I want to make clear that I have no idea what I’m talking about with music. I am just a simple software engineer who loves Steely Dan.
Track List
If any of you haven’t listened to Steely Dan’s 1980 classic Gaucho, you are missing out. The album begins with an absolute gem of a track, Babylon Sisters. Which employs studio musician legends like drummer and inventor of the “Purdie Shuffle” Bernard “Pretty” Purdie and exemplary bassist, Chuck Rainey. For me, the drum groove is the highlight of this track with smooth playing and crisp cymbal playing. The next track, Hey Nineteen, which is probably the most popular track of this album is a certified banger. Where Steely Dan’s main duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen really show off their stuff, the former of which shows off his bass chops with the bass notes humming throughout. The third track of the album, Glamour Profession, is the best track of the album. This is a 7-minute and 28-second absolute BANGER. The drum groove and bass groove are so slick sounding and complimentary of each other it makes my ears cry tears of joy. Donald Fagen’s vocal tones perfectly align with the track’s sound. Furthermore, the track has perfectly placed saxophone and horn arrangements. The icing on the cake is the perfectly sounding backing vocals. Although this track is one of my favorites, it is NOT for people who are new to Steely Dan, this is a DEEP cut, and in my opinion, can only be enjoyed by those who have eased themselves into Steely Dan’s more popular tracks first.
The next track, Gaucho, kinda stinks compared to its direct predecessor Glamour Profession. Steely Dan is incapable of creating bad music so it’s not terrible. The next track, Time Out Of Mind, picks up where Glamour Profession leaves off. This has a more upbeat sound and the same bass/drum/vocal pairing you can get used to hearing. This track also features a guitar solo from Dire Straits frontman, Mark Knopfler. Fun fact, he talks about how hard it was to work with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker because they are such perfectionists. If I remember correctly, he spent 8+ hours in the studio playing the guitar solo in different ways; Fagen and Becker were still unsatisfied and only used a small portion of it.
The last two tracks, My Rival and Third World Man are good tracks. These are not absolute bangers like Babylon Sisters and Glamour Profession, but they do have a good sound that can be expected from this album.
Unreleased Scrapped Tracks
The creation of Gaucho was a crazy experience with Donald Fagen taking more of the creative reigns, while Walter Becker was in the hospital. There are many tracks that were never put on the album but were found and posted on YouTube. One of these tracks Kulee Baba is an early recording of the track. If you listen to it, you can hear Fagen giving instructions to other session musicians or sound engineers behind the glass. Another track, The Bear is another lost track that was never put on the album. This track sounds almost ready to be put on the album, it sounds crisp and completely awesome.
The third and final lost track that I know about is The Second Arrangement. This track is probably the best lost track off Gaucho. This track is a BANGER and should have been put on the album. As the story goes, this track was accidentally deleted by a studio assistant never to be seen again. There have been tracks that have leaked on YouTube, I don’t know how people get their hands on this stuff, but they do. The linked track sounds bad because it was an early recording and I don’t think was meant to be put on the album just yet. Long-time Steely Dan producer, Gary Katz, had a recording of this track stashed away in I think it was his attic, and his daughter found it and released the secret recording to the internet this year! Steely Dan fans were extremely excited to hear the secret recording. I have heard it myself, and it is such a great track, but I cannot find the secret recording anywhere; I think it keeps getting deleted by YouTube because of copyright claims.
Final Thoughts
Steely Dan’s Gaucho is an underrated masterpiece of an album that just keeps on giving as you go through the tracklist. Songs that were not even put on the album and had to be released secretly or leaked anonymously are just as good as the tracks that were on the album. This album just keeps getting better the more I listen to it. Please give this a listen, you will not regret it!