More of the Music of Donald Fagen
More of the Music of Steely Dan
We just finished a big shootout for Donald Fagen’s solo effort from 1982 (just two years after Gaucho and the end of Steely Dan) and we gotta tell you, there are a lot of weak sounding copies out there. We should know; we played them.
Robert Ludwig cut all the originals we played. Are you going to tell me that every copy with RL in the dead wax sounds the same as every other copy with those initials? The question answers itself.
What to Listen For
The upper mids on certain tracks of both sides have a tendency to be brighter than we would have liked.
Ruby Baby on side one can be that way, and the title track on side two has some of the wannabe hit single radio EQ that makes it less likely to please, so to speak.
Other records with a tendency to have boosted upper mids can be found here.
On a good copy the first track of each side should be all you need to hear.
Here are a couple of hundred other titles with specific advice on what to listen for on some of the albums we’ve played in shootouts. If you know how to do shootouts, you know how to find good sounding records.
Side One
I.G.Y.
Green Flower Street
Ruby Baby
Maxine
Side Two
New Frontier
The Nightfly
The Goodbye Look
Walk Between Raindrops
Further Reading