Gaucho

***Gaucho*** is the seventh studio album by the band Steely Dan in November 1980 by MCA Records. It is considered by some to be their best album, released a whopping 3 years after their sixth album *Aja* in 1977. It has longer songs, like *Aja*, but it's funkier and features more focus on certain grooves and rhythms than chord progressions and solos. The album's creation was marked with personal, creative, and technical abilities. It is also one of the most expensive albums, costing about $1,000,000 dollars (now about $3,100,000).

## Background

After the smash success of their 1977 album *Aja,* bandleaders Walter Becker and Donald Fagen got to work on the next album. However, the pair's friendship was beginning to crumble due to Becker's drug addiction. By this point in time, the duo had established themselves as the only members of Steely Dan.

During the creation of the album, Becker was hit by a car while walking to his apartment, sustaining multiple fractures in one leg and a sprain in the other. During his six month stay at the hospital, he and Fagen continued to write songs via telephone. The rest of the album's recording history was troubled: Fagen was done with the terrible record label ABC Records (picked up by MCA Records in 1979), and wanted to release their new release on Warner Bros. Records. However, Steely Dan was still entitled to produce one more album for ABC.

The album is known for its vast outtakes, including "Kulee Baba", "I Can't Write Home About You", and "Talkin' 'Bout My Home". However, the most famous is "The Second Arrangement". We only know about these demos because of an unknown producer who was supposed to add the horns to the tracks. The producer would extract the tapes and convert them to cassettes to put out.

In this period, *Gaucho* was probably considered for a double album, but that idea was probably scrapped. The album originally featured "The Second Arrangement" as the closer. The infamous story is that a junior tape engineer was trying to transfer the song to blank tape for listening, but accidentally transferred the silence of the tape to the song, destroying 3/4 of the recording. It was replaced with "Third World Man".

## Music and Lyrics

The album, like most other Steely Dan albums, the lyrics are dark, and the music is upbeat and happy. Specifically in this album, the music borrows from the funk and disco scenes that had gotten popular in the late 1970s, and this album tries to focus on specific atmospheres and rhythms than chord progressions and lyrics. The album also gets progressively darker, starting on "Babylon Sisters", an ode to California, and ending on "Third World Man", a song about a child soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in conflict. The album is one of the first to use digital programming to create soundscapes, including the $150,000 drum machine known as **"WENDEL"**. It reportedly took hours to create 20 seconds of music. However, it gave Fagen the creative control he needed.

## Packaging and marketing

The album cover depicts a remade version of a wall plaque entitled "Guardia Vieja – Tango" (translation: Old Guard – Tango). In it, a couple (referred to by the community as "the Gaucho Lady & Gentleman") are seen doing the tango. It spawned the hit single "Hey Nineteen" which peaked at #10 in the *Billboard* Hot 100. It also spawned the minor hit "Time Out of Mind". The album was released in stores for $9.98, a dollar higher than the usual $8.98 (in 1980).

## Track listing

1. "Babylon Sisters" **– 5:48**
2. "Hey Nineteen" **– 5:07**
3. "Glamour Profession" **– 7:28**
4. "Gaucho" **– 5:30**
5. "Time Out of Mind" **– 4:12**
6. "My Rival" **– 4:30**
7. "Third World Man" **– 5:14**

## Personnel

**Steely Dan**

* Donald Fagen – vocals, synthesizer, electric piano, organ
* Walter Becker – bass, guitar

**"Babylon Sisters"**

* Donald Fagen – lead vocals
* Bernard Purdie – drums
* Chuck Rainey – bass guitar
* Don Grolnick – electric piano, Clavinet
* Steve Khan – guitar
* Errol "Crusher" Bennett – percussion
* Randy Brecker – trumpet, flugelhorn
* Tom Scott – tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, clarinet
* George Marge, Walter Kane – bass clarinets
* Lesley Miller, Patti Austin, Toni Wine, Lani Groves, Diva Gray, Gordon Grody – backing vocals
* Rob Mounsey – horn arrangement

**"Hey Nineteen"**

* Donald Fagen – lead vocals, electric piano, synthesizer
* Rick Marotta – drums
* Walter Becker – bass guitar, guitar
* Hugh McCracken – guitar
* Victor Feldman, Steve Gadd – percussion
* Frank Floyd, Zack Sanders – backing vocals

**"Glamour Profession"**

* Donald Fagen – lead vocals, electric piano, synthesizer
* Steve Gadd – drums
* Anthony Jackson – bass guitar
* Rob Mounsey – piano
* Steve Khan – guitar
* Ralph MacDonald – percussion
* Michael Brecker – tenor saxophone
* Tom Scott – tenor saxophone, Lyricon, horn arrangement
* Lesley Miller, Valerie Simpson, Frank Floyd, Zack Sanders – backing vocals

**"Gaucho"**

* Donald Fagen – lead vocals, electric piano, synthesizer
* Jeff Porcaro – drums
* Walter Becker – bass guitar, guitar solo
* Rob Mounsey – piano
* Steve Khan – guitar
* Errol "Crusher" Bennett – percussion
* Tom Scott – tenor saxophone, horn arrangement
* Randy Brecker – trumpet
* Lesley Miller, Valerie Simpson, Patti Austin – backing vocals

**"Time Out of Mind"**

* Donald Fagen – lead vocals, electric piano, synthesizer
* Rick Marotta – drums
* Walter Becker – bass guitar, guitar
* Rob Mounsey – piano, horn arrangement
* Hugh McCracken – guitar
* Mark Knopfler – guitar solo
* Randy Brecker – trumpet
* Michael Brecker, Dave Tofani – tenor saxophone
* David Sanborn – alto saxophone
* Ronnie Cuber – baritone saxophone
* Michael McDonald, Lesley Miller, Patti Austin, Valerie Simpson – backing vocals

**"My Rival"**

* Donald Fagen – lead vocals, organ, synthesizer
* Steve Gadd – drums
* Anthony Jackson – bass guitar
* Pat Rebillot – electric piano
* Hiram Bullock, Rick Derringer – guitars
* Steve Khan – guitar solo
* Ralph MacDonald – percussion
* Nicholas Marrero – timbales
* Randy Brecker – flugelhorn
* Michael Brecker – tenor saxophone
* Tom Scott – tenor saxophone, Lyricon, horn arrangement
* Wayne Andre – trombone
* Valerie Simpson, Frank Floyd, Zack Sanders – backing vocals

**"Third World Man"**

* Donald Fagen – lead vocals
* Steve Gadd – drums
* Chuck Rainey – bass guitar
* Joe Sample – electric piano
* Steve Khan – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
* Larry Carlton – guitar solo
* Rob Mounsey – synthesizer