"Glamour Profession" is my favorite Steely Dan song. It is a pure delight for my ears everytime I listen to it. The rhythm, the drums, the horn section.....everything is so perfectly orchestrated to make it a piece of musical art! You must love to play the drums on that song! ;-)
steely dan did not use drum machines bud, they just hired reallly fucking tight drummers. but i could see how the amount of precision of all their recordings in the late 70s could sound like a drum machine...
Only on Gaucho did Steely Dan use a drum machine. Because Becker and Fagen were such perfectionists, the drummer was the one that was under the most scrutiny. They would cut and re-cut a tune numerous times if it wasn't exactly the way they wanted it to sound and feel. A good example is the title cut "Gaucho". The final drum track was spliced together from numerous takes that drummer Jeff Porcaro played. From that heavily edited drum track they overdubbed all of the other instruments and vocals.
I always kind of thought it sounded like a drum machine. And sitting here listening to I.G.Y. right now, it does sound like a drum machine. I can hear the quality improvement too.
Yes you're very right about the way Zappa and SD worked in the studio, LOL!! The cool thing about the way they used the drum machine that it was done in such a subtle way that if you didn't know better you'd swear they were real drums. Only someone with sharp ears can really tell. For me the thing that gave it away was the sound of the kick drum. The decay doesn't sound 100% natural on the "Gaucho" tracks. You're right that the quality is better on "The Nightfly" tracks that use the WENDEL.
Wrong. They did use a drum machine, but as blackwaxjh mentioned, only on Gaucho (though Fagen used one on the entirety of The Nightfly). The songs Hey Nineteen, Glamour Profession, Time Out of Mind, and My Rival all feature the drum machine "Wendel", designed and built by their recording engineer Roger Nichols. Though real drummers are credited on all of these tracks, they were replaced by Wendel on the final version. I assume they are credited because they came up with the groove.
WENDEL was not a drum machine per se. It was a tool they used to 'quantize, sanitize, and generally sterilize a drum track'. In other words they processed the live studio drum track through this to perfect it. The drum sounds heard on the songs are the sounds that were recorded from the drummers not sounds produced by a drum machine
Great job. Awesome song. You can join my Steely Dan cover band (well, it's really more of a fantasy than a reality. But if you have a time machine, no reason you can't make it work.).
This is one of my favorite songs by Steely Dan. I remember buying Gaucho back in 1981 and I fell in love with "Glamour Profession" after just one listen. By the way, thanks for posting this clip of you playing the drums on a piece of musical art....you are excellent by the way! :-)
Either the production makes it sound like one, or they used very early V-drums whose samples sounded very compressed. "Hey Nineteen" sounds this way too. I can't imagine SD using drum machines though, unless they subscribed to the Frank Zappa school of production- "if you can't find humans that can play what you want to hear, get a machine to do it!"
The drums on "Glamour Profession" and several others on the "Gaucho" album were from a drum machine called a WENDEL II which was developed by their recording engineer Roger Nichols in 1978. Part of the reason why it has that compressed sound is that the first WENDEL used 125kHz/12 bit digital samples of live drums. Nichols built a 16-bit version of the WENDEL that was used on Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly". The WENDEL was often used with live drummers playing fills along with the basic rhythm.
Good work man. Wish I knew a drummer who was keen enough on SD to groove with me. Nice
KicknStep 1 month ago
Nice, but they probably would have used about 2 seconds of you, too! ;)
lostsailr 5 months ago
Very nice, esp. once you've forgotten you've got a camera pointed at you!
haggidubious 6 months ago
I think it feels good, with the drums too. I couldn't have done better, and it's sexy.
submoronicbomb 7 months ago
dreadful. could last onlyl 27 seconds. delete this.
lola9343 11 months ago
Comment removed
lola9343 11 months ago
Awesome playing! :D My favourite Steely Dan song hands down!
femtrooper 1 year ago
Very nice man.
RicIsGod 1 year ago
not bad. Percussion was not the main instrument but very good effort even so.
PrinceMustDie666 1 year ago
nice ...
manilabayjazz 1 year ago
time machine?.....i havent invented any...time machine...
ihaveaverybadcold 1 year ago
very nice mister! =)
potaris 1 year ago
Believe it or not, they used to play the s out of this on the radio in the Dominican Republic in 1981. Yup all 7+ minutes of this masterpiece.
PEC2528 2 years ago
"Glamour Profession" is my favorite Steely Dan song. It is a pure delight for my ears everytime I listen to it. The rhythm, the drums, the horn section.....everything is so perfectly orchestrated to make it a piece of musical art! You must love to play the drums on that song! ;-)
shoulderlift 2 years ago 4
From about 5:35 on in Glamour Profession, is as good as it gets. Nice job
jrichman21 2 years ago
steely dan did not use drum machines bud, they just hired reallly fucking tight drummers. but i could see how the amount of precision of all their recordings in the late 70s could sound like a drum machine...
edanscime 2 years ago
Only on Gaucho did Steely Dan use a drum machine. Because Becker and Fagen were such perfectionists, the drummer was the one that was under the most scrutiny. They would cut and re-cut a tune numerous times if it wasn't exactly the way they wanted it to sound and feel. A good example is the title cut "Gaucho". The final drum track was spliced together from numerous takes that drummer Jeff Porcaro played. From that heavily edited drum track they overdubbed all of the other instruments and vocals.
blackwaxjh 2 years ago
I was right about the Zappa thing, though! HAHA!
I always kind of thought it sounded like a drum machine. And sitting here listening to I.G.Y. right now, it does sound like a drum machine. I can hear the quality improvement too.
GP1138 2 years ago
Yes you're very right about the way Zappa and SD worked in the studio, LOL!! The cool thing about the way they used the drum machine that it was done in such a subtle way that if you didn't know better you'd swear they were real drums. Only someone with sharp ears can really tell. For me the thing that gave it away was the sound of the kick drum. The decay doesn't sound 100% natural on the "Gaucho" tracks. You're right that the quality is better on "The Nightfly" tracks that use the WENDEL.
blackwaxjh 2 years ago
Wrong. They did use a drum machine, but as blackwaxjh mentioned, only on Gaucho (though Fagen used one on the entirety of The Nightfly). The songs Hey Nineteen, Glamour Profession, Time Out of Mind, and My Rival all feature the drum machine "Wendel", designed and built by their recording engineer Roger Nichols. Though real drummers are credited on all of these tracks, they were replaced by Wendel on the final version. I assume they are credited because they came up with the groove.
jaxvon 2 years ago
@jaxvon
WENDEL was not a drum machine per se. It was a tool they used to 'quantize, sanitize, and generally sterilize a drum track'. In other words they processed the live studio drum track through this to perfect it. The drum sounds heard on the songs are the sounds that were recorded from the drummers not sounds produced by a drum machine
PEC2528 2 years ago
i always thought this song could make a great movie. the dark side of sports.
jetblaque413 2 years ago
NICE!
parachuteclubbed 2 years ago
Great job. Awesome song. You can join my Steely Dan cover band (well, it's really more of a fantasy than a reality. But if you have a time machine, no reason you can't make it work.).
shumakerdc 2 years ago
Glamour Profession is an Awesome song.The first time i heard that song,i listened to it 8 times in a row.Just a laid back.Donald Fagen is a Genius.
Ositatius 2 years ago
I'm 37 and heard this song earlier this year for the first time. I listened to it 5 times myself. It's brilliant.
philaman1972 2 years ago
This is one of my favorite songs by Steely Dan. I remember buying Gaucho back in 1981 and I fell in love with "Glamour Profession" after just one listen. By the way, thanks for posting this clip of you playing the drums on a piece of musical art....you are excellent by the way! :-)
shoulderlift 2 years ago
my favorite steelydan song---awesome!
stephystills 2 years ago
yeah man! you're good! and cute too lol...
th3echelon89 3 years ago
great job!
Holdsworthy 3 years ago
BTW excellent job man.
BoyBlaze2002 3 years ago
My mother always played this record when I was young. Brings back memories
BoyBlaze2002 3 years ago
This was a good idea, you are an excellent drummer. And I love this song. Rick
rickhatch1 3 years ago
nice job. good clock.
dfriend111 3 years ago
Yes good especially since the original track uses a drum machine rather than a live drummer playing the main rhythm.
blackwaxjh 2 years ago
Either the production makes it sound like one, or they used very early V-drums whose samples sounded very compressed. "Hey Nineteen" sounds this way too. I can't imagine SD using drum machines though, unless they subscribed to the Frank Zappa school of production- "if you can't find humans that can play what you want to hear, get a machine to do it!"
GP1138 2 years ago
The drums on "Glamour Profession" and several others on the "Gaucho" album were from a drum machine called a WENDEL II which was developed by their recording engineer Roger Nichols in 1978. Part of the reason why it has that compressed sound is that the first WENDEL used 125kHz/12 bit digital samples of live drums. Nichols built a 16-bit version of the WENDEL that was used on Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly". The WENDEL was often used with live drummers playing fills along with the basic rhythm.
blackwaxjh 2 years ago
hey this sounds awesome. u got an mp3 mix of yur drumming and the music? i wish i could put this in my mp3 player somehow hehe...
bdinoz 3 years ago