STEELY DAN : MEMPHIS BLUES AGAIN

 

  1. Bodhisattva

  2. Boston Rag

  3. Do It Again

  4. Brooklyn (owes the charmer under me)

  5. King Of The World

  6. Funky Scare Tactic Orchestra Blues

  7. Rikki, Don't lose That Number

  8. Pretzel Logic

  9. Introductions

  10. My Old School

  11. Dirty Work

  12. Reelin' In The Years

  13. Show Biz Kids

  14. This All Too Mobile Home

Label : Chance Records

Time : 75:17

Venue : Ellis Auditorium, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Date : April 30th, 1974

Quality : Soundboard recording (A-)

Review : A good, but not excellent soundboard recording of a 1974 Steely Dan concert in Memphis. Track 15 East St. Louis Toodle-oo is mentioned on the artwork, but not on the disc.

Review (BB Chronicles) : More Steely Dan! After featuring some of the later shows, time to go back once again to the original rock band version of the group in the early '70's, and their great 1974 tour. Here is another one of the classic soundboard recordings from that tour. This tour comes right on the heels of recording their 3rd album, Pretzel Logic (one of my favorites), and thus features some 'new' songs from that album, as well as several from my personal favorite, their previous, Countdown to Ecstasy. This was their last tour as a working rock band, before Becker & Fagen stopped touring, dissolved the rest of the band, and retreated to the studio to produce flawless jazz-rock records using various guests and session musicians. But here for the 1974 tour they had a killer lineup, with ace dual guitarists Denny Dias and Jeff Baxter, dual drummers (Jeff Porcaro and Jim Hodder, and even dual keyboard/vocalists (Fagen and Michael McDonald). The energy and performances at these shows are just fantastic. Each of these shows are great (and fortunately a number of hi-quality recordings from this tour are available), showing a much harder rockin' Dan than any of the post-reunion ensembles, with great guitar, keyboard, and drumming work throughout - vocals/harmonies are also quite strong as well, with the backing vocals of velvet-throated McDonald and percussionist Royce Jones. The only drawback is the setlist for all these shows was virtually the same (shuffling 'Any Major Dude' with 'Brooklyn' for some shows seems to be the only variant), so it is the same show each time, but even still, hearing multiple performances of this classic tour is a must. Although the sound from the original recording of this show was already very good, I am featuring here the Tooleman Remastered version of the show, as it does noticeably improve the overall sound quality and gives some extra punch to bass, drums, and vocals.So, if you don't have this already, check out some more classic Steely Dan.