Steely Dan Catalog on UHQR Vinyl

How many Dark Side of the Moon, Sargent Peppers,  (insert band) does one need?

Excellent 1st press runs up to "Gaucho" (least favorite album) in my collection.

I’m a bit confused. I understand these UHQR’s will be 45 RPM. But I believe there will also be standard $30 pressings of each title. I believe Ume is the label that will release these. I saw a link to what I believe to be the Steely Dan site, which shows a standard release for the debut Can’t Buy A Thrill.

I must say, I would greatly prefer these to be a standard release, with NO box. But to me, the biggest disappointment is they are not 33’s. The 45 is not a deal breaker for me, but it’s enough for me to pass on some if not all of these.

Steely Dan is my favorite band in the whole wide world, so, IMHO, there isn’t such a thing as too many. 😎

While I agree that most of the Dan catalog was well done, these are UHQR’s. Should be the penultimate of reissues. We shall see...

Yes...right on Steely Dan's own site....Can't Buy a Thrill on 180 gram vinyl for $30...street date November 4th. So is Chad doing these standard 33 RPM's as well. The street date of 11/4 matches the UHQR street date on the QRP video. 

mofimadness

While I agree that most of the Dan catalog was well done, these are UHQR’s. Should be the penultimate of reissues ...

I can only hope you're mistaken @mofimadness, or that you don't know the definition of "penultimate."

"But penultimate means “next to last” or “second to last.” It's probably because it adds an emphatic extra syllable to the word ultimate that people think it somehow means “more” than ultimate—but it really means less."

Sorry, I didn't know.  Thanks for the correction!

There's always the "stamper" of Aja for $700! AND, it's not noise free!

Steely Dan - Aja - Nearly White Hot Stamper (Quiet Vinyl) – Better Records (better-records.com)

Few years back, I thought Pretzel Logic @ $500 was a bit much. At least was "White Hot" status.

I can't help myself, I'm a sucker for almost anything from Steely Dan (or Donald Fagen).  I can feel my wallet getting lighter already.

Updated Info:

If I have to listen to one more audiophile reference album in my vinyl collection like any Steely Dan, please retire me to the funny farm. That's exactly why I am getting so involved in streaming, so I can make new discoveries every single day. Life is too short for listening to the same albums over and over. It sounds so much like the audiophile type with a 12 reference albums collection and experiencing the greatest sound ever. How boring. But I get it, to each his own.

I was guessing: Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones.

I had two copies of One-step "Nightfly" and didn't listen once because they were 45 RPM. To me, you buy 45's to A: Copy to Reel-to-Reel tape, B: Play to dazzle your friends, C: Invest. Who want to get up every ten minutes to turn over the record? My understanding is that 45s were chosen for production to avoid the enormous licensing fee for a 33 1/3 version.

Lastly, I can live with Aja, Gaucho, and a double album "Greatest Hits". I'm not familiar with any "non hits" song on their early albums.

+1 Baylinor

Can’t really understand the hype. Fine music and nice recordings but a little too soft and mainstream. 

Why not try Eastern Blok - Folk Tales discovered through Roon today!

+1 Baylinor

Can’t really understand the hype. Fine music and nice recordings but a little too soft and mainstream. 

Why not try Eastern Blok - Folk Tales discovered through Roon today!

For real Rock ’n’ Roll in fantastic master-tape sound, get the Analogue Productions Buddy Holly 33-1/3 LP. Buddy Holly, whose music inspired and was the template for the work of a lot of later (60’s, 70’s, and beyond) Rockers: McCartney & Lennon, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Marshall Crenshaw, a couple of the guys in Fleetwood Mac (particularly Danny Kirwin), The Hollies (their name was intentional), The Stones, even The Dead.

Then get the Buddy Holly tribute CD (hey, it was issued in 1996 ;-) entitled Not Fade Away. It contains BH songs performed by The Hollies, The Mavericks, Nanci Griffith with The Crickets, Los Lobos, The Band, The Tractors, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Joe Ely and Todd Snider, Marty Stuart and Steve Earle, Suzy Bogguss wth Dave Edmunds, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Waylon Jennings with Mark Knopfler.

If I have to listen to one more audiophile reference album in my vinyl collection like any Steely Dan, please retire me to the funny farm. That's exactly why I am getting so involved in streaming, so I can make new discoveries every single day. Life is too short for listening to the same albums over and over. It sounds so much like the audiophile type with a 12 reference albums collection and experiencing the greatest sound ever. How boring. But I get it, to each his own.

This might sound crazy, but believe it or not, you can own audiophile vinyl and listen to a wide variety of other music, both analog and digital. 

At one time in my earlier life I owned practically every half-speed and other audiophile record.  As my stereo improved I liked them less and less in favor of the best sounding original pressings.  I have sold most of those compressed audiophile records now and haven’t looked back.

@dweller 
"Lastly, I can live with Aja, Gaucho, and a double album "Greatest Hits". I'm not familiar with any "non hits" song on their early albums."

You will be rewarded by checking out non-hit cuts on the pre-Aja SD LPs. "King of the World," "Barrytown," "Only a Fool Would Say That," several others. In law school a friend and I would converse in SD lyrics to the befuddlement of others. "No marigolds in the promised land." 'Oh, no, Guadalajara won't do." Etc.

As one who got on the SD train with their first album, and have found their earliest work to have their craftiest lyrics, some of their most iconic guitar work, and best all around music, I encourage you to listen to the full albums.  Can’t Buy A Thrill and Countdown To Ecstasy are not to be ignored. The HiFi got higher with Katy Lied and Pretzel Logic.  The pinnacle is Aja, IMO, but every album has some non-hit. gems.

@big_greg +1 

This might sound crazy, but believe it or not, you can own audiophile vinyl and listen to a wide variety of other music, both analog and digital. 

I've loved Steely Dan ever since hearing Do It Again on the radio as a kid. I've got most of the LPs; the standard version OP and early reissue pressings and vinyl mixes are mediocre quality vs. any of the better SQ LPs available today. UHQR SQ is arguably the very best. Sure their are some who have listen to the gear with just 12 Jacintha and the Weavers albums. There are also plenty of us who include Dan in a large collections of great MUSIC but want better quality versions of these fantastic albums.

IMO, the digital versions prove there's so much detail in these masterpieces. Couple that musical nuance with great analog tape extraction to excellent vinyl pressings and...yeah, there's plenty to be excited about. The Who catalog would benefit from the same treatment, as Classic Records recognized back in the day, but in small quantities. Cheers,

Spencer

A lot of whiners on this thread. Getting up to turn over a 45rpm vinyl record is? Pathetic! Steely Dan being "Mainstream" is a legitimate reason not to listen?

@dayglow - Congrats! You can now count yourself as a whiner!

I just want the DSD 256 download

Will this finally bring "Katy Lied" up to SQ approval of Donald Fagan?

@baylinor  I know where you are coming from and I am always checking Amazon music along with looking at reviews of new music etc, but when I listen to stuff that gets good reviews I am so very often disappointed. So often I listen to the 1st few bars and you know you have heard it all before but nowhere near as good.

It seems to me that there just aren't the bands or artist's coming through that I had the privilege of listening to back in the 70's, 80's etc. I don't think we will ever see bands with the status of Led Zeppelin,  Black Sabbath, Yes, Deep Purple, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Who, the Stones, Roxy Music, Aerosmith, Journey, The Eagles etc etc again, bands that filled Stadiums, these bands were unique in their own way.

I confess I have found odd exceptions but the bands will never get the airtime etc to make it to the status of the above bands, and I think this is why we cherish bands like the above because the music was so damned good.

@alan60 

I hear you. Agreed on reading reviews on new music and being disappointed once buying the album. Done that multiple times. That's where streaming truly gives its best value. You can listen to anything you chose for basically free other than the small monthly fee on a site like qobuz. And I am making the best of it. If anything is really good I might still buy the CD more so than the vinyl since those are more expensive each day and I must say I enjoy that savings and puting it in better equipment instead. However, for most albums I just keep them on qobuz in my favorites. Simple enough. And super easy to access. As far as new bands not measuring up to our old generation, I am 68, it would all depend on your tastes. I personally enjoy many bands from this century as much as I enjoyed the late 60s early 70s period that I grew up in. Like prog, prog alt or even prog metal and electronic music. A few examples are  Porcupine Tree, Pineapple Thief, Riverside, Boris Blank, Yello, William Orbitt, Yeahman, Infected Mushroom, Marian Hill, OSI, HAAi, Lunatic Soul. Primus, to name a few.

Anyway, all this to say it makes it that I listen to my old favorite stuff less and less. As far as I am concerned there is still a good amount of great music out there even so the majority sucks. You just need to have a good search engine, the streamer, and time on your hands. I have both :)

Want to hear what a truly great sounding mastering and pressing can do for the sound of an LP? Get a copy of the Cat Stevens Tea For The Tillerman album in:

1: An original U.S.A. A & M Records pressing

2: An original UK "pink label" UK Island pressing, or the "Palm Tree/Sunray label" 2nd pressing.

3: An Analogue Productions reissue, either the 1-disc 33-1/3 RPM pressing or the 2-disc 45 RPM one (both mastered by Bernie Grundman).

If after listening to all three or four you still think all originals are better than all reissues, you may want to consider upgrading your hi-fi.

I've done that Cat Stevens comparison.  And that is exactly why I buy a good number of reissues of my favorite albums.   Once in a while they turn out to be a let down.  The vast majority of them, however, are excellent.  I am a good customer of Acoustic Sounds and pay close attention to AP/QRP issues.

Well, personally I much prefer the organic and dynamic sound of Katy Lied to the over processed mainstream sound of later SD recordings. It also has the best songs…Daddy is to kill for :-)

Mine are ordered! Can’t wait!

Just ordered Countdown To Ecstasy! December 2nd is the ship date. Hope for a low number(<1000).

Are those UHQR records the ones that cost $150 or something? 

@dayglow: Pray for number 1001. That will be made with a fresh stamper (no. 1000 will be the last made with the old one).

Being a Steely Dan obsessed fan (I’ve seen them 20+ times including Fagen solos and Dukes of September concerts, read Fagen’s book and met him briefly at a book signing- he’s not what I would call sociable) I am afraid I will break down for 2-3 of the UHQRs coming out. My copies of Royal Scam and Pretzel Logic were standard issues, so they’re definite candidates. I have Gaucho an an excellent Japanese pressing so that’s out, I have Can’t Buy from Speakers Corner, which is fantastic, Katy Lied on an Original Mofi that doesn’t sound great, but is my 2nd from the bottom favorite, so I’ll stick with that, and Countdown is at the bottom, and even though it’s on a standard pressing, it sounds decent and I won’t be paying $150 for that. That leaves Aja. In my mind a top 10 album of all time. I have it on an Original Mofi, which I will probably end up selling and buying that UHQR.

I wish they would issue Kamakiriad on vinyl, and Morph the Cat reissue in the US (it previously was released in Europe and the prices are not worth it for my least favorite album of Fagen). Of course Nightfly is a classic, only outshone by Aja (I have it on an excellent Japanese pressing so didn’t go for that One Step which I hear is unbelievable), Sunken Condos was issued on clarity vinyl (or at least the vinyl is clear) and is second to The Nightfly, but not that close in Fagen’s solo offerings (were really SD albums but don’t get the same notoriety).

I have record store day issues of SDs 20th century albums, and they are excellent sounding, so I will stick with them. I even have a pre SD Fagen/Becker album that was really a movie soundtrack - You Gotta Walk it Like you Talk It that is kind of like a fossil that had maybe one SD worthy track. I think I’ve played it 2-3 times.

In all of the 13 albums in their catalogue of mine (I didn’t mention the Northeast Corridor live album I bought the day it came out) aside from You Gotta Walk it, there is only one song I skip. It’s a Becker (RIP) song and vocal and it’s easy to do so as it is the last song on side 1 of Everything Must Go, their last album. 

I can’t say that about any other group, even the Beatles.

Anyone seen them more than 20 times?

Please help me…..

I meant 21st century albums - 2 Against Nature and Everything Must Go.

It would be nice if there was an option between the $30 and $150 options for the 20th center releases like there are for 2 Against Nature and Everything Must Go. Acoustic Sounds has them for $60 (I think they are 45s, which I like). If they could do away with all the excess packaging for the collectors out there and cut the price in half, I would buy more of them. Just the music please, in good sleeves and jackets to protect them. No need to put them in vaults that you never intend to remove them from.

I've seen them probably 50+ times.  A few years ago, I saw them at both of the shows on the coasts, (Classic West & Classic East) they did with The Eagles and Doobies and Fleetwood Mac. 

I have over 15 different copies of AJA alone.  Not sure how many copies in all of their albums I have, but it's a bunch.

Had dogs named Josie and Rikki.

@bdp24...I've been told by people in the know, (well, I think they are) that there is no exact number each One-Step lacquer can press.  The amount was always between 400-700?  They have to keep a close eye and ear on them.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! You got me beat by a mile. Have you ever met DF?

Did you read his book?

Are there any decent pressing of Katy Lied, or is the tape too far gone?

In law school a friend and I would converse in SD lyrics to the befuddlement of others. "No marigolds in the promised land." 'Oh, no, Guadalajara won't do." Etc.
 

hickamore  “…solamente un tonto…”  🤓

Stupidest lyrics ever:

"Is there gas in the car?  Yes, there's gas in the car"  😊

pretty cool

how about technicolor motorhome?

mofimadness had penultimate right,

there will always be another "best re-issue"

😄