Steely Mail 3/28/96

This page is dedicated to e-mail received from interested readers of the SD web page, and will include responses from Donald and/or Walter or, occasionally, other relevant individuals who may have information or opinions bearing on readers' questions. Name and e-mail address may be withheld on request.

From Iain Cummings, Leeds, England

Tell Don+Walt to get their collective ass over here. Preferably this millenium. Our Queen will sponser the tour. If she doesn't we'll get rid of her.

Dear Iain: Yes oh yes it is our long cherished dream as well for Steely Dan to be appearing in your neighborhood in the not too distant future. We cheerfully accept your gracious offer of royal support. And there can be no doubt that if, for some reason, the current queen won't come across with the readies, any number of replacement queens are available throughout your mighty British Isles, eager to be pressed into service. Probably most are down in London rather than up in your neck of the woods. Toodles

Dear Mr. Becker and Mr. Fagan, My father introduced me to your music as he has every original ABC/Dunhill record that you released, excluding Pretzel Logic and Katy Lied. As a child, I grew up listening to the sounds of my father's favorite tracks "Brooklyn" off of Can't Buy A Thrill and "Don't Take Me Alive" off of The Royal Scam. In fact, he was introduced to your band at a show he clearly remembers. At the time, he was dating my mother and my father said he saw your band play around the time of the release of Can't Buy A Thrill at a bar across the street from Fenway Park in Boston, now called the Cask and Flagon. Every time we go to see a Sox game, I am reminded of the legendary show that my mother and father saw and still talk about to this day. I personally saw you guys play at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in the summer of 1993 and it is an experience I will treasure forever, especially the smooth sounds of "Deacon Blues" drifting through the summer air. Last Christmas, I recieved Citizen Steely Dan, The Nightfly, Kamakiriad, Live At The Beacon by The New York Rock And Soul Revue and a used CD copy of the Bright Lights, Big City soundtrack, all of which I have with me at school right now. I bought 11 Tracks Of Whack this summer and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the songs since I wasn't too impressed with tracks such as the "Fall Of '92" at the SPAC concert. Anyway, I hope all is well with you two and I wish you continued success. Hopefully I will hear back from you guys soon!

Sincerely,
John Naioti

Dear John,
I am very sorry to hear that you were not impressed with "Fall of 92" when you heard it in Saratoga. Maybe you are some kind of right-winger and didn't cotton to the reference to "George Bush and those Nazis down in Washington D.C." Or maybe you don't like slow songs. Maybe you're just picky like your dad, who took a pass on "Pretzel Logic" and "Katy Lied". Anyway it is good to know that you are back in the fold. Is it possible that the club in question was called "Oliver's" at the time? If so I have a tape of the gig your folks saw - assuming we only played one night there. I'll see if it's possible to post an audiofile of one of the tunes somewhere here ...but until I can get that one together, let me say thanks to you and your family for being such devoted fans.

P.S. Since you mentioned Fenway Park - I have always wondered how come there were far fewer black players on the Red Sox and the Celtics than on all the other teams in the same leagues. Is that just a coincidence or what?

From: rmackenznospam@nospamdirect.ca (Robert MacKenzie)
To: STEELY DAN
Date: 95-11-27 03:13:17 EST

I look forward to the completion of this web site. It is too bad the Internet was not available years back when Mr. Fagan and Mr. Becker and company were coming into their own as one of America's (if not the world's) best music groups. The accessibilty of the Internet could have made Steely Dan even that much more popular! But, hey, they haven't done too badly without the 'Net!

Good luck, and keep up the good work.

Forwarded message:
Subj: Future Steely Dan recordings
Date: 95-11-27 13:37:06 EST
From: SDuraybito
To: STEELY DAN
In Issue 99 of The Abso!ute Sound magazine, I surveyed Steely Dan's superbly-recorded LPs from the 1970s. In each case, the LPs outperform the CD re-issues in terms of sonic quality with a sense of "you-are-there" that CDs can't match.

On behalf of audio enthusiasts and Steely Dan lovers around the world, I urge you to record subsequent Steely Dan works all-analogue (preferably through tube mastering decks) and to issue coincident LP versions of all releases.

Thanks for your time,

Siegfried P. Duray-Bito

Dear Siegfried:
Yeah, and maybe we should write the lyrics with a quill pen on parchment?

Thanks for your lavish praise and your no-doubt scholarly appraisal of our recorded ouvre. Think we'll pass on the "all-analogue (preferably through tube mastering decks)" deal. MCA is interested in rereleasing some of our catalog on vinyl, and this may indeed happen soon. I'll hang on to my CD's - just the thought of that flimsy little phono stylus twitching along in that scratchy plastic groove makes my fillings hurt.

By the way Absolute Sound is, IMHO, one nutty mag. Fads, feuds, crackpot tweeks, purple prose-laden gear reviews - it's all there. Although I am not familiar with your work specifically, I salute you for the great work you are doing on behalf of "golden ear" audiophiles and followers of the "high end". If there's any coupons left after you shell out for those x-thousand dollar speaker cables, you might want to consider buying yourself a life.

Forwarded message:
From: warpednospam@nospamsirius.com (Warren Pederson)
To: STEELY DAN
Date: 95-11-21 00:13:21 EST
Life has meaning again!

I can definitely say that you're on to something big here with the Steely Dan site. Hopefully those "under construction" notices will be replaced with something more constructive later. Thanks for "Alive in America," plus Warren Zevon and all those other great Giant artists who escape me at the moment.

And go ahead and post my address. I have nothing to hide!

Cheers,
Warren Pederson

Dear Warren: You forgot Thomas Dolby, Jim Carroll, and Walter Becker.