This gets at something I've been thinking a lot about lately...the difference between the appreciator of Steely Dan and the "stan."
Ostensibly the introduction to a review/recommendation for Quantum Criminals, Wayne Robbins says:
"The Second Arrangement," which got left off Gaucho when the painstakingly recorded tape was accidentally erased. It’s very You Tube viral. Pieced back together using modern technology, Steely Dan originalists shrugged, while the new SD stans posted comments on You Tube comparing this discovery to that of the Dead Sea scrolls, the Rosetta Stone, and a sign of the arrival of the moshiach. But at its core, "The Second Arrangement" is not a very good song, which makes it a unicorn among Steely Dan tracks. "Understandable why Becker and Fagen dumped this one," said one You Tube commenter. The Stans love it because it's new, but that's what stans are for: uncritical admiration."
It's hard to think of myself as an originalist, as I was born in 1979, grew up listening to a Steely Dan that was done by the time I was aware of them...but I find myself at odds with some of the "uncritical admiration." One of my own controversial opinions: It was worth The Second Arrangement dying so that Third World Man could live. Also, the fact that the death of the "Second" led to the life of the "Third" is an irony/coincidence that should be discussed more. Anyway, as I watch the "Danaissance," see the reactions to the unheard, and see the stans clamor for more, I think about my relationship with Steely Dan, and specifically with Walter, mostly musically but also to the extent that we formed a personal relationship. I think about why this site exists, and what I hope it will mean for the serious study of Walter as a songwriter/artist in the future.
So, yeah, this one made me think, I guess.
Until this article I wasn't aware of a new book nor of the Dansurgence. My slightly arch from-a-distance take on it is hey, the more the merrier. Like all new converts the young enthusiasts might be a little wearing with their puppy energy. That's OK, they'll settle in and the music remains what it is.
It's often been said that an artist gives up ownership of what their art means once they've put it out into the world and The Dan is no different, particularly when they've made such an effort to obscure what the lyrics mean to them. One's interpretations are one's own. The El Supremo as a person? Get outta here.
Still, welcome to the newbs. Remember, Celluloid Bikers is Friday's theme.
You show your usual deft touch here, Matt. Especially neat how you evoke some current events in our shared musical world without explicitly mentioning them, or anchoring on their specifics ;-}
As I write at slightly greater length in an upcoming Newsletter, I do hope some folks choose to chime in to discuss or analyze or unpack or opine. Not just because it’s an interesting and important nut to gnaw, but because I like to think our space here is uniquely free of the posturing and noise and nonsense that’s all too prevalent in some other online spaces.
Anyway, your post — the issues it explicitly mentions, and those it implicitly conjures— has been much on my mind of late. Perhaps in good time I’ll move past the throat-clearing and actually post a few of those thoughts here.
I almost didn't want to listen to it, in the sense that if it didn't make the album, there was a reason, and the "erased tape" story could very well have been a flourish of the comedic minds or Don & Walt.
Way to make something legendary, guys — well played. But then of course I DID listen. The "DAT version" is obviousy a quite advanced version, you can hear it lacks some polishing here and there but it was in its finishing stages. My first impression was that it was "okay" but perhaps substandard indeed. And then I put it on my iPhone in the car and the track got stuck on repeat. And it's a bloody earworm. One caveat: the ad infinitum repeat of the main riff at the end gets to be too much — that's where I think they possibly weren't done with it. Would I "trade it" for Thirld World Man? Nope. TWM is a deeper track, with many more layers to unravel. That being said, as someone who stayed afar from "Second Arrangement" on purpose, if that is a subpar tune I wish I coud write a few of them like that. ;-)
I guess I must be an originalist, since I essentially shrugged when this latest version got out. But regarding Wayne Robins... as knowledgable as he is about SD (and I know he is from personal experience), he is still just another critic, and so I just say, "the work seduces us with light."
I like it.
" The criticism of music is to the actual composition and performance of music, what rowing along the shore is to sailing on the open ocean....".
Or words to that effect.