Sunday, July 10, 2005

More "Dirty Work"!

Covers of the two albums
Two more Steely Dan-related records!

As mentioned on the recently updated RadioDupree homepage, Swedish pop artist Timo Räisänen has recorded a version of Steely Dan's "Dirty Work" appearing as a bonus track on his new single "Pussycat".
I went looking for it as a legal download and ended up finding two other cover versions of the same song!

Susan Marshall gives it a go on her "Firefly" (2005) and Jenna Mammina sings her version on "Meant To Be" (2005).

Susan Marshall, born and raised and still living in Memphis, did opera before going rock in the early 90s with a group called The Mother Station. But she sounds like she can do it all; with over 100 recording projects as a vocalist, she's released two albums under her own name. Both are available through cdbaby.com.

Over at cdbaby.com is also where you find Jenna Mammina's recordings.
Born in Michigan with mom and dad as well as her sister and brothers all musicians, it's no wonder Jenna became a singer. She moved to the San Fransisco Bay area in the mid 80s and has been performing on stage as well as doing session work.

Jenna leans towards jazz and her version of "Dirty Work" has a laidback groove to it. Susan keep it more singer/songwriter and slows it down with just a piano accompanying her.

"Dirty Work" is a classic Becker/Fagen composition, and at the same time very straight and "normal", so it's really no wonder it's become one of their most covered.

These discoveries will also give me the chance to say that it would've been great to hear a hi-fi version of the song as performed by the back-up singers during the last tour. A free soundfile over at steelydan.com would be a nice gesture while we wait for the live album/DVD ;-)

P.S. You can of course hear all the Dirty Work versions mentioned here - including the original - on RadioDupree. Just click on over and listen!

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