This is the title track from the Gaucho album, but with only bass, drums, vocals, lead guitar and the occasional synth stab.
One of the things I think is so fundamental to understanding the music of Steely Dan / Walter Becker / Donald Fagen and their reputation for being exceptionally hard on drummers and exceptionally picky with bass players and bass parts, is the time and effort they spent getting the bass and drums right. I think of the drummer and the bass player like the pitcher and catcher on a baseball team. The battery. They aren't the whole team, but without the right player at each position, the rest of the team isn't going to fare very well. In this case, both the bass and lead guitar parts are Walter, and you can really get a sense of Walter's bass chops and compositional style around the Gaucho era. There are little touches, little flourishes, that no one else would have played in exactly that way.
It goes without saying that much of this song's beauty is in the horn chart and the horn playing, but stripped bare of all of that, I think the composition still holds up. It's pretty astounding how bass / drums / melody gives you everything you need to frame the song.
fan-f-n-tastic, thanks Matt. Does it count when I say that's great? well, 'tis, and that's that. Let's see if this draws any attention ... if so, we might consider building that "bass and drum track" category we've talked about. How about we say comment = vote, yeah?
Sounds good to me.
That is like a song primer. What is the minimum amount of constituent parts needed to make a song? I don't think I've noticed it before in the recorded version of Gaucho that the part is not 100% consistent. There are some pieces that are a bit like drum fills. Mr. Becker changes them slightly each time as the song progresses.
I noticed that too lizking - the A sections and B sections etc are not all alike. Since many (most) people experience the bass almost subliminally, I wonder how much this type of playing adds and maintains interest in a track because the ear doesn't acclimate to repeated sections, Wish he was here so I could ask him about it...
Very true. It's the reason I also really enjoyed hearing the bass/drums/vocals mixes of Snowbound and Trans-Island Skyway. And don't forget, the amazing drum work of Jeff Porcaro on Gaucho was something he worked basically all night to get right. My all-time favorite SD drummer.
It really doesn't get much better.
This is a revelation. Thanks so much for this, Matt. Gaucho has always been one of my favorite SD songs, but I feel like I just heard it with new ears.
Me too! That's why I started out with this one. There are a few more bass/drums/vocals things we'll get into, but I think this is the one where every point I want to make is most obvious. And the musicality is so top notch.
The average person who doesn't know much about music has no idea what bass really does. Part of that is because in a lot of forgettable songs, the bass fills in the bottom end of the sound and that's pretty much it. Some of the best music ever, on the other hand, has bass that drives the music and moves with the deftness and control of a racecar driver darting through traffic. Let's call this Exhibit A.
Oh, and WOW these drums. You know a Jeff Porcaro song the second you hear it. There will never be another drummer who sounds like him. Incredible.
Walter as a bass player and song-writer was incredibly fond of Jeff Porcaro. If you go back and listen to some of the live stuff from the 70s, there are moments where the bass and drums are perfectly complementing each other. I think there was a real musical connection between those two guys honed over months on the road and hours and countless hours in the studio. They're not just playing together well, they're so clearly listening to each other.
Dan how right you are. I can think of a couple of songs from the 70s where I knew right away it was Jeff: of course Lowdown by Boz, a little known tune by Al Stewart called Valentina Way, and Nighttime at the Switching Yard by Warren Zevon. I think people hired Jeff when they were looking for a certain feel and boy was he a master at it.
I have been sort of browsing this site for a long time~ big fan of WB. This is one of my favorite tracks and I always found it fascinating that he handled the bass part on this song -- something that is really striking about it is that it's not only very clean, but it's something that only he could come up with. As a synthesizer fan, hearing those synth parts in isolation is also interesting. I always thought that the synths used on Gaucho (the entire album) sounded like Roland stuff -- and I believe some of it was sequenced, so I've always wondered what kind of equipment they were using to link up Wendell & the synths they tracked. This particular part, although I never noticed until now, sounds a bit like a vocoder.
Hi Steven - nice to know you've been out there lurking (I always wonder)...anyway thanks for the observation. I'm confused, though...the sequence part you're talking about is the "keys", right? There's gotta be folks on this board who know all about that... are you out there, gear sluts?
I'm a bit of a 'gear slut' myself!
To speak specifically on the sequenced synth parts -- I think I remember an interview where DF mentions that some of the synth parts were sequenced on Glamour Profession. I can't say which are sequenced... perhaps the lead? Perhaps the rhythm part that compliments the rhythm guitar?
There are a number of synths that could have been sequenced in that era (1978~1980). For example, the Roland VP-330 seems like it's a likely candidate for the synth in this stripped down version of Gaucho.
Here's a video demoing some of the sounds. The particular time stamp goes right to the 'analog strings.'
https://youtu.be/Qs5d3lBsrkw?t=161
The way the synth swell turns into that sort of clangorous sound makes me think the Synclavier II is a possibility? This synth was (according to Wikipedia...) apparently released in early 1980. We know that DF used it a ton on the Nightfly album though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPVuYR0HeVE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKB_F0nX0kE
(h/t Jim McKay)
Finding Marcelo Cordova's transcription and video of the bass on Gaucho made me realize how seeing a part helps me hear a part -- and this one is so subtle and complex, the video has really added to my appreciation of it.
Hi Everyone,
I have a lot to talk about regarding this track, but the Holiday Season is upon us, and I have some other business to take care of at the moment. However, I've been hoping to talk about this for a few months now (it's really driving me a little crazy)..
I would like to take this time to wish Everyone A Happy Christmas and a Wonderful New Year !! You are a very Cool and Intellectually Stimulating group of people(family and friends).. We have had a lot of Great discussions here and I am really looking forward to talking to you after the holidays.. Hope Santa is good to everyone ! Wishing you all Peace and Love !! Lary