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SteelyDan@TanglewoodLawn seats spread out at Tanglewood
Tuesday afternoon July 26, 2011 arrived around 3 p.m. from New Jersey to Lee, Massachusetts in the Berkshires and Tanglewood for the Steely Dan concert, third week in their Shuffle Diplomacy Tour Twenty Eleven. I have never seen The Dan in concert but was always a fan stretching back to the early 70s when their music consumed my listening ears and my musical tastes were just beginning to blossom. I was enamored of the sound the band (Donald Fagen and Walter Becker to be exact) produced. The music, composing, arrangements and recording were always progressive yet had the right elements of the “groove.” One could always be seduced by the rhythmic pulse and the ever present hooks. The lyrics were mystical; the music seductive.
The concert was without a doubt the best I’ve ever attended musically. We were privy to the set list and it did not disappoint. While we did not get the names of the players, the Miles High Big Band was comprised of the essential ingredients of drums, bass, guitar with the added spice of a four man horn group; the Embassy Brats composed of three elegant and very talented singers; and a keyboardist/pianist who, along with Donald Fagen, filled out the arrangements.
The set started with Dizzy’s Bidness by the band (sans Becker and Fagen on stage). The music was sublime and the musicians in full groove. It was a momentous opening for what was to follow. Enter the main ingredients. The audience was clearly there to see and hear this concert and responded to every song with loud and enthusiastic responses. High fives were flying among the crowd. They were witnessing, as we were, the best in town and in the world.
The list: Aja, Black Friday, Hey 19, Your Gold Teeth (new arrangement), Time Out of Mind, Show Biz Kids, Bodhisattva, Janie Runaway, Godwacker, Dirty Work (sung by the Embassy Brats), Papa Don’t Mess, Babylon Sisters, Josie, Peg, My Old School and the finale, Reelin’ In The Years. The encore was Kid Charlemagne. Fagen and Becker exit stage right and the band ends the evening on their own with Last Tango. The End. And the beginning of a great tour that heads out in October for Australia and New Zealand.
I was rejuvenated. The sky’s early deluge was gone long before the concert started. We were endowed with new rain gear and warm clothes for the cool night sounds. Steely Dan’s music rocked.
05/07/2012
Backstage Pass