@AirplayBeats reacts Steely Dan’s Glamour Profession Like comment and subscribe Join our Patreon for exclusive videos and to get your requests done faster: patreon.com/user?u=81569817
The song is about the life of a coke dealer in late '70s Los Angeles. At the time, with so many celebrities partaking of the "illegal fun," it was considered a "glamour profession." The entire Gaucho album is about the high and low life of Los Angeles/Hollywood in the late '70s as seen from the point of view of 2 unrepentent East Coast hipsters (Becker & Fagen) who are attracted and repulsed at the same time by the whole deal.
Nailed it again, Mr. Chu... it's Disco Dan poking fun at the LA scene during the cocaine days (how did we survive?) of the late 70s and 80s. I originally thought Magic was Hoops McCann, but it could have been almost any NBA player at the time (how did they survive?) before weed took over as the players’ between-game drug of choice. That Jive Miguel dude was the typical hanger-on gaining his 15 minutes of fame with his South American connections and coke spoon. Goes well with Babylon Sisters in telling the story of illegal fun under the SoCal sun.
@@gottabeemee The narrator is a coke dealer, not the kingpin but the guy who makes the "special deliveries" to celebrities and high-rollers, one of which is a pro athlete, named in the first verse. Then he lists other customers in the following verses. Please read the lyrics or, next time, actually listen to the rest of the song, not just the first verse before commenting, Arlene.
Hoops McCann is possibly Spencer Haywood, who played for the Lakers in the 1979-80 season, right when Fagen mostly was recording the Gaucho album. Haywood was dismissed from the Lakers by then-coach Paul Westhead during the 1980 NBA Finals for falling asleep during practice due to his addiction. Other rumored candidates in the song are Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson, Dallas Cowboys linebacker, KROQ DJ Russ O'Hara, who testified against drug-smuggling pilot Jack Carlton Reed, and Michael (Jive Miguel), who was studio head Bob Evans ne'erdo well brother-in-law, arrested in an FBI sting to buy coke.
Personally I don’t believe there has ever been such a complex chord arrangement made to sound so seamless. The 5 chords leading to the chorus are perfection and the crescendo into the bridge is as good as it gets. Perfection and Grace ❤
The beat, the guitar, the layering, and a myriad of other details serves to make this song a masterpiece. Truly, music does not get any better than this!
The true measure of a great musician in the 70s and 80's wasn't a Grammy.....it was being asked to play on a Steely Dan album. If you get that call, you've definitely made it.
The journey to complete Gaucho was an agonizing one for Walter, who was going through many difficult personal issues, including recovering from getting hit by a car (resulting in having to assist with the production by telephone) and for Donald, who had become so obsessed with perfection on this album, that the fun of recording it was drained away, despite the beauty of the finished product. Of particularly disastrous note, was the loss of the master recording of their favorite track and intended first single, “The Second Arrangement”. This recording was almost completely erased in a studio accident by an assistant, and though they attempted to re-record the song, they were unable to recapture it to Donald and Walter’s satisfaction, and so it was abandoned (bootlegs of studio demos can be found online). This track, along with several other outtakes, ran long enough to comprise almost a full-length alternate Gaucho album than the one released. There are several different fan documentaries regarding “The Lost Gaucho” available on RU-vid, that with your studio background, I think you guys would appreciate.
I read an interview somewhere where Fagen and Becker indicated that sometimes they used words because of how they sounded phonetically to fit with a particular groove. Sometimes the lyrics would have meaning but sometimes they wouldn’t. They kept it intentionally ambiguous. Two supreme geniuses, those two.
True enough, however just as they were meticulous with the music such attention is paid to the lyrical stories. I would recommend fans check out the song meaning website (think thats the name) for quality breakdowns of songs meanings and references. Like studying a good novel in a college course. The reason to do so is youll appreciate and thus enhoy thier mastery even more. Happy musical exploration brothers & sisters!
My mom & I both worked for a famous actress in the late 80's thru early 90's who was beloved at Mr.Chow in Beverly Hills & used to treat us to dinner regularly there. became friends with the staff & they weren't aware of the reference to themselves on this song-due to us they put the album on the sound system & it became a regular thing to play the whole album.-we were treated like royalty. Yet another reason I love Steely Dan.
Goucho is a reference to Walter Becker's drug dealer. Donald Fagen got tired of him showing up with Walter at his house and even the recording studio. That's what broke them up. Donald told Walter to get himself clean so he moved to Hawaii to do so. Donald went ahead and released two solo albums. It took them 20 years to return as Steely Dan.
Regarding the Carib Cannibal, it's not a cruise ship in the vain of large, modern passenger liners, but I think of it as a personal luxury motor yacht. Suitable for cruising open waters fast.
20 years later the genius of “Two Against Nature” comes out and wins 4 Grammys. One of my favorite albums too, as there is so much tight groove on it, along with stellar songwriting and playing. But, the Fagen solo work between is just as killer. The Nightfly and Kamakyriad are spectacular in their own right. So much more music to push through! If you get a chance at the end of Gaucho, listen to the song that was accidentally erased while recording - The Second Arrangement. They tried to re-record it, but apparently were never satisfied with the recordings. There are a few cleaned up versions on it here on RU-vid.
So true about the Second Arrangement! Great song! There is a live version of Steely Dan doing the song on a rarity set at the Beacon Theatre. Just when you’ve heard all the Steely Dan songs, nope not yet! 😂
The sad thing here for Steely Dan aficionados is 1980 is where they truly came into their groove and this is where it ended, and, personally speaking, I feel like I was robbed. I do not want to throw stones, but I believe Fagen had to distance himself from Walter due to poor decisions within Walter's life. There were more albums left in these cats and it's a heaven we never got the chance to continue to visit.
A bit harsh on Walter, I do think. Fagen was the producer on Becker's solo album 11 Tracks of Whack, 1994, which had some incredible songs on it. Book of Liars, Surf And/Or Die, Girlfriend, etc. Walter emerged undiminished.
@@kbrewski1 Understood but not the point. Fagen's solo career was impressive, as it had the driving beat found in many Steely Dan songs, but Donald's solo career was going to happen regardless of whether he broke ways with Walter after Gaucho, so before Fagen's solo career started there should have been another couple of Dan albums, or so, to grace our existence first.
@@biskygiver Well the problem was Walter's drug issues, so doing more albums with him wasn't possible in the post Gaucho period. And I forgot to add in my prior post, you say they hit their groove with Gaucho. I love all SD albums, but to me Aja was the apex, their masterpiece of jazz, fusion, funk, rock and pop. Gaucho is great but a little cold and clinical in spots. Aja is truly a jazz and funk exploration on another level.
Once again I'm riding with the brothers and Steely Dan. I was introduced to Steely Dan through top 40 AM radio on my little 9-volt transistor with ear bud. I was 8 years old in 1972 and AM radio at the time gave you a great mix of music. You could hear anything from Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan,Cat Stevens, The stones and Al Green and so much more..A few years down the road I got my first stereo and started listening to FM radio. WPLJ 95.5 was the premier Rock channel to listen to. They were playing all the cuts off the Steely Dan albums. It was a whole new world and that's when I started to really build my album collection. I saved up for 2 years got myself a Technics stereo system along with JBL speakers with 15 inch woofers and The Aja album. I never thought an album could sound so good!! Listening to the Dan with you guys brings me back to my early teenage years in the 1970s. Keep it rolling bros, I love your channel and I also love the fact that you guys have musical backgrounds so you know what the hell you're talking about. P.S. you have to check out a song called Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty, it's right up your alley, both of you guys!! Old Ed here won't steer you wrong. I'm also hoping after you finish the Steely Dan run ,that you do some Stevie Wonder coz I grew up on the albums talking book, Innervisions and songs in the key of life. From 1972 to 1976 I think Stevie Wonder won a pile of Grammys. This is when the award really meant something and the competition was real, not like today when musicianship and production are barely taken into consideration!!!
Mine was KLBJ FM! Our first fm station. Steely Dan was playing at every party we had. I finally got to see them before Walter Becker passed. Michael McDonald was there as well. 🎶
@@lab4389 was that the rock and soul review???! I saw Boz scaggs with Michael McDonald, Donald Fagen I think ,Steve Gadd on drums in the late 80s or early 90s at the Beacon TheaterI can't remember if Walter Becker was there too because I did see steely Dan later on after they released the two against nature album and the years are piling on so quick, I can't keep track any longer...both shows were great but Steely Dan are perfectionists, that's why the never toured. They strictly believe in studio work and getting it perfect. The good old days when chicks were cool and listened to great music. A lot of the girls were into Frampton and the Stones , to get a girl who liked Led Zeppelin was really something special but you got a girl who likes Steely Dan , that was a jackpot!!! 😂
Your history parallels mine. I was 13 in '72 and was building my album collection as well. Music was a big part of my life since I was a kid. Used to walk around outside holding my transistor radio up to my ear, listening to AM radio. I thought I had arrived when I got a single line earphone. New Orleans had 2 popular FM stations -- KRNO and
@@tommythompson9565 right on brother! I'm a rocker at heart. Love the Allman Brothers, Beatles,Zeppelin ,Santana,Elton John, free,Bad co. Etc . However a.m. radio turned me on to some great Motown,soul and real R and B. Not the shit they call R & B today. So I really like Al Green, Teddy pendergrass, The stylistics, the ojays, spinners,Earth ,wind and fire,etc. As much as things changed by going to FM radio, it was the top 40 AM station that molded my musical tastes. You didn't have to change the station to get a good mix of everything. Black-and-white music were played on the same station and those were the days of when you got 3,4,5 part harmony, meaningful lyrics and stellar musicians. Today if you go around the radio dial trying to find a station that plays that type of mix I don't think they exist. So many people just listen to One genre of music and that's it. To get them to listen to anything outside of that is real tough. That's why I enjoy these reaction channels so much. Watching young black kids get the same reactions I got to songs from 40-50 years ago. I especially like these two brothers because they "get it" plus they have musical ability and knowledge. Many people have argued with me that it comes down to taste and opinion. I beg to differ tremendously. Yes the song does have the sound good but if anybody's going to tell me that rap has the same soul, feel,groove and emotional sway on a person like 60s and 70s music,they need their heads examined. Steely Dan is a perfect example of what I'm talkin about. These guys are not 3 chord wonders. It's the best musicianship around!!!
@@edwardcapobianco2975 "Right on" back at ya, brother. I agree with you across the board. AM radio was, and still is, full of great music. When I transitioned from "pop music", so to say, mainly on AM stations to heavier stuff [ Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, etc. ] on FM , I didn't begin disliking the AM fare. Uh uh. Good music is good music. [ and Rap is crap . Yeah -- there might be a catchy Rap song or two out there, but that's only because they sound more un-rappy than the usual crap. ] The Jackson 5. The early Beatles stuff. Sonny and Cher. The Archie's. Yes -- even the Archie's. And Herman's Hermits. Pure pop gold. You are right on regarding the 2 dudes on this reaction channel. Laid back guys who know music. It helps me understand more along the production side because I am not a musician. Their insight adds to the appreciation of the song. And you gotta love how they can disagree with each other. Push each other's buttons a little. Real stuff. And as it is with most of these music Reaction Videos Channels, it is a pleasure to see them react so emotionally to the same music that freaked us out back when this music was first released. I've seen a few reactors cry from being overwhelmed by the music they were listening to -- experiencing. Can't tell you how many hours I've spent over the last year or so watching these Reaction Videos Channels. It is a blast. And now they are reacting to movies. Wouldn't think that would be worthwhile, but it ends up being fun. Especially when the movie has a big twist to it, like The Sixth Sense. or is very emotional, like The Green Mile.
Valerie Simpson from “Ashford and Simpson” is singing background on this song and a few other on this album. Continue on my Brothers! Trust me you will not be disappointed! 👍🏾💪🏿
It's fantastic to see you pair 'getting it'; the Steely Dan vibe 40 years on. You'll find it a stretch to find something you don't like. They're consistently great and every song has a massive present you weren't quite expecting. You looked like a pair of nodding dog ,parcel shelf ornaments during that epic fade out. This song is so cinematic; I've been waiting for it to be made into a movie. Ditto Don't Take Me Alive, which you already reacted to.
Truly enjoy your reactions, from the technical things you mention, the production, and it really pops when the music, writing, production, hits you in the heart! And the foot, and the hips , ..and the . 😂😂😂
Good to see you doing this album. I recently saw the title song proclaimed as the greatest song of all time. I guess it can be viewed as that great, but I feel this album is a great collection of great songs. Time Out of Mind, My Rival and Third World Man are each many people's favorites I'd bet. Steely Dan doing their thing, again. Keep doing your thing my brothers.
So, so many great songs!!! I've always loved Third World Man. I've read the Larry Carlton had considered his guitar solo on Third World Man, his favorite. I've also read/heard that Third World Man is Joni Mitchell's favorite Steely Dan song.
Besides the great music, the lyrics are funny as hell. Love how they incorporate these shady characters in all their tunes like. "Hoops McCann" and "Jive Miguel". The lyrics in the next song Gaucho are also funny. I could be wrong, but I think it's about an agent who gets pissed off because his client brings his flamboyant foreign gay lover to an important business meeting that can jeopardize the deal. Only Fagan and Becker think of stuff like this.
I moved from NY to San Diego in 81 when I was 20. This record and Grover Washington's Wine Light was being played in every house. Big party everywhere. Many crashed and burned.
Got to add one more thing. Saw them Live in West Palm Beach, Fl. about 1999. The morning after I commented on the Dan web page, about how surprised and incredible "Glamour Profession" sounded that night, and Walter himself commented, and agreed and said "thank you". He was a hero, and a genius hybrid. RIP sir.
This is one of my favorite songs on Gaucho, which is saying something considering all the great songs on that album. This song has such strong storytelling elements, musicality, and beautifully and tragically forecasts and captures the excess of the 80's just as it was getting started. It also has that disco vibe I remember as a child. Nostalgia at its finest
Gaucho is a Spanish Cowboy for lack of a better term ….. I am loving how u guys took the Steely Dan deep dive. And what a dive it is !!! Their musicality is SUPERB !!! 💥😘💥 Background girls are PHENOMENAL!!
I can't wait to get to the Two Against Nature album. I don't see many reactions to it and it's one of my favorites, EVERY song on it is such a groove. Correct ne I'm wrong but it was their only Best Album grammy, not that it matters much. I also love The Nightfly and hope we get to that one too.
who is this Gaucho , amigo? why is he standing there? in you spangled leather poncho and your elevator shoes? Bodacious cowboys such as your "friend' will NEVER be welcome here !! ( high in the Custerdome)
Fagan's 'The Nightfly' album picks up where this one leaves off. 1982 release. Fagan had lots more in the tank after he parted with Becker. On listening, you wouldn't know it wasn't the duo.
If you like this album, please check out Fagen's second solo album, Kamakiriad. Each song gets better than the last and the first song is absolutely incredible. And even though it was a Fagen solo album, Walter Becker produced it. You'll love Kamakiriad!
I've mentioned this before that Steely Dan are geniuses on "layerinng" their music. You mentioned that this song has a "disco" beat to it and I totally agree. In this case they take that disco beat and add several layers over that beat. I honestly do not know of another band that has been able to do that in such a flawless manner as Steely Dan. Thanks for reacting to this track. Great job as always. BTW... A Gaucho is a cowboy of the South American pampas.
Gritty Ken here boys. A lot of disco has not aged well. Glamour doesn't have that problem. I believe you are ready for a gem off their "Gold" greatest hits Expanded Edition album('91)... *"Here at the Western World"*. Also on the same album - a monster of a movie soundtrack "Century's End"('88). Keep it up.
They won a Grammy for the album, Two Against The World. My jam on that album was Jack Of Seed. Then later in the 2000's they came out with their final studio album, Everything Must Go.
This is just a partial list of the amazing talent that Fagan and Becker assembled for the album "Gaucho"..... Randy Brecker, Wayne Andre, Tom Scott, David Sanborn, Michael Brecker, Joe Sample , Hiram Bullock , Larry Carlton , Rick Derringer, Steve Khan , Mark Knopfler , Chuck Rainey , Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro, Bernard Purdie along with Michael McDonald , Patti Austin and Valerie Simpson on backing vocals.
@@mormovies I agree 100%. Fagan & Becker hired THE BEST at their craft. I can remember being in a RECORD STORE back in the 70's and 80's and spending my time looking at the artists that performed on Steely Dan's albums. To this day I am still amazed at how they brought in so much talent. I don't recall any other artists doing what Fagan & Becker did.
Totally agree with you about the Grammy. They should have had multiple Grammys by the time they won in 2000. That’s Steve Kahn on the guitar solo and that gorgeous outro.
I have always heard an L.A. Lakers player as a centerpiece character in this song. Caught up in the glamour and risk of fame and youth...hangers on, enablers and living hard as it takes it's toll...
This is crazy im only 35 and for the past ten years at least and 2017 Grammy win for them . This song and thier song writing in general is like no other love the jazz and rock mix well a old freind turned me on to them and wow this song stuck with me i love the disco vibe but the mood and sophisticated style im into fashion and GLAMOUR PROFESSION is my lifetime anthem now. That beat tho omg its so sexy and classy glamour it is a peice of art on its own. Wow 👌 thanks guys for appreciated old school classic in a rock genre. ❤🎉
I don't know about this particular song, but bass legend, Chuck Rainey, played on a HUGE number of their songs. Incidentally, he also plays the amazing bass line on the theme song for TV's Sanford and Son.
I don't know why bit that guitar tone on the outro solo is my favorite example of that chewy, clicky "clean" jazz guitar with some grit and some smoothness at the same time!
Gaucho just means cowboy. Steely Dan belong to both the East coast and the West coast. Unique! Great review. I think you guys would like "Show Biz Kids"
Gaucho would be the next song up and Fagen's vocals will capture you from the start. The song is also ballad like, which is very different for "the Dan."
The brilliance of the Nightfly solo album by Donald Fagen truly makes it part of a trilogy with Aja and Gaucho. It will blow you guys away. There are websites dedicated to analyzing Steely’s lyrics. The discussions are great!
I recall hearing one of you say you play drums. In the next track, Gaucho Jeff Porcaro (Toto) plays these beautiful ghost notes that only drummers can pick up.
Classy, classy song... about drug addiction. LOL. Steely Dan went dark for 20 years after this album. Donald Fagen then recorded "The Nightfly" which is incredible. Followed by "Kamakiriad" which is also top shelf. They're both in essence Steely Dan albums, so check those out. Not a bad track on either one, as you could imagine. Keep on groovin'!
Just want you fellas to know that Glamour Profession was recorded with a drum machine created by Roger Nichols. Their engineer. It also had a name…Wendell
That was NYC’s Steve Khan on guitar . Check out his tune “ Eye Over Autumn” off his solo album “The Blue Man . Steve Gadd “AJA” drummer on skins . All studio cats y’all gotta hear !
@@msburton1406 Listen to Khans work with Michael Franks “ The Camera Never Lies” or “ Your Secrets Safe With Me” That whole outro is Khan . Even the solo on Gaucho is Khan .
GAUCHO refers to hardiness, unruly, lawlessness Arentinian/Urguay version of Cowboys... 😁😉. Great song, a not so behind the scenes of a basketball star, driving a big car, scoring more than baskets, "spend a quarter just to shine a silver spoon" reference to doing coke... The gist: "livin' hard will take it's toll".. they wrote a song with lyrics that could any "star" today ...
