I'm putting this under street legal because it certainly was public ,sanctioned material that changed every couple of years . I am speaking of course of the storied Becker Bathroom Break ( or Becker Beer Break to some.)
Lutz put up a fine, wide-ranging post over in "Everything Else" which included some opinions about a few of Walter's more frequent tunes , Walter tried a wide variety of them over the year,s, including tunes from Whack and even "Our Lawn". Thus the Becker Bathroom Break was born . The combo of a non-DF noise presenting something no one had ever heard before was just a bridge too far for many DanFans and so would commence a depressing exodus of concert-goers choking the aisles headed for the john or the bar.
But I digress.
Last night I thought of two songs in particular that I believe broke the pattern. One was so counterintuitive, so wrong for his voice, so unlikely to be a Becker tune, that it actually worked --although plenty of folks might disagree.
I'm speaking of course about Mother F-ing Gaucho ! Count me among those who thought this was an absolutely inspired pick and delightful performance (with a fulsome assist by the ladies).
Not that the tune suddenly revealed him to be an expert Pitch Perfect singer. No, it was still him...but like we've never quite seen -- or heard -- before. And it went over!
Hard to find a good quality version of this, but here's one that, echo aside, captures I believe the gusto with which he approached the sad Tale Of Love Gone extravagantly wrong, It's from 2000.
(another excellent take is at https://youtu.be/MPaB_MRTFwA)
Honestly, now -- what do you think?
I searched high and low for W’s version of this !…it’s amazing ..
I digress,
In 2007 I saw SD at Liverpool Pops Festival , Aintree , and got to hear Walter
sing Haitian Divorce..(🫶) , we travelled from Sheffield and were staying in the on-site
hotel just across the way from the venue , my husband went outside and heard parts of
the sound check ..he came back to the room and said , “well the good news is SD are here
but the bad news is DF isn’t singing”
He was ofcourse, but it had been Walter rehearsing HD !
That concert was just amazing …it took weeks for me to come down from the musical high.
Sure most of you will have seen this footage of Walter already, but I thought I'd post them here to keep them under the same roof as it were (if they haven't been posted already?) 'Down in the Bottom' & 'Hard up Case'. halC
I love it.
That's right... Slang me!!
Very interesting about them splitting up during the EMG sessions. Knowing how much they relied on each other, I’m sure it was very uncomfortable. But both songs came out great. And yes, no doubt the WB callouts by DF were deliberate and done with affection! Thanks for the cool perspective!!
Tony I am *assuming* that was Walter's from early on....through no priveleged information but because like you I can't imagine it otherwise. Also of interest--as EMG (oops 2vn) recording rushed up to meet yet another (rock hard) deadline, there just wasn't time to do everything. So, perhaps for he first time, D + W "split up"< with W "taking" (finishing up) Slang and D taking Pixeleen. There wasn't much to do on either, instruments and, i think, all vocals were done as i recall....but that doesn't mean it's done. Using this method for the last few days of recording, they finished both. But it wasn't pleasant, I don't think (ie Im guessing), for either of them.
Tony- thought of another early stage ID of Walter; the Hey 19 rap comes fairly early..and peple have to figure that he can't be just one of the inmates...and with varing regularity, Donald IDs players after a song and he will include Walter, even if he's not the featured player! (bodhisattva a case in point)
Always loved Slang and no doubt WB was ideal for the vocals on that one. Makes me wonder if DF ever even considered singing it for the album. D-Mod, any clue on that?
That is pretty damn great, cjbrayshaw. Embedded for ease of use.
Hey, here's another Bathroom Break, with some powerful solo playing. "Slang of Ages," vox WB, from the 2003 tour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v33AJrXzww8 I love this song, one of my favorites of the, what'd they call it at the Beacon?, 21st Century Dan. A+ droll conversational delivery, & then the chorus that lifts up and flies, with the horns.
Great insight, thank you. That acknowledgment was also evident at the beginning of those ‘93-‘94 shows when they would meet at center stage and shake hands. I always loved that moment.
without getting into the weeds too much, or make any claim about this tune in particular, I will say that Donald and Walter had an uncanny ability to 'just know' when a tune could and should be "reassigned" to Walter...and it always, always centered around Donald's unequivocal prerogatives as The Singer. If it didn't feel right for him, for whatever reason, for however short-lived or long-term, then that was that, unquestioned. And if one of those was a tune they wanted to include for some reason, "why don't you/I try it?" was sometimes heard....and if the fit was as good as it was for JOS, it became a no-brainer. At the same time, it is also undoubtedly true that Donald went out of his way on stage to educate half the audience ("Which one is Dan?") that it was that guy over there who was the other half of the central duo partnership. So-- guessing here -- that must have been at least part of what was at work here too.
Hey Mod. Wanted to mention another point that blew me away when I first heard WB doing Jack of Speed in '96. The fact that DF/WB agreed to let WB sing lead on the first new SD tune anyone had heard since Gaucho was just a complete mind-blower to me at that time. It seemed like they wanted to make some kind of statement about how WB was half of this band and it wasn't just Donald. And I loved that aspect of it. Did you get that impression also?
kama -agree w/ your friends; i think that song , and that version, shows something of his true singing abilities. I honestly believe that pitch (or lack thereof) is the major thing people "hear" when they hear a not-great singer. That, and lack of range. They are right, of course. That's why it's nice to have songs where pitch isn't much of a problem, and you caan hear the voice undereneath. (btw, he loved to sing. He *loved* to sing. I'd repeat that again but that would be obnoxious. Sort of a shame (for his love of singing, anyway) that his partner happend to be the best finest most amazing pop singer in half a century...)
I love Walter’s singing. This is amazing. Most of my circle agree book of liars is the best song on alive in America.
thank for the link cjbrayshaw!
Much less of a trainwreck than I remember. Closer to a minor derailment.
Hey, someone preserved that so-called trainwreck for the ages. Shuffle up & deal!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCFglmykevM
OnTheCorner -- exactly!! The rarest of rarities -- you're never going to see THAT happen again!
The version at the Beacon was actually different from the '96 version - I believe it preceded that one, it's on the setlist as "Shuffle version" I think.
Apparently Becker's chart didn't match up with the band's, so most of it was off but would sync up every so often for a bar or two. It was the closest thing to a trainwreck I've ever seen at a Steely Dan show, which is kind of the ultimate rarity.
cjbrayshaw: great post that could easily morph into a fine fever dream if moved just 2 inches to the left.
Oleander's in the house: SD fans still fever dream, don't they?
Love these two "breaks." As with so much Steely Dan, it was the attitude that was the difference maker. To me, that's why WB's "Gaucho" works - the attitude's all there. For "Jack of Speed," listening to the live version side-by-side with the recorded version is interesting; the 2vN track does seem to be "de-funkified," but it's still a dandy tune. It would be great to know what the decision making process was that led from the '96 WB-sung livelier version to the eventual recorded version. Thanks for these two performances!