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Friday, May 9, 2014

Friday Night Tunes

Some time in the past couple of years, I stumbled across a guy on YouTube called Tone Doctor (tonedr), with lessons for various songs.  During my first guitar course, like, oh, everyone who has ever learned barre chords, I needed to do lots of practice to get this down.  So I found a song I could tolerate listening to over and over and that used a lot of fifth and sixth string barre chords, "Sister Golden Hair" by America, and ToneDr's (Dale's) tutorial.  Since then, I've subscribed to his channel and kept up with him.

Some time ago, he started putting up songs from an "experimental" studio band he had joined called the Lexington Lab Band.  Two weeks ago, they started putting up covers of Steely Dan songs from the late 70s.  They planned to cover five songs from the "Golden Age" of Steely Dan, including what's probably my favorite SD song.  Allow me to share this masterful cover.
And go listen to some more.

5 comments:

  1. I'm listening to Aja right now, good stuff. They're one of the few bands that warrants their own subdirectory in my music bookmarks. Here are a few I'll pass along.

    http://www.steelydan.com/lyrics.html

    Aja
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWfQTY_K-_o&feature=related

    Do it again (1973 Midnight Special)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgYuLsudaJQ

    Oh, this has already gotten old. Here is the list of songs instead. Besides, the songs drop off YouTube for whatever reasons so URLs rot.

    Aja, Do it again, Hey nineteen, Rikki don't lose that number, Reeling in the years, Babylon sisters, ... Well, that's just what comes to mind; lots of other good stuff.

    Musician goodies:

    Donald Fagen talks about JOSIE
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWJ11H4TdbI&feature=related
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V65t4GlgOh8&NR=1

    Donald Fagen talks about PEG
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP_2r9zbaIY
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0UVxZGRwC4

    Peg - Steely Dan - The Making Of
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waIBA6_0GQc

    Steely Dan - Aja
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xip4IArEMhQ&ob=av3n

    Poke around out there, lots of their whole albums end up available altho obviously not as good audio quality as the commercial product.


    If I might suggest a favorite album: Yessongs. Also, the band Indigo Girls despite their insane anti-self-defense stance. Stopped buying them when they had a anti-gun rant on the liner notes.

    Oh, did I mention Steve Howe of Yes is quite the player?

    One more, with a sneak:
    Steve Howe Annie Haslam Turn of century Yes tribute
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XqGmz8_Pis&feature=related

    Now the sneak: Annie Haslam formerly of the band Renaissance. Couple of tunes: Ashes are burning, Kiev, Sounds of the sea, Ocean gypsy.

    Thanks for sharing the music. Also, cool tissue engineering post.

    73, Jim

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  2. That is a great cover. Just like off the album. But it's too much like the album track. Where's the creative solos that mark Steely Dan's live sets?

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  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om2Ntk__MPU

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  4. A rich field of comments. First off, for those reluctant to load unknown links, Bill Anderson's link it to "somdood" playing Jeff Beck's "You Know What I Mean", and he does an excellent reproduction of it.

    And thanks, Jim, for links to lots of good Steely Dan stuff. Think of this: supposedly Donald Fagen was walking across campus of his college and heard someone practicing guitar who really impressed him. It was, of course, Walter Becker. Within hours they started down the road that led to Steely Dan.

    Out of all the colleges in all the world, what are the chances the two of them end up on the same campus at the same time? One their original band members, the drummer? Chevy Chase. Bard College (in Annandale) was a big influence in their lives, as college tends to be for people. Supposedly, Donald Fagen's infatuation with the wife of one of his professors led to "Rikki Don't Lose That Number"

    They're touring again this year. Both Becker and Fagen perform as solo headliners as well.

    Memories

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  5. Aye, sorry, should have explained more, was late, just cool to see people dissecting and firing up these songs from that time, and Steely Dan can be mighty tough to reverse-engineer.

    I'm about two miles from Annandale as I sit at my keyboard right now.

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