24/02/2017

Steely Dan "Doing It In California / 1974" (2015) -Westcoast Rock



Label : Let Them Eat Vinyl


États-Unis 01 - Do It Again (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
02 - Rikki Don't Lose That Number (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
03 - Any Major Dude With Tell You (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
04 - King Of The World (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
05 - Barrytown (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
06 - My Old School (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
07 - Pretzel Logic (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
08 - Reelin' In The Years (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
09 - This Is All Too Mobile Home
10 - Bodhisattva (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
11 - The Boston Rag (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
12 - Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me) (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
13 - Funky Scare Tactic Orchestra Blues (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
14 - Dirty Work (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
15 - Your Gold Teeth II (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
16 - Show Biz Kids (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)
17 - Do It Again (Walter Becker & Donald Fagen)


Steely Dan
:
Donald Fagen : Piano & Vocals 
Walter Becker : Bass & Vocals 
Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter : Guitar 
Denny Dias : Guitar & Vocals 
Jim Hodder : Drums 
Jeff Porcaro : Drums 
Royce Jones : Percussion & Vocals 
Michael McDonald : Electric Piano & Vocals 

Partly because of Donald Fagen's reluctance to sing onstage, party due to his and Walter Becker's perfectionism and partly because the pairs' compositions and arrangements were so complex - requiring all manner of studio hardware to reproduce - Steely Dan played very few live concerts during their early career, indeed by the middle of 1974 they had given up touring entirely.

The one album they did promote on the road however was their third masterpiece, the enigmatically titled "Pretzel logic" released in the USA on February 20th 1974, The tour started on March 9th, and this CD features the complete second show played by the group, at the University of California the following night. The gig would continue until July 1974 - after which Steely Dan would not play live again until they reunited in 1992.

This excellent live broadcast is, therefore, quite a rarity, not only does it showcase the very best of the songs from Steely Dan's first three albums, it also features This All Too Mobile Home, a number that was never recorded in the studio Furthermore, the remarkable version of Your Gold Teeth II included here is wholly different to the song of that name later released on the album "Katy Lied".

Bonus cuts here are taken from Dan's gig at the Ellis Auditorium in Memphis on the April 30th '74 plus a version of Do It Again recorded for the long running TV series "Midnight Special" on which Steely Dan had been special guests a year earlier, in April 1973.