Steely Dan 1993

We have just watched this and its excellent.

The featured live version of The Boston rag is indeed as brilliant an arrangement as Ghost of Hipness Past describes.

To glimpse WB playing is particularly rewarding.

Thanks.

A short SD documentary filmed while in Glasgow 2000. Interviews with WB & DF backstage.

My son sent me the link to this doc.

It's a fabulous look back.Rents in Brooklyn 80 to 90 $ a month..those were the days. !!

IMO, best opener, by far, was Boston Rag in 2000. Hip new arrangement, with the tension building section by section. It's just the band, with some understated solos. Then after, what––five minutes?––DF sits down at the Rhodes, snarls, "Any news was good news," and the rush hits. Perfection.

One of my favorite live arrangements of any SD tune through the years.

Steely Dan VH1 Alive in America Documentary 1995 :-)

There is an interview with the beautiful Carolyn Leonhart on the JAZZIZ Daily Brunch. (jazziz.com).

She speaks of her experience working with Walter and Donald.

It's a very interesting and enjoyable watch.

@halC Looking at that set list, it looks like you didn't get Walter singing Midnite Cruiser. Pity. I really loved the rearrangement of that tune and WB's vocals seemed ideally suited for it.

Waiting for SD from 1993 to 1996 to come to the U.K. seemed like an eternity and the long wait before that anyway. I was leaping around with joy when they did announce the U.K. dates. I went to London and Birmingham but I can't remember if they had dropped the medley intro? I don't remember.

I know the line-up had changed. It was Wayne Krantz on guitar and Ricky Lawson on drums. I also remember very clearly Jack of Speed with Walter singing which I loved (already mentioned this on another thread).

Yes I have to agree also that DF on H19 sounds a little odd.

Also, with all due respect and all that, hearing Donald do the Hey Nineteen rap is like...well, it's just wrong.

Looking back...it still seems strange to me to start the show with a medly of SD songs you aren't going to hear "properly." Just feels like a tease. I kind of preferred the Cubano Chant style opener where the band solos over a great jazz track. Reaaly shows the kind of band Walter and DF put together. That said, I love how varied these sets were, ranging over all SD albums and solo stuff. I know that the tired and true hits that filled the setlists for the last decade or so before Walter's death, as well as the sets Fagen has played since, are more crowd pleasing. I mean, most of the crowd at any given show isn't us, the kind of people who find ourselves here. Most people want to hear the songs they heard on the radio. But man, I loved the deep cuts and solo stuff.