Mark Knopfler is playing lead guitar on this track. Becker & Fagen wanted his unique sound for the song but Knopfler didn't have the best experience. Knopfler could not sight-read and had to prepare by listening to a tape of the song at home, where he realized he did not know all of the chords or which parts of the song he was expected to play over. In the studio, Knopfler was asked to do a multiplicity of takes, working for hours until 4 a.m. Ultimately, B&F were happy with the results but Mark called the session "pain-staking." Gives you an idea of how good you had to be to play on a Steely Dan record. Even someone with Knopfler's talent was hard-pressed to deliver the goods. Thanks Neil anf Harri.
@@damonhines8187 It's a quote from Mark himself in an interview. And I'm a spelling snob. The correct arrangement of letters of the word (yes, it's one word) is painstaking.
From their 7th album, " Gaucho", 1980, this tune contains all the quintessential qualities that encapsulates the phenomenal experience of Steely Dan. Mark Knopfler's added distinctive riffs, drives the toe tapping beats from Rick Marotta, with the drums rocking like crazy, the magical horns and sax and Michael McDonald adding his back up vocals to produce a great substantial tune. Always a joy to listen to. Great reaction Harri. Thanks Harri and Neal. 👏👏 Cheers from Canada. 🇨🇦
@@dtsdigitalden5023 Nichols employed the Wendel drum machine only on "Hey Nineteen", "Glamour Profession", and "My Rival". Marotta played all the drum beats on this song. According to Elliot Scheiner, the recording engineer on "Gaucho."
Steely Dan is touring with the Eagles at the moment. Saw them last Sat night at the Kia Forum in L.A. Only Donald remains and he is getting old but their music is timeless.
We have tickets to see them with the Eagles here in STL in February. Boy those tickets were expensive. I have seen them twice before, they're the best.
Chasing the dragon refers to inhaling heroin smoke as it's heated on a piece of aluminium foil. This song is so smoooooth, it is indeed "perfection and grace"!
Nobody gives the great Tom Scott any shout-outs. He arranged the horns on both Aja and Gaucho and blew on one of many people's favorites, Black Cow. He formed the LA Express as the backup band for Joni Mitchel. Their first self-titled album spawned the LA Fusion sound. The band had future Steely alumni Tom Scott, Larry Carlton, Joe Sample along with Max Bennet and the great John Guiren on drums. If you like SD and crack players, you might give Tom Scott a listen. I like the live from the Bottom Line, 1976-77, with Steve Gadd, Chuck Rainey, Hugh McCracken, and Richard Tee, too, plus a pre-Aja solo by Gadd. You can see why B&F wanted these guys to perform on their recordings. Nothing but the best.
And none other than Dire Straits Mark Knopfler on the guitar licks. He said of the cameo,he never even met Fagen and Becker,he was given instructions by a studio techie and told how to play it,then got on a plane back home,he also said that the whole set up was perfectionism with everyone knowing their part.
And typical of the Dan, the song dances around it's subject, without mentioning it. In this case, the subject is smoking and shooting H. Lots of references. But that takes nothing away from a great record. I love this song, and McDonald's vocals are the cherry on top.
When I first heard "Hey Nineteen" on the radio' I immediately recognized Don Fagen's voice. And wondered what band he was featured on as a guest. This song was so radically different from Aja or any of their previous work. A few days later my older brother came home with Gaucho. For me there was NO turning back!!
Best Song about doing Heroin ever written...! YES, read the Lyrics. Turning the silver foil... gold, and turning water into cherry wine...(blood in the needle)
More of the pure genius of Steely Dan, i.e. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker (RIP) when Bach jammed with Mozart, or any two great masters of the past you choose. They so would have got it!!!
Saw them a few times live. Amazing! On one tour, each night they would play an entire album and that would be the center piece and then they would fill the show out with tunes from other albums. I went on the "Aja" night.
I saw them in LA several years ago when they played the AJA album from beginning to end to start the show . I was gobsmacked . They played this song towards the end of the show and it was a JAM the entire crowd was up and swaying this swung so hard
I actually got the "gaucho" album first, then eventually went backward listening to them. I grew up on mostly AM r&b and top 40 (and what my older brothers brought home). It was after high school that I started listening to FM\AOR and started hearing Steely Dan. They're desert island music now.
Chasing the dragon is a metaphor for chasing the opiate High. They often make beautiful music with a tough topic! One of the best bands of all time for certain! Thanks for playing this one Hadri! ✌️❤️🤘🥁
@@kimberlyhalloran5724 Yes, many of their songs from around '75 to '80 are about shady people, hookers, crime and drug addiction (not always clear from the lyrics, of course)
This came out around the same time my wife and I were married. The Gaucho album was then and is still one of our favorite albums. I love every song on that album.
Hey Neal. It’s always good to hear Steely Dan. They’re just so amazing and their songs have so many intricacies, I just love it. Thanks Harri and Neal. 🌺✌️
What you really mean, is when you hear Billie Jean, you hear the Time Out Of Mind rif... this sone came out 3 years before Billie Jean... Love the reaction!
It was the 80s, every drum beat was that one. 😄 At least they knew their music would be wasted on that decade and saved it for those who would better appreciate it.
The "Billie Jean" beat has been attributed both to this song and to Hall & Oates "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)", which topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and the US r'n'b chart in early February 1982 - very unusual for a white act to top the r'n''b /soul chart! The lyrics definitely allude to drugs and hokey new-age ideas about how to use them to get religious illuminations ("mystical sphere...direct from Lhasa") but the feel of the *music* is that it captures the vibe of being young and having all of life ahead of you, with such eloquence: "it's perfection and grace". The sound of this song really feels like being twenty all over again. :)
Great song, but I don't hear any sounds that give me a Billie Jean vibe. This was well before Billie Jean and Michael Jackson could only dream to sound like this.
Steely Dan at their peak glossy. Heroin is a helluva drug. Mark Knopfler is on this one. You have the wrong Billie Jean influencer Harri; listen to Do It Again (again). There's quite a famous mashup. You might start reacting to their official live album (it's very good...). Alternatively buy Citizen SD like I suggested 2 years ago. Donald Fagen really was a superb singer. I think it gets lost among the plaudits for the solos, bands, arrangements. He's brilliant and his voice *is* Steely Dan,
I saw ‘Steely Dan’ with Donald Fagan almost 2 summers ago after the Covid delays. Although it was an outstanding show and played almost all my Favorites within 2 hours, Donald’s voice is not nearly as fresh as in the prior days and that is acceptable considering the age. He stayed at the keyboards throughout the show. The rest of the band was great however a live show now is not the same. Both Donald and Walter Becker were musical guests on David Letterman. Those shows are on RU-vid and you may be safe viewing those without hearing any Easter eggs you haven’t heard yet ✌🏽
I think some of these players were also on Billie Jean. Not sure. Is this song waxing romantic about cooking smack ? I wouldn’t be surprised. Great tune amazing groove.
I know theyre a bit new for you, but please consider reacting to Pentatonix. All of their Christmas songs, Amazing Grace, Imagine, Sound of Silence, are my favs.
Imagine how much better Gaucho would have been if Becker didn't have his "issues". Track 1:Babylon Sisters gives us a taste. Fagen himself was having early anxiety and depression problems which he fought throughout the 1980's. He literally disappeared after his Nightfly album was released in '82. Aja was a great album (a 10). Gaucho is a 7
Factually, the inspiration for the hit song, Billie Jean was the Hall and Oates song, I Can't Go For That. Michael Jackson even admitted that is the case.
My interpretation: dishonest preacher, telling congregation to put a dollar in the kitty. The silver (small contributions) will turn to gold (he will make a fortune). Chasing the dragon is talking about Satan. The light in my eyes, smile on my face etc. the water my change to wine reference Christ’s first miracle. Time out of mind means this has been going on forever (Plato).
"Time out of Mind" is about hard drug abuse Harri, and being so stoned out of your tree you don't even know what is going on. This is sad but true. "Chasing the tiger" is about smoking opium or doing any opioid based drug liker heroin or morphine. While the musical part is great, I don't think Donald Fagan or Walter Becker should be proud of writing such a song. I stand 150% against what they are glorifying! 🤨😡
sorry... a HORRIBLE song, from a HORRIBLE album... after so much incredible music, to put out this piece of pop drivel (the entire album was).... so disappointing...