The five best lost and unreleased Steely Dan songs
There is no band in the world quite as dedicated to the art of songwriting as Steely Dan. Their love for the craft was even considered by many to be controversial, as they decided to temporarily abandon the idea of touring and instead became an entirely studio-based band, constantly expanding on their concept of instrumentation, sound, and song structure.
The result? A discography of exciting music that fails to be put into one specific style or genre. They have experimented with various instruments, vocal arrangements and recording techniques, producing a genuinely innovative music collection. Granted, some of the songs the band have released don’t quite hit the mark, but most of them make for a pretty good listen.
Of course, when you spend as much time as Steely Dan did in the studio, forever writing new and exciting songs and getting lost in what would work and what wouldn’t, a lot ends up on the cutting room floor. It’s gotten to the point that Steely Dan fans have made it their personal endeavour to find lost and unreleased tracks so they can be brought to the surface and enjoyed.
Some of the unreleased songs that have been found are exceptionally good, which makes it sad that they were never actually put out into the world. However, with the wonders of the internet, many are now available on YouTube. Here are five of their very best.
The best unreleased Steely Dan songs:
‘The Second Arrangement’
This is an incredibly funk-infused track. Every second is a moment of head-bopping goodness, with catchy vocal melodies and a harmonised chorus that won’t leave the listener’s head for hours once it’s entered. When you consider some of Steely Dan’s misses in their career, it boggles the mind to wonder why ‘The Second Arrangement’ never saw the light of day.
Well, it turns out the song was deleted by accident. It was initially supposed to be the closer for their 1980 album Gaucho but was deleted before the album could be finalised. Devasted, the band tried to rerecord the song but to no avail, so fans are now left with a shoddy demo of what might have been.
‘(You Got) The Bear’
Starting with Waltz-like keys, ‘The Bear’ has Steely Dan’s trademark unpredictability from the second it starts playing. It was one of the tracks cut out from the Aja album, an all-killer, no-filler record filled with hits. As such, it can be expected that some good songs were left out, but none makes fans yearn quite like ‘The Bear’ does.
Even in rough form, this song sounds great. It has a calm and collected swagger as the band sings about an otherworldly figure resembling a bear. Steely Dan has since started playing this song at a few gigs live, which shows even they know they might have missed out on a winner by not releasing it.
‘Kulee Baba’
This one stings. While Steely Dan was still releasing songs on vinyl before the globalisation of the CD, they had to be strict with songs that were cut, and none represented lost potential quite as much as ‘Kulee Baba’.
The song sets the stage for an entire album’s worth of beauty as it follows the awakening of a live reality TV and news reporter. Several versions of the song are available on the internet, some of which are much higher quality than others. Still, all show the catchiness and ambiguity of this song, which was never meant to be.
‘I Can’t Write Home About You’
This is a twisted love song about a protagonist who can’t resist the allure of the darker side of his town. He is pulled into the world of smoky jazz bars, both extraordinary and illicit, to the point he feels as though he cannot talk about his interests with anybody else.
The online version is stripped back and poorly recorded, with just the lyrics and a single piano paving the way; however, it still highlights the song’s potential very well. With an interesting narrative and a catchy hook that would get anyone’s toe-tapping, this is undoubtedly an unreleased track to write home about.
‘Kind Spirit’
As the upbeat piano and chorus of “na-na-na” kicks this track off, if not for the poor quality, you would think it was a hit. It’s immediately catchy and has replay value before it’s even finished. However, it’s another whose destiny was the bin.
Fans have described it as a friendly ghost of a song. It has a very well-flushed-out melody, which is undeniable, and even though it lacks lyrics, these would have likely been written had the song ever gotten any further in the recording process.
