Steely Dan - Gaucho flac album

Bought it used, cleaned on Audiodesk.clean and quiet, no noise. Enjoy the sound of this pressing. While i dont know other versions of this album, it sounds awesome and dynamic.

No album was a product of the 70's crashing down on the band that made it more than Goucho. SD imploded during production and suffered irreputable damage. The question remains: How did this thing turn out so good??...coupled with: Wow this thing is bad...(not excluding the worst song they ever wrote: "Hey 19", blazing up the charts) Goucho polarized their fans more than any SD album...but with Babylon Sisters & Third World Man??...It's my 3rd fave SD LP. Knowing that the devastating lost track: "The 2nd Arrangement" was to be the 1st track adds to the legend of a Steely Dan masterpiece of Katy Lied proportions. Hey19 was the deathnell and a precursor to thing to come 12 years later w/ their solo CD's & more: - the dreaded blues. N

foobar2000 1.3.17 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1log date: 2019-03-03 15:07:56--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Analyzed: Steely Dan / Gaucho [UK CD]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------DR Peak RMS Duration Track--------------------------------------------------------------------------------DR14 -2.38 dB -19.66 dB 5:54 01-Babylon SistersDR14 -2.99 dB -19.99 dB 5:07 02-Hey NineteenDR14 -2.01 dB -18.65 dB 7:31 03-Glamour ProfessionDR13 -2.07 dB -18.10 dB 5:33 04-GauchoDR15 -2.17 dB -20.42 dB 4:12 05-Time Out Of MindDR15 -1.61 dB -19.85 dB 4:34 06-My RivalDR15 -1.60 dB -19.96 dB 5:14 07-Third World Man--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Number of tracks: 7Official DR value: DR14Samplerate: 44100 HzChannels: 2Bits per sample: 16Bitrate: 693 kbpsCodec: ALAC================================================================================

One of my favorite Dan albums. Although they borrowed a few motifs from Jarrett for the title song, it's my favorite one on the album, and some of Porcaro's most tasteful drumming on record.

This is my go to SACD when demonstrating 5.1 playback.

Objectively ... I found this pressing to be delightful and full bodied ...

Great sounding CD version, rich, bright and warm just where it needs to be. Played on a McIntosh CD Player through McIntosh Amp and B&W Diamond Speakers.

Forever the eminent hipsters and major dudes, Steely Dan have always created music for those like themselves ... the self absorbed dissociative paranoid name droppers, aficionados of the absurd, those who delight in sentence structure that is laced with syllables that are tastable, and those who perpetually leave unanswered unresolvable questions hanging in the air just as the front door is closing behind them.With a length of only 37 minutes, Gaucho took nearly two years to record, and was the most expensive record ever made when it found its way onto my turntable in 1980, and like The Beatles, after Gaucho, Steely Dan retired to the studio, their apartments, and their own heads, where they lived full time, often among the characters and substances referenced in their songs, with lives that played out as if they been drawn from the stories of their own verse.It was Roger Nichols who during the recording of Gaucho was solely responsible for Donald Fagen’s wishes for ultra human perfection, even going so far as to hand build a percussion sequencer [Named Wendel, and saying, “Wendel can play exactly what any drummer can play.”], along with other delicate and dedicated hardware that met the demands of this enigmatic duo, though there were few walking the planet who were privileged enough to own an audiophile stereo system worthy of appreciating this perfection. The band would take their famous perfectionism to new levels during the Gaucho recording sessions, as they’d grown accustomed to the dedicated mercenary approach of the session musicians they worked with in Los Angeles on Aja. On returning to their home of New York City, they found the musicians they worked with to be less professional, which was a major headache for both Becker and Fagen. They would often force their hired guns to do forty or more takes of the same song in search of the perfect snippet to use in the final recording. The result was a sort of building block approach that caused an inordinate amount of time to go into the recording process. For example, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits was hired to play lead guitar on the song “Time Out Of Mind,” as Fagen and Becker had enjoyed his work on “Sultans of Swing” tremendously. He was brought into the studio for hours and hours of recording, and his final contribution to the record clocks in at a mere few seconds. All and all, everyone was amazed the the record ever got finished at all.Gaucho was miles beyond what Steely Dan had delivered on the long awaited Aja album, and even further from their first release in 1972 of Can’t Buy A Thrill, where the band became so much more than they ever imagined, and in so doing, saw their fan base dwindle down to the hardcore, loved by critics, DJ’s and those who rarely saw the light of day, along with new ears who now heard an emancipation in what The Dan were laying down. That being said, the truth is the boys had taken two turns on a highway that demanded hit singles, and Gaucho majorly delivered only one, “Hey Nineteen,” with most of the world rating the album rather lowly, and dismissed it nearly as offhandedly as they had done with Aja, wanting more of the unpolished more raw and quirky atmosphere that had been laid down in their earlier outings, though time would prove that Steely Dan were on a path laden with unique ideas, emotion that had to be searched for, and a jazz presentation that would prove over time not to be as boring as so many suggested it was.In effect, there are those who claim, and go on to insist that the perfection found on Gaucho lead to the band’s demise, as they’d nowhere else to go, that they’d painted themselves into a corner by painting their masterpiece. Those same people will say that the album is so clean that it lacks any emotion, though if one takes this release in context of the times and the lives of Becker and Fagen, yes, it’s not bubbling with warmth, though it is filled with delicious emotions that are not handed to listeners on a spoon, they must be teased out and appreciated. And if that weren’t enough, those same critics cite that the band sounds tired and under pressure, and while the pressure part may be true and was self inflicted, Steely Dan hardly sound tired, they’re just older, reflecting new visions and aspirations.And of course, as always, and to my delight, Becker and Fagen proved their critics and complainers wrong, with the album overcoming all of it’s challenges and went platinum, delivering two top 10 singles.*** The Fun Facts: While recording the album, the group’s record company was involved in a merger, which caused some legal static and prevented Becker and Fagen from changing labels. Also during this time, Becker was hit by a car and broke his leg, resulting in extensive hospitalization. Becker was battling substance abuse and his girlfriend tragically died of a drug overdose in early 1980. Gaucho was finally released in November 1980, over three years after Aja.Over 40 musicians were required for this bit of intensity, and still Fagen and Becker were not satisfied, and would go on to spend an additional $100,000 on the drum beats alone.Only discovered at a later date, and adding salt to the wounds, three quarters of the song “The Second Arrangement” was accidentally erased in 1979. Of course they tried to re-record the number, but eventually gave up and had to replace the track by another song late into the process.And then of course, Keith Jarrett threatened the band with legal action revolving around song writing credits for the title track, claiming that the boys paid him a million dollars to keep his name off said credits.The cover art is based upon a wall plaque entitled "Guardia Vieja – Tango" (Old Guard – Tango), located in a southside Buenos Aires promenade known as Caminito, by Argentine artist Israel Hoffmann.As to the historical meaning of the song "Time Out Of Mind", Time Out of Mind references TIME IMMEMORIAL. Strictly speaking, 'time immemorial' is any time before 1199, this being the date set in 1275 as the time before which no one could remember, and therefore no legal cases could deal with events before that date. 'Time out of mind,' recorded from the fifteenth century, is just the plain English version of the same thing. Since the eighteenth century at least, 'time immemorial' has been used in much the same way as the 'Mists of Time' and both expressions are now often used vaguely to mean little more than 'in the past.’Review by Jenell Kesler

Well produced and interesting Jazz Fusion album. This album in particular did incorporate small elements of synthpop by incorporating a drum machine. I can't attest to how the 5.1 mix is, but the 2 channel mix is very clean. My only complaint is that the 2 channel mix is a little bit too compressed. You can even here a few small imperfections with the master tape deteriorating, which is quite interesting. It would be near perfect if it was just a little less compressed.

What's the best press and best souding LP from this list?Thanks

kmcguane Found a sealed original US that still had the Target price tag on it. Mine sounds fab. That doesnt help much but thanks.

Found a sealed original US that still had the Target price tag on it. Mine sounds fab.

Would like to know as well, probably an original, Japanese or newer Japanese DSD reissue https://www.discogs.com/Steely-Dan-Gaucho/release/2525691

This amazing SD -Gaucho 200 gram japan vinyl from 2007 is just one of the best sounding records I have in my whole 8 thousand vinyl records collection. So I think I agree with Eric!

This one sounds not as good as the original 1980s (MCA-6102)Low bass and not so clear as the MCA-6102.So when you want to buy one, buy a 1980s one.

Steely Dan rocked the 80's with this album, particularly **Babylon Sister

Was the Columbia Record Club still issuing vinyl in 2000?

Mine saysEXPORT ONLY - FOR SALEOUTSIDE CONTINENTALUNITED STATES ONLYIn the bottom right corner of the back of the sleeve.Identical otherwise.

This is a Japanese pressing which I purchased in a momentary lapse of reason as it cost me more than I care to admit. I re-discovered this album listening to this version of the LP. I had purchased the CD/SACD version released a few years ago and was somehow disappointed by the "clinical" sound, which did not match my memory of the record when it first came out. This version of the LP does justice - and more - to the original LP, in that it sounds very clear and with huge dynamics, the sound really fills the room and it never sounds harsh or digital (I do not know if it was made from an analog source because a lot of the stuff and liner notes is in Japanese, but it sounds very good to me in any event).One of my best sounding records, and the music really is worth it, even after 30+ years this LP sounds like new.

I believe this might be the best sounding multi-channel SACD out there.

Yes ,this Avalon and Sea Change are amazing !

I will comment soon. listing for the very first time (any format) ever now.

This was the first Steely Dan album I heard. And for the longest time, I thought aja was their best, but these days I don't know. I played that hundreds of times, so maybe I just wore it out. Gaucho might be better, but it's tough to say. All I know is, Glamour Profession is probably among my top five favourite songs. The rhythm, the mood, the melody, the lyrics -- they're all just perfect. A musical portrait of the drug trade in Los Angeles circa 1980. There's simply no other band that could create such an amazing atmosphere.It's not hard to see why some critics would be unsatisfied with this album. It is an absolute, clinical, clean production. There isn't a single note out-of-place. Becker and Fagen distilled their sound to one that is too flawless for some. I don't care. They used the studio as another instrument and created a work that sounds totally fresh more than three decades later.

totally agree with this guy!

"Gaucho" was already challenged by the fact that it was the follow up to "Aja," as perfect a studio album as Steely Dan could ever expect to have. However it's two-year gestation period was further fraught with problems; a track erased accidentally by a second engineer, a lawsuit from Keith Jarrett and Steely Dan's label changing hands -- resulting in further confusion/litigation -- all served to strain this project. But you can't hear that in the final edit; it's all of a piece, with the first side representing perhaps the pinnacle of their achievement, though as a whole it still falls slightly short of "Aja." While there are many sad and poignant moments in "Gaucho," the saddest thing about the album is that the group was not able to survive the process of making it.

Yes. Steely Dan. Babylon Sisters is perhaps their crowning achievement. Followed closely by Hey Nineteen. Yeah, this music is "cheesey" but seriously, you cannot get any better for over-produced jazz rock fusion that has pop hooks a plenty AND Steve Gadd on drums. In addition, aside from their "clean sound", these guys have some pretty dirty ideas of what is fun. This album rocks out.