Steely Dan's Plush TV Jazz Rock Party - Raw Footage from 2000-01-28 | Remastered (Upscaled 1080p HD) 

Without the threat of being laced with fentanyl....ah, those were the days.

I agree. This was a great pairing of musicians.

Agreed. Ricky (RIP) was their finest live drummer, too. Crisp and economical and unflashy. I know people rate Keith Carlock, but I find his playing (which is undeniably good) too loose for the Dan. Just mho obvs.

@@laurieharper1526Keith may be loose but that’s because he is a groove machine

I've once heard that live recordings are like "catching lightning in a bottle" ⚡🍶

Is. Still. The. Greatest. Band that. Existing. Still exists. So. Jazzy. Acquired. Taste. Have. Taste. In. Music. If. Nothing. Else

Very cool on Walt's part. Too bad the cameras missed Herrington's Pretzel Logic solo on both nights.

Was Herington’s very first show with them. Who knew at the time he’d be around 23 years later. Was disappointed that Drew wasn’t with them at the time . Got over it within a few songs.

@@scottsilver6021 In the 2011 concert (Cincinnati's PNC Pavilion at Riverbend) Herington tossed his "game pick" at the end of the show to a kid in the front row. It landed right at the edge of the stage and a security guard wouldn't let the kid pick it up. "You can't touch the stage". Ahh whatever. The bitch denied the kid a cool souvenir of the concert. If I had been closer I would have just grabbed it and gave it to the kid before the bitch got there.

I really enjoyed reading you reminisce about anticipating their albums coming out. I wasn’t alive at the time so I always wondered what was going on after Aja in 77 that it took over 3 years for their next album to come out whereas before they were putting one out every year. Of course we later find out there were a multitude of problems going on that pushed the release of Gaucho back. Walter came home to find his girlfriend dead from a heroin overdose and then her family sued Becker citing he got her into drugs, Walter was also hit by a cab crossing the street in New York and was badly injured and in the hospital for a while, an assistant engineer famously erased what was going to be the big song and most likely single from the upcoming album (the now infamous “Second Arrangement”) etc. they were also sued by Keith Jarret because the title track sounded so much like one of his songs and they ended up having to give him writing credit. by the time they finished Gaucho and released they were both understandably exhausted and agreed to part ways for a while. Anyways, I could go on and on forever Just FYI on stage Donald plays a Fender Rhodes electric piano, it’s an instrument they (along with a few others) made famous because it sort of became a trademark of their sound. A harmonium is an acoustic keyboard instrument very similar to an accordion only instead of pumping the bellows side to side to push air over the reeds like in an accordion, a harmonium has a hand pumped bellows so you basically pump the air with one hand and play the keys with the other, quite different than an electric piano. I hate to be a stickler but figured I’d correct you on that. Because he has to sing, he leaves most of the heavy lifting keyboard work to the second keyboard player. If you watch early performances with the original lineup from 72-73 he’s the only keyboard player on stage (and on the records) in 74 they added the famous Michael McDonald to the band to sing backup vocals and play secondary keyboards but Donald was still the main keyboard player with usually a piano, electric piano and synthesizer on stage. By pretzel logic they started bringing in guests and session musicians to handle a lot of the parts and so Fagen didn’t play as many of the keyboard parts but would still throw in a synth solo or two per record. Interestingly when they made their final album “Everything Must Go” in 2003, we saw them return to playing a lot of their own parts in the studio. Becker played bass on every song which he hadn’t done in ages, as well as all of the lead guitar work and he even sings lead on one song and Fagen played the majority of the keyboard parts switching between piano, electric piano, organ, etc and playing a handful of amazing synthesizer solos (His synth solos on Green Book and Lunch with Gina are incredible). Fagen was also more involved in the actual recording because he’s also credited with horn arrangements, production, he’s even credited with playing percussion on a bunch of tracks. Sorry for the long post once I get started talking about this band I could go on forever

He does seem like Dracula doesnt he?

Was backstage at one show (of many?… think it was Camden in 06 or 07. Was standing around and I turned around and Carolyn was standing about 3 feet from me dead on. Was just stunned how perfect her face was.

They’re still touring, without Walter and Cornelius of course. They just did a tour with the Eagles. I’ve seen them four times. Had tickets for Atlanta 2020 and Charleston 2022 but the shows were canceled.

Cynthia Calhoun, Carolyn Leonhart, and the lovely Vicki Cave. Well they were all lovely, but I especially was fond of Ms. Cave.

@@scottsilver6021 Carolyn is beautiful. Sister of Michael the trumpet player. When I saw them last he had shaved his head, and Walt Weiskopf on tenor sax was also bald IIRC. A ways from the 70s look.

I've had all of the original albums since the 70s. When I got my tickets to see them at the Taft in 2009, I had a month to prepare my brain and I put all the original CDs in the car and listened to them all the deep cuts, what not. So when I went to the concert I knew every song. I have seen the girls do Dirty Work every time. I don't think they ever did Brooklyn, another song that featured David Palmer on lead vocal. As an amateur (very amateur) musician I love to get up close and watch the band. People look at me weird when I go to see my friend's band in a bar and sit up front and order Pepsi and chicken wings (I have been sober a long time) and even buy the the band a round. I'm there for the music and the musicians. Oh yeah that band which is now defunct did a ripping fast version of Bodissattva.

I'm also a big fan of exploring the multitrack recordings of different artists and hearing how all the parts come together, so it's a shame there is very little of that available in the Steely Dan world.

What a Shame About Me - I've never heard it live. It's a live wire! Love it.

I was in the control room calling some of the shots with the director. It was a high school dream come true

Oh I missed that. When did that happen?😆

@@Ajaunte_ 58:46 during Deacon Blue :)

@@RealBesty oh my god😆😆 This camera crew is something else!

@@Ajaunte_ It pays to rehearse!

OK! :-)

Couldn’t have said it any better. My favorite group. All elite musicians have played for them for decades. Crazy…

The majority of the boots I have come from either The Traders Den, or from other RU-vid videos.

Oh, yes! So reedy! :-)

Send me an email, djbelc01 (AT) gmail (DOT) com

If you listen to Walter Becker's solo albums and compare it to Donald Fagen's solo albums, I think you'll find Steely Dan's lyrics were most likely more evenly split between the two than most would assume.

@@djbelc01 Perhaps you're right. I can definitely allow for that possibility.

@@dennismurry6552I think we can certainly look at the solo work to see that Becker was quite a wordsmith while Fagen was clearly more talented musically. Something interesting to note as well were when a bunch of cool things auctioned off by Beckers estate after his death, included in those artifacts were numerous handwritten lyrics by Walter himself which leads me to believe (purely anecdotally of course) that when they weren’t together, Donald was at the piano writing music and Becker was scribbling down interesting lyrics in his notebook

Yes, it also later got released on VHS and DVD, it includes a lot of interview segments that are half serious and half hilarious. I've got a copy of it on my channel that I upscaled to HD, look for "Steely Dan's Plush TV Jazz Rock Party | Remastered Upscaled 1080p HD"

I'd imagine he was pretty on edge since they were filming, a little extra pressure!

I absolutely loved his playing. Sadly he passed away last year.