Happy Steely Dan Day

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yeaaaayyyy!! 🎸🍌😈

one of my all-time favourite records by any artist ever!!! ❀️🀯πŸ₯³

quite unlike Steely Dan, it was recorded quickly to fulfill a contractual obligation-type situation and everyone was on fire to take this baby home!! πŸŒˆπŸ˜βœˆοΈπŸ’˜πŸ’ƒπŸ½

Larry Carlton, Bernard Purdie, Chuck Rainey, et al., dear Lord in Heaven, they're all at the very top of their game! βœŒοΈπŸ’πŸ₯°

"masterpiece" gets bandied about a lot - but for me 'The Royal Scam' is such a thing. a musical masterpiece.

it's why i have approximately 84 copies (give or take 79) πŸ˜…

is there gas in the car!? yes there's gas in the caaaarrr....!!!! πŸ‘€πŸ˜…πŸ€£πŸ€©

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Too funny Adam! If you have 84 copies then QuadLinda must have 100!
 
There are certain groups that, when I decide to listen to them, I end up having/wanting to listen to all the albums, in order, because it seems I am missing something if I just play one of them. Steely Dan is one of those groups.

Doug
Doug, that’s a prime example of a mysterious natural phenomenon known as β€œchain lightning.”
 
i think the wee insect critter is maybe called a katydid? πŸ€”

anyway the album's called "Katy Lied" and is another record i absolutely love! πŸ’˜

"Katy lied..
you could see it in her eyes..
" πŸ‘€πŸ˜…πŸ€πŸ˜‹

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That's funny!! I've barely seen the cover: it's much rarer than their other LP's so I've never come across it. Thanks for the info. I had no idea.

Makes sense with the album title: they must have considered "Katy Didn't" too?
 
That's funny!! I've barely seen the cover: it's much rarer than their other LP's so I've never come across it. Thanks for the info. I had no idea.

Makes sense with the album title: they must have considered "Katy Didn't" too?
it's sooo good, you have to check it out! it has so much wit among their usual stunning musicality ❀️ one of the old MCA CDs of "Katy Lied" in particular has the 'secret' Steve Hoffman mastering and probably sounds as good as the album ever will (the recording was problematic, marred by some defective noise reduction system) humprof will know the full story πŸ’˜
 
it's sooo good, you have to check it out! it has so much wit among their usual stunning musicality ❀️ one of the old MCA CDs of "Katy Lied" in particular has the 'secret' Steve Hoffman mastering and probably sounds as good as the album ever will (the recording was problematic, marred by some defective noise reduction system) humprof will know the full story πŸ’˜

The definitive version of the story is probably by guitarist Denny Dias, who wound up doing a last-minute salvage remaster of the album before it was stamped. But the basic problem is that the then-novel dbx noise reduction system they were using somehow malfunctioned in the late stages of mixing. The end result, even after Dias's repair job, is that (to quote one commenter in this reddit thread), the cymbals sound "like complete ***"--washed-out and airless--and the "esses" in Fagen's vocals have a pronounced sibilance. In general, there's not as much "air" in the recording. I don't think those flaws ruin the album, but then again I'm not Donald Fagen. It's not crystal clear to me, either from Dias's account or from other things I've read, whether the dbx NR was actually used on the 24-track masters or only on the mix-downs; maybe the upcoming Acoustic Sounds reissue will clarify that?

It would be great to get @JoshM to weigh in on the best version (I think he still means to do a study of every SD album eventually?), but the consensus on the Hoffman Forums is that the 1985 CD is just fine, and if you can lay your hands on a Steve Hoffman mastering, so much the better.
 
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If I had a $100 for every time I've upmixed a Steely Dan album (Aja, Katy Lied, The Royal Scam) looking to get them in a listenable mch format, with some small successes, I could take that vacation in St Croix I've been longing for.
My guess is that your best bet these days would be to give it a try going the Surround Master, Auro 3D Auromatic or Penteo routes and, if they don’t do the job then give it up.
 
My guess is that your best bet these days would be to give it a try going the Surround Master, Auro 3D Auromatic or Penteo routes and, if they don’t do the job then give it up.
Don't own any of that. My best effort has been with AI stems from stereo sources.
 


some mention of the Steely Dan Quads by Roger Nichols' Daughter πŸ₯°

it would be a "Very Happy Steely Dan Day" if Cimcie found the Quad mastertapes in Dad's archives! πŸ₯³πŸ€žπŸ˜

My favorite SD album is Royal Scam. It never had any quad or multichannel release. I'd LOVE that one!!
 
The Eagles will embark on their own long road out of Eden this fall for a farewell tour expected to last into 2025.
Steely Dan, longtime contemporaries of the band who will commemorate their own five-decade-plus career.
 
The Eagles will embark on their own long road out of Eden this fall for a farewell tour expected to last into 2025.
Steely Dan, longtime contemporaries of the band who will commemorate their own five-decade-plus career.
Yes, Hell has frozen over twice now. And Steely Dan always puts on a great show. Fagen and Becker always had great backing bands on their tours. And, given that Fagen always did 95% of the vocals post David Palmer, I expect the band to not sound appreciably different without the late, great Walter Becker.
 
I loved the eagles but any more than one farewell tour is taking the proverbial piss
I'll forgive them if they bring the tour to the UK with Steely Dan - that's a blinding 'twofer'!
However, no 'Dan no deal for me I'm afraid
 
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