Added: 4 years ago
From: carlospc
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  • Love the dan totally awesome

  • HAPPY CHRISTMASKAH

  • i search the world, and i been in the pittsburgh zoo, and through my travels, my thoughts unravel , i belive it to be true, STEELY DAN LIVE is worth the ticket

  • Spectacular song by world class musicians! Cornelius Bumpus on sax... RIP

  • The best band too ever take to the stage.

  • I remember how this song blew me away when I first heard it. CLASSIC DAN progressions... UGLY!!!!!! "Don't Take Me Alive" HAS to be the BADDEST intro solo EVER!!!!!!!!!!!

  • I like it alot! great musicians, great music!!

  • hey superfishman22 me to and I just brought the cd today and Im getting the actual album for the cover alone good album

  • Perfect performance of my favourite from that album.

  • My second favorite song.  That "Royal Scam" album is the BEST!!!!! That's my favorite album. Damn, those guys are geniuses!

  • Walter fizzles out a little at the end of his solo...great performance tho..

  • When I teach about the mesolithic era to my sixth graders, I play this song for them.

    Great song.

  • YEAHHHHHHHHH THE GOOD OLD DAYS.............MIRACULOUS AND CURATIVE SONG

  • This song should have been used for the 70's tv show, "The Rockford Files" The show would probably still be on. Those Hollywood knumbskulls always miss the mark, right?

  • Although they never reached the #`1 spot on the charts in the 20th Century, it was because the younger generation never understood music, but loved the Bee Gees..., but Steely Dan is also in the Rock & Roll Hall Fame.

  • the white girl is flat

  • @mainecoon1000: What the *&^% does that have to do with her being a back up singer? And while we're at it, why does she have to be 'the white girl?" If you've got to stoop to that level, why didn't you call her the "girl in the middle?" I bet you sit and watch "family guy" clips all day. Grow up.

  • can i just say "on time"

  • this brings back so many memories as a kid growing up in the 70's & listening to the royal scam when my older bro got it. it blew everyone away then & it still does. this is my favourite song. too good!

  • I get goosebumps every time I hear this song, even on repeat.

  • Maybe there best song.....next to "Sign in Stranger" LOL, my son is 16 and this is his favorite song, and I've already taken him to a "Dan" concert.

  • Such a beautiful song and a history lesson too. Love it!

  • I have a 25 year old son and 21 year old twin daughters---and they told me they want me to take them to a Steely Dan concert. I have officially succeeded as a parent !!

  • Beautiful track . . . !

  • I never get tired of this song. I don't know how many hundreds of times i've listened to it and still here i am listening more!

  • Moving and brings back memories!

  • kids this what real musicians sound like, they actually play notes and know what a Gmaj9 is and how to play, of course you would never know that, we had great musics in the day, Steely Dan, Doobies, Led Zep, Yes, ELP, Allman Brothers, Santana, and the list goes on and on, What ta hell happened to music!!!!!

  • Its not that they are so great, its just that there's not much else out there to listen.

    There's better music out there somewhere, but it hasn't been invented yet.

  • I dig the way they were teaching their own the truth in 1970.

  • Oh shit they got Bumpus! Nice..and Carlock. Its a throw down.....

  • @PlymouthVT I just noticed that very cool.

  • Just wonderful - and especially poignant to myself on a personal level. I was fortunate to go through the Caves of Altamira and see those fantastic ancient paintings before they closed it off to the public.

  • My absolute favorite song of all time... no one does it like Don and Walt!

  • The beauty of this tune is that it's all for US.....The Dan Fans. If you are not a fan, you've never heard this masterpiece......and it's their loss, and our gain!

  • At 0:47 they had already DESTROYED any other pop artist ever. Imagine what comes after... THAT´S PERFECTION!

    That´s The Dan!

  • At 0:47 they had already DESTROYED any other pop artist ever.

    That´s The Dan!

  • powerful sax

  • That's it... I´m gettin´ high to this right now!

  • song never makes the 'Best of" albums but John Denver can sing it on the acadamys -so its cool. like all Steelys - great track!

  • @plinden

    that's what idiots lie you were saying 20 years ago!

  • @plinden What?! Lady Gaga is a second-rate, over-produced, prefab, no-talent hack! Shelf-life, TWO years, maybe! And even IF the Dan isn't being talked about five years from now, they've still been crushin' the smoothest sh*t in the galaxy for longer than f*ckin' Gaga's been alive. Thirty plus years, and still killin' it!

  • @plinden Nice try, Lady Gaga...

  • 357dubs - yes there's gas in the car.

  • great!

  • The entire album is a lyrical masterpiece. "Is there gas in the car?"

  • I've loved this song since I first heard it. Loved Steely Dan since I was 3 or 4 and (as my mother tells me) used to go around the house singing their stuff. She also told me that this song was the perfect match for me. Go figure... guess she was right. -signed, soon to graduate with a degree in history and another in religious studies

  • Great stuff!

  • The Royal Scam..my favorite SD album...

  • I have been a fan since I first heard them in the early 70s still gives me chills to hear any song they do.

  • Perfection!!  Donald Fagen is an underrated musical genius...........

  • R.I.P Mr. Bumpus....

  • Actually, nothing touches their studio versions, but it's great to see them play "LIVE", nonetheless!!!

  • i was suppose to be there :-( but thanks for posting this!:-)

  • Was this on "Can't Buy A Thrill"?

  • The Dan just get better with age

  • awesome, I'm just not to happy with the backup singers, vocals are a little weak and off tune here and there

  • great song!!!

  • y is donald wearing different clothes in some of these songs even though its the same concert?

  • fagen and becker are not human. they're incredible music robots from mars. and they rock.

  • Is this song about Salvadore Dali?

  • Many of their tunes bring me back to summer nights memories during the college years.

  • Whenever I listen to this disc, I replay this song 5 or 6 times every time. Almost perfect.

  • Dude, I'm with you!

  • @SuperFishman22  Walt Weiskopf on sax.

  • my favorite song by them

  • look how hot that chick is at 1;05

  • @wolp1 yep,carolyn leonhart,married and childr,someone is a very lucky man!

  • The Perri version is AWESOME! It's hard to find tho! :)

  • Has anybody heard the vocal group Perri and their version of this song?

  • This stuff is so great. It use to be that a Steely Dan sighting was a rarity. They are part of my soul.

  • The studio version is maybe their most "perfect' song. The sax solo is just flat out indcredible as is the rest of the horns chart

  • I'm with you there

  • @Sunflower0122Z Wow Cornelious Bumpus Excellent. I've been a fan also forever, 1972 until now. I was in the 9th grade when I heard reeling in the years. I was the only person of color at my school listening to Steely Dan. The Royal Scam is my Fav!!!!!

  • @FanOfSteelydan 7th grade for me - hooked for life.

    seek beauty ....

  • @artbychristine Amen... gorgeous jazz rock fusion. not one Steely Dan song I'm not in love with. 

  • @Sunflower0122Z yeah that was a sick sax solo.

  • @Sunflower0122Z yeah really! i think you hit the nail on the head that is a perfect song. Mind blowing

  • @Sunflower0122Z Indeed, Paul simon's "My old Town" has some kind of similar horn flavour attached to it . . .

  • @Sunflower0122Z I agree along with Deacon Blues, the Caves of Altamira are among the best two of SD archetypal tunes.

  • carlospc, thanks a lot for posting these awesome videos.

  • wow.....this just sent me down a long highway, very nice.

  • On the stone an ancient hand In a faded yellow-green Made alive a worldly wonder Often told but never seen Now and ever bound to labor On the sea and in the sky Every man and beast appeared A friend as real as I CHORUS: Before the fall when they wrote it on the wall When there wasn't even any Hollywood They heard the call And they wrote it on the wall For you and me we understood
  • God I love this tune...just superb.

  • I was at that Memphis show at Shelby Farms. By far the best concert that wasn't by a jazz band that I've ever attended.

  • Tough-ass tune this one. One of my favs by them!

  • Still wonderful.Even though i commented on graffiti many times before an made some people read through and concidering the lyrics a second time.

  • no kiddin'

    went with my old man, his bird and my sisters and I had the best time of my life. Left with a sore throat for all the cheering ^_^

  • saw them in Birmingham a few months ago. Best gig I've ever been to.

  • No kiddin?

  • This was the tour when they were good. Last time I saw them not very good, .....road tired and poor sound.

  • Saw them in Memphis last Friday!  They were incredible!!!

  • My favorite song by them.

  • Mine too . Any Major Dude is a close second for me .

  • Steely Dan is, and always has been, thinking-man's progressive music. These guys were always so far ahead of their time it was ridiculous. The 2nd album I ever bought was "Can't buy a Thrill". I own everything up to Gaucho, though I am not so enamored of the newer stuff that has come out -- it just seems a little lacking.

  • There's some good cuts off of the last two cds actually

  • the chorus in this song creams my jeans

  • everything else seems so dumb. this song is so good, it kind of makes me feel dumb.

  • Another of my all time faves. I believe John Klemmer played on the original.

  • Where did this man Donald Fagen come from? Such a brilliant, talented, sensitive, amazing, unique individual....marry me Don.

  • awesome

  • Comment removed

  • Amen, amen, amen! It's good to know there are others who still appreciate the great music of the past that completely overshadows the nonsensical noise that is called music these days.

  • Surely you can't dismiss ALL hip-hop. It's massively culturally important as a genre of music.

  • Comment removed

  • Yes actually, I think you can dismiss ALL hippity- hop...

  • You are wrong then.

  • nah you're wrong there. I'm 20, I've seen Steely Dan three times, but The Roots, Common and Q-Tip are equally important for me. If you're saying all hip-hop can be dismissed, you either haven't really listened to it at all, or you're just being incredibly ignorant.

  • Im 20 and seen em 3 times too, all 3 best concerts ive been to, genius. The Roots Common and Q-Tip are real artists, I dont really consider that Hip-Hop since its fucking diluted with talentless hacks like lil' wayne anyone even remotely similar.

  • Hip Hop is a social system as well as different words put to very similar rhytyms. But to put hip hop (any hip hop) anywhere even close in excellence to Steely Dan's music is just a joke.

  • hip-hop may be massively culturally important as a form of entertainment, or poetry or even protest....but music, it ain't!

    DO you even begin to realize the training and disclipline and education that these musician's went thru to be able to produce what you are hearing here?

    They weren't jsut standing around, one guy doing a beat box and making up rhymes....music theory, hours of practice, class after class, performance after performance.

    There's just no comparison.

  • I'll have to agree with you there. But of course hip-hop is still music, no matter how basic it sometimes is.

  • and took class after class! lol!

  • haha. You bad man.

  • I couldn't agree with you more!!! All the play on the bus to school is rap/hiphop/r&b and its not only musically disgusting, but the lyrics are as well. Where has all the music like this gone?? Hell if I can afford to go to collage twice then I am definately going to a school for music. I want to change this mess our radio's gotten into.

  • YOu do that ,man.

  • these songs were made when there wasnt any hollyweed

  • just shut your dumbass mouth and admit you will never achieve this greatness...ever... really you know who you treki's are... go die,

  • the great cornelius bumpus!!!! did he actually played on any of steely dan recordings?

  • Anyone know if they are going to play Ireland this summer, during their tour in Europe

  • sorry no only London ,b'ham and Glasgow,not even Manchester or Liverpool.

  • I have loved them since 1973..always have and always will.

  • almost sounds like the Buddy Rich Big Band at the start!! lol!!

  • In fact on a second listen - the mix is all to cock - listen to how high in the mix the piano and brass are! Drums and Vocals should be lifted - Bass and Guitar are ok - nice Sax

  • A wooly man without a face a beast without a name

  • people are going to thumbs down this comment and I dont care,, but i think Fagen's voice live is weak...

  • I agree to be honest, it's much better in the studio.

  • His voice is the same - it's the sound engineer's problem - he should have Donald's vocals far higher in the mix and also better EQ

  • Well I meant more as in that his voice doesn't have a lot of power behind it, so it kind of falters before a large crowd, it's perfect on record and for smaller shows but he can't really fill a room with it, especially as he gets older, but that happens to most great singers I suppose.

  • The Dan always had these little jazz chord flourishes that always, like, seduced me. Like the chords when he sings "in the sea and in the sky". Too much man! Another irresistable moment is in "Black Friday" when he sings "when Black Friday comes I'll be on that hill". Only the Dan, man. Only the Dan.

  • easily one of my top 5 dan songs. one that i would never expect live. awesome performance!

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  • Smokin' Sax solo from Walt Weiskopf.... amazing player, as well as the others...

  • Other than the sax solo, I'd say this take of COA trumps the "Royal Scam" version.

  • I disagree with the carping comments here. With the mix set up like this I am hearing new harmonic subtlties in the song (I can play the original in my head, I know it so well). OK, Fagen is an old man now but that wispiness about the voice doesn't do it any harm. Recorded versions don't have to be definitive.

  • man Carolyn Leonhart is so sexy. i set first row in atlanta right in front her tv or youtibe does her no justice

  • rip Mr. Bumpus.

  • I had the very fortunate pleasure of meeting Cornelius Bumpus before he passed. It wasn't at a show or any music related event. He was sitting in his car - parked on 6th Avenue in NYC! Being a Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers fan, I recognized him. He was the most personable and down to earth cats you could ever meet and chat with. I was shocked when he said to me that he doesn't read music well. "... but that's not why they hired me" he said. I'm so glad our paths were able to cross at that time.

  • Man that is great! I am envious!

  • likewise!

  • I missed the hi-hat. I can imagine how could it be if Bernard "Pretty" Purdie had put his touch on it, especilly on the chorus: -break- "they heard a call, and they wrote it on the wall..." =]

  • My favorite song on Royal Scam!!!

  • @bds1167

    Mine as well.. Such a cool jam.

  • Isn't a great performance. Donald's voice sounds anemic, tenor sax tries to ruin the song with his busy solo & Keith Carlock is slow. I don't care about a pre-scheduled tempo for the song. I've often felt that Keith's mastery & familiarity w/ the songs is lacking at times. If he knew the music better, he would KNOW it's dragging. Keith is an outstanding drummer; much-much better than me, but listen to his take on songs vs. Dennis Chambers'. Pick up ALIVE IN AMERICA & hear a drummer that gets it!

  • you can have your opinion and i agree its a tad slow but walt and don would be the ones to tell him to take it at this speed... keith used to have a click machine that walt and don had prgrammed tempos in and he would take it at those temps. its kind of impressive if ya ask me because he consistantly keeps it at this slower tempo. good musicians can make a song feel good at any tempo. they hired keith to sound like keith!

  • Damn good call on this sax player...he just took a shit for a solo and it was a messy one. The solo on the album is so fucking emotional.. and glorious at the same time.

  • I'll say this song, The Royal Scam, and Babylon Sisters would have to be my favorite Steely Dan tunes to listen to and play, from a drummer's stand point, the grooves to these songs are slammin! All Hail The Dan.

  • Re. the tempo of "Caves", Keith Carlock gets the tempo counts for each song from a click track at the Fagen/Becker spec'd beats per minute. He only uses it to get the count for the song.

  • Great band, but every clip I've seen of this tour leads me to the same conclusion: the tenor player is awful. His solos are just note-y, unmusical bullshit. Steely Dan always had great players on records, and should have a live guy that can pay homage to those recorded performances while still being himself. About 5 bad notes are in his solo, and it has no lyrical quality to it at all. I play drums in a wedding band, and regularly play with better sax players even at that level!

  • i agree. less is more.

  • LOL -- funny comments...

    That's why you only play in a wedding band.... hahaha!

  • That solo was awful.

  • These guys suck. Please tape somebody who can play.... OH YEAH...you know these guys rule,,,,wake up!!! Steely Dan at the Beacon Theater...so great...Home At Last, Gaucho, ....oh yeah...just giving you a hard time... When is the concert at Hofstra???

  • supercalafragalistick classicsteelydanis

  • one of my alltime favs

  • one of the few touching SD songs to me, another being "Any World that I'm Welcome To"

  • Does anyone know the names of the chorists?

  • Every time I see Cornelius I almost cry. I loved that cat.

  • does anyone else feel that he brought this in a tad too slow - dont get me wrong, this is just a comment, i aint slagging off keith in any way!

  • Okay, I recognize Fagen and Becker.Who are the other excellent musicians?

  • i was fortunate enough to see these guys at the palms casino in vegas while on my vacation. a truly magnificent show, a memory to hold on to forever. a fantastic performance by the entire band, note perfect, beckers guitar was perfect, along with herington, and fagens vocals could squeeze tears from a rock. just the best band ever.

  • i love this song!!!

  • Kieth Carlock on drums look him up

  • forget Aja....Royal Scam, dogs-bollocks to any right thinking music fan, best Dan album, or CD or download or whatever you muppets call music today...

  • amen to that, every track is great

  • So right. i've been saying that to myself for years. From Kid Charlemagne tothe Royal Scam all top notch with one exception (The Fez - mediocre)

  • See I like 'The Fez' and its disco loop feel. I could do without 'Don't Take me Alive' though... to each their own!

  • "Don't take me alive" is a fan favorite....they closed the June 21st show in NYC with this song, and it probably couldn't have been a better pick.

  • giving Cavemen a good name....

  • Weiskopf won the 1974 British Open in my universe, pal...although he may have been a beast to his caddy..?

  • Weiskopf is a beast but I'm still partial to Chris Potter in the live bands!

  • Quite seriously, I love and respect Donald Fagen on so many levels. But I've got to ask, does he have a vision problem? What's with the dark glasses whenever he plays live? Is it just an affectation or is he really light sensitive? Many musicians are. Anybody know anything?

  • ever seen him without glasses? he's like the jim mcmahon of rock and roll....eyes too small for the head

  • I think he's a big fan of Ray Charles.

  • THANK YOU!!!! LOVE THIS

  • Me, too. Just as good as the album cut flavor but with enough faithful dif