Steely Dan Remasters

I bought the standard remastered version of Gaucho and compared to the original gaucho CD it was a revelation - just so much better sounding.

Cheers
Adrian

Jack;

I'm a 'Dan Fan' and have vinyl and CD copies of virtually all the albums, from varying sources.

Japanese made CD's are the best sounding, without doubt. Next come the individual remastered CD's made in the States.

A poor third comes the UK/EU made crap.

If you want to pay sensible money for 'Dan' CD's that sound good; I'd suggest my regular USA on-line supplier - Djangos.

They're currently offering free shipping worldwide, on orders over $25. Technically; if the value of goods exceeds £18, you can get clobbered for import duties and VAT, by the postie.

But.......... Djangos tend to state a somewhat reduced value of goods on the air-mail package - so XS charges are not normally invoked. I'd suggest no more than 4 CD's per separate order.

I've used Djangos (and Tower USA) for years now, for all my CD's of USA artistes. The difference in sound quality compared to the EU made equivalent has to be heard to be believed, on many examples.

Several of my Hi-Fi buddies get their CD's from the States as well. Even if you pay shipping charges; the price ends up about the same as buying the disc in the shops here; but......... it sounds better.

John.

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[QUOTE]Originally posted by J.N.:
Jack;
If you want to pay sensible money for 'Dan' CD's that sound good; I'd suggest my regular USA on-line supplier - Djangos.
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Thanks for the tip, I've had a look and think I'll be spending a few quid. BTW, how do you rate the quality of the 'Citizen Steely Dan' box set (if you've heard it)

J.N

Thanks for the advice,I'll also check Djangos out. Do you have any experience of the gold disk master recordings from Mobile Fidelity etc, I just wondered whether they were worth the extra outlay compared to the Japanese versions? The Aja master appears to be selling at approx. £80, can it really be that much better? I have no experience of the master recording disks but am curious.

Malky...

The "Citizen" box set is a copy of all the albums upto and including Gaucho with a couple of extra tracks thrown in. However, these disks are the originals not remastered, therefore if you're primary objective is sound quality you may be better taking J.N.'s advice and getting the Japanese copies of each album.

Jack

I have the 'Citizen' box set, and it is an excellent chronological journey from 'Thrill' onwards (with a couple of extra gems).

However; the sound quality is not as good as the individually remastered albums, made in the States.

John.

I can only compare regular vinyl, original US CDs and remastered US CDs (I have some of each). I would rate them in terms of quality as follows: best - remastered US CDs; second - regular vinyl; and third - original US CDs.

The remasterings are very, very good. However, in my opinion, the original Steely Dan CDs are of a pretty high quality and sound better than most "regular" rock CDs. Thus, if you are looking to pick up Steely Dan for the first time, go for the recent remasters. If you already own vinyl and/or the original CDs, the remasters are worth picking up, in my opinion, only if you really like Steely Dan (or want a great recording to show off your kit!). Hope this helps.

Mike

Thanks guys. I'll start with the Japanese remaster of Pretzel Logic and take it from there. I already own three copies of Can't Buy A Thrill, I guess a fourth will be following shortly!

Jack

Jack,

I would avoid the MFSL discs if I were you. If they are anything like the vinyl they tend to have an overblown bass and tinkly treble. Which is a shame because the vinyl was pressed on very good quality virgin vinyl, but the remastering process they use tends to give their records a particular house sound. All of the ones I have all sound the same.

Colin

FYI

The Citizen Steely Dan Box set was released in 1993, and contains remasters by Glen Meadows of the original 7 CDs, (plus a few extra tracks). These 7 were subsequently re-remastered by Mike Nichols and released in 2000, and additionally the excellent 2 disc 'Best of' called 'Showbiz Kids'.

I agree with JN that the US versions are superior to the European ones, and I suspect that the Japanese versions (from my experience) have the edge on the US Discs.

I do have the US SACD (Hybrid - Surround + Stereo) version of Gaucho and that is very good indeed on my faithful CDX2.

Regards
Geoff

Geoff,

Thanks for the update on the "Citizen" box set, I hadn't realised these disks had been remastered. I understand the intro on "Rikki" is missing on some releases of the box set, possibly the originals?

Jack

Jack;

That rung a bell; so I've just checked, and the kettle drums(?) that form the intro to 'Rikki' are present on the latest CD remaster of Pretzel Logic (mine is Japanese).

The drum intro is missing on the 'Citizen' box set version of 'Rikki'.

As ever with 'The Dan' - the lyrics are somewhat enigmatic. Some say it was a dig at Rick Derringer who was playing guitar for another band, without telling Becker and Fagen.

Others say that it's about a girl they met at college.

You gotta have 'Countdown to Ecstasy' and 'Can't Buy a Thrill' as well of course. Both albums are utterly sublime.

John.

John,

As you say I think Mr.Becker and Mr. Fagen liked to wind the media up slightly about the meaning of their songs. I'd heard both about "Rikki" but understood it to be about the girl from college rather than Rick Derringer.

I've been off work this week so routing through all my old vinyl. All the early Dan stuff is on vinyl, indeed I also have a copy of the "Greatest Hits" on vinyl. I decided to give it a spin only to find one of the records is missing!! No idea where it's gone to, anyway the one with "Here At The Western World" is still there.

I am now waiting for my Japanese import to arrive, I'll decide then whether to replace the rest of the old vinyl, it is a bit worn now.

I noticed on Andy Metzger's site that a third Donald Fagen album is being worked on, can't wait (might be a long one).

Cheers

Jack

You are clearly a 'Dan' afficianado Jack. Do you have the spledidly titled 'Eleven Tracks Of Whack' by Walter Becker?

My CD copy has 12 tracks

John.

Mine too, another wind up??

I really like 11 Tracks Of Whack, it's not as slick as Fagen's (or shall I say Steely Dan's) Kamakiriad but still most enjoyable.

With most bands you can define your favourite album, this would be most difficult with the Dan.

Jack

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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jack:
With most bands you can define your favourite album, this would be most difficult with the Dan.
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Not really. For example, my favourite Dan album is'Can't buy a thrill'or maybe 'Pretzel Logic'
come to think of it 'Countdown to Ecstasy'isn't bad, Katy Lied is pretty good, 'Royal Scam' is superb or maybe my number one is 'Aja'.
Oh yeah, see what you mean.
Love the Nightfly, thought Kamakiriad was mediocre. Dont like 'Two against Nature', thought it sounds like Dan on autocruise. And, sorry, thought '11 tracks' was really awful.

I've been a Dan fan since the early days, when I used to listen to Radio Luxembourg as it faded in and out on my radio (I still lived in the UK then) The thing I liked about them was that each album was always different than the last, and they always had wonderful musicians, especially the guitarists such as Larry Carlton. I saw Larry Carlton a couple of years ago here in the States at a jazz festival playing with the group Fourplay and he was astounding, although his solo stuff stuff tends to be very bland. For me their best "guitar" album was The Royal Scam. Aja for me was very enjoyable but a lot more sophisticated. I also enjoyed the Nightfly, I find Kamakiriad very patchy, and Two Against Nature is an album which has taken a long time to grow on me. Becker and Fagen are a couple of characters for sure. I've seen them live a couple of times here in the US. I never thought I would ever see them perform live, missed them in '74 when the tour broke up, but saw them in '96 in the UK, then in the US in 2000 and twice in 2003.

Colin

I find the remastered Dan albums very "digitalised" I dont really like them at all in terms of sound quality.

I find the nightfly much better as it hasnt been tampered with.

I will look forward to the new fagen album.

I think it was Pretzel Logic when we first saw the major departure from a traditional band set up and a move to the use of session musicians. The list seems to go on and on. One of the MP3s on Andy Metzger's site has a live version of "Sign In Stranger" with Pat Methany playing (another great musician).

Agree, some great guitar work on Royal Scam. Aja's not one of the first Dan albums I reach for but it did mark a change, "sophisticated" is a good word, still a great album.

Saw them myself in 96 in the UK but missed the later tour, do you think we will ever see another European tour (I doubt it)?

Interesting comments about the remastered sound, I'll let you know what the Japanese import sounds like when it arrives.

Cheers