Review Summary: The end of a perfect day
Suffice to say, the 70s were difficult times. While the 60s had given birth to a landscape of new sounds, genres and bands, it left a heavy baggage of uncertainty. Political and social unrest topped off with the rapidly worsening Vietnam War had left the summer of love, a brief moment of acceptance and compassion, effectively dead and as the new decade began, the collage of colors and love shifted into an icy haze of cocaine and paranoia. Genres came and went. Glam rose and died a glittery death, prog had its absurdly overlong and technical day in the limelight; and disco proved that there was still hope for humanity before drunken meatheads blew it up in a football stadium. And while Punk and new wave managed to smash their way into the 80s, one little style stood back and blocked it all out. The Southern Cali sound, better known today as Yacht Rock effectively took over the airwaves during the late 70s, and a sea of exquisitely produced, crystal clear, smoother than smooth songs arrived on the scene. It seemed like a massive family. Each band knew each other and each band recorded with each. No 1s were earned, classics were made, all was well. Except for Steely Dan of course.
Despite often being derided for producing “soulless” jazz rock, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were actually, for lack of a better word, geniuses. Blending jazz and soul with pop and funk, Steely Dan’s two bespectacled leaders made a name for themselves for writing and producing extremely catchy and groovy songs that were extremely difficult to play. Their 1977 masterpiece ‘Aja’ was; and still is a technical marvel, exquisitely recorded and mastered and jammed with absurdly catchy hooks and melodies. The public and critics adored it and the group, ever the perfectionists knew their next album had to be even better. But how do you top perfection? The recording sessions for Gaucho were more akin to a trek through hell than they were studio dates to record a pop record. Drug abuse, lawsuits and Fagen’s absurd perfectionism dragged the sessions through 18 arduous months were hours of time would be spent obsessing over simple drum sounds and bass notes. Hundreds of mixes were prepared and discarded, often over trivial reasons. An entire song was actually wiped and re-recording failed to capture the magic. An entire drum machine was built just to satisfy the duo’s craving for a certain sound. When the dozens of sessions musicians recruited for the record emerged from the New York studios (including Mark Knopfler of all people), they were changed men. Steely Dan didn’t record another album for 20 years. For all intents and purposes, it killed them. So, was the death knell of the 70s worth all that pain?
Gaucho is a record that favours groove and rhythm above all. It’s a relatively stripped back affair, with songs tending to focus on laying down a soft but funky beat. Still, the classic Steely Dan flair is still present. Soulful backing vocals adjourned several songs and complex, jazzy guitar solos and saxophone parts compliment the songs rather than fill them in. While the tracks on the album can be enjoyed in a laid back and relaxed atmosphere, deeper listens are rewarded with complex chord changes, the group’s darkly cynical lyrics and an appreciation for some truly outstanding production work. Lead single ‘Hey Nineteen’ is pure yacht rock goodness with a twanging guitar line and an irresistible hook. Opener ‘Babylon Sisters’ is both tense and fluid, aggressive and gentle, a mood that effectively sums up the record, and the 70s as a whole, brilliantly. While the outside is cool and enjoyable, scratching past the surface reveals an air of paranoia and bitterness. The irony in that it was this track to took the longest to perfect and spurred up the most annoyance and pain for everyone involved is too good to be true. The darkness sometimes takes over and the slick demeanour cracks. Closer ‘Third World Man’ sports a brilliant guitar solo and lush vocal parts but a gloomy tone and sound and the strutting organ led ‘My Rival’ holds a vivid and dark tale about a deranged father battling for his wife’s affection from... his newborn son.
While Gaucho is a technically brilliant record, it’s this extreme perfectionism of the album that ends up being its downfall. The meticulous production, in places, tends to suffocate the record (particularly on the title track and the lengthy ‘Glamour Profession’) and most of the magic of ‘Aja’ is gone, feeling less genuine and joyous but bitter and forced. You can practically feel the discomfort and weariness of everyone involved seeping through the speakers and because of it, parts of the album feel a bit by the numbers. Naturally, numerous brilliant tracks that might’ve fixed some of the repetitiveness of the LP never made it past the demo stage, leaving the group’s final album of the 70s a collection of technically stunning and catchy, but ultimately uncomfortable and stretched out grooves. Does that mean Gaucho is bad? God no. It’s actually really damn good and The Dan never made a bad record as far as I’m concerned. But you can only milk so much blood out of one stone before it starts to give you food colouring.
Best songs: Babylon Sisters, Hey Nineteen, Time out of Mind, My Rival, Third World Man
