This week brought great news to the Steely Dan fans familiar with the story of the great lost song Second Arrangement. A post on recording engineer Roger Nichols Facebook account by his daughter shows a cassette that apparently is one of three with the Second Arrangement that left the studio on the night before the master tape were erased. And while they apparently attempted to re-record it they didn't get it right and the song never made it to Steely Dan's album Gaucho released in 1980.
For a quick recap of the story of the lost Second Arrangement click this link.
According to the post and added comments Donald Fagen had one of the cassettes and maybe it is safe to speculate that Walter Becker had the second? Anyway this copy is the one that recording Roger Nichols brought home to listen to. And here it is. A find that may or may not make it to any kind of official release.
There are a number of more or less hissy tape copies of the song in various stages of recording floating around for years. With the advent of the internet they've been shared extensively and are not that hard to find. Even if this cassette holds the most complete recording of the song there are many obstacles to conquer for it to be available for fans and others to listen to.
First there's the job of getting whatever this 40+ old cassette contains off of it and onto a digital medium. Not impossible but not that easy either. You basically have one chance to play and record what the tape holds and then it is kaputt!
But let's say that it all goes well and that the music on the cassette really is a good sounding almost finished version of Second Arrangement. This is where the lawyers enter. Who owns the rcording? And once that's settled will whoever owns it have any interest in releasing it? Since neither Donald Fagen or Walter Becker have been that keen on releasing any kind of demos or half ready recordings, alternative mixes or "extras" that didn't make an official album we at Radio Dupree see it as a long shot we and you will ever hear what's on that cassette.
But we hope we're wrong... ;)
P.S.
Yes. We were at The Beacon Theatre in New York on September 17, 2011 when the band played it during the "Rarities Night". Only time it has been played live.
