Steely Dan - Can't Buy a Thrill Demos and Outtakes

[@daniel0-01]

I'm 24 years old. Call me the "next generation of appreciation" or whatever, I'm just letting you all know I'll be listening to Steely Dan, Zappa, and King Crimson for the rest of my life. Already seen Steely Dan twice. So grateful man. Some people will never get to see Donald or Walter. I didn't even get to see Walter. love all the famous studio musicians. I believe Jon Herington (if that's right) Randy Lawson, Keith Carlock, you name it. Thank you, Skeevy Daniel.

[@jlr022159]

Also, check out Yes and Dixie Dregs. Such great music back then… glad you’re discovering it!

[@SmackWaterMack001]

DUDE !!!! I’m 61 and jealous as f*ck !!!! ive never seen them, but i listen to them for hours at a time, several times a week 🤘

[@SmackWaterMack001]

for you’re enlightenment, friend… check out Tommy Bolin - Private Eyes Album… smoke a joint first… ✌🏻

[@jonp4846]

​@@jlr022159 Saw the Dixie Dregs last month with Steve Morse Band opening. Van Romaine and Dave LaRue came out at the end and they all jammed. It was a blast seeing them for the umpteenth time. Van and Rod did a drum duet that blew the doors off!

[@daniel0-01]

@@SmackWaterMack001 you fucking rock. amazing@

[@johnbettley3614]

Me. At 64. Since ‘Can’t Buy A Thrill’…. What true artistry , craftsmanship, and wry humor on top…. Why I’m still playing guitar- trying to figure out those Mu major chords will challenge and teach anyone!!!😁….Much love for all things SD!

[@danhines2296]

Look up SEB EDIT on KZbin for some awesome extremely detailed guitar tutorials! He has the best transcripts I have found!!!!!!

[@noternunstoned]

I own one of Walter's old top hats, I will treasure it forever until I pass it on RIP Mr. Becker, there will never be another SD.

[@andrewwilson888]

The alternate take of Midnight Cruiser is something else! wow!

[@philt4346]

Is it a couple bpm slower? Difficult to discern if it's different takes for the guitar leads. Pretty majestic.

[@twoblacklabs904]

@@philt4346 ... yes it is a bit slower.

[@indiecindy6773]

Love Steely Dan ,this is a favorite. Awesome stuff!

[@teelurizzo8542]

It's actually the rough mix of or rather, the unmixed version of the master take that made it onto the album, but here the instruments volumes and spatial positionings in the stereo are out of whack, the vocal lacks reverb and perhaps among other things that might be missing (like the fade out vocals and lead guitar) there seem to be an acoustic guitar track dead center of the stereo which they either later removed from or buried in the final mix.

[@61chickens]

Agreed!

[@jeffdawson2786]

This was when Fagan’s voice was at its best, for me.

[@richalderson6069]

We need a box set of remixed and remastered rarities now!! C'mon Donald and co, make it happen before we all die!

[@steelyman08]

Truly! Just imagine what Fagen has stashed away. But he's just the quintessential perfectionist, so perhaps he will never release the material.

[@nickgodalin6487]

Just bask in the glory of these dusty old recordings collected all together (now) right here, for whom we have Skeevy to thank for making available..... AT ALL... period.

[@richalderson6069]

@@nickgodalin6487 That's the right perspective Sir!

[@leamanc]

Any other band would eventually give in…even The Beatles gave us the Anthology series after 30 years…but unfortunately Fagen (and Becker when he was still with us) doesn’t want to release anything that is not sonically perfect. It was a minor miracle that the demo of Everyone’s Gone to the Movies got an official release.

[@railwaystationmaster]

He ain't listening dude !

[@billdoyne5134]

Gullywater!! Not since I heard the sick intro from the Santa Monica pier in 72 have I been so torched!!! 🎉

[@spikesmundranos3308]

I was there too! 🔥

[@Ruddermeister]

​@@spikesmundranos3308lucky you😊

[@tadmailander8134]

RIP Jim Hodder

[@johnydee5843]

Sakka Jaweda definately got change of the guard and Rose Darlin vibe ...he stolllle his own melody 😄 awesome

[@jonp4846]

The guitar sound in the intro/elsewhere reminds me of early Queen. I can't place the song right now, but there's a Brian May feel there going on.

[@danstarr374]

best band ever...

[@Ruddermeister]

AMEN TO THAT! Hands down!

[@FOLLOWINGTHETRIAL]

We need an album of demos and outtakes!! I would definitely buy it!!

[@KDFRxpo2]

Out takes? What the heck! This is great stuff!

[@andyinoregon]

I know that Becker & Fagen disliked their first single release, "Dallas," but after hearing a promotional copy in the listening library at Ohio's Bowling Green State University in the fall of 1974 I made sure I bought Poco's 1975 album, "Head Over Heels," just so I could play their gorgeous version of "Dallas" whenever I wanted. At the time they were labelmates with Steely Dan at ABC/Dunhill Records.

[@ericmalitz]

Great version; can think of few bands I’d respect a SD cover from more than Poco.

[@andyinoregon]

@@ericmalitz Steely Dan's "Dallas" showcased the pedal steel guitar of Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, which made the song a perfect fit for Poco's master of that instrument, Rusty Young.

[@petermacmillan6756]

I was a kid in the 70s, and I thought Dunhill Records was part of a cigarette company. I read label notes and looked at the records that my older siblings owned. I was a weird kid, but in the 70s, lots of other kids were also weird.

[@andyinoregon]

@@petermacmillan6756 I was 22 when I first saw Steely Dan perform live on the Feb. 9, 1973 airing of NBC's rock concert show, "The Midnight Special." They soon became for me in the '70s what The Beatles had been for me in the '60s -- the best songwriters of the decade (even though almost every Becker & Fagen song examined the sordid side of life).

[@railwaystationmaster]

Only the Dan could have such an absolute gem of a vocalist in stixman Jim Hodder and spread his magnificence so thinly across their considerable repatoire , with only Midnight Cruiser and Dallas receiving the polishing cloth .

[@KDonhoops]

I swear "Stay There" is just Skunk telling Walter or Denny where to hang on a guitar chord, it's so cute. Thank you for this collection!

[@milkgrapes6420]

Damn this is rare

[@roycurtiss1630]

Always Brilliant.💯

[@elliottpower385]

Finally.. more Steely Dan Outtakes! There had to be more!

[@oscarg.5561]

Really sad that sakka didn’t make it, really amazing vibe !

[@oscarg.5561]

@@PhilUKNet Ofc it’s Walt

[@johnvalencia9927]

@@oscarg.5561 what??

[@lewisofthehoood]

To me it seems like a song you’d find on Pretzel Logic

[@michaelBryant-v7i]

great album great extras

[@teelurizzo8542]

Note how 'Megashine City' was later reharmonized w/ sus4 chords, played in half time/different groove (minus the original title words in the lyrics) and remade as/renamed 'Talking 'Bout My Home', for the Lost Gaucho Sessions and Outtakes. Thanks for sharing.

[@MrRedwing90]

One of my all-time favorite Bands. They are spectacular!

[@tylerthompson1842]

I just fell asleep during Any World.. and my mind created a weird movie montage to it lol

[@Saltfly]

This is amazing

[@TMCMR]

A lot of these outtakes are surprisingly more rock oriented at this point un their career. Great stuff Skeevy

[@kb9788]

Fagen hated rock He also hates better vocalists, which on this album he had two. David Palmer and drummer lead vocalist on Midnight Cruiser-Jimmy Hooder.

[@picturepicture6990]

So many great ideas, the nascence of much genius. How it grew!

[@teleespantoso]

This was quite a surprise! Never knew this existed! Got 3-4 cds with another complete set of different ones. Some of these tracks are really good. We need to get audio people on these old recordings for re-release. And yes, the song Dallas as well.

[@andyinoregon]

In 1975 I bought Poco's album "Head Over Heels" just so I could play "Dallas" anytime I wanted.

[@OFLHLGZ28]

Midnight cruiser was awesome! I like this version better than the record!

[@twoblacklabs904]

Shared with the Steely Dan group on FaceBook.

[@SkeevyDaniel]

Good to hear. unfortunately I've been banned from it

[@gauchoamigo1828]

@@SkeevyDaniel why lol

[@SkeevyDaniel]

@@gauchoamigo1828 They just don't like me, well Pete Fogel doesn't like me. The groups owner is friends with Pete so I was banned off of that alone.

[@twoblacklabs904]

@@SkeevyDaniel ... I’ll get you views, man - BY HOOK OR BY CROOK!

[@jonp4846]

Love the classic SD-ism at 16:06.

[@keithcontrol]

Is there a little 'King Of The World' in 'Gullywater' or am I crazy?

[@jonmcleary4192]

This is awesome! Thanks for posting it. Almost like an alternate debut album

[@static6OOO]

Thanks, Skeevy.

[@e4rth_beats551]

I appreciate you Skeevy

[@andyinoregon]

What Becker & Fagen and producer Gary Katz did from demo to finished product on "Katy Lied's" "Any World" is just stunning. Michael McDonald's voice and Michael Omartian's piano obviously had a lot to do with it, as did the dynamic drumming of Wrecking Crew veteran Hal Blaine.

[@johnvalencia9927]

Katy Lied blows compared to Can't Buy a Thrill. It's definitely their best record.

[@harveyja7336]

@@johnvalencia9927 respectfully disagree but to each his own

[@scotconnolly1188]

@@johnvalencia9927 Any of the first 7 is the correct answer. I would personally have CBaT last of the 7

[@BrianBurke06]

“Any world” sounds like it would be from that movie they did the soundtrack for.

[@vetken]

"You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It"?

[@nickgodalin6487]

In Gullywater, "I don't care about your dead souls"....a literary reference to the 19th century Russian writer Gogol and his short bleak (think Russian & it's an accurate descriptor) novella "Dead Souls"

[@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music]

*NEVER GOOGLE GOGOL*

[@svorourke7056]

Thank You!!!!

[@scottanderson8420]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing it’s always amazing to see how their songs evolved and how their creativity changed things. Some really good cuts here been listening since her do it again on the radio when it first came out. Nice to hear a few other things it was in their wheelhouse at the time.

[@paulmoran3482]

Fabulous 🎼 thanks 💕👌

[@potto5212]

Genial. Muchas gracias

[@soonerscooter3249]

Wowed once again 🖖🏼

[@jsims149]

Thanks

[@howardleban5524]

Is it me, or should carole King cover Any World? It's like I can here her voice in my head..

[@howardleban5524]

So now I am hearing Greatfull Dead in Megashine City!

[@tiluriso]

Definitely, that's because this early intro to 'Any World...' is essentially like King's 1971 hit 'I Feel The Earth Move'.

[@tamochumasronaldomachado3725]

Steely Dan é Demais !! 🤙😁

[@tiluriso]

Gullywater' could have fit right in w/ the repertoire of the unreleased album by Wicked Lester - the rather stylistically eclectic band that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley had before they went into Heavy Rock mode and founded Kiss. Two songs that have yet to resurface are 'Take My Money' and 'Hell Bound Train' , which along w/ 'Megashine City' are tunes Becker and Fagen wrote essentially as vehicles for original lead singer David Palmer. 'Megashine City' eventually found its way into the 'Lost Gaucho' set of demos, as 'Talkin' About My Home'. 7:50 -Producer Gary Katz's 'That's real good!'. 7:53 - This early intro to 'Any Word...'rather reminiscent of Carol King's "I Feel The Earth Move', which came out in 1971, roughly a year before these demos.

[@teelurizzo8542]

'Saka Jaweda...My Friend...' They later re-used that same idea in much better form as 'Rose Darling... My Friend!' 7:52 - the piano intro to this early version of 'Any World...' sounds a bit like Carole King's classic 'I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet', from her classic 1971 megahit album 'Tapestry'.

[@teelurizzo8542]

@Chris Gavito True. 'You want me here with you right to the end/ no thank you my friend/ I fear the Monkey In Your Soul'.

[@nickgodalin6487]

@Chris Gavito Also, let's not forget that Carole King was right there in the middle of the "hit-factory" known as The Brill Building. Of course, B/F haunted that scene much later, eventually landing their temporary roles as the Manson and Starkweather of Rock w/Jay&TAs, the office of whom was inside the Brill.

[@sspringNG]

Well I’m sure glad they ended up waiting to put out Any World. This version is nice, but I definitely prefer the slower version. Interesting to see the song is relatively unchanged, though

[@OFLHLGZ28]

I agree!

[@nickgodalin6487]

They must have been obsessed with "Any World..." I think there must be, like, 10 versions between pre-Dan and Katy Lied

[@PhilUKNet]

Major SD fan since 1976, but in the last few weeks KZbin has been recommending lots of outtakes and alternative versions like this that I've never heard before. "And where my feet touch ground, that's where I'll settle down." D&W obviously didn't like that lyric! BTW, is the photo an alternative album cover? The girls outside the hotel appear to be pursuing a profession that is a constant SD theme. Great stuff!

[@sagyzelekovits9742]

That picture is part of the original cover , look at the cover behing the big man theres a croped version of this photo in the backround

[@nickgodalin6487]

@@sagyzelekovits9742 hey, do you know the exact location of that photograph? USA? Europe?

[@davevanders4171]

Somewhere I have a French Steely Dan single from the 70's with that picture as the cover

[@adaml1519]

@Nick Godalin: Thought I read somewhere that it was taken in Paris.

[@svorourke7056]

...maybe add 'Everyone's Gone To The Movies' demo....;-)

[@pablograssdestroyerofass6965]

new skeevy daniel upload

[@noternunstoned]

They took out and replaced the lines ending with the line "just another scurvy brother" on the bridge in Sign in Stranger, when they played it live, and changed "Retha Franklyn" to Otis Redding on Hey Nineteen'

[@daniel0-01]

Gully water wasn't on the album why>?

[@utoobia]

Megashine contains bits of Black Friday

[@johnstallings4049]

Totally! 💘 it! ❄️🌎❄️

[@MrJacMac1968]

Sounds a little like the Grateful Dead’s US Blues

[@tiluriso]

Definitely similar tempo and shuffle groove.

[@FrankIosue_NickandKnarf]

"Sakka Joweda" has hit written all over it...wonder why they didn't include it on any album? Maybe worried about offending? I don't know......Sacagawea was a Native American woman who explored with Lewis and Clark all the way to the Pacific Coast in the early 1800's.

[@rplace8737]

I like this version of Midnight Cruiser better than the final album cut.

[@haroldbeck4351]

Was that Walter singing in the background at the start of Gullywater?

[@SkeevyDaniel]

I think he may do a bit of the backing on the vocals later on in the song but it's just Don at the beginning. No idea who's doing the high pitched nanana's though.

[@colincampbell8871]

great stuff!!! Where can I d'load????

[@SkeevyDaniel]

archive.org/details/CBATDAO

[@colincampbell8871]

@@SkeevyDaniel many thanks!!!!!!

[@railwaystationmaster]

Midnite Cuiser steals the show of course it should given it made the final cut on C.B.A.T , curiously DALLAS & SAIL THE WATERWAY which would have been seamless additions were presumably deemed inferior and still have yet to be included on cd compilations .

[@bscepter]

Dallas is such a great song.

[@graemeyetts3465]

For fun and speculation I think the song Running Child could have been sold on as a pop hit circa their pre SD period. I could easily imagine that on American pop radio around late 1960s. I'm thinking Brill building? Im probably showing my ignorance here😮

[@campsjams]

Where’d you get the source image they used for the cover?! Great find!

[@Elboy522]

Running Child is certainly a proto-Barrytown

[@Sphat90]

Possibly influenced the arrangement of the Pretzel Logic version, but Barrytown was demoed in the late 60s. I definitely think Megashine City influenced Black Friday which might be why it was so radically rewritten into Talkin' Back My Home.

[@tiluriso]

Definitely, basically same tempo, chord quality on intro piano groove/rhythm is essentially the same as in 'Barrytown'

[@joelronningen9930]

It's a diamond for me on this, wish it was complete

[@fabricio4794]

its almost another album....

[@noaswes]

Why not replace Sakka Joweda with Turn that heartbeat over again?

[@SkeevyDaniel]

Give me a demo/outtake of that song and I will.

[@noaswes]

@@SkeevyDaniel I meant why didn’t Donald and Walter replace it on CBAT. I like it better

[@johnvalencia9927]

@@noaswes Turn that Heartbeat over again is a brilliant song. Sakka is too, but they can't fit em both.

[@HarryJoiner]

21:11 - REM should have covered this

[@hdofu]

What? no Everyone's gone to the movies demo?

[@nickgodalin6487]

What's with those wild and unchained but still slightly groovy timbale runs at the end of 'Gullywater'? Far out!

[@user-bl7ko5ne9l]

thinking mans tunage

[@davedillon1372]

The really good time seeing 'Skunk' wailing at the earliest few shows make me wonder WHY S Dan bothered with that Citizen SD Box when it was basically barren except for a few seconds of intro/outro notes on the 2-3 tunes which were treated with that amount of 'attention'. If anyone's ever sourced more obscure matters to build on- or around - in song- I've never heard of such a bipedal source of amazement . 'Hey, let's do a song about Sacagawea? Everyone knows that story & it's time is due? Plus, as re N. England's First Nations, we'll surely win over the people on whose lands we stole or inherited from those who did! It'll be taken well by all sides as respectful & maybe we'll be able to grant some of the royalties to NARF in Boulder Co who stand proud before the Supreme Court & have been on the winning side even though they've argued against the same land stealing machine as sits in lopsided judgement!’ 'I dunno, it doesn't seem to have very much to say about the Four Corners or Big Mountain land grabbing areas of fact.' 'Well count it in Jimmy & we'll see what happens..'

[@perrytsiokas3419]

Not a fan of this tape. Glad they cleaned it up in the studio.

[@Ruddermeister]

Totally agree, but...isn't there always a but?....it's still great to stumble across such outtakes.

[@spactick]

man those are some fine chicks up there on the street...........meow

[@TheNaturalust]

Pretty decent musicians…