HiRez Poll Steely Dan - EVERYTHING MUST GO [DVD-A]

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Rate the DVD-A of Steely Dan - EVERYTHING MUST GO


  • Total voters
    119
Get yourself in a very quiet environment, no one else around, queue up the title track "Everything Must Go". Wait for the brass bridge intro to fade, then, right before the song really starts, turn the volume up REALLY LOUD (assuming you have the proper sized speakers), and listen to the surround mix and detail of the little guitar snippets and the wonderful array of instruments as the song starts out - Before the vocals. WOW. That's a great surround field, and a great groove.

We'll miss you Walter. :(


Great look at the creation of this album and surround sound here: https://www.soundonsound.com/people/steely-dan
 
Get yourself in a very quiet environment, no one else around, queue up the title track "Everything Must Go". Wait for the brass bridge intro to fade, then, right before the song really starts, turn the volume up REALLY LOUD (assuming you have the proper sized speakers), and listen to the surround mix and detail of the little guitar snippets and the wonderful array of instruments as the song starts out - Before the vocals. WOW. That's a great surround field, and a great groove.

We'll miss you Walter. :(


Great look at the creation of this album and surround sound here: https://www.soundonsound.com/people/steely-dan


I do love that song. The moment (in the final verse) where the backup vocalists sing the word "boogie" may be the greatest moment in the Steely Dan catalog.....and perhaps all of recorded music. It never fails to put a big smile on my face. Thank you Elliot for positioning it in the rear right! The whole disc is, of course, another piece of Scheiner genius. Stellar mix.

Another sad loss. So lucky to have this incredible music that has enriched my life. RIP Mr. Becker. :(
 
It’s Steely Dan. The sound is a “10”.

It’s Eliot Scheiner. The surround mix is a “10”. Also

Musically? Well, it sounds like what it is: mostly a collection of songs that didn’t make the cut for “Two Against Nature”. And arrangement-wise,—-and even lyrically— it sounds more like Walter sitting in on a Fagen solo album than having the edge and snark that sets Steely Dan apart from Fagen’s solo work.

The best tracks would have been filler on any other Dan album (which isn’t a bad thing. The worst tracks on most Dan albums are still really really good). But the worst stuff here is pretty turgid. I’d have preferred this been released as an bonus disc on an expanded version of “Two Against Nature” rather than as a stand-alone album but whatever. Glad the songs were released instead of just sitting in a vault somewhere. And glad it’s in 5.1 which makes me like the album much more than I did first time around. Material is a “6”.

Overall, an “8”.

RIP Walter.
 
Not quite midnight where I live, so this is for the Attention of All Shoppers in the rest of the world, where it's already June 10th—seventeen years to the day since the last Steely Dan album was released. As the poster on a Dan forum I belong to said: "Everyone take 42 minutes of your day to appreciate this incredible album"! (Preferably in the Elliot Scheiner 5.1 mix.) Then kiss the checkout girls goodbye.
103315394_2633954823494345_751824318481933591_n.jpg

(Luckily, it wasn't the last time Walter Becker appeared on wax before his untimely death. His own Circus Money appeared five years later, on June 10, 2008. Engineered by Elliot Scheiner and featuring much of the Steely Dan touring band.)
 
Last edited:
I never got around to voting on this album, so it's been interesting to read back through the thread as I give it a couple of anniversary listens.

I know that a lot of people, not just keywhiz, write off the tunes on this album as 2vN leftovers, but I think they stand on their own. Sure, there are one or two B-listers—I think you can actually say that about almost every SD album—but no throwaways. The top of the order, right on through the clean-up batter, is killing, and I’d put “The Last Mall,” “Godwhacker,” and the title track right up there with the best entries in the Dan canon. (Okay: it’s a big canon.)

I don’t know that the mix is exactly set-it-and-forget-it, either. I mean, I’m sure that by this point, Scheiner had settled on a basic template for how best to handle this band. But he does move some things around from track to track, too; I especially like the ones where he puts guitars in the back, one in each corner. And in almost every song there’s some subtle “detail from a well-defined spot” to be surprised by: a whispery background vocal, a little accent or fillip on keyboard or guitar emerging from one of the rears. Then there’s the complex interplay between the various background and lead vocals on “Blues Beach.” (Scheiner really gets antiphony in general, whether it's between voices or, as on "The Last Mall," between lead vocal and lead guitar.) And the high point of the album for me is “Godwhacker,” where the mesmerizing guitar figure that anchors the tune in the left rear is complemented first by rhythm guitar in the right rear and, eventually, Becker’s solo in the fronts. There’s some crazy counterpoint there; at times it starts to sound like a Fela Kuti arrangement or something off of Remain in Light. Great grooves on this album overall, actually.

Anyway: hard for me not to give this a "10."
 
Last edited:
And the high point of the album for me is “Godwhacker,” where the mesmerizing guitar figure that anchors the tune in the left rear is complemented first by rhythm guitar in the right rear and, eventually, Becker’s solo in the fronts.

I remember being really surprised--in a good way, of course--by this particular mixing decision when I first picked up the DVD-A. Putting the main guitar part that drives the entire song in one of the back corners is a pretty daring move, even for Scheiner. It almost feels like an homage to the old CBS quad mixes, where that sort of thing is commonplace. The vocals hopping between the rears in "Blues Beach" is another fun and rather adventurous touch.

I see I voted an “8” at some point without leaving a comment. There are a few songs on this album that I really like (“Everything Must Go”, “Blues Beach”, “Green Book”), a few I usually skip (“Slang Of Ages”, “Pixeleen”, “Lunch With Gina”), and the remaining three fall somewhere in between. I don't love the entirety of Two Against Nature either, but I agree with @keywhiz that it's the better album just because it has more of that dark cynical vibe of the classic material. Unless I missed some clever lyric (which is entirely possibly), the songs here seem kinda dull compared to the scandalous "Janie Runaway" or "Cousin Dupree".
 
I remember being really surprised--in a good way, of course--by this particular mixing decision when I first picked up the DVD-A. Putting the main guitar part that drives the entire song in one of the back corners is a pretty daring move, even for Scheiner. It almost feels like an homage to the old CBS quad mixes, where that sort of thing is commonplace. The vocals hopping between the rears in "Blues Beach" is another fun and rather adventurous touch.

I see I voted an “8” at some point without leaving a comment. There are a few songs on this album that I really like (“Everything Must Go”, “Blues Beach”, “Green Book”), a few I usually skip (“Slang Of Ages”, “Pixeleen”, “Lunch With Gina”), and the remaining three fall somewhere in between. I don't love the entirety of Two Against Nature either, but I agree with @keywhiz that it's the better album just because it has more of that dark cynical vibe of the classic material. Unless I missed some clever lyric (which is entirely possibly), the songs here seem kinda dull compared to the scandalous "Janie Runaway" or "Cousin Dupree".

Sounds about right to me also; but I'll go with a 9! My fav tracks are - The Last Mall; Blues Beach; & Everything Must Go
There's a 1 vote :ROFLMAO: ; ohhhh Puleaseeeeeee!!!
 
...more of that dark cynical vibe of the classic material. Unless I missed some clever lyric (which is entirely possibly), the songs here seem kinda dull compared to the scandalous "Janie Runaway" or "Cousin Dupree"

Lyrically dull, maybe. Comparatively. (Although some of them are not so much dull as just plain opaque, even for them!) The songs that bookend the album have that devastating Dan cynicism, though. And there are some standout portrait-of-a-sadsack lines in "Things I Miss The Most": "I kind of like fryin' up/My sad cuisine" and "I'm learning how to meditate/So far so good/I'm building the Andrea Doria out of balsa wood."

a few I usually skip (“Slang Of Ages”, “Pixeleen”, “Lunch With Gina”)
I used to mentally pass over those ones, too. "Slang of Ages" is admittedly slight, although since his death, and after spending more years with his solo albums, I'm more endeared than annoyed by Becker's vocals. And this time through, I found "Pixeleen" and "Lunch With Gina" more musically interesting than I used to.

>Sigh.< I wonder what Fagen is doing in quarantine. Working up an album with The Nightflyers, maybe...?
 
I never got around to voting on this album, so it's been interesting to read back through the thread as I give it a couple of anniversary listens.

I know that a lot of people, not just keywhiz, write off the tunes on this album as 2vN leftovers, but I think they stand on their own. Sure, there are one or two B-listers—I think you can actually say that about almost every SD album—but no throwaways. The top of the order, right on through the clean-up batter, is killing, and I’d put “The Last Mall,” “Godwhacker,” and the title track right up there with the best entries in the Dan canon. (Okay: it’s a big canon.)

I don’t know that the mix is exactly set-it-and-forget-it, either. I mean, I’m sure that by this point, Scheiner had settled on a basic template for how best to handle this band. But he does move some things around from track to track, too; I especially like the ones where he puts guitars in the back, one in each corner. And in almost every song there’s some subtle “detail from a well-defined spot” to be surprised by: a whispery background vocal, a little accent or fillip on keyboard or guitar emerging from one of the rears. Then there’s the complex interplay between the various background and lead vocals on “Blues Beach.” (Scheiner really gets antiphony in general, whether it's between voices or, as on "The Last Mall," between lead vocal and lead guitar.) And the high point of the album for me is “Godwhacker,” where the mesmerizing guitar figure that anchors the tune in the left rear is complemented first by rhythm guitar in the right rear and, eventually, Becker’s solo in the fronts. There’s some crazy counterpoint there; at times it starts to sound like a Fela Kuti arrangement or something off of Remain in Light. Great grooves on this album overall, actually.

Anyway: hard for me not to give this a "10."

Very much in line w/ my thinking. LOVE Godwhacker! And I think very highly of this album. I gave it a 9 because it's just slightly below the best of their canon (which imo includes 2vN). But it gets more play than most all of them- between such deep familiarity of the classics and the fact that this is in surround, it gets more air time. Some great tunes and some good ones, nothing sub-par, as you said.
 
Lyrically dull, maybe. Comparatively. (Although some of them are not so much dull as just plain opaque, even for them!) The songs that bookend the album have that devastating Dan cynicism, though. And there are some standout portrait-of-a-sadsack lines in "Things I Miss The Most": "I kind of like fryin' up/My sad cuisine" and "I'm learning how to meditate/So far so good/I'm building the Andrea Doria out of balsa wood."


I used to mentally pass over those ones, too. "Slang of Ages" is admittedly slight, although since his death, and after spending more years with his solo albums, I'm more endeared than annoyed by Becker's vocals. And this time through, I found "Pixeleen" and "Lunch With Gina" more musically interesting than I used to.

>Sigh.< I wonder what Fagen is doing in quarantine. Working up an album with The Nightflyers, maybe...?

'Pixeleen' and 'Lunch With Gina' are actually two of my favorites on my favorite on the album as they at least TOUCH on being musically and lyrically interesting.

'Things I Miss The Most' I like alright except that it comes across as a poor rehash of "What A Shame About Me", which has a much better portrait-of-a-sadsack lyric.

'Blues Beach' I find to be so pedestrian that it depresses me. No way this track would have made it to the final cut of ANY previous Steely Dan album, but yet here it was the SINGLE? Both musically and lyrically---just not up to anything I'd expect from Steely Dan.

I agree the first and last tracks are the best. At least the 5.1 makes this album much more interesting to listen to than I found it to be in 2003.
 
Giving it an 8; LOVE GODWHACKER!
C'mon guys; 9's & 10's, are reserved for PERFECTION:
Gaucho, Brother in Arms, GBYBR , Dark Side of the Moon
Must I say more?
Great 5.1; enough said
 
As a drummer, I think this album has a lot more organic sounding overall drum parts than Two Against Nature, which has more of a 'Wendel' sound to it, although I love that album too. This one one just breathes a bit more and sounds more natural to me.
 
Back
Top