Ep404: Rediscovering Steely Dan's Lost Song
The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds
Nate Goyer
4.7 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 10 July 2023
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After an accidental erasure in 1979, the song "The Second Arrangement" took on mythic status for fans of Steely Dan. Now a near complete version has turned up on a worktape belonging to engineer Roger Nichols. Today we talk to Cimcie Nichols, Roger's daughter, about this incredible rediscovery and lots more about the work of her father.
Topics include:
- Digging through her father's tapes
- The story of "The Second Arrangement"
- Steely Dan attempted to remake "The Second Arrangement"
- Reacting to the picture of the tape on Facebook
- Did Roger know the interest in "The Second Arrangement"?
- The day of the track deletion
- Working w Steely Dan team after finding the tape
- The cassette was from the night before of the deletion
- Roger Nichols clip 1: Driving Lacquer master to Santa Maria
- Did you find many records amongst her dad's possessions?
- Roger Nichols clip 2: Getting rid of the clicks and pops
- There are some records but most are now gone
- Then a DAT was found! What was on the DAT?
- There's a series of backups and versions are unclear
- Will there ever be an official release of "The Second Arrangement"?
- Is Donald Fagan aware of the recent news?
- Sorting through the tapes for a Roger Nichols' archive
- Gary Katz Clip: Mustard on the master tape
- Roger and Frank Zappa were high school friends
- Roger's knowledge of physics gave him a huge advantage as a sound technician
- Ensuring pressing plants had access to high quality source material
- Roger Nichols Clip 3: Master tape mixups on "The Nightfly"
- Interview wrap up
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If you like records, just starting a collection or are an uber-nerd with a house-full of vinyl, this is the podcast for you. Nate Goyer is The Vinyl Guide and discusses all things music and record-related
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by Vintage Media Grading at VMGVinyl.com. |
| 0:04.1 | Explore how professional grading can protect your records at VMGVinyl.com. |
| 0:09.1 | And now, on with the show. |
| 0:13.2 | Ah, well, hey, everyone, it's Nate. |
| 0:15.7 | Welcome to episode 404 of The Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds, and today, |
| 0:22.8 | nerd out we shall. And it is appropriate that today is episode 404, number which has been |
| 0:30.6 | known to be associated with File Not Found, which is exactly what we're diving into today, |
| 0:36.0 | a lost Steely Dan song missing for nearly 50 years. |
| 0:41.7 | This song, called the Second Arrangement, was recorded in 1978, 1979. |
| 0:47.1 | It was nearing completion when the multi-track tape was accidentally erased. |
| 0:52.6 | Now, the song lived on in music legend. It's a fantastic track that |
| 0:57.0 | would have been the centerpiece of the gaucho album, and for years crappy lo-fi versions were |
| 1:02.9 | in circulation, and even some Steely Dan fans tried to recreate the song themselves. However, |
| 1:09.7 | recently a late stage mix was rediscovered in the possession of the family of Roger Nichols, |
| 1:17.1 | trusted confidant and engineer contributor throughout the majority of Steely Dan's career. |
| 1:22.4 | So today we speak to Roger's daughter, Simsi Nichols, who has been running point on this rediscovery |
| 1:28.4 | and keeping the Steely Dan fans and music community in general apprised of what's happening |
| 1:33.2 | with the recording. And to everyone's elation, she recently made the recording of the song |
| 1:39.1 | available for all to enjoy freely on YouTube, which if you haven't heard it, I highly recommend you do, |
| 1:46.0 | and the link to that song is in this episode page. |
| 1:49.9 | Now, for those unfamiliar with Roger Nichols, he was an incredible man, a nuclear physicist |
| 1:56.5 | turned studio owner, designer and engineer. I mean, the man was a genius at capturing audio. |
... |
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