Steely Dan : Hey Nineteen
On November 21, 1980 Steely Dan released Gaucho, after spending two years in the studio working with 42 musicians and a $150,000 drum machine. While The New York Times declared it the best album of 1980, Trouser Press only gave the album a one paragraph review :
"All the things you love about rock- energy, humor, unpretentiousness--are disdained by Steely Dan. They want admiration, not affection. Still, in spite of the dodgy words and thinner melodies than usual, Donald Fagan continues to be a singer of great presence. Too bad he's so smug".
Robert Christgau, citing the Top 10 hit "Hey Nineteen" wrote: "Even the song with Aretha in it lends credence to rumors that the LP was originally entitled Countdown to Lethargy."
Of course the album has its admirers, but songs tend to get stale when they are played over and over again in the studio. The drum tracks on "Gaucho" was assembled from 46 different takes. Drummer Jeff Porcaro described what the sessions were like.
"From noon till six we'd play the tune over and over and over again, nailing each part. We'd go to dinner and come back and start recording. They made everybody play like their life depended on it. But they weren't gonna keep anything anyone else played that night, no matter how tight it was. All they were going for was the drum track."
Keith Jarrett sued Becker and Fagen for copyright infringement over the title track of the album, claiming it plagiarised "Long As You Know You're Living Yours" from his 1974 album Belonging. As a result, Jarrett has since been included as a co-author of the track.
This would be the last studio album from Steely Dan for twenty years.
No comments:
Post a Comment