Steely Dan fans around the world appear to be going crazy over news of a newly unearthered Steely Dan treasure, the missing ‘Gaucho’ track ‘The Second Arrangement’ but it isn’t that new.
‘The Second Arrangement’ has been doing the rounds for years. A bootleg has been up on YouTube for at least four years.
The recently discovered version was found by engineer Roger Nichols daughter in a box of cassettes she was going through. This new version if 5 minutes 46 seconds long, almost identical to the older version. It is also an identical take to the previously bootlegged version.
This new version is much clearer than the bootlegged version but there is also this thing called … what was it again …. Oh year AI, which would make it easy to clean up. Basically if the technology did not exist to reprocess ‘The Second Arrangement’ back in 1979 for the ‘Gaucho’ album, it certainly exists now.
That is what Paul McCartney is also planning for the unreleased Beatles song ‘Here and Now’ for latter in the year. The technology today does make it available to take any old photo, audio and video, and process to perfection. Peter Jackson developed the technology for The Beatles for the ‘Get Back’ documentary. It was then used for the Revolver reissue of 2021 and also used for the new Beach Boys ‘Pet Sounds’ reissue.
A tape of the unused ‘Gaucho’ sessions does exists and has been widely bootlegged. The songs not included on the album recorded at the time of the ‘Gaucho’ sessions “Kind Spirit”, “Kulee Baba”, “The Bear” and “Talkin’ About My Home” as well as “The Second Arrangement”. There is also an early version of ‘Third World Man’ originally called ‘Were You Blind That Day’ recorded for the previous album ‘Aja’ and also included on the Gaucho bootleg.
Sorry Steely Dan fans. There is no new hidden treasure. You have all fallen for another “Royal Scam”.
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