the Maui band's pocket is undeniable. good god. It's been discussed - and is indeed discussed very eloquently here - but what a fascinating journey these 11TOW songs went on. To have this band (Parks and Rogers in the guitar chairs, good lord!) record this runthrough - not a take - that sounds just about as great as well, anything ... then presumably start building the structure for the actual take ... then build on that ... and then have the courage and conviction to strip it all back down (and build again) to serve the song is something.

swamp version for me all day. the Maui band was something else. every track posted here with them goes straight to the top of my list.

An update, many months later - I have it, it's sitting in my hallway, it was a complete bitch to get into the house, and "what to do with it" is the eternal question. I like the idea of putting glass over the top, and maybe lopping it off and sitting on another structure because the bottom half isn't really that interesting. I failed to consider that I'm also not very handy and actually moving the thing requires several ramps and able bodied persons. Also not the best time for me to be spending money on aesthetics, but if I and my job survive covid maybe in 6 months or so I'll look at options for making into something cool looking and maybe even functional. at the same time I'm also officially offering it up to anyone here that might want it, free if you pick it up. At some point in the next 1-3 years I'll be moving out of my current place and when that happens this thing will not be coming with me (unless my vague vision of making it into an end table or something comes to fruition) and if I have to pay someone to scrap it I will be full of shame. (some details: I'm about an hr north of Boston, this resides on the first floor of my smoke-free home and is on sturdy wheels as advertised; the tricky part will be safely getting it down the 5 steps leading up to my front door and onto a truck. basically, pretend you're picking up a medium sized upright piano.)

I got the "partial" 3M mastering deck, not used to record The Nightfly, although I suppose it was in the same room as one that did. Now the question is .... what do I do with it? https://www.julienslive.com/images/lot/3388/338837_0.jpg

At first I thought this was just the whole "jazz rock plush tv party" or whatever they called it, but it looks like this is actually one of the performances in full (the special was taped over a couple nights if I recall correctly). Looking forward to checking this out. IMO, Walter never sounded better on guitar than in 2000.

I'm partial to the Fucker Assman, myself https://www.julienslive.com/m/lot-details/index/catalog/312/lot/122253?uact=5&aid=312&lid=122254&current_page=0

Good stuff here ... I learned this tune at one point and did a home recording of it, maybe almost a decade ago now. A friend asked me to show him the chords and I have no idea what I played. I'll send him this instead .... the cover: https://soundcloud.com/gettin-it-dunn/surf-and-or-die

The more I hear from them via this site, the more I'm somewhat disappointed that 11TOW, as great as it is, didn't feature more of The Lost Tribe. Live musicians playing the chords WB originally stacked in a sequencer produced a very distinct sound that is unlike anything else.

wow, what a heady piece of music. so ... dense, harmonically, with a relatively sparse arrangement, maybe to let the listener try and wrap his head around what Jon Beasley and Adam Rodgers are playing ... I love it. thanks as always for sharing, D-Mod.

Wanted to clarify that I really like that synth line/sound, almost sounds like it belongs in a hip hop beat, but i'm not sure which era ... the syncopation gets me good. actually, the drums on Sanpaku sound a little 808ish. again, in a good way, to my ears. Also, the Ghost of Hipness Past is such a quintessential WB song title.

oh fuck yes. I remember finding these demos my freshman year of college, and still have a vivid memory of walking around campus in the bitter cold listening to them on my ipod. that synth line in Ghost of Hipness Past, I don't know if it was a placeholder or what, but everyone I played the track for (circa 2006-7, circa 18-20 years old) flipped their shit over it. I'll save my accolades for Lies I Can Believe for whenever it's posted.....

I come back to Circus Money more than any other post-reunion SD/DF/WB record. I think part of the reason is the quality of the mix and recording, It's such a warm record that envelops you instantly. If I went song for song, I might say I have a slight preference for 11TOW, but this always felt like a more cohesive work. It also happens to feature my favorite Dan collaborators - Carlock (of course), Chris Potter, and the best keyboard players DF and/or WB ever worked with, Ted Baker and Jim Beard. There are a lot of comedic gems in Becker's lyrics here - the aforementioned "mind meld/ like a permanent picture of your pussyprint in cement" which is a just a stunning alliterative turn of phrase, or the "coal mine" bit in somebody's saturday night, most of "darking down" and "selfish gene." I know many fans were hoping for some live performances of Circus Money tunes. When it became clear it wouldn't happen with Steely Dan, I recall a rumor (or maybe just wishful thinking) that Becker was considering a small solo tour or series of club dates. It would have been one hell of a show.

id love to hear a clean version of Lies I Can Believe. that chorus guts me.

also, i was not at the show where becker gave away copies od Circus Money, but i rememebr hearing about it... was it at the beacon? i loved that album and was holding out hope for a solo WB tour to support it after nothing from it was played during that summer’s Steely Dan tour.

moderator writes: ”In that moment he was likely running the phrase through some kind of " context thesaurus" where the phrase takes on other meanings. I came to think of this as a type of untethered, superflexible three-dimensional engagement with language that "regular" Folk just didn't naturally have without trying for it. His song typifies this notion.. ” reminds me of scenes the fantasic bill withers documentary, Still Bill. He talks about how he‘d often ask someone to write down particular turns of phrases he’d hear and eventually write songs around them... im sure many songwriters do that, but very few set a scene and tella story like Becker has here (and to be fair, Withers did too). many thanks to D-Mod for sharing this, it’s really wonderful to hear.

Thanks for the responses moderator! It would not be the first time my ears lied to me (happening more and more lately, thanks to a couple drummers I’ve played too many gigs with...) While I’m definitely interested in The Truth, I’m also curious if anyone else thought the same thing. The theory that the synth sound is due to some processing is definitely plausible, and maybe the fact that the rest of the track is unquestionably midi tricked my ears into assuming the bass was, too.

the bass part is great here! but am i missing something? this sounds like keyboard bass to me. fantastic part, but i'm not hearing a "live" bass.

Yeah, for sure! I'll take anything, but I like the idea of hearing the demo, then the (almost) finished product. Curious, you say there are no overdubs on the actual track - does that mean no vocals at all?

this was a lot of fun - without giving too much away, I scoured html to get to what I later found out was the next to last step early on in the day, but convinced myself it was a red herring or perhaps a mistake copied and pasted from another image map on the site. I focused way too long on the hidden text, the meaning of which I still can't figure out beyond one obvious anagram. Thankfully there were plenty of hints which got me back on track (and, to be honest, I would not have figured out the final step without them). As for the egg itself ... all I'll say for now is that it's worth it. I mean, you all probably have an idea of what it is. But so cool to finally hear something of it after all these years. Must have been quite a night.

got it! thanks for the hand-holding :)