Our Album of the Month in November is Gaucho. The seventh and final before Steely Dan broke up or at least put everything on hold for more than a decade. As it was released in November 1980 it is 30 years old this month.Most people associate Steely Dan with the sound on Gaucho and its predecessor Aja; jazzy, studio-slick and laidback. If you do take the time to listen to all seven albums from the debut Can't Buy A Thrill released in 1972 to Gaucho in 1980, you'll find seven albums with a distinctly different sound compared to each other. And a group that changed and evolved.
If Gaucho had been the final finale it would have been a suitable end to an impressive body of work.
As we now know Steely Dan came back alive touring in 1993 followed by - so far - one live and two studio albums.
Apart from the seven tracks on Gaucho we will play, and already are playing, alternative versions of the songs this month. A couple from the 1995 Steely Dan live album Alive In America, but most will by other artists. From Swedish duo Sara Isaksson & Rebecka Törnqvist's version of the title track to Luciana Souza's Were You Blind That Day. The original lyrics-version of what eventually became Third World Man.
(Check back next Sunday for part 2 of 4.)
Drive west on Sunset, to the sea... :-)
ReplyDeleteA fitting tribute to a dying (at the time) band. Thank goodness they came back.
Thank goodness indeed! It's a bit strange recalling the depressing feeling the news of the break up of the band was. And then the opposite feeling in the mid-1990's when the rumours of a new album started circulating while the Steely Dan Orchestra went on tour. Who would have thought that back in 1981? Or that we'd be where we are now in 2010; waiting for new solo stuff from both Donald and Walter and that next Steely Dan album somwhere in the future? Good times!
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