Earlier this week we were greeted with the news that not one but TWO new Steely Dan-ish records would be dropping soon, both of them live documents. Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live! and Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly Live are both set to street on September 24, 2021 from Universal Music.
A track a piece from each of these concert mementos have already been unleashed to the wild. For the live Nightfly album, that advance track is the best known Nightfly tune, “I.G.Y.” We posted up the YouTube stream above for your entertainment convenience.
I debated heavily on whether to credit this track to Donald Fagen or Steely Dan. On one hand, this is Fagen’s song and of course, he’s singing it. On the other hand, the song is being played by the Steely Dan band. I guess you could think of it as Steely Dan covering Donald Fagen and the singer for both artistic entities happens to be the same person.
There’s very little where this live presentation of “I.G.Y.” differs from the original 1982 studio recording, aside from some changes here and there in Fagen’s vocal phrasing. But honestly, that’s the wonder of this performance: “I.G.Y.” was such a perfect studio creation, it seemed it would take a minor miracle to come so close to replicating that on stage. Yet, that’s just what the Dan band did.
I chalk that up to this collection of musicians being such a well-oiled machine at this point. I read the lineup and I don’t see much change from the one I saw myself almost a decade ago, save for Connor Kennedy being the second guitarist in place of the late Walter Becker. Fourteen musicians sounding as a single, chugging rhythm and melody machine, doing it all without the benefit of 57 takes to get it right. Steely Dan concertgoers might take that for granted at this point but it’s still pretty awesome.
Oh, and for you East Coasters, Steely Dan is planning a fall tour. Get your tickets to that wheel in space while there’s time.
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