Why Steely Dan's Gaucho Is The Best Album Ever Made And You're Wrong If You Think Otherwise 

Becker & Fagen didn't sack the rest of the band in 74 because they "kinda sucked" - they were all superb musicians. Becker & Fagen decided to stop touring, because they hated it. Party animals Baxter and Hodder said "we're outta here!" They knew they were gonna miss the groupies and the touring lifestyle, and besides they needed income from touring as they weren't song writers. Baxter joined the Doobie Bros, and I'm not sure where Hodder went. Denny Dias stayed on as a session musician, though Becker and Fagen made less and less and less use of his skills on successive albums, instead bringing in a range of other guitarists.

God, I wish The Second Arrangement made it onto the album

Glamour Profession has an effect on me that I can never fully grasp, much less explain. I can literally feel my brain release pleasure chemicals and I’m aware of them as they spread throughout.

As time rolls on and we get older Steely Dan keeps expanding to fill our musical void.

Glamour profession is super repetitive but it’s just so damn good when it hits right that I don’t even want it to end. Gotta blast the fuck outta that song

Gaucho has been my go-to driving CD for the last decade (along with The Wall by Pink Floyd). One amazing song after another.

I wish “The Bear” made it on this album too.

I go back and forth between Aja and Gaucho as my all time favourite. They are very different albums, but both unmistakebly Dan at their peak. Some people complain about Gaucho being too slick, but there is something about that particular early 80's west coast aesthetic that scratches a certain itch for me. The super clean production works perfectly against the imigary in the lyrics that describe shady people living seemingly glamourus interesting lives (but not really). I think Gaucho might be my favourite by a hair at the moment.

The instrumental on 'Third World Man' is incredible and highly underrated.

I've been a huge fan of Steely Dan since 1971. They're my favorite band behind The Beatles. The evolution of their music from "Can't Buy A Thrill" to "Gaucho" has been so enjoyable to experience through the years. I would wait for the record store to open so I could get in and get their latest release. I loved every album they released. However, my taste is the Royal Scam is their best album. I loved the guitar, drums and bass driven sound of that album. I also loved the tunes and especially the lyrics. Gaucho is an excellent album with great tunes and lyrics as well. I miss the drums and lead guitar work on Gaucho and Aja. I still listen to every album of theirs and Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly". Wonderful memories through the years.

Gaucho was my introduction to Steely Dan. It was my first love, and always will be. Aja is close, but still second. My only regret is that I found them too late in life.

Thank you. I loved this album as soon as I bought it and listened. While Ajá is still my favourite, Gaucho is absolute perfection. To this day, I enjoy listening. Your review is thoughtful and a pleasure. Your insights give me reasons to listen yet again.

My favorite song is "In Germany Before the War" by Randal Stewart Newman. Can't wait for the Randal iceberg.

Yea probably my favorite of all Steely Dan albums. The title track is just hauntingly beautiful.

My 2 main memories associated to this LP. first, we were on our honeymoon when we found a great radio station that had advance copy. played lots of it and it was so cool. second is a few years later, my 3 year old daughter singing along to Babylon Sisters and that little girl shaking everything she didn't have. I love steely dan.

All of their albums are absolute perfection you just can't pick one

Among all their albums this is my fave…maybe it was where I was in my life at the time of release, but it is so polished and clean with such memorable songs

Gaucho is one of those great albums that needs to be listened to in its entirety

You're right, it's an 'alone on an island' album for me, outstanding music. Thanks for all the SD vids you do, love 'em !!

If Gaucho is so good, why isn't there a Gaucho 2? Huh? Oh, Donald Fagen's Nightfly? Yeah, okay, maybe Gaucho *is* so good I'm happy that I can now add another Dan video into my Dan binging. Thanks, Dingus!

Whenever I pull out Gaucho, I have to listen to Aja - and vice versa. Two facets to the same diamond.

Cool analysis, great sense of humor. Thanks!

Great vid! Never seen your vids till now gonna check out your ice berg vids on Steely Dan etc!

First time listening to Gaucho: WTF is this crap Second Time: I guess Hey 19 is catchy Third Time: I am a bodacious cowboy high in the custerdome

Thank you for confirming something I've been saying for years; always been my favourite album and the title track the best song on it. Don't really care what the lyrics mean; I just love to sing along to the whole masterpiece that is Gaucho!

I am like others, Steely Dan fills much of music listening bandwidth the older I get. For decades I listened to all of Steely Dan's most popular songs. However, as I have more time to enjoy the other songs I find them as impressive as their biggest hits. I always like Aja, the song, now I absolutely love it. Time out Mind, as controversial as it is, is still an amazing song. Third World Man is almost prophetic. My Old School. I could go on. The "Lost Steely Dan" album that proceeded "Gaucho" was as retold in "Night Fly" was lost by a maintenance engineer and once Donald Fagan was told, he simply turned around and walked out of the studio. Can you imagine? The music that was lost will never be heard, what a loss. Well, some good news, The Second Arrangement (at least a version without lyrics) has finally been found and one can only imagine and hope that Donald decides to add his magic to it.

The gloves are off... Meet me at midnight at Mr Chow's, where I shall explain with my fists that Aja is the superior album.

Outstanding work Dingus.You have to do some more.

Gosh, I loved this review. Simply perfection.

Wow the first channel to make good and funny steely Dan videos

Pound for pound and in respect of the blood (or bone in the case of WB’s complex fracture) sweat and tears shed in its creation, it is their best album, an enduring masterpiece of popular music.

Glamor Profession: the Dan's sneakiest masterpiece. Disco after a valium overdose. Great album. Great video. Great job. Nightfly video next. Go on. Dare you.

John Huston....pronounced like the city, "Houston"...."Hyu-stun"....Fantastic Dan videos.....you've produced Gems....

Your are just right.....After 40 years I still revisit this regularly. My most listened to album. Vinyl...half speed vinyl...cd...dvd audio 5.1....and my favourite...sacd surround....and finally hd streaming. Go .go go

Gaucho and Aja are probably my favorite 2 albums ever. Both fantastic!

Always thought this too! This is a perfect album and Glamour Profession is the greatest piece of work probably ever

Honestly, having listened through Steely Dan's discography dozens of times, all of their live performances, and a number of their bootlegs/demos, my favorite album, the one I keep coming back to, is Two Against Nature, which I did not expect at all. Gaucho is up there for sure, but something about that album... every song is perfect, and it's just such a fantastic return to form. Almost Gothic, Jack of Speed, What a Shame About Me, Negative Girl, they're all so good, and that album has my most played Dan songs on it by quite a long shot. Anyway, just wanted to put that opinion out there, since I think it's lumped in with Everything Must Go (although even that album, their worst in my opinion, has some bangers) and it doesn't get the recognition it deserves. Also that live performance of it is fantastic too.

Totalmente de acuerdo!, este álbum es una obra maestra., saludos, buen video

Yep, fully agree... And, I'm not even that much of a fan of their albums, but I *REALLY* love this one! I too feel the arrangements and compositions are, yes, basically perfect. The sound is reference quality too. Pretending to be an Audiophile for over 40 years, I would have to say that this album as a 'normal' release is easily of Demo quality.

God bless you for making steely Dan content so that die hard gen z steely Dan fans like myself have something to comfort ourselves with while mourning the past nature of the days of steely dan

When this album came out I was working as a waiter at a place in NYC. During our shift we would sneak out for some fine Colombian and Finlandia 5:11 bloody Mary’s. And have this epic LP playing in the background. Have always felt this was one of the best sounding of all time.

Not sure if Carlton's work on "Third World Man" exceeds his "Kid Charlemange" solo.

100 per cent agree and really good commentary and Gaucho my all time favourite song

The chorus in Gaucho sung by Patti Austin, Valery Simpson and Leslie Miller is breathtaking

“Downer Surrealism” the best description I’ve heard of them by Zappa

While I agree with you that Gaucho is probably the best Steely Dan album except when compared with Aja and The Royal Scam I find it actually hilarious to place "Haitian Divorce" as number 57 and "Ricky Don't loose that number" way down the list... Those are extremely well written from a songwriters perspective and also arranged and produced flawlessly

Great takes!

I saw a concert in Vancouver where Keith Jarret walked off the stage after someone yelled. I would say that was a snowflake move.

Man, this was really good. I was a major Steely Dan fan in the 70s. I graduated high school in 1980, so I had no idea there was a followup to Aja. Dammm- So there’s a new album to check out. Nice.

I love your use of stock images in your videos.

I just listened to Gaucho yesterday !! The title song represents Steely Dan’s finest songwriting ever and yes the album is their best ( not Aja as everyone says) and might be one of the top albums ever indeed. I Don t have the heart to say The Best but close

This is so weird, geeky, and strange. I love it! I'm subscribing.

Dingus for President! Butt seriously😉I really enjoyed your review! The perfect mixture of seriousness and sarcasm. Gaucho truly is an amazing album, and it does feel like the pinnacle of their artistry laced with a sad twinge of it feeling like it was the beginning of the end. I know many Dan-heads like to gush over the accidentally deleted song “the second arrangement“, but from the outtakes I’ve heard from it, I actually prefer another song that didn’t make it onto the record called Kulee Baba, which to me is a much better song, and one that I wish would’ve made it onto Gaucho. 👍🏼🎸🎹🎼❤️😎

I think you were channelling me when you recorded this review!

Number of times I’ve regretted loading this album: 0. I have a Dan playlist that is just Aja and Gaucho. I saw one of the duo’s last reunion tours in NYC at the Beacon. Aja in chrono order the first night (followed by whatever they felt like playing), then Gaucho the next night. Ecstasy.

Absolutely my favorite album of all time. Great video.

While we're on the topic of under-rated Steely Dan, I just listened carefully for the first time to the title and final track of Everything Must Go. It's incredible - one of those SD tracks that have endless genius details that require repeated listenings. As far as ending an album and a career in a brilliant and perfect way, this track fits nicely in that category alongside the Abbey Road medley. What are some other great career finales?? I mean, Bach's Art of Fugue and Mozart's Requiem, but what other rock artists have tremendous "series finales"?

As a life long die hard Dan fan ,who remembers where I was when at age 11 I first heard FM I will totally agree with your resounding assessment!

I love this style of video where a person comedically gushes about their favorite thing, like an album or movie. While Aja pulls a little bit further on my list of duo era Steely Dan, Gaucho is a technical and modern musical masterpiece. It's a shame songs like The Bear and Second Arrangement didn't make it on the track list, though.

I'll definitely give this video a 'like'. With "Glamour Profession" being appreciated because, it's my personal favorite song by Steely Dan. However, the breakdown/explained opinion for the rest of the "Gaucho" album is an added bonus.

Hey bee-itch, thanks a lot for pointing out that drop-out at 1.20... the song will never be the same again. Anyway, a life-long Dan-fan here who has just discovered your channel. Fantastic documentary, I'm with you 90% on your assessment brother.

This video, like all dingus videos, is the finest content on RU-vid.

I coulda swore "Were You Blind That Day?" came from the Aja sessions, as per Larry C.

It's an album that, once you know the backstory, almost shouldn't exist. So much of what was intended got ruined by a ham-fisted engineer. Then there were the legal issues playing out.. But we all know of that. That this album came out as good as it did when you know all that makes it even more special. Best Album Ever Made? Even for a Steely Dan fan like myself, that's a tough one for me. I'm a bit biased when it comes to favourite Steely Dan album though. It's probably Royal Scam, in large part due to how delicious a duo Chuck Rainey and Bernard Purdie are. Those two underpinning the complex melodic, compositional, chordal and lyrical ideas of Becker and Fagen are some musical moments we're unlikely ever to experience again. Gaucho and Aja are tied as second place, perhaps with Aja edging out Gaucho very slightly due to its lack of a drum machine.

Nothing wrong with Gaucho, but you have to admit that every SD or DF song/album is a masterpiece in and of itself. Simply perfection

I agree. Glamour Profession is one of the greatest songs ever recorded

I love your videos. I would like to see some "Morph the cat" video. Greattings from Argentina.

Gaucho is most likely my favourite album; it was the first full Steely Dan album I heard as a 15-year old kid almost 35 years ago, so it holds a special place in my heart. Is it the best album of all time? Probably not, I can think of some incredible albums that would challenge that title; Jellyfish - Spilt Milk, The Beatles - Rubber Soul, Pink Floyd - DSOTM, Fleetwood Mac - Rumours to name but a few that are definitely up there as the best that the LP format has to offer. Is it the best Steely Dan album? Nah, that's Aja. And deep down you know it is. 😉

The Supertramp snippet fvcking kills me

Though I did when I was younger (19?) I don’t hear creeper on Hey Nineteen. I hear aging and I dare say maturity. I hear appreciating the “beauty” of a young woman, but the realization that they’ve nothing in common and it’s best just to watch and enjoy the view.

The Royal scam > Aja > Gaucho

I am in my 60s and have been a rabid devotee of Don and Walter's approach to music, and I still can't pick a favorite album, because every second that goes by, everything changes and as a part of everything, my feelings are changing as well, and my feelings are what determines how i hear the music, To be honest '"de gustibus non est disputandum". so you are correct with your take on Gaucho.

Glamour Profession sounds like something you'd hear playing in a mall in one of those liminal spaces videos. And I mean that in the most positive way possible.

Nice! BTW - The filmmaker of The Maltese Falcon's name is pronounced John Houston (Like the city in East Texas - Not the Street in lower NYC.)

Glamour Profession could very well be my favorite Steely Dan song. Other competing songs are Peg, Janie Runaway, Babylon Sisters, My Old School, Brooklyn, Hey Nineteen........ But to have the first three tracks on an album be amongst your favorites in a band's entire catalogue speaks volumes about the quality of the album. Gaucho and Aja will always be my two favorites. I like to think of them as a trilogy with The Nightfly, which is also a masterpiece.

Interesting choice, a case can definitely be made. Regardless of whether you agree or not, there are several well-established facts about the band named after a portable boyfriend. 1) I find that almost all of Steely Dan's music holds up extremely well in the long run. 2) Becker and Fagen were/are MONSTER musicians. 3) There is no other band quite like them. 4) Even if you disagree, anyone with functioning ears that can match pitch and keep a beat would agree that at the minimum this album should be in everyone's top 50 list. If you're doing the desert island thing and you can bring only 30 albums, Gaucho is probably one of two Steely Dan discs I would bring along with Aja. Now some people have really distinct and specific tastes in music, the heart wants what the heart wants at the end of it. So there is a certain amount of lightning in a bottle that the band captured which is difficult to argue against. Oddly and specifically, I have to say that my #1 is Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation. After that, man I can't justify the rest of the top 10 until i get to the Goreckyj Symphony #3 (5) Sorrowful Songs and Arvo Part (6) shortly next. I confess that I get into a few late Beatles: Revolver, (#7) White Album (#8), Abbey Road, (#9) a couple U2s, Joshua Tree (#3) and Unforgettable Fire (#4), maybe Vertigo (10). NIN's the Fragile is probably #2. There's something enduring about Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, maybe #11 or so. Then maybe a little Shoegaze, probably Ride's Nowhere (12) and Galaxie 500's On Fire (13). Then I start getting into the Deep Techno, probably Luigi Tozzi's Cohuatl (15). Maybe a little Mazzy Star (19). Then I'd go all 3 Portishead records (16,17, 18). The top 20 is pretty well spoken for, indisputably at the least I'm going with Gaucho at #14. Somewhere around #20 I'd put the Britten War Requiem, about #21, the Mozart Requiem, around #22 the Verdi Requiem. For some reason all the stuff I'm listing holds up to repeated listens, give them a second try. About 23 probably a little pop-punk, maybe some Alice, more NIN- Pretty Hate Machine around #26.....for some Zest maybe a little Death Grips. Then I'd say prepared piano by Cage, Cowell, a few others. Probably the Beethoven #9, a little Wagner- Parsifal. .....Definitely Aja before we get to 30, probably #28. About 29, 30 I'd sneak in some Unloved. About 32 maybe some Eagles, a little Journey. Some Simon and Garfunkel. Probably the order is fairly loose, any cutoff before about 30 albums is unacceptable.

🎉While I agree Gaucho is a great album I feel Aja is the Best Ever❤

I’m a musician. I play music from the 40s to current songs. Above and beyond, it’s Steely Dan that requires the most outta me to “get right”. I make all my own Backing tracks for my piano solo gigs. All the background vocals etc. transcribing the tracks and mixing. It’s DIFFICULT. The songwriting is so over the top brilliant, performing Steely Dan is a taste of heaven. Above and beyond my favorite collection of music ever made and my favorite concert experience too. If Donald Fagan dies before me, he will take a part of me with him.

I've listened to Gaucho so many times that I sometimes dream about it. I once had a dream that I had a young son named Johnny who tragically died seven years ago. He was the first known case of a devastating disease that would go on to decimate 99.9% of the world population (for context, I recently read The Stand by Stephen King and I must have had global apocalypse on my mind). Anyways, in the dream, I was one of the only survivors. I enter my old house and creep upstairs towards Johnny's vacant playroom, where it all began. I open the door and my heart almost stops at what I see. "My god," I whisper, frozen in shock. The entire room is filled, filled with sand. In the center of the room is a heap of sand with some of Johnny's old toys peeking out, but there is something else too. Something white and worn. I brush the sand away and see that it is a small human skull. A wave of dread washes over me, and I know at once that I need to leave this room. Outside the little window of Johnny's playroom, the fireworks show has begun. It is July 4th, 2042, the day Johnny got sick. But...that can't be right. Curiosity gets the best of me as I peer down through the window over the suburban street. I see the neighbors running out from their brightly lit houses, screaming and pointing delightedly at the night sky. Among them is my smiling wife carrying Johnny's newborn sister. My dead wife. I begin to panic. I turn away from the window. I have to leave this house. But the sand...the sand is rising all around me! Soon I am wading through the stuff, desperately clawing my way towards the door to Johnny's playroom. I am too late. As I watch the tiny gap near the top of the door close shut, I know this is the end for me. The last thing I hear is Johnny's distant laughter. And my dying thought: an old saying I once heard from a leading epidemiologist during the onset of the first major outbreaks, some seven years ago. "E l'era del terzo mondo." I never took the time to learn what it meant. At the time, I didn't want to know. But now, in my final breath, it seemed all too clear to me. TLDR: Gaucho is goated it will change your damn worldview man

Just the song Gaucho alone is worth it, my fav off that whole album

I adore Gaucho. As for it being criticized as artificial, well, that's too priceless for words. It was intentionally artificial sounding. That's SD's brilliance. The apparent superficiality is total musical satire of that wealthy, spoiled west coast scene; slick on the surface, but with little substance underneath.

Everyone talks "The Bear" and "Second Arrangement" but I really dig "Kind Spirit" much more. Love all their stuff but will go with "Your Gold Teeth" and "Two Against Nature" as the ones that get me moving the most and both have musical breaks mid song that are out of this world.

Also, I know people like to classify the song “Glamour Profession” as “disco“, but I’d like to argue that it’s really more of a “world lounge” style (before world lounge even existed). People also like to bag on Glamour Profession for being “yacht rock”, but that was before yacht rock ever existed, so if one invents the genre, it can’t really be classified that way, can it? Harmonically, it’s so far ahead of its time that it STILL sounds futuristic over 50 years after it was released. The chord changes are just otherworldly and complex, yet still sound somehow. “repetitive“ to the untrained ear.

I won't debate the quality of this album, or any of their albums. They were always too intelligent for modern radio anyway. The Pulp Fiction lyrics and the wonderful fretwork of Rick Derringer is worth the price of admission. Again, too smart for Jughead programmers of Radio to wrap their heads around. I'm glad that you enjoy this spectacular album as much I have.

Man I remember playing Gaucho and in Particular Babylon sisters while stationed aboard the USS Enterprise. She was based at Alameda NAS which is near Oakland. It was Spring 1982 and I was 18 and a year into my first Navy tour. We were in port and I’d go up on the flight deck in the evening with my Sanyo boombox and a few SD cassettes. Listening to Donald sing about “San Francisco Show and tell and distant lights from across the bay” while I was literally looking out across the bay at the twinkling lights of S.F. Is still one of the coolest memories I have of my 27 years in uniform. I’m going back there when I finally retire with my honey and sit there again this time on lawn chairs, with a very expensive bottle of wine and relive that memory with the love of my life. She was then and still is.

Bold assertion there. Wonderful band , wonderful sound for sure - and the intro to Babylon Sisters - sublime. HOWEVER, as to best album ever? For me that crown goes to Santana's 1972 masterpiece, Caravanserai.

I whole-heartedly agree that "Gaucho" by "Steely Dan" is the best album ever made. it's common knowledge and proven fact, even William McKinley said so. (look it up, it's true)

my Favourite is royal scam

Listened to Aja. I thought it was solid. Listened to Gaucho and I was blown away after the first listen.

Although Gaucho is not my favorite, it is by far the best sounding CD played on my stereo system. It's so good, you'd swear the band was playing in person in the listening area. How I wish more individuals mixing and recording for THE LISTENER would "get" this in the industry.

Extremally funny as always!

Finally someone hears (and mentions) the dropout in Time Out Of Mind!

Great video! but it still doesn't make Gaucho better than Royal Scam, or Countdown... or Aja for that matter.

I didn’t realise third world man was a scam left over but now you say it I can’t explain how much sense that makes. Great video. Can’t agree with you about my rival… but generally I’m so glad to hear someone lavish praise on this amazing album.

I never noticed the Time Out of Mind glitches, and now I’ll never not

This popped in my feed because I just finished listening to Gaucho for the 4000th time. Not in a row, but I listen to SD A LOT. I honestly can't say I dislike anything this band has produced over the years.

Listening to the title track, I find it hard to imagine that music can get much better..... Especially when the chorus kicks in.

5:05 - Absolutely stellar Mr. D.

Time Out of Mind is both an ode to Heroin use and/or a religious experience at a revival tent from the 50's with an "Elmer Gantry" type preaching to his flock. It has the mystical and religious imagery as well as the drug references, linking religion to drugd (as Marx stated "Religion is the opium of the people"). Each interpretation works, making it a brilliant song.

It’s ruddy good, and certainly my most played SD album - but I’m not sure it’s the best album ever made……..but it is one of the most polished, great sounding and enjoyable albums ever made.