. It's in their best interests that the music sell, is it not? (*note* I'm also no fan of the labels, but that doesn't mean that I want to watch Sunken Condos tank just to spite them.) As for Gaga and the like, nothing could be more shallow than when labels try to market an image in order to sell music. But I don't let that bother me as I'm too busy enjoying great music to care.

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 11:48:44 ET
Posted by: Chris, NH

Re: drums on Sunken Condos -- nothing is official, but Keith Carlock did tell a poster that all drums were programmed on the record at a drum clinic a few weeks back.

Also, the press release only lists Jon Herington, "the Steely Dan horns," and Freddie Washington as collaborators ... but who knows.

It seems pretty likely to me that they're programmed. Remember, swaths of Gaucho, The Nightfly, and Kamakiriad were programmed drums, and it's certainly a hell of a lot easier to do it these days than 20 years go.

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 10:16:02 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Michael,

Far be it for me to defend a record label. I did a bit of work with a few in the past, and there is little I liked about the experience. But I would imagine it is hard for a label to promote an album when the artist isn't all that promotion-conscious. Now of course there are ways to do it--it takes a bit of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking on the label's part. But don't expect that--ever.

Don is unlikely to make appearances on high-profile TV shows or celebrity-studded events. He isn't paparazzi friendly, doesn't self-promote in any meaningful way, hasn't released a sex tape (thankfully), etc. There is really only one thing to promote with Don--MUSIC. And that really isn't something labels care to market anymore, from what I can see.

Now if Don would just have a public fling with Lady Gaga...

I shudder at the very thought of it.

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 10:01:09 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

I still think it's a hoax!

Seriously though...

The press release on Don's site was re-printed a few days ago in an article linked to on The Blue. At the time I didn't realize it was the official press release, of course. The line that struck me funny was this:

"All but one track, an Ashkenazi recasting of Isaac Hayes' Out of the Ghetto, are new Fagen originals."

An "Ashkenazi recasting"? Obviously a reference to Don's Jewish roots. But what in the world does that have to do with the cover of this song? Does Don play the klezmer on this tune? :#)

Maybe it was a typo and Don recast the song in the style of noted classical pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. Schoenberg funk? :#)

Yes we all know nobody is funkier than the Jews! (I kid of course.) Anyway, the funk trend continues I guess. Morph was certainly a funk-heavy album, IMO and I guess we should expect Condos to press the funk a bit further.

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 09:44:35 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Reuters has a link to a large scan of the album cover, along with the same PR that's now up on DF's official site:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/13/idUS107224+13-Aug-2012+MW20120813

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 09:40:50 ET
Posted by: Michael,

"The word is that, from now on, everything Donald does has got to be funky."

Don 'Funkadelic' Fagen, offering funk-delicious music for all ages.

Let's hope Reprise Records actively promotes this album.

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 08:03:03 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, ... and counting

Ah! Finally! Now I think we can safely say it's confirmed & official!
Thanks Steelydoc!

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 07:54:04 ET
Posted by: steelydoc, near the Tower

there is now a press release and info about Sunken Condos at www.donaldfagen.com

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 07:49:05 ET
Posted by: Michael,

64 days and counting...

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 07:34:54 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, reading those ink blots

The more I look at the Sunken Condos cover, the more I get convinced that it's no Don or other SD band members portrayed on it after all. I think the whole thing is a salute to Swiss Freudian psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922).
I see him all over the place now! ;o)

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 05:00:45 ET
Posted by: fagenism, Exhausting and luscious.

The Nightfly: unaware of the apocalypse.

Kamakiriad: denying the apocalypse.

Two Against Nature: fighting the apocalypse.

Everything Must Go: accepting the apocalypse.

Morph The Cat: going through the apocalypse.

Sunken Condos: looking back at the apocalypse...?

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 02:24:39 ET
Posted by: JungleMusic,

Coastie: Another interesting anagram is Don's coke nuns. But I doubt it's a secret message.

Has it been confirmed that the new album has no drummer, only programmed drums? I find it so hard to believe.

Oh, and thanks for the heads up on the Manassas concert, Jazzassin. It's truly a great concert.

Date: Mon, August 13, 2012, 01:03:14 ET
Posted by: T.O. Danfan, at home

Just back from the Dukes show at the Mo-slum Amphitheatre in Toronto.

The show started at 8:15 and lasted a shade over 2 hrs.

The place holds 15k, 8k in seats and 7k on the lawn. The lawn was closed and the seats were 3/4 full.

Here's the setlist.

People Get Yourself....intro
Who's That Lady?
Sweet Soul Music
I Keep Forgettin'
Trouble Man
Kid C
That Same Thing
Miss Sun
Grapevine
You Never Can Tell
Loves Gonna Live Here Again
If You Don't Know Me By Now
What A Fool Believes
Hey 19
Love TKO
Piece of My Heart
Tell the Truth
Lowdown
Takin' It To The Streets
Lido
Reelin'

Peg
Pretzel Logic
Thank You
Them Changes
People Get Yourselves...outro

It was a good show with the expected fine musicianship of all involved. People were up dancing from Lowdown onwards. The biggest sing-along party song by far was Lido. I found Reelin' to be a sort of cross between the original and the AIA version. Jon and Boz trading solos was awesome. They did a great Pretzel Logic which was the best of the Dan songs.

Oh yeah. Right after the band intros Don says..."oh by the way, to the guy who yelled fuck you when we played Ray Charles....FUCK YOU BUDDY.. I'M GLAD YOU LEFT"! He seemed pretty pissed. Some of us cheered. Most didn't have a clue what he was freaking out about.

Cheers

Date: Sun, August 12, 2012, 23:13:39 ET
Posted by: Coastie, El Dorado Hills

Now the anagram game: sunkencondos
Once Don's Sunk
Don's Neon Suck
Don's Snuck One
Etc. Etc. Etc.

Date: Sun, August 12, 2012, 22:48:49 ET
Posted by: Coastie, El Dorado Hills

Addendum to below:
That lion looking rock, lower left, above the green hand: Leonhart?

Date: Sun, August 12, 2012, 22:45:35 ET
Posted by: Coastie, El Dorado Hills

And whose face is that in the rock formation lower center?
I think what we're looking at is a very stylized rendition of the Steely Dan Band. Background left: the horn section (that stuff that looks like kelp). Backkground center top: the dazzling explosion of Carlock. Right side: Donald. Foreground center: Walter. Foreground left: that green thingy that might look like a hand: Jon Herington. As far as bass, keyboards and the ladies . . . you guys will have to help me on that.

Date: Sun, August 12, 2012, 17:53:50 ET
Posted by: Jason Smith, UK

Message for The Dean

Thanks for the notice about potential problems with my website. I'll check it out. My fanzine FANTASTIC EXPEDITION is on sale on Ebay if you want to check out my issue on Jim Hodder and the BEAD GAME.

Cheers

Jason

www.slipstreamrecords.com
www.fantasticexpedition.com

Date: Sun, August 12, 2012, 14:46:57 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Great job, JungleMusic. I really couldn't make out the detail until you provided that high-rez mock up. Thanks.

Ray, I noticed that rock/face, too but didn't think about Donald. Very funny.

Jazzassin the Manassas stuff is very good indeed. Everyone seems to be in great form and the recording is terrific. BTW I loved your car comparison. I drove a Citroen DS21 for many years. Man do I miss that car.

Date: Sun, August 12, 2012, 14:06:55 ET
Posted by: Walt's Roast Beef,

What de hell does this mean(Walter Becker's Mum)?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYrNz9-og-A

Date: Sun, August 12, 2012, 13:43:33 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, Attention all photoshoppers

Re: Don on his cover

Good observation, Ray!

Big Nose Biscayne Bay?

Date: Sun, August 12, 2012, 13:14:32 ET
Posted by: Lutrker Ray, SoBe - Off To The Blue Water

SUNKEN FAGEN

Rumour has it that this is the first
Donald Fagen Solo project without a
picture of Don on the cover.

Or is it?

http://i50.tinypic.com/1o58i8.png

;O)

Nice Hi Res PhotoShop work JungleMusic!
Thanks for your efforts!

Happy Sunday all.....

Date: Sun, August 12, 2012, 10:18:40 ET
Posted by: Michael, @Only me

State Cows has a similar vibe to AOR stuff like Airplay, Pages, Sneaker, etc. which is good, mind you, but not good enough to replace SD. The lyrics are kind of insipid, at times even banal, and this has the consequence of making the music lack intrigue. (These guys would be experts at doing BGM for 80's style action movies like Bloodsport...) The essential contrast between highly skilled, clever songwriting/performance and dark, edgy, ironic lyrics filled with all sorts of cryptic, arcane references is absent. Yes, State Cows create nice music when its left to its own devices, i.e. despite the lyrics, but I won't be trading in my SD collection anytime soon.

65 (painful) days to go, but who needs Sunken Condos when we've got State Cows, right? *rolls eyes* BTW, nice album cover.

Date: Sun, August 12, 2012, 10:09:23 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, across the bay

JungleMusic,

Thanks for the HiRes version of the cover. Nice job, nice wallpaper!

Date: Sun, August 12, 2012, 09:41:20 ET
Posted by: JungleMusic,

Great to have the cover. It shortens the waiting time for the CD somehow.

It bothers me there isn't a way to download the hi-res pic from Amazon, you only get to look at parts of it at a time through the zoom thingy.
Well, I did that and took screenshots and pasted them back together in PS. It's slightly bigger than those already posted but nice to look at!

http://tinypic.com/r/2zi4ion/6

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 18:54:05 ET
Posted by: kuleebaba, On the Dunes

Greg,

Cool link! I think that's from the New York times. The link below is the same, sans picture.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/10/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-6-10-01-questions-for-jeffrey-baxter-crossover-artist.html

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 18:16:25 ET
Posted by: Hee Haw Mike, San Diego

The thing I'm waiting for next is whether Donald will launch a solo tour to promote his new CD.

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 17:35:38 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, sleeping with the fishes

Re: Sunken Scam

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!


\m/(^_^)\m/

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 17:27:39 ET
Posted by: moray eel, sunken

Sunken Scam?

http://postimage.org/image/h21p94r79/

m.e.

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 16:58:31 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, on the internet

Greg,
Thanks for the scan! Very cool indeed! I think maybe that was from Newsweek's Lifestyle Section? Where interviewer John Leland was the editor from 1993? I don't know if he's still there, but he started to write about music related things in Spin Magazine in the '80s. His name signs the Baxter interview at least. Just my two cents ...

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 16:14:29 ET
Posted by: Greg M, White Plains NY

Rare Jeff Skunk Baxter interview from 2001. Can't remember where it was from, unfortunately. Maybe someone can help? Scanned version at this link:

http://www.moonspank.net/STEELY/baxter.JPG

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 14:28:12 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe

M.E.

Thanks for the larger image!

Here is a jpeg:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DmRwnVx5L._SS420_.jpg

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 14:25:07 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, Atlantis

Moray Eel,

The Sunken Condos cover looks fantastic. Re: Scam cover. I always imagined that was Charlie Freak or his brother lying on that bench. Seems the eels have digested him since then.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B008O9V4C2/ref=dp_image_z_0?ie=UTF8&n=5174&s=music

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 14:22:45 ET
Posted by: moray eel, yep

http://postimage.org/image/7pswovyzp/

m.e.

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 14:14:19 ET
Posted by: LR, SoBe

Try this link:

http://www.amazon.de/Sunken-Condos-Donald-Fagen/dp/B008O9V4C2

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 14:11:52 ET
Posted by: LR, SoBe

Oh and geo,

Your just a little bitch pussy.

Go fuck yourself loser.

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 14:10:18 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe

Romour has it that this is the new Donlad Fagen
Sunken Condos Cover art:

http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/richmedia/images/cover.gif

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 14:10:10 ET
Posted by: geo,

"Additional info"..nice con job, Lurker Ray. Let's see the link to the "Rosie takes over lead vocals for SD" rumor. Oh! That's right, there isn't one! Stop making shit up, Ray.

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 14:03:40 ET
Posted by: moray eel, oops

my = me

m.e.

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 14:03:00 ET
Posted by: moray eel, cover

I like the Sunken Condos cover art. It reminds my of The Royal Scam.

m.e.

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 13:55:53 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe

Rumour has it that it was a great
Dukes show in Bethlehem:

http://articles.mcall.com/2012-08-09/news/mc-musikfest-review-dukes-of-september-20120809_1_boz-scaggs-band-members-michael-mcdonald

geo,

Even the most bile excrement that I excrete
from my ass has far more personality, class,
wit, debonair flair, compassion, vision,
humor, intelligence and je ne sais quoi
than anything you possess.

Of course those Rosie Vela links were posted
JUST to provide additional info on Rosie after
my original Steely Dan/ELO post.

But only a lonely, pathetic, eyesore of a human
like yourself who lives in darkness amongst
the cockroaches and rat droppings wouldn't get that.

At least I bring something to the table here on
the Blue. I post things that are at least worthy
of discussion and "Dangential".

What do you bring geo?

N-O-T-H-I-N-G

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 13:35:15 ET
Posted by: Brutus Charisma,

RE State Cows: Strong efforts instrumentally/compositionally speaking. However, the music overall lacks juxtaposition and irony both lyrically and vocally.
The lyrics are generally hackneyed and lack depth. Remember how well-read DF and WB are. And also not to mention, how NATURALLY arcane and twisted they are personally.
To their credit, these guys seems to want to sound Dan-like and have succeeded as far as I can tell.

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 13:13:46 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, rebooting

Only me,
I for one need a new Don album just as much now as I did before I heard State Cows. But I liked it. It reminds me of so many good acts; SD of course, Larsen/Feiten band and many others, and actually has a lot of similarity to Breithaupt's Monkey House. All this is meant as unconditional compliments.

The most important difference to me between Steely Dan/ Don/ Walt and all the other brilliant bands/artist in the slick, smooth west coast style is that all the others lack a "dark & dirty side". However intellectual and clever the lyrics might be and independent of the musicians and songwriters brilliance, none of them has managed to come close to the Dan at being "schizofrenic in a positive way".
Some SD tribute projects has actually in vaious ways been able to capture a bit of that other dark side in their renditions of Dan songs, but that's another story because it IS of course SD songs, not original compositions. I think of Sara Isaksson & Rebecka T�rnqvist's naked and vulnerable performances, The Darcy's dark and sonic noise-like version of the entire Aja album, and actually also Gabe Is The Devil with his sample based, cut-up tribute to the maestros in the musical language of younger generations.
But none of them has the slickness that is also an important part of the Dan.
Regarding artists who does own material in a Dan-like style, I can't remember one single act at the moment that has this duality accented in a subtle way like Steely Dan.

Then, if you want to forget everything I said about slickness, dark sides and duality and just be overrun by a musical force similar to a nuclear power driven super locomotive, I suggest you listen to the SD bootleg from Manassas VA, 07.22.2000. If you can find it without help (because you won't get that help here, I'm afraid. House rules for good reasons).
Must be the worlds best boot. I'm absolutely speechless and have to pick my jaw up from the floor every time i listen to it. The official live album Alive In America compared to Manassas is like a small french car named Citr�en 2CV compared to a hybrid of a Tiger Tank and a Lamborghini. Raw power & pure elegance. I'm starting to shake and sweat and get goosebumps and my grin goes 360� around my neck just by thinking of it.
Who needs anything at all when we have that one? ;o)

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 12:14:07 ET
Posted by: Only me, S.E.A.

Who needs a new Don album when we have this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j17qt_90Q9c&feature=related

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjapZQNw4zI&feature=related

One of them even has a corker of a solo from Jay Graydon.

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 10:24:06 ET
Posted by: pixeleen,

Sunken Condos is again available for pre-order on Amazon for $19.61...

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 09:44:55 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, behind layers of shields

Jason,
Confirming The Deans observations about possible malware on your site. My exact experience too. Not necessarily your intention of course, and also false positives occur. But please check it for your own good. If you're cool you don't want to be an errand boy for mf's. ;o)

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 09:17:28 ET
Posted by: Michael,

66 days to go.

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 09:01:20 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Jason, might be a false positive, but Avast Antivirus detects possible malware on your site. It also has no rating on Web Of Trust (WOT), Google's url scanner or McAfee Site Advisor--probably because it is such a new site.

But that's enough for me to steer clear for now. Perhaps you want to check things out on your end. Many sites are infected by a third party, without the knowledge of the owner.

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 01:52:45 ET
Posted by: Jason Smith, UK

Hi, I've never posted here before but thought you'd like to know about a new article just published in my fanzine FANTASTIC EXPEDITION. My latest issue tells the story of the BEAD GAME, Jim Hodder's first band on which he sang lead vocals and drummed.

Original members Robert Gass and John Sheldon help tell this story and have provided many previously unpublished photos.

Their manager Ray Paret also adds further insight and kindly put me in contact with Jeff Baxter who provides a short interview about Jim.

I also managed to track down some of Jim's later musical collaborators in Point Arena who tell the final part of Jim's story up to his untimely death.

For more info check out my website: www.fantasticexpedition.com

Cheers

Jason

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 00:49:23 ET
Posted by: HouDanFan, Houston

I had a good laugh when I read Rosie Vela grew up in Galveston, a conservative industrial town. Galveston was a far cry from being conservative. It was an Italian city and very democratic. That negates that whole story.

Date: Sat, August 11, 2012, 00:46:04 ET
Posted by: HouDanFan, Houston

I had a good laugh when I read Rosie Vela grew up in Galveston, a conservative industrial town. Galveston was a far cry from being conservative. It was an Italian city and very democratic. That negates that whole story.

Date: Fri, August 10, 2012, 17:38:26 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Manatee Bar. It's Happy Hour!

20+ years after the fact, I can't recall a rumor that Rosie was going to be SD's lead singer--but it doesn't sound that far fetched as far as stupid rumors go. Ray never suggested it was legit--just that it was a rumor. I can't take issue with that. Perhaps he heard the rumor while others did not. There's a decent chance I actually heard the rumor and dismissed it straight away. I doubt I would recall anything like that today. I drink, you know.

Date: Fri, August 10, 2012, 14:14:17 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, Rose Darling was really about Rosie Vela, because Don & Walt actually knew her as early as back in the seventies. Or so they say, at least.

geo,

Just like everything too stupid to be said is being sung, everything that could possibly become a rumour will eventually become a rumour.
I can't remember ever hearing the Vela rumour in mention myself, but that doesn't mean others haven't heard it. Some rumours spread like a virus, others stay in your neighborhood.
Of course I can't verify or disprove anything regarding this rumour ever being heard by this or that person. What's interesting imho isn't the final truth about whether a rumour ever existed or not, but rather the story of Rosie Vela and her connection with Steely Dan.
Besides, finding written evidence on the internet to back up rumours about rumours from the '80s is not always easy I guess ...

I never meant to try to convince anyone that the rumour existed. I have no idea. I just assumed Ray wouldn't bother to purposedly plant such negligible details if it wasn't the case, and I really didn't think much about that part.
But he will have to eventually give a supplementary answer himself. He always appeared to be able to speak for himself. Or so says the rumours anyway.
___________________________________________________________________

Did I ever mention how excited I am to hear Donald's new one? Ok, I guess I did. But I really am. Even if rumours says Rosie Vela won't be singing on it. Could be wrong, though. Never trust rumours, especially when they come from me. Personally I only trust Fleetwood Mac.

Date: Fri, August 10, 2012, 12:45:38 ET
Posted by: geo,

Jazz- you wrote "I can't in my wildest dreams imagine that Ray meant that the rumour was supposed to be taken seriously or that those articles backed it up"

My point is that it NEVER was a rumor! I believe it's something that Lurker Ray made up in his own mind. If you put up links up to back up the rumor, then it's cool. But those links don't back it up. This is not the first time Lurker Ray as pulled shit like this out of his ass.

Date: Fri, August 10, 2012, 12:38:45 ET
Posted by: geo,

Jazzassin- Thanks and I'm well aware of the Rosie Vela /Steely Dan story and how it started. I was just asking about where Lurker Ray saw that Rosie was going to be the lead singer for Steely Dan. I don't believe it was in that article that you copied and pasted. That's all I wanted to know about. Did Lurker Ray just make that rumor up himself? Because I never heard that in the 80's or at any other time.

Date: Fri, August 10, 2012, 11:26:56 ET
Posted by: Michael, @Lurker Ray

"Really??

As of Tuesday you still doubted that
'Sunken Condos' was even the title!

Ye of such little faith in the Blue ;O)"

As it was somewhat unofficial and Amazon had delisted it, nobody could be 100% certain that that was in fact the title.

67 days...

Date: Fri, August 10, 2012, 09:27:29 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, Rosie 6.0

PGE & Dean,
You are both right. The page has some missing tags, but will open fine in IE. Good work, boys!

Regarding html and web standards ... Instead of expecting people who made a nice website in the 90s to continuously upgrade their pages to be compatible with new browser versions, the people who develop the browsers should be obligated to make sure new versions are always backwards compatible with old pages. But what do I know.

Date: Fri, August 10, 2012, 08:51:46 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Just an FYI on the Metal Leg pages (with the Rosie Vela content). For some reason they do NOT open properly in Google Chrome or Firefox--at least they don't for me. They open fine in Internet Explorer. I managed to open the links in Chrome, only after I used the IETab extension (there is also a version for Firefox). This allows you to open a particular site using IE's engine, but within your preferred browser.

I think that site must be using very old code and has not been configured to be compatible with the newer browsers. Hey, I'm just glad it's still up and running.

Date: Fri, August 10, 2012, 08:32:35 ET
Posted by: PGE, Rosie Vela invisible but there. Sort of.

Using my rudimentary and rusty knowledge of HTML-code I went and had a look at those Rosie Vela pages from the Metal Leg archive, and sure enough they are just blank pages in my browsers as well. The same goes for some other pages in the archive, while others read just fine.

Having a look at the source code of the Rosie pages the only thing I found missing in the formatting is "--" to end the line

<!--Created with Hippie by John Granatino on the train to Philadelphia on Sun Dec 29 14:26:21 1996>

The pages visible using a browser has that line in the source code looking like this:

<!--Created with Hippie by John Granatino on the train to Philadelphia on Sun Dec 29 14:26:21 1996-->

My theory is that Jazzassin is using a mobile browser that doesn't mind a few missing HTML- characters (Opera?) and render the pages just fine, while browsing them via web will get you a blank page thanks to the missing code. I am sure there are at least a couple of people working with web for a living reading this that can tell us all if that could be the reason or have a quick look at the code and find what's wrong with it.

In the meantime here's the text from the two "missing pages" thanks to it being there if you just look at the pages source code,

ISSUE 1, APRIL 1987

Zazu -- Rosie Vela
Recently ex-model Rosie Vela has been attracting a considerable amount of publicity in the U.K., especially for a new artist, and there are two principle reasons for this: the appearance of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker on her first album, "Zazu," and her stunning good looks.

Despite her obvious beauty, Rosie Vela has been playing down her modeling exploits and going to extraordinary lengths to demonstrate her determination to succeed on her own musical terms. When denied the money required for the video of the single, "Magic Smile," she paid for the director and crew to fly to Barbados out of her own money; she also paid for a reshoot of the cover photo on Zazu after failing to obtain a satisfactory result with the original photographer -- Herb Ritts.

Classically trained on the piano, Galveston-born Rosie Vela has been writing songs for many years but, over the past ten years or so, has been consciously developing her songwriting ability. The nine songs on this album are real evidence of the achievement of her goal -- sophisticated, frequently lyrically obscure and yet still with enough hooks to snare you in their trap.

Zazu opens with "Fools Paradise," an uptempo song with a prominent snare drum beat, relentless high-hat and a sinuous synthesizer part.

This is followed by the hit single, "Magic Smile," where Miss Vela thinly disguises her feelings for her late husband. It contains a chorus with the lines:

I been dyin' to see ya baby, I been dyin' to keenovay

the latter being part of a personal dialect invented by Miss Vela to both veil her own emotions and to add variety to her songs.

"Tonto," the strangest and also the longest track at five-and-a-half minutes, has a descending Jimmy Haslip bass line running right through the song, enhanced here and there by a rare piece of improvisation on synthesizer from Walter Becker.

The introduction to "Taxi" is very reminiscent of an earlier Donald Fagen song, "Love Will Make It Right," which appeared on Diana Ross' 1983 album "Ross," also produced by Gary Katz -- whose work here is, as ever, pristine and restrained throughout.

Miss Vela reserves her best vocal performance for the title cut, weaving an inpenetrable web of mystery and intrigue and finally admitting, "I'm the one with the secret code."

Unquestionably, "Zazu" marks the debut of an interesting newcomer, and with Fagen and Becker already keen to hear her ideas for a second album, all the signs are that Rosie Vela's future is indeed very bright.

Rumors about that Rosie Vela will tour the U.K. in the spring with a band that may very well include Jim Keltner, Jimmy Haslip, Michael Been and Rick Derringer, but sadly no Becker and Fagen who are currently working on the new Steely Dan album in New York. Whatever the lineup, I'll be one of the first in the queue for the tickets.

Last modified on Sun Jan 28 19:42:43 1996

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ISSUE 24, MAY 1994

Rosie Vela: Facing The Music
You might have seen her on numerous covers of "Vogue" in the late '70s, in the Sinatra Michelob television ad in the mid '80s, or most recently in the Maybelline television and magazine ads announcing "I'm 40!" But as some of you might or might not know, '70s supermodel Roseanne Vela can actually claim credit for the first so-called Steely Dan reunion when she unintentionally snared Walter Becker and Donald Fagen to play on her 1986 debut record "Zazu." In this article that appeared in the Nov. 3, 1986 issue of "New York Magazine," writer Eric Pooley tells her story: "For ten years, Rosie Vela was a top fashion model. Now she has a pop album out. Despite all appearances, hers is not the story of a beautiful woman who parlays her looks into a record deal and stardom. Vela wrote all the music on "Zazu" and her songs were good enough to reunite Walter Becker andDonald Fagen, of Steely Dan, to play them."

One night in 1976, a studio owner watched a "Vogue" model named Rosie Vela record some rock songs. He looked Vela's body up and down, lingering over her red-blonde ringlets, heavy-lidded eyes, and pouty lips. Then he made a tasteless proposition.

"He said, 'Hey, you like music,' " Vela remembers. " 'You could be a star. You could do it -- I'll get you some songs. I'll get you a producer. I'll dress you up. I got it figured out -- an androgynous pop character, neither male nor female.' "

"I said, 'Huh?' "

Today, Vela tells the story with annoyance and satisfaction. After developing her music in private during ten years of modeling -- countless photo sessions, fourteen "Vogue" covers -- Vela has released her first album, "Zazu." And she's struggling to be taken seriously in a town where models rarely are. "People talk about my 'Cinderella story,' " she says, "because I'm a model, and because I haven't given concerts yet -- as if the genie just waved his wand over me."

Then she sits back in her sunken living room above the Hudson and listens to "Zazu." A song called "Interlude" comes on -- a solemn, beautiful ballad with a melody that unfolds as inexorably as a love affair running aground. It's no wonder the music is so strong -- Vela's band includes Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who made some of the finest rock of the seventies under the name Steely Dan. But the real power is Vela's: She sings in a voice that starts out low, hushed and sad, then goes double-time, urgent and hopeful. On the couch, Vela is rapt, singing along with herself in a lonely world somewhere behind her hair. Then "Interlude" moves through a haunting instrumental passage: Becker and Fagen playing Vela's melody note for note, adding one lyrical descending run at the end. It's a tribute from two master musicians to the music that reunited them after six years. Vela still sings along -- lovely, enigmatic and fragile.

Rosie Vela's story is not about the top model who parlays her looks into a record deal and becomes a pop star thanks to a sexy album cover and music made by others. Her story -- young woman comes to New York after the death of her husband, makes it as a model, then works to become a musician -- is a far more compelling one. It may result in stardom; it's too soon to tell. More important, Vela has already produced an album of music that's being compared to the works of Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones and Kate Bush. In fact, the complexity of Vela's music -- oddly structured songs with strong melodies but no hooks or pandering choruses -- is one obstacle to success. Another is her beauty.

Fashion models, of course, occupy a strange place in New York life. Rich and glamorous, they are ogled and looked down on by the fashion industry and the public. Vela can play the sultry-brainless-model game; she can play the wisecracking southern girl; she can play the spacey flower child she was 15 years ago, before her husband died and her life changed forever. But she really is an artist, "soft and inward," as she says, and also talented, determined and smart. And her good looks could make it hard for some people to recognize her talent.

"Modeling has been great to me," says Vela, not one to complain about how awful it is to make $3,000 a day for being pretty. "But it has its dark side. People think you're the Barbie doll of the century. They think that's all you are."

A classically trained pianist who grew up in Galveston, Texas, and Little Rock, Arkansas, Vela came to New York in 1974 after her husband, a gifted 21-year-old musician named Jimmy Roberts, died in her arms, of cancer. Vela became one of the most successful models of the late seventies, but never lost sight of her goals: Modeling was a job and music was her life's work. Patient enough to give her talent time, Vela and her brother Chat built a recording studio in her apartment, where she survived years of self-doubt as she taught herself to write and play and sing.

When she was ready, she sent a demo tape to A&M Records executive Jerry Moss, and soon she was in a studio with Becker, Fagen and their producer, Gary Katz. "She is so talented," says Katz. "Her playing, singing, writing. The thing about Rosie is, she doesn't think in structures -- she writes a passage because she likes it, then another and another, sometimes in the same key -- and it works. For someone who started out with basically no idea what she was doing, she's very, very good -- remarkable. Cool."

"Yeah, I thought I was good," says Vela with her disarming laugh. "But I never thought I'd get to work with rock-and-roll Vikings."

The sun is setting over the Hudson, red light flooding Vela, her white living room, her white upright piano. Around her are a half-dozen electronic keyboards, two electronic drum machines, a digital sampler, studio tape recorders, and assorted gadgets that alter sound and have names like "outboard" and "exciter."

Standing at a Yamaha DX7 electronic keyboard, Vela plays a delicate, contrapuntal melody -- a kind of pop fugue with dazzling interplay between the hands. She picks up speed, and the piece becomes a rollicking workout. Taped to the DX7 is a fortune from a cookie: "Among the lucky, you are the chosen one."

Vela takes a phone call from a model friend, laughs, says: "Beauty must suffer," and hangs up. She moves to the couch as "Magic Smile," the first single from "Zazu," lopes out of the speakers: syncopated keyboards over a walking bass line, and Vela's high, wistful voice -- a parody of the scat-singing chanteuse, and an affecting love song. Vela sits with her back to the window, snapping her fingers, shaking her head, singing along for the first time since the record was released.

"Can't imagine how/You'd thrill me and then you'd walk away..."

There's sadness, and humor -- the conceit of a woman who looks good and knows it. And there's some nifty scat singing in a language she calls Zazu:

"...Been trynta seeya baBUH/Been dyinta keenovay..."

"This is a joke about love," she says, "as corny as I could get it -- stretch the syllables for their feel. All these songs, really, are messages for the girls about the elusive lovers who never call." (Vela lived for nine years with artist Peter Max, moved out last year, and is now alone.) Other songs play: one about a desperate woman banging on boxes in the street outside her ex-lover's apartment; another about a woman in a "Blade Runner" future, taling to a vanished lover named Zazu. Vela sifts through magazines and newspapers, scanning reviews of "Zazu." One says she is sexy and in her mid-twenties; another calls her songs "pillow talk."

"Pillow talk," says Vela, 33. "That hurts. But the songs are personal, about my love guys, so I guess it's true. But it still hurts to see it in print. Pillow talk."

Galveston, Texas, in 1953 was a conservative, industrial Gulf Coast town; Roseanne Vela was born into a family of Spanish and English heritage; her father, Hector Vela, was a lawyer for the Army Corps of Engineers. Rosie grew up Catholic and coddled, a prodigy who started taking classical piano lessons when she was six. She played Rachmaninoff, Bartok, and Haydn; her wildest music in those days was made in the living room with her father, who played a mean Herb Alpert-style trumpet.

All that changed in 1967, when Rosie hit 13 and discovered "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and Frank Zappa's "Freak Out" -- and listened to them over and over in her bedroom. "My mother didn't know if it was a Communist plot or what," she says. Rosie joined a band made up of older boys -- her father would chaperone during rehearsals -- "and finally, I quit socializing with my parents," she says. "At home, I was alone in my room, drawing, playing records. I was someplace else."

She founds others in that same place after her parents divorced in 1969 and she moved in with her father and brother in Little Rock. Above all, she found an intelligent, laconic boy named Jimmy Roberts, who had a dry wit, curly hair, blue eyes, "and kinda puckery lips." Roberts led the best rock band at the University of Arkansas, played hot guitar and knew piano even better than Vela did.

"I melted," says Vela. "Oh, my God."

She enrolled in art-history courses, spent her time with Roberts and his band, and became a hippie of the wood-nymph variety.

"I ran with that wild crowd," she says. "Gypsy clothes, hair down to my ass, little tiny shorts, and long boots." She breaks up laughing. "I did have fun. We'd go out into the forest, meet at midnight, sit around a fire and sing and play guitar in the woods."

Roberts' band was doing well -- club dates, a demo tape, major-label interest. Vela would jam with Roberts on his tight, melodic pop and country-rock tunes. The lovers planned to marry in February 1974. "But at Christmastime," Vela says, "Jimmy got the cancer."

They married anyway, and spent Roberts' last seven months deeply in love, making the best of the time they had. When Roberts was entering the hospital for his final stand, they bought some records and took them and a stereo system into his room. "The last album he ever bought was Steely Dan's 'Countdown to Ecstasy,' " says Vela, her voice low. "They were like the Beatles to us. We listened to them in the hospital all the time."

She slept on the hospital's marble floor, bought her husband has brownies to ease his pain, and helped him record his songs. "On his last night, he sang me his last song. He had so much tumor growing around his throat he could hardly breathe, but he sang it line by line and made me sing it back until I got it right. Later I sang it into a cassette." Her voice cracks. "I can't play that tape."

Other musicians came by the hospital, asking Roberts if they could play his songs. Roberts said no, they belonged to Rosie.

"He said, 'You do 'em.'

" 'Me?'

" 'You can do it. Practice.' "

The next morning, Robrts fell into a coma. He died three days later.

"Everybody floundered after that, me especially. Havin' him drift away in my arms -- it really aged me. Devastated. I felt like I didn't belong in the world anymore. But I woke up and I was still alive. I decided I had to throw myself into something that moved so fast I'd be carried along with it."

She went to New York, where she knew no one, armed with a sheaf of pictures. A Little Rock photography student had asked her to pose once "because I wore such crazy clothes." The results were good enough to persuade the Wilhelmina agency to hire her. "I was surprised -- didn't think of myself of myself as beautiful, and I'd see other girls in the dressing room: 'Just look at them, Vela, forget it. You gotta be kiddin'."

After two months, she left Wilhelmina for the Ford agency, and her career took of. From 1976 to 1980, her young, innocent, sometimes sleepy look was everywhere. She was known to show up late for shoots and demand naps during sessions, but in front of the camera she was witty, provocative, powerful. There were times when she'd be made up for a shoot and look in the mirror: "I didn't know who that person was -- makeup galore, hair out to here -- where's Rosie? Made me uncomfortable. Alienated."

But she knew what she was in it for. "Modeling is money," says Vela, who even today helps support some of her family with her fees. "It's a job that pays better than most. I wish I could pay the rent with music, but I can't, yet. So I'm grateful." While other models spent their off-hours posing at Studio 54, Vela spent hers working on the 50 songs Jimmy Rodgers had left behind.

Vela's modeling career began to falter early in the 1980s. Vela says she was working less because she was studying acting under Sandra Seacat in Los Angeles and because she landed a small role in the disastrous big-budget Western "Heaven's Gate" and was on call for a year. She had also built an impressive recording studio in her apartment and was spending more time than ever on music. She'd come home from posing "for my little pictures," put on a tape Roberts had made, sit at her piano, and play along with him. "I'm a serious person, and serious people work at something," she says. "He taught me that. I worked at his songs. But I'd play them for people and they'd look at me like I was crazy. They weren't my songs."

One night she came home, sat down at the piano, and did not play Roberts' music. "My first one, I wrote for him," she says. "I opened myself up, said, 'God, take control.' And this piece just flowed out. After that, I did my songs."

"People say, 'Howdja get Steely Dan to play on your album?' " says Vela in her best sneering model's voice. " 'Musta cost a lotta money.' I say, 'No, it just... happened. "

Walter Becker, among the most elusive people in rock, walked into the Village Recorder studio in Los Angeles one night to see Katz, who was producing Vela's record. Becker stood in the mixing room while Katz spun dials and Vela worked on "Tonto," a psychedelic siren song about a woman tired of being a sidekick to a Lone Ranger who's never around:

"Well the heroes never call/Nobody's there/And there's nowhere to ball..."

"Walter was hangin' out," says Vela, "and I'm recording the lead melody line and he's watchin' and I'm sweatin' bullets."

Midway through the song, Becker sauntered into the sound room and picked up Vela's portable Yamaha keyboard. "He started doin' this little snaky, sexy thing that worked against the beat," says Vela. "I couldn't breathe."

"Walter just joined in," says Katz. "He liked the song."

Then Becker stopped. "I don't play keyboards," he said.

But he did want to play. And later that night, he told Katz he wouldn't mind playing on a few other songs. He said he liked the one called "Interlude" best.

"Walter Becker wants to be on my album," Vela thought to herself, "God bless America."

Later, Katz played Vela's demo for Fagen in New York. "That chick is... good," Fagen said. "Weird and good. I like 'Interlude' the most."

Vela, Katz, Becker and Fagen met at a New York Studio called Sound Ideas. Fagen was ill at ease, the way a divorced man might be when he sees his wife after a long while. He tugged at his face and hair. Katz soothed him. "The next thing you know Donald and Walter were playin' together for the first time in six years," says Katz. "It was a nice moment. The three of us and Rosie, just playing." (It went so well, in fact, that Becker and Fagen are now in a studio working on new Steely Dan material.)

Vela was so intimidated by Becker and Fagen that she found it hard to talk to them. "Frightened, man," she says. "The Beatles."

The next night, Becker and Fagen worked through the instrumental break in "Interlude." Vela was in the hospital, undergoing tests for formaldehyde poisoning after drinking from a plastic bottle left too long in the sun. For the second time in her life, Becker and Fagen's music helped her out of a hospital. "I called my brother Chat, who was in the studio. He says, 'Listen to this.' Then I hear the music: Walter's guitar is playing my melody, Donald's keyboard is all around it. I said, 'Goddamn, I feel better.' I never told Becker and Fagen about listening to them in the hospital when Jimmy was dying. I guess it would have been too much."

When Vela and photographer Herb Ritts met in April on the beach in Malibu, she knew the kind of pictures she wanted for her album cover -- simple shots at sundown, light makeup nothing to exploit her beauty. (At first, she had not wanted to appear on the cover at all.) But Ritts, the photographer who shoots Madonna's album jackets, had Vela heavily made up, in jewelry. "And the makeup artist kept pulling the shoulder straps down," says Vela. "He's pulling 'em down, I'm pulling 'em up."

The pictures were not what Vela had in mind. "I'm not Madonna," she says. Ritts liked them, and A&M wanted to use them. But Vela said no, got a photographer to shoot her at sundown in Central Park, and came up with a sleepy close-up cover shot and a dark shot for the back -- her body blending into the blackness behind. The first cover, she knows, would have sold more. "But I didn't want to say, 'Look at me, Miss Cover Girl.' "

After having posed for a million images, Vela doesn't want to manufacture a video pose for pop -- a risky notion in a rock era defined by pop cartoon characters. "I'm not Billy Idol," she says. "I could dress up and vamp anddance around, but it's not me. I've gone through those chameleon changes." She is convinced that if she performs her music to the camera, wearing the kind of clothes she always wears -- black jeans or long skirts, white T-shirts, small jackets -- she will get across to an audience.

Her first video, for "Magic Smile," was directed by Peter Kagen, who did Steve Winwood's "Higher Love" clip. Kagen's camera found Vela in Barbados -- in the sugarcane, on the beach, in her bed. But the clip may be too coy to establish her identity. "Magic Smile" stalled at No. 23 on "Billboard's" Adult Contemporary chart, and fell off after six weeks. "It was a good song," says Katz. "But not the hit. 'Interlude' is the hit."

So, after a long promotional tour -- radio stations, record stores, seventeen-year-old guitarists slipping her their phone numbers -- Vela is taping a video for "Interlude." It will be a straight performance video, including close shots of her singing on a midtown-Manhattan rooftop, with the Empire State Building as backdrop.

But Vela knows the best way to find an audience is to go out on the road and perform. Her only gig so far has been "Late Night With David Letterman," where she sang "Magic Smile" with Paul Shaffer and his band. Now Vela is auditioning a band of her own, planning showcase gigs in New York and Los Angeles. "I'm toomuch of a wussy to do sixteen cities in seventeen nights or something," she says. And the idea of testing her talent in front of an audience is both frightening and exciting. "Who wouldn't be nervous about it?" she says. "But I can't wait. Playing my songs for people, performing my different characters." She may do some new material, and possibly some covers by Hendrix, the Beatles, "maybe Donald and Walter, and certainly Jimmy Roberts."

If Vela isn't overly concerned about live performance, maybe it's because she's already performed successfully for some of the most demanding ears in the rock world -- Fagen and Becker, and, more recently, Joni Mitchell, guitarist Danny Kortchmar, and Don Henley, the former Eagles star now enjoying a successful solo career.

Last month, Henley asked Vela and Mitchell to sing on "Who Owns This Place?," Henley's single from the soundtrack of "The Color of Money."

"These are all Vikings, and I'm a teddy bear," says Vela. "I was singing into the mike, and I had never heard my voice so loud and clear. I got butterflies, and shivers. I was listening to myself sing, and that's disaster. So I said, "Bottom line, Texan -- get it together," took a deep breath, and just sang. Joni Mitchell came in and sang along with the tape of my voice -- matched her voice to my drawl. Then, Henley has me singing two words -- 'push-pull, push-pull' at the fade-out. I'm whispering 'push-pull, push-pull, push-pull...' steamy stuff."

Later, Vela was napping beneath the mixing board, curled up "in a secret place. Nobody knows I'm there. The place is quiet." Henley walked into the room alone, singing to himself. "And the song he's singing," says Vela, "is 'Interlude.' " Vela just lay there under the mixing board, listening to Henley sing her song. She never told him she was there.

Last modified on Fri Jan 26 16:10:12 1996 +++++ http://granatino.com/sdresource/13beacon.htm ++++++++++++

Date: Fri, August 10, 2012, 07:35:25 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, Vela articles update

I now deleted the buffered content from my Android phone's browser, and are still able to view the pages from that device when I use the links, so the pages actually still exists anyway. I still can't access them from my computer, though. It smells like a temporary server problem to me, and they will probably be back and fully accessible in a while. However, if they don't, anyone who wants to read them can contact me via email and I will send you the content as pure text. I saved them for this purpose just in case.

Date: Fri, August 10, 2012, 06:59:54 ET
Posted by: Duger, Boston

Great show in Boston last night. Sounds similar to other shows, and the energy was great. The vocals were very good (Boz seemed almost flawless) and the band was super. Jon Herington was unbeleiveable - he stole the show on many tunes. Wow!

Date: Fri, August 10, 2012, 06:03:02 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, & Rosie Darling

geo,

This is a bit strange, because the Rosie Vela links worked just a few hours ago from my Android phone. In fact the pages are both still cached inside the phone's memory, so I can still read them. Let's hope they will be back sometime soon. I also now tried to go to the pages from my computer via the main menu on Metal Leg, but with no result.

I can't in my wildest dreams imagine that Ray meant that the rumour was supposed to be taken seriously or that those articles backed it up. He probably just put them up for our general entertainment and education.
Rosie Vela and her brief musical affair with Don, Walt & Gary is a fascinating story indeed.

Personally I am convinced that in addition to being a talented and original songwriter/artist and one of the hottest models at the time - in every sense of the word, she was the girl that twisted all the boys' necks at least three and a half turns. I don't doubt our boys' musical integrity to the extent where her devine appearance would influence much on their descision to contribute to her debut album, but that said; no one will ever convince me that they weren't all also madly in love with her in a way. I remember clearly that me and every male friend and half of my female friends as well was, at least. And we only saw the pictures on the front of the magazines and her album.
I still like and listen to Zazu now and then, and think its only problem is the same thing that plagues so many album from that era, namely the drum sounds. Nothing sounds as dated in 2o12 as '80s drum sounds. To my ears that's a minor problem, but still a problem, with both Gaucho and The Nightfly, but that's another discussion.
Rosie was the hottest coolest chick in town back then, and she wrote deeply personal and clever pop music. How could people like Gary, Don and Walt NOT fall in love with her? Is that even possible? There's two kind of men in this world; those who were madly in love with Rosie Vela in 1986, and those who lie.

Date: Thurs, August 09, 2012, 23:15:29 ET
Posted by: geo, Seattle

Lurker Ray - Those links are not working. That rumor about Rosie singing for SD sounds like a load of shit. Do those links actually back that story up?

Date: Thurs, August 09, 2012, 21:12:04 ET
Posted by: Updraught, Philly Area

Review of Dukes at Musikfest:

http://blogs.mcall.com/lehighvalleymusic/2012/08/dukes-of-september-are-super-as-they-deliver-a-revue-for-the-60s-and-70s-generation.html

Same setlist as recent shows and at The Borgata, Atlantic City. The Borgata and Musikfest each about 3/4 full, with both shows being very enjoyable. Musikfest more so, as the venue is outdoors, the stage is larger, the weather was great, and the sound carried very well.

The drummer was behind glass at The Borgata, no glass outdoors at Musikfest. The musicians are all great, and I highly recommend these shows to anyone with the opportunity to attend. It is really difficult to single out any particular player, but Jon Herington shines (Shine, Shine, Shine) on every tune. No question of Donald's influence, as about 25% of the songs and 75% of the band is Steely Dan!

Date: Thurs, August 09, 2012, 21:08:24 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe

ROSIE VELA & DON & WALT

There was a rumor in the 80's that Rosie
was the new singer of Steely Dan. Always
made me laugh.

http://granatino.com/sdresource/1zazu.htm

http://granatino.com/sdresource/24rosie.htm

Date: Thurs, August 09, 2012, 17:30:16 ET
Posted by: Phil, Pau France

Hi Straight on red's Phil, thank you so much for the link, goose bumps man, now I know what I will listen to until Sunken condos.
Just ordered the cd, can't wait to hear it.
Merci merci merci !
Philippe

Date: Thurs, August 09, 2012, 16:16:26 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe

Nice Wolf Trap Dukes Review & Pics:

http://www.dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2012/08/07/the-dukes-of-september-at-wolf-trap-by-mike-spain/

Thanks for the Sunken Condos update!

Michael,

"Finally, an update!"

Really??

As of Tuesday you still doubted that
"Sunken Condos" was even the title!

Ye of such little faith in the Blue ;O)

Date: Thurs, August 09, 2012, 15:47:38 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Six songs of me--

First I couldn't recall having every bought a "song"--I buy albums. But I think I did buy a single once as a kid, Love Land by Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. Not found.

The only question that actually meant something to me was "What song would you want at your funeral?" It found the song, St James Infirmary, but not the version I wanted, Van Morrison.

I quit playing then.

Date: Thurs, August 09, 2012, 14:21:20 ET
Posted by: Denise, Hinktown cubicle

Interesting article: Six Songs of Me
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/02/1

Link to the quiz
http://www.sixsongsof.me/

Date: Thurs, August 09, 2012, 10:54:53 ET
Posted by: Michael,

Finally, an update! Nine tracks total, with eight being originals. Similar feel to Don's previous work, but described as 'funky' (which I'm taking to mean 'more upbeat' than is MTC). Hey, a little info is always better than nothing, right? October 16th is just 68 days away -- just over two months' time-wise. Now all that's left is tracklisting + song/album length, sound samples (oh yeah), reviews, interviews with Donald...

Date: Thurs, August 09, 2012, 09:14:35 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, The Old World

Thanks, Ben!

Quoting the article:

"The nine tracks on Sunken Condos were co-produced by Fagen and Michael Leonhart. All but one track, an Ashkenazi recasting of Isaac Hayes� �Out of the Ghetto,� are new Fagen originals. Some familiar names from the Steely Dan family of players are on hand (Jon Herington, the Steely Dan horns, Freddie Washington) plus some new faces. The album is said to have a funky feel, very much inline with Fagen�s current work."

Wow! A cover of a funk classic. Last time a saw a nice recent photo of Donald was on the SD homepage. And he wore the P-funk hoodie!
May the 16th of october come tomorrow, please?

Date: Wed, August 08, 2012, 20:30:53 ET
Posted by: Ben, Indy

Sunken Condos 411:

http://www.jambands.com/news/2012/08/08/donald-fagen-s-sunken-condos/

Date: Wed, August 08, 2012, 19:24:37 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

Someone asked, "why were Derringer, Becker and Fagen playing backup for Vela?"

Well, I assume they played backup on Zazu (for example) because they were paid to be studio musicians for the project. I also suppose Walt, Don and Rick's association with Gary Katz played a role as he produced the album. Vela was a very big Steely Dan fan, or so it is said, so that is possibly one reason. And she was pretty hot, so that might have been the trump card to get the boys' participation.

Were you thinking of something less obvious?

Date: Wed, August 08, 2012, 15:27:51 ET
Posted by: pixeleen,

Hutch:

Show at Wolf Trap was great !! Donald's voice was in very fine form , and Carolyn and Catherine were unbelievable. Mike and Boz were in top form as well. Wasn't a full house but was a good sized crowd that was really into the show.
Set list was pretty much as in previous shows.

Sorry you couldn't make it this time......

Date: Wed, August 08, 2012, 13:51:44 ET
Posted by: NOT, Zoo

No Davy. No MONKEES

Date: Wed, August 08, 2012, 13:47:58 ET
Posted by: OK, T

And why were Derringer, Becker and Fagen playing backup for Vela?

Date: Wed, August 08, 2012, 13:37:59 ET
Posted by: Davy, Clarksville

December 2 @ the Beacon, NYC.
Final show.
Mickey, Peter & for the first time in 4 decades : Mike. Hey, hey, they're The Monkeys.
On tour soon.

Date: Wed, August 08, 2012, 12:13:08 ET
Posted by: vic,

If you don't like the song "Last Mall" something is very wrong!

Date: Wed, August 08, 2012, 12:11:09 ET
Posted by: vic,

Rosie Vela was singing back up because she was/is sleeping with Jeff Lynn!

Date: Wed, August 08, 2012, 09:34:57 ET
Posted by: Straight On Red, UK

Hi all,

Just wanted to make you aware of our music which is heavily influenced by the mighty Dan!

We're an 8 piece band from the UK who play original material - our lineup is:

Tim Prottey-Jones - Vocals
Phil Danter - Guitar
Kris Byrne - Keys/Piano
Rich Beardmore - Bass
Ben Haines - Drums
Chris Davis - Percussion
Nick Ashwood - Brass
Mikey Davis - Saxes

You can find information, links, biogs and also claim a free download track at: www.straightonred.co.uk or join us on twitter at www.twitter.com/straightonred

You can find our debut album on iTunes here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/straight-on-red/id541980742

Hope you enjoy!

Straight On Red!

Date: Wed, August 08, 2012, 09:14:44 ET
Posted by: Steely dan - ELO, Gig Info

http://tinyurl.com/ck253sb

Date: Wed, August 08, 2012, 03:24:19 ET
Posted by: PETE EVANS, MANCHESTER UK

Lurker Ray, wasn't the other Steely Dan/ELO connection the fact that the Dan opened a few shows for ELO in the 70's, maybe 73 or 74 ish ?

Date: Wed, August 08, 2012, 01:31:09 ET
Posted by: Doc Mu,

The Sunken Cathedral has a bit of a real cool jazz kinda flavor in the beginning and in the last minute or so. The tone is reminiscent of Miles' Flamenco Sketches.

Date: Tues, August 07, 2012, 21:31:21 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe

STEELY DAN & ELO

Confession, I like ELO. And apparently
so do our friends over at Radiodupree.
Jeff Lynne has some new projects coming out.

http://radiodupree.blogspot.com/

For extra credit they asked what is the
Steely Dan connection? and linked a clip
of the 2001 Live ELO ZOOM DVD.

They taped over 2 nights at Studio City
and I was lucky to be at the second night.
But the tour ticket sales tanked and they
pulled the tour. Too bad, I really dug it.

Oh and the ELO/Steely Dan "connection"?
It's the ever stunning Rosie Vela singing
back up.

PER at RadioDP linked "Evil Woman" from that
night at CBS. Here's "Turn To Stone":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M6S2TaNtfc

I hope Jeff tours.

Date: Tues, August 07, 2012, 21:21:23 ET
Posted by: Hutch,

Hoops - I've been checking the copyright office listings recently as well. I guess technically they don't have to send it in until just before release.

Pixeleen - How was the show?

Date: Tues, August 07, 2012, 16:16:26 ET
Posted by: Big Bubba, Las Vegas

I love the Last Mall. Real cool funky tune.

Date: Tues, August 07, 2012, 13:22:15 ET
Posted by: Snake Mary, Gone to bed

Not sure if it's been mentioned here before? I think 'Sunken Condos' may be a reference to the Claude Debussy composition 'The Sunken Cathedral'? Just a guess that's all.

Snake Mary

Date: Tues, August 07, 2012, 11:30:37 ET
Posted by: hoops, chicago

Well here's something Don-gential. ( I spell that with a hypen because but it looked too much like Donggenital.)

Anyways, Don-genitally, degrees of separation from Keving Bacon and all that, I saw Marvin Hamlisch died. Looking him up on Wikipedia I saw that he once had Carlole Bayer Sager as his squeeze, before she married Bacharach, etc. Wiki Carole and the entry and her site mentions she collaborated with Donald Fagen. (Her site is copyrighted 2010.) Of course, long timers here remember that around the time EMG came out (spring 2003) there was also a story about Donald collaborating with her, but then we heard nothing of it.

Just googled a bunch and could find no song credited as Bayer Sager/Fagen. I wonder if anything came of it. Would it be something on Sunken Condos? Was it ever finished? Is it a song I missed.

I checked the Library of Congress copyright database. No mention of it as far as I could find; no mention any recently copyright Fagen track titles either--tracks that might be on his upcoming album.

So there you go...thought I would throw that out there for someone to do further research.

Best,

Jim

Date: Tues, August 07, 2012, 10:40:34 ET
Posted by: Wilbur, W

My only problem with Last Mall is that I've heard it before in both IGY and Confide in Me.

But what happens if someone hears it while shopping at Kmart and heeds the opening line and the instructions that ensue?

Date: Tues, August 07, 2012, 09:52:00 ET
Posted by: Michael,

The Last Mall is one of my least-favorite tracks by SD, yet even their *worst* tracks are generally better than most other artists' material.

Sunken Condos (if that really is the title) is getting closer...

Date: Tues, August 07, 2012, 08:15:28 ET
Posted by: fagenism, -

trace:

One thing you need to think back on a bit more is the fact that this is not Twitter. You could have put your little ponderings in one message. Just sayin'.

Also, The Last Mall is pure funk.

See what I did there? Two separate thoughts, one post.

Date: Tues, August 07, 2012, 00:38:18 ET
Posted by: Augusta, DC Native

Dukes of September, Wolf Trap Vienna VA. I was there this evening, but don�t have the exact set list.

But I reveled in the experience! Everybody was outstanding; what can you possibly say that hasn�t been said before? So lucky to be close enough to see my idol of 40 years, DF, playing that piano, singing and basically MC�ing the show.. And Michael McD. And Boz! It was magical!!! Every single band member was fantastic. Jon was amazing. How can you say anything about one person, when they were all were so phenomenal? I loved Carolyn and Catherine. Must admit, did not have a handle on Catherine�s amazing talent before. That was the surprise for me in this show. She rocked!!! So did everyone!!!

Date: Mon, August 06, 2012, 21:47:37 ET
Posted by: trace,

Thinking Back: what would we do if it were not for the blue?

thanks hoops

Date: Mon, August 06, 2012, 21:44:12 ET
Posted by: trace,

Thinking Back: the ladies choir was hott in 2000

Date: Mon, August 06, 2012, 21:43:08 ET
Posted by: trace,

Thinking Back: I am glad kenny vance released those demos

Date: Mon, August 06, 2012, 21:42:02 ET
Posted by: trace,

Thinking Back: the last mall still sucks

Date: Mon, August 06, 2012, 21:41:08 ET
Posted by: trace,

Thinking Back: walter,s vocals on gaucho were pretty cool

Date: Mon, August 06, 2012, 17:33:29 ET
Posted by: fagenism, -

Has anyone else considered that Sunken Condos is an anagram of...

Coke Don's Nuns!

I realized this would mark a departure from the Nightfly trilogy concept, but THIS!?

Date: Mon, August 06, 2012, 09:03:11 ET
Posted by: search, k

Interview with Mike M for upcoming Boston shows. Mostly about his history with Fagen.

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/arts/x521650815/Michael-McDonald-Donald-Fagen-and-Boz-Scaggs-perform-at-the-Wang-Thursday

Date: Sun, August 05, 2012, 14:35:23 ET
Posted by: Elgin, Boston

The New Yorker reviews Beacon/ sends love letter to Dukes of September

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2012/08/september-songs.html

"There is McDonald, he of the rich, round, rolling thunder baritone and the Zeuslike countenance. There is Skaggs, who looks (and sounds) like Eric Clapton might look if he were a United States Senator. There is Fagen, the leader, impresario, and quality-control officer of the enterprise, its piano pounder and keyboard caresser, its spine and master of ceremonies, its Symphony Sid as Ray Charles. And there is the band, of which every member gets his or her moment to shine. It adds up to exhilaration." - Hendrik Hertzberg

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2012/08/september-songs.html#ixzz22hLQ60rq

Date: Sun, August 05, 2012, 13:53:41 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

geo, it wasn't me. It was speculation from another poster and that is all it was--speculation.

Neither you nor I know what is in Donald's head, but I'd say most of the evidence points toward him NOT being sick of singing those songs. SD has had a grueling touring schedule since they reformed and they play those songs at nearly every concert. When SD isn't touring Don sits in with various bands and projects and quite often sings those songs on these side projects. The very fact that he sings those songs with The Dukes, when he has a huge collection of material to choose from, suggests he LOVES singing those songs, does it not?

Some might argue Don is singing these songs despite his dislike for them, as a commercial necessity. I would argue the evidence points to Don rarely if ever doing something he doesn't want to do for commercial reasons--certainly not anything musically. In fact the speculation the boys would do a 40th was, I believe, based on the idea that they HAD to do it, for commercial/marketing reasons. Don does what Don thinks is best and he hopes the audience appreciates it. He and Walt have made that point over and over again throughout the years.

Date: Sun, August 05, 2012, 13:49:00 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe

Dukes Tuscaloosa Review with some nice pics.

Even the reviewer wonders why the place was only half full.

What were the ticket prices? I saw the Dukes 9th row center
for $88 in Hollywood & 3rd row center in St. Augustine for
$80!

http://www.cdispatch.com/music/article.asp?aid=18001

HouDanFan,

Word has it that Steely Dan smoked Chicago off the stage
that night in '73 at Pirates World.

Thanks to henrod, RedBank & GaryR for the reports.

Date: Sun, August 05, 2012, 13:35:11 ET
Posted by: GaryR, NJ

Dukes were great last night(saturday) at the Count Basie NJ!
Catherine Russell STOLE the show......Go Cathy!!!

Date: Sun, August 05, 2012, 13:28:29 ET
Posted by: geo,

Dean - Sorry, I thought the 40th Anniversary Tour was 100% going to happen according to you. I guess it was somebody else that was betting the house on that happening. The point is, Fagen doesn't seem very interested in having to sing Peg and Josie another 500 time in concert. I believe the SD touring days are OVER for the near future!

It's really not fair to compare Carolyn to Cat Russell. Carolyn is a jazz singer. Miss Russell is a powerhouse R&B/Soul singer. No comparison.

Date: Sun, August 05, 2012, 13:07:22 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, SoBe

"ATTENTION ALL SHOPERS"....

"BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL".....

Donald Fagen's new CD "Sunken Condos" is now available
for pre-order at KMART.

Yes "that" KMART.

Online for the ultra low "so far" $13.99

http://entertainment.kmart.com/donald-fagen-sunken-condos/093624947875

Date: Sun, August 05, 2012, 12:40:57 ET
Posted by: HouDanFan, Houston

Nice post Ray...I didn't know Steely Dan played with Chicago back in the day. My first concert ever was Chicago/Beach Boys in 1975. Terry Kath was incredible and Sail on Sailer remains my favorite Beach Boy song after hearing it live that night.

This may not fly well in here but Cat Russell is one talented singer. I like Carolyn and realize their styles are different but Catherine is show stopper.

I find it interesting the comments that Don seemed bored playing his SD songs. To me, he has appeared more animated than ever the last 3 SD tours. Now Walter is the one that has appeared somewhat bored although I'm sure that's not the case. In any event, I sure hope we get one more SD tour.

Date: Sat, August 04, 2012, 23:54:26 ET
Posted by: Red Bank, Attendee

Back from the Basie. Nothing new to report in the set list. I thought the run at the end was too SD heavy with Reeling, then Peg and Pretzel Logic in the encore. The sound, especially the vocals, was terrible then cleared up significantly mid concert. Bad break for Carolyn because her take on Grapevine came early and was murky, while Catherine Russel (who sounded equally murky early on) bought the house down with Piece of my Heart and her duet with Mike on Takin' it to the Streets later in the show. Having three keyboard/piano players looked a tad excessive at times. But it was a nice treat for the Jersey Shore crowd as this venue, with a capacity of just 1600, doesn't get many pop acts of this caliber. It was a hit.

Date: Sat, August 04, 2012, 20:07:18 ET
Posted by: Denise, Hinktown, wicked hot

Thanks, Lurker Ray, that was a great post.

Date: Sat, August 04, 2012, 18:35:02 ET
Posted by: Steve Gennarelli, Tampa FL

Still enjoying my memories of the "Dukes" show in Clearwater a week and a half ago.
I think DF was enjoying himself with all the tunes.
I know the crowd popped at hearing the first chord of "Hey Nineteen" and all of the SD songs that were played.
"Kid Charlegmane" was so tight and perfect..it made my night.
But I thought "Who's That Lady ?" captured the essense of the show the best. It gave all 3 stars a chance to shine and the band hit this one out of the park.

Date: Sat, August 04, 2012, 17:23:27 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Manatee Bar. It's Happy Hour!

geo, what "40th Anniversary Tour"? As far as I know, that was merely speculation on by some fans. Did Don or Walt ever promise a tour? I don't think so. Where does this stuff come from?

Date: Sat, August 04, 2012, 15:37:10 ET
Posted by: Pirate Ray, SoBe

Avast, I'm not even "Three sheet to the wind" mateys.
39 years!

Almost 40 years ago!

Those 2 nights in the Southland this year are worth more
than any 40th boxset to me.

Date: Sat, August 04, 2012, 15:00:47 ET
Posted by: Lurker Ray, Back In SoBe

"I WOULD LOVE TO TOUR THE SOUTHLAND AND FOLLOW A TRAVELING MINSTREL SHOW"

DUKES OF SEPTEMBER HOLLYWOOD & ST. AUGUSTINE FLORIDA JULY 25 & 27 2012

Back in the late spring of 1973 my younger sister and I were plucked out of school and driven down to south Florida in my Mom's new 1973
Black Monte Carlo with swivel bucket seats. Needless to say with the bucket seats, it was a bit tight in the back seat and a lot of bickering went on. We were going to see my Uncle Red who was on his last days and my Dad surely didn't want to have to go down in the heat of the summer. Because of the bickering on the way down, my mom would let us each choose something to do once we arrived, anything we wanted as long as the fighting stopped.

It was a smart ploy and it worked. As we poured over every brochure we picked up at various Stuckey's and rest stops on the way down,
we planned what we were going to do on "our day". Disney World was a given, we were already going there and my sister chose Weeki Wachee
to see the Mermaids. Apparently someone else also liked the mermaids at Weeki Wachee:

http://weekiwachee.com/images/stories/Elvis%20at%20Weeki%203.jpg

My choice was easy, "Pirates World" in Dania, Florida. I loved pirates and the Pirates Of The Caribbean Disney attraction and I had built all of the "Snap Action" models:

http://www.2719hyperion.com/2010/12/rascals-in-plastic-classic-pirates-of.html

It turned out that Pirates World was actually built in 1966 the year Disney died and 5 years before Disney World officially opened. The place had seen better days, but what a blast for a young boy. They had a big pirate ship that sailed around a lagoon, a bunch of old rides from the 64-65 NY Worlds Fair including a great log flume ride and probably my favorite ride EVER, "The Grand National Steeplechase" that featured nine of the original horses from Coney Island!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwRg3vl5XzM

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/261521_218595878163264_7625856_n.jpg

That ride would never exist today as no insurance company would insure it! You held on for dear life to a carousel horse as it went whipping down and around the metal rails. What a blast and looking back, probably dangerous. My two favorite songs at the time were
"Shambala" by Three Dog Night and "Reelin' In The Years" by Steely Dan. I had both of the 45's and played the sh#t out of them. So just think of my excitement when we entered Pirates World that day and I saw a huge poster proclaiming that Steely Dan would be playing with Chicago that night at Pirates World!

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s720x720/600101_10151124278546062_1617526750_n.jpg

I also loved and still love all things Polynesian & Tiki and for "my day" I had chosen the "Mai-Kai" restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale for our dinner that night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mai-Kai_Restaurant

So an 8PM concert with Steely Dan was not going to happen and so went my first chance to see & hear Donald Fagen sing "Reelin' In The Years". Flash forward almost exactly 29 years to the day and I was once again in South Florida but this time I would not be denied hearing Donlad Fagen sing "Reelin'" in it's 1973 style and glory.

The Dukes Hollywood show was a high energy dancefest from the get go
and the band was clearly having a blast and I was now following this awesome "Traveling Minstrel Show" up to St. Augustine on Friday.
Sorry to hear that Donald was not engaged at the Beacon singing Steely Dan tunes and as far as the sound goes at the Beacon, as I have always said, the renovation is just "lipstick on an acoustic pig". But Donald was smokin in Hollywood and he went Vesuvius in St. Augustine.

I echo everything that Dean & others have said about the St. Augustine show. You should have seen Donald singing "Reelin" in St. Augustine! The whole band was on fire from the get go and so was the crowd and Donald was having a blast singing Pretzel Logic & Reelin'. Two of the greatest takes I have had the privilege to witness. And as others have also said, easily one of the best shows
I have ever been to. I also whole hardily agree with Dean and many others this summer about Boz! He is the secret weapon this year and his background singing really adds to the songs. I also think his take and guitar playing on the Muddy Water's tune is greatly underappreciated and I really think instead of letting him solo on The Family Stone tune, why not put "Lido" there??!

I had a blast in Hollywood and because of the great sound, Shannon was not behind the plexi, but St. Augustine was just off the hook. A huge smile was on everyone's face in the band the entire night as this wonderful crowd just kept giving them more and they just kept giving it back. Cat didn't need sing, "Get up St. Augustine and drive your funky soul", they were already up and ready. As we danced, drank and smiled in a Ponce de Leon Kulee Baba that night I couldn't help but think back to that missed chance 29 years ago at Pirates World. But this year I had come a shore with Ponce in St. Augustine and found my fountain of youth as I was a kid again and it was 1973 all over. Come to think of I'd love to hear this band do
Shambala!

Avast Ye Mateys!

Lurker Ray

Date: Sat, August 04, 2012, 14:31:29 ET
Posted by: geo,

Yeah Dean.....Fagen loves singing those Dan tunes so much that the 40 year anniversary tour went off without a hitch!

Date: Sat, August 04, 2012, 13:52:57 ET
Posted by: The Dean, St. Augustine Beach

"you could tell Fagen is board to death with playing those songs"

No, actually I couldn't. And I would never presume to know someone else's inner thoughts and/or motivations based solely upon a very limited sample of my personal observations. But, hey, that's me.

Gerry, I tend to agree the songs of the three headliners might seem a bit out of place given the main setlist. Obviously they almost have to do it if they want to sell tickets, though. (Many of the people sitting near me had no idea what to expect. Some thought Don, Mike and Boz were each doing their own show.) But I have to tell you it all blended just fine at the St Augustine show, IMO of course. I have yet to talk to someone who was there who wasn't completely taken with the show and performances.

Date: Sat, August 04, 2012, 12:21:55 ET
Posted by: Gerry , A

I only care for SD tunes at an SD show. Could have done without them on morph tour and it's why so far I haven't committed to a dukes show. Don knows they are out of place but there's an audience segment to appease. Ditto for the Boz and MM hits.

Date: Sat, August 04, 2012, 11:25:53 ET
Posted by: ken, NJ

Dean - I thought the SD performances were the weakest of the night. No energy and you could tell Fagen is board to death with playing those songs.

Date: Fri, August 03, 2012, 17:38:47 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Manatee Bar. It's Happy Hour!

herod,

Thanks for sharing your observations, you and I had similar experiences, I think. I think Jon's freedom on the SD songs might reflect the freedom/fun of this show. I doubt it is the lack of Walter (though I could be wrong) but this tour isn't nearly as "serious" (for lack of a better word and the moment) as a SD show--Jon basically said the same thing in the interview posted here the other day. I think that might have hurt some of the SD songs in general, actually, but the different solos approach was a big refreshing. The solos in general were also much shorter, I think.


And, ken, I don't necessarily think Don is "done with those tunes, but they were kind of perfunctory versions of a few of the bigger hits. Van Morrison tends to do the same thing with Moondance and Brown Eyed Girl in concert. Pretzel Logic was a major exception (at least in St Augustine) which they really killed, and Don sounded great--and seemed quite happy with.

Too bad about the sound at the Beacon. That is inexcusable for such an historic, and recently renovated, venue. It was renovated, right? Didn't they address the sound?

Date: Fri, August 03, 2012, 15:30:30 ET
Posted by: henrod, NY

Ummm... not sure how I left out Jon! What can I say about Jon that hasn't been said? I agree that he seemed to let loose more than he did with SD on the SD tunes. No Walter looking over his shoulder? I don't know, but he was as tasty as ever. Maybe my favorite lead player right now?

Date: Fri, August 03, 2012, 15:20:12 ET
Posted by: henrod, NY

I was at the Beacon last night. It was my first time on the floor at the Beacon in all the years I've been going there - I'd only been in one of the balconies previously, including the 7 SD shows in '09 and last summer.

This was my first time seeing Mike McDonald and Boz live! We were in the last row, left side, and it was hard to see facial expressions from so far back, but it sure seemed like all 3 leads were really into it, including the SD tunes. Mike's voice has definitely lost some it's youthful strength in the ultra-high range, but he still rocks the house, and his friggin' piano playing is just awesome - the gospel stuff he played as intro to Takin' it to the Streets was just incredible. Boz sounded really good, and I didn't know he had guitar chops - he played great. Don was Don - everything I expected, nothing more or less.

I did miss Carlock on drums - Shannon was very good, but the acrylic box was bothersome to look at. Love to hear WW every time and Michael Leonhart had a couple of nice features. I don't know the new tenor player, but he was good.

The girls were great, but Catherine BLOWS Carolyn away as a soloist. Her 'Piece of my Heart" was a show stopper!

Gotta show some extra special love for Freddy - man, can he hold down a groove or what?? I've always admired him - with SD and on the Morph tour - but last night he really impressed the hell out of me with his (mostly) understated playing a killer grooves. Dude is the man.

So glad the wife agreed to make last night our anniv gift to each other. She's not a huge fan of any of the 3 leads, but she loves good music and really dug them on Fallon a few weeks ago. Sushi around the corner at Fusha and the show made for a great night out.

Date: Fri, August 03, 2012, 14:55:28 ET
Posted by: ken, NJ

I was at the Beacon show last night. DF seemed to be into every song but the SD stuff. I think he's through with playing those tunes.

Date: Fri, August 03, 2012, 10:57:15 ET
Posted by: DYLYNFAN, HARRISBURG, PA

W.T.F. apparently everyone is "THROUGH WITH THE BUZZ" just sayin

Date: Thurs, August 02, 2012, 14:10:41 ET
Posted by: NY Filly, nyc

I was at the Beacon show last night. I could write up impressions and so on but it would have to start with how bad the sound system was, which was - very bad. I moved around a little (house not full) and couldn't get a good sounding place. I think SD was plagued with the same problem and it is a shame...

Date: Thurs, August 02, 2012, 13:08:51 ET
Posted by: WT, F

No buzz about the Beacon shows?

Date: Thurs, August 02, 2012, 08:28:51 ET
Posted by: Nicholas Urfe, Phraxos

Hearing Peg in a department store may barely nudge the needle, but hearing Everyone's Gone to the Movies there is downright hilarious. Shoppers unwittingly tapping their toes to a song about someone with Mr. LaPage's preferences.

Date: Thurs, August 02, 2012, 00:31:47 ET
Posted by: geo,

Dean - Of course I am. But that's like getting excited about hearing Peg in a department store.

Date: Wed, August 01, 2012, 19:56:26 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Manatee Bar. Still Drinkin'

I thought it was time to add a few more comments regarding the fabulous St Augustine show. (You can scroll down to see my initial comments as well as those by Ray, Fugazi and Casual Fan--I hope I didn't miss anyone.)

First of all, I mentioned this was most definitely NOT a Steely Dan concert--that isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the show was probably among the most fun I have ever had at any concert, ever. But for the most part, the Dan tunes weren't done with the detail/precision or length of what you get at a true Dan concert. The major exception was, as Fugazi mentioned, Pretzel Logic--perhaps the best live version I have ever heard--and I have heard a few. The minor exception might be Reelin in the Years--mostly because of the unabashed exuberance with which it was played. I have always thought of this song as a spring or summer song, played loudly on my car stereo with the windows and/or top down. While I love the re-arranged versions the Dan have played in past concerts, this comes a bit closer to the feel of what I like about this tune.

I mentioned how good Boz sounded--what a great voice he has. Of course I grew up with him, and have seen him in the clubs he owns/owned (Slims and The Blue Light) in San Francisco. I don't think he has ever had a band like this behind him, though. (I should note, one of my favorite guitarists, Les Dudek, played for both him and Steve Miller when they toured together way back when. But I never saw those shows and can't imagine the band could hold a candle to this one.)

The girls and backup vocals in general were un-fucking-believable. Of course we expect that from Carolyn, Catherine and McMike. But the interesting thing (at least to me) I noticed was, Boz sang background vocals on almost every song--and it really made a difference, IMO. I noticed he did NOT sing backup vocals during Reelin' as it looked like he was paying far too much attention to playing the guitar--can't really blame him there. OTOH Donald almost never participated in backup vocals. Save those vocal chords, Don!

Speaking of Don's vocals, his voice was fine. Not as strong as I have ever heard from him live, but far far from the weakest. The passion with which he sang Trouble Man might be unequaled from Don, in my experience. Also, while I thought, at the beginning of the song, Summer in the City was rushed by a half-step or so, it settled in to be a great version. I was happy as I'd hate to have a great song like that ruined.

OK, I am sure I have bored you enough for now. I will retreat to listening to the Herington interview (man that first song Shine Shine Shine--from the new album) was fucking great. I look forward to hearing the new one, the new Don and the new Van.

One last quickie before happy hour ends!

Date: Wed, August 01, 2012, 16:46:31 ET
Posted by: The Dean, Manatee Bar. It's Happy Hour!

geo, are you not a fellow with compassion and vision?

Date: Wed, August 01, 2012, 16:33:22 ET
Posted by: geo,

Thanks...it was the "great" comments that through me off.

Date: Wed, August 01, 2012, 14:32:22 ET
Posted by: Young Wu, Buffalo

It's an amazing Fagen reference with 5 other people continuing the joke buried deep within another 1000 comments. It's just a funny find for Dan fans. Not that complicated.

Date: Wed, August 01, 2012, 13:11:45 ET
Posted by: geo, Atlantic Beach

Hold on.....what am I missing here?

http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/v79bx/how_to_get_from_manhattan_to_london_in_under_two/c522qrv

Great find? I don't understand what's so great about this link/article? Please explain.

Date: Wed, August 01, 2012, 11:00:14 ET
Posted by: Young Wu, Buffalo

God damn, fagenism... great find!

And really... that song just might be the best track ever recorded. So fucking perfect.

Date: Wed, August 01, 2012, 09:35:45 ET
Posted by: PGE, Ready to take the train ... at 6 500 km/h

@fagenism:

Great!

And what about the article it's all about. Let's get that train built and we can speed over from Europe to catch a Steely Dan show within the next 10 years!

:)

Date: Wed, August 01, 2012, 06:19:56 ET
Posted by: fagenism, Ripe & ready.

Why I love Reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/v79bx/how_to_get_from_manhattan_to_london_in_under_two/c522qrv

*

Jazzassin:

Sharing your Jon love. The man is pure class. Easily in my League of Extraordinary Dan Cats. Will dive into the interview right away.

Date: Wed, August 01, 2012, 06:01:58 ET
Posted by: Jazzassin, Radio Free Jondom

This is from the latest Digest, and I found it so cool I think a link should be here on the Bluebook too:

http://www.insidemusicast.com/musicasts/2012/7/30/jon-herington.html

Really great interview w/ Jon on his new CD and Donald's contributions to it on www.insidemusiccast.com. Some full length songs too. A must for guitar connoisseurs and Danfans in general.

Apart from being an extremely good and versatile guitarist, Jon always appeared to me as one of the nicest guys on the planet. He still does.

Date: Tues, July 31, 2012, 20:19:57 ET
Posted by: hoops, chicago

The latest edition of the Dandom Digest was just mailed a few minutes ago. This one covered from from July 25-31, 2012. (The previous Dandom Digest was dated July 24, 2012.)

If you are a subscriber, you should see it in your email box in the next couple of hours. If you don't receive it, check your spam filters first; then, if it's not there, please email me.

As I regularly remind subscribers, some people have problems with delivery of the Dandom Digest, usually because of their spam filters, firewalls, etc. That's why this sort of notice is posted here--so you can look for it.

The following are the subject headlines of the Dandom Digest for July 25-31, 2012.

=======

- Dukes Reviews Requested
- THIS FRIDAY! NYC! Herington CD Release Party
- REDUX: New CD by Jon Herington
- New Herington Interview including talk about Donald Fagen
- UpDaTeD: Jon Herington (& SD Rhythm Section) Master Class
- 10/11/12: Krantz/Carlock/Woods Play Chicago
- UPDATED: Dukes Dates Reference Guide
- SPOILER: 7/24: Clearwater, FL
- SPOILER: 7/25: Hollywood, FL
- SPOILER: 7/27: St Augustine, FL (4)
- SPOILER: 7/28: Tuscaloosa, AL
- Dukes Reviews Requested
- Recent Set Lists Revisited


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If you are not currently a subscriber but would like to receive the free Dandom Digest email newsletter, please email me at hoops AT dandom DOT com or see http://www.dandom.com/dandomdigest.

For the record, the Dandom Digest is a newsletter with unofficial content written by and for the fans of Steely Dan. The newsletter is independent of, nor to be confused with, the glorious and much more glamorous official newsletters from steelydan.com, walterbecker.com, donaldfagen.com and other sites of Steely Dan associates.

Thanks for your support through the years, especially Pete and Shari, as well as Mr. & Mr.s Winterbottom, and remembering Mark and Bill, and not to mention one or two people who request anonymity.

Jim

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