Photo: Chris Walter/WireImage
A new Gaucho tune is out, there is a mutiny likely on in Russia, and the calendar year is in some way not 1980. Time is a social build, gentleman. Extra than four a long time after getting feared permanently lost owing to a studio technician mistake, Steely Dan’s “The Second Arrangement” has surfaced in superior-fidelity glory. The Expanding Dan Substack reports that Roger Nichols, a single of the band’s longtime engineers, produced a rough mix of the observe on a cassette tape throughout the 1979 recording classes prior to its accidental erasure. This tape was unearthed by Nichols’s daughter, who received confirmation from band advisers that this model of “The Second Arrangement” was without a doubt the “original recording of the tune in its nearly concluded type.” The electronic audiotape clocks in at 5 minutes and 46 seconds — most likely it would’ve been a fitting facet-a single closer after “Glamour Profession” — and here’s a taste of the refrain:
And I operate to the second arrangement
It’s only the organic issue
Who steps out with no regrets
A glowing conscience
A new handle
When I operate to the 2nd arrangement
The household of a mutual mate
Now’s the time to redefine the to start with arrangement once more
Prior to this Dan-sanctioned discovery, “The Second Arrangement” experienced only been accessible in reduced-top quality bootlegs of questionable origin. Gary Katz, the band’s producer, advised Growing Dan that he envisioned the tune as a proper Gaucho single. As the lore goes, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker attempted to rerecord it all over again in the studio but could hardly ever recapture its essence, abandoning it in favor of “Third Globe Person.” You can hear to the full tune below, preferably with Cuervo Gold and fine Colombian in hand.
