Author Topic: Donald Fagen Band Tour '06 (Read 513 times)

kmh364 · « **Reply #15 on:** March 12, 2006, 02:34:20 PM »

Both CD and DVD-A/CD are shipping this week (3/14, I think). They have been available for pre-order for sometime here in the States. Not sure about Europe, though.

While both 2vN and EMG are very respectable albums, I've just never really warmed-up to them. Maybe it's because I've heard a bunch of those songs live one too many times...don't know what it is. Morph got to me on first listen, unlike Kamakiriad which took me a long time to appreciate. Maybe the last two Dan albums just need more time on the iPod in order for me to appreciate 'em. I haven't a clue why, LOL! Just my $0.02.

(Message edited by kmh364 on March 12, 2006)

kmh364 · « **Reply #16 on:** March 14, 2006, 05:13:12 AM »

OK, having just been completed, I can now die...Rolling Stone gave the new DF album three-and-a-half stars in the latest issue!!! They also named What I Do as one of the stand-out tracks of all the reviews done that particular issue! Whoopee! Now Donald can die also...having just been justified by RS, LOL!

In a nut shell, they claim Donald's re-discovered the hook that's apparently been missing from SD stuff for a long time, at least since DF and WB got back together in the '90's. Supposedly, What I Do is a stand-out cut because DF has apparently realized that his pop sensibilities have remained dormant for far too long, at least since Rikki Don't Lose That Number. He put the pop back into his jazz, Ladies and Gents!

Wow! Grandpa was right! You really do learn something new each and every day! LOL!

(Message edited by kmh364 on March 14, 2006)

David Houck · « **Reply #17 on:** March 14, 2006, 06:14:14 AM »

I haven't seen a Rolling Stone in a very long time. I'm guessing it's not the same magazine it was in the '70s.

lbpesq · « **Reply #18 on:** March 14, 2006, 07:12:11 AM »

Dave:

I'm guessing you and I aren't the same as we were in the 70's either. LOL

Bill, tgo

kmh364 · « **Reply #19 on:** March 14, 2006, 07:46:55 AM »

Dave and Bill:

Right on both counts, LOL! Me too, I must confess.

I got the RS subscription as a gift...can't remember what for...maybe because I dumped a load at the Dead's or Garcia's store...can't be positive. No, it's not your father's RS. It used to be a great mag back in the day. I wouldn't voluntarily pay for it, discount or not.

They review everything that is commercially released. The DF and new Gilmour CD's will probably be the only new music releases I'll buy this year. DF faired better than DG...he needs someone to force him from his formulaic complacency, or similar words to that effect according to RS, at least.

lbpesq · « **Reply #20 on:** March 14, 2006, 09:25:08 AM »

I recently started receiving a subscription to RS that I didn't order. The label is addressed to me, then The Fillmore, then my address. I assume it was some perk for buying Fillmore tickets. Sounds like RS may be scrambling these days. It sure has changed. I basically stopped reading RS years ago when they officially declared The Clash as the World's Greatest R&R Band. As for the issues I started receiving a couple of months ago, there is so little in there I'm interested in that I can read the whole mag in less than 10 minutes. It ain't your father's RS!

Bill, tgo

kmh364 · « **Reply #21 on:** March 14, 2006, 09:39:31 AM »

Ed Zachary, er, um, exactly! You may be right...I may have gotten it for buying concert tix as I am wont to do quite often these days. I got a Relix subscription for buying something Dead related. I'd put Relix ahead of RS, but in the same category as not your Father's.... It also was better back in the day.

You're right about the content of RS...so little is of interest to me. Today's music has little, if anything at all, to say to me. My music purchases this year have amounted to a bunch of Dick' Picks, DF's & DG's new solo stuff, and essential Jazz (1958's Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane being the most recent).

I must be getting old!

Cheers,

Kevin

olieoliver · « **Reply #22 on:** March 14, 2006, 09:43:55 AM »

The Clash... WORLDS GREATEST R & R band huh?
Well WHO do they tink their kiddin'. ROLLING STONE(s) mag. declared this huh? My buddy that works as an AEROSMITH at Volkswagon designing aerodynamic cars like the BEATLES will be greatly dissapointed in this declaration. I can hear him now (he stutters a bit), 'C..C..R'... you sure they said that..... Well now I've heard everything from A to ZZ TOP...

(Message edited by olieoliver on March 14, 2006)

kmh364 · « **Reply #23 on:** March 14, 2006, 10:39:31 AM »

D*mn! Look at these two lucky stiffs! Songstresses Carolyn Leonhart and Cindy Mizelle from SD/DF made an appearance at the 5-Star pre-show party for Fagen show at the Beacon Theatre in NYC!

I KNEW I shoulda gone to that show! LOL!

kmh364 · « **Reply #24 on:** March 19, 2006, 05:41:42 AM »

FWIW, I just got the DVD entitled Two Against Nature Steely Dan's Plush TV Jazz-Rock Party In Sensuous Surround Sound from 2000.

I had avoided buying it in the past because of mixed-reviews and the $20 price tag. If you love SD, it's worth the price.

The Pro's:

It's SD! Great musicianship with a good mix of tunes. Of course, based on the title, you can't avoid the inclusion of five 2vN songs (i.e., Cousin Dupree, Janie Runaway, Gaslighting Abbie, Jack Of Speed & What A Shame About Me). You do also get great SD tracks from the past (i.e., green Earings, Bad Sneakers, Joisie, FM, Black Friday, Babylon Sisters, Kid Charlemagne, Peg & Pretzel Logic);

Good sound quality and mostly decent pic quality (see below) make this one a keeper;

Wacko interviews with DF and WB along with some of the band....it's a faux ALL-ACCESS cable TV show format...this can be a con if you have no patience for the Dan's dry humor.

The Con's:

The editing and jostling camera work is MADDENING. Weird camera angles, cameras on the non-soloing player during solo's, shaking/darting/blurry cameras, etc. You get the picture;

Annoying NYC crowd street interviews in B&W or Night Vision, LOL! The Couple with the woman who states the SD tune Year OF The Cat (Al Stewart) was the one that did it for her only to get corrected by her sig. other was comical, LOL!;

Price is a bit high for about an hours worth of vid;

TOO many solo's by Walter Becker. Donald had stated in the past that Walter had gotten his confidence up about his playing after the reunion, so they forgoed the second studio guitarist in favor of WB. The result is that he went from being the background partner and sometimes bass player to a front man who doesn't take a break. He plays constantly...whether there's a space in the music for a solo or not. It gets annoying because he has one tone, albeit a decent one with his custom Sadowsky Super-Strat and Bogner head/cab, and his style doesn't vary.

IMHO, they should have let Jon Herrington play more...he's a MUCH better player. He realizes that you don't have to play 3mins. worth of solo's in a 5min. tune, LOL!

The Bottom Line:

Overall, it's a good vid and is therefore recommended, if you're a Dan Fan. I don't know if this is the one to do it if you're trying to convert the non-faithful. Unfortunately, there's little to no SD vid available (The Making Of AJA is the only other I'm aware of), so this one may have to do.

We need some SD concert vid badly. I can't understand why they're not documenting the SD (and now DF) tours...they would definitely sell if they did. Who knows how much longer these guys will be around now that they're hovering around 60 and Donald is morbidly writing about mortality and death,. They could very well decide to do the hiatus thing again at any time, this time probably for good.

Cheers,

Kevin

lowlife · « **Reply #25 on:** March 19, 2006, 06:40:42 AM »

I bought the same DVD and yes, it was a bit expensive, but IMHO well worth it for the hour or so of entertainment, which I've probably viewed at least 20 times already. Kevin, you're so right about the Dan's dry humor, like the way DF introduces Cousin Dupree... A little country narative... (LOL)
And I second your thought about there not being enough SD concert footage.

Ellery (Lowlife)

bigredbass · « **Reply #26 on:** March 19, 2006, 10:56:12 AM »

I've always wondered what current SD would be like IF DF/WB would submit to an outside producer. They evidently severed the relationship with Gary Katz, and would certainly seem to NOT need one . . but it would be interesting.

I remember Rolling Stone back in the quarterfold days with Ralph Gleason, etc., and Mark-Almond LPs as a subscription reward. Those were the days . . . I vividly remember the Nixon/McGovern coverage. When I got the issues with Fear and Loathing and read Thompson's prose, I wondered if I had stumbled into something I could not get out of.

People who did not live through the 60s just have no idea how the world flipped upside-down and ran backwards at times.

J o e y

bassdr · « **Reply #27 on:** March 19, 2006, 12:03:48 PM »

Ah-ha, I thought so- Joey I graduated from High school in 1969 and Ann Arbor is the home of SDS and the Weather Underground. Those who don't know what I'm talking about may need to review 60's and early 70's history. The times they were a-changin. Or, so we thought. Local bands were MC5, UP, The Stooges, Brownsville Station, The Rationals and of course the Elastic Band (starring me on bass)It was a great place to be and play music until the hated disco craze hit and live music was passe- another story, another time. Michael

kmh364 · « **Reply #28 on:** March 20, 2006, 11:16:24 AM »

Yeah, Walt and Don weren't too content to march to the beat of anyone else's drum, so now they have the luxury of being able to co-produce one another.

It was a different time, a different world and a different Rolling Stone. The sad part is that I don't think any of the above has changed for the better.

bigredbass · « **Reply #29 on:** March 21, 2006, 01:48:43 PM »

BassDr

AnnArbor/60s . . . good golly Miss Molly, did you EVER get to see Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels in that/their heyday? If you did, was it the steamroller I'd always imagined?

J o e y