Steely Dan - The Rainbow Finsbury Park London 1974

Steely Dan - precise, cool, bluesy, jazzy, mature, thoughtful, clever, serious, catchy, timeless, flawless, and hopefully you get my drift.

Steely Dan were one of the bands that taught a younger me, that there was much more to music than three chord rock anthems, or in them day's who looked the part. When I bought Pretzel Logic, it became my favorite album of the time. I obtained a copy of a 1994 concert a while back, and was impressed with how good they sounded.

I went to see them in London in 1974, I even remember the hassle our driver had finding somewhere to park, and the subsequent frantic search for a bar, before the gig. Arriving at the venue, the foyer was a sea of faded denim, and hair, so many long haired blokes, it seemed the hippies were back, from memory it seemed a rather male audience. So when I obtained a boot of the show recently I have to say I was over the moon. I was almost nervous when I began to play it, hoping it was at least listenable, and looking for signs that this really was the gig I had attended thirty plus years ago.

The memories flooded back, this was definitely the show (all I need now is for someone to tell me, if it really was Kiki Dee supporting them? as that remains a vaguer recollection). The quality of the boot is astounding, definitely from the sound desk, and mastered, with some care.

Set List:

CD 1:
01 - Intro Bodhisattva
02 - The Boston Rag
03 - Do It Again
04 - Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me)
05 - King Of The World
06 - Rikki Don't Lose That Number
07 - Pretzel Logic
08 - Band Introductions

CD 2:
01 - My Old School
02 - Dirty Work
03 - Instrumental (Your Gold Teeth Ii)
04 - Reelin' In The Years
05 - Crowd And Tuning
06 - Show Biz Kids
07 - Crowd And Tuning
08 - This All Too Mobile Home

Band:

Donald Fagen - piano, vocals
Walter Becker - bass
Jeff Baxter - guitar
Denny Dias - guitar
Jim Hodder - drums
Jeff Porcaro - drums
Royce Jones - percussion, vocals
Michael McDonald - electric piano, vocals

Quality: Soundboard & mastered.

Reloaded 22/June/2015 link in comments.