Gaucho Beyond the Custerdome

“You've drunk kirschwasser from a shell, made tonight a wonderful thing; you've even put a dollar in the kitty and insisted on giving that bodacious cowboy a courtesy lift to the freeway. So what's one to do now? Well, I won't suppose you've actually "played out" the Dan's mighty Gaucho (1980), for such a thing simply isn't possible, but you might be seeking another side of the Custerdome beyond one you've become awfully familiar with. Created with an Ahab-esque obsession toward perfection & grace, Messrs. Becker & Fagen's seventh album under their beloved Steely Dan moniker is a seven-track, 38-minute masterwork that, actually, could have made for a double LP, for such is the depth of the outtakes from the two-year period when the album was painstakingly recorded. If you've never heard them, rejoice, for you'll find that the "leftovers" from the Gaucho sessions are, in a word, excellent. In this Leaguer's modest opinion, you’re due to uncover a handful of songs yet to receive an official release that stand tall on their own merit in the enviable environment that is the Dan's core run through the seventies. "Kulee Baba" "The Bear" "The Second Arrangement" "I Can't Write Home About You" "Talkin' 'bout My Home" "Kind Spirit"”