The thing I liked about the Steely Dan albums was the quality of the recording. Just the sound of the all the different musicians like Larry Carlton and voices like McDonald's... It's just hard to imagine a venue that can reproduce the clarity of the vocals and the really tight instrumentals.
I'm an analog kinda guy stuck in a digital world.
I like Chet Atkins, Tommy Emmanuel and Stevie Ray... the whole gamut. ZZ Top's Rio Grande Mud album is sitting in the bookcase next to me as is Nights in White Satin and Gino Vanelli (hahahaha).
I think that some groups are great at touring and some just have magic in the studio.
I just never thought that Steely Dan would sound that great in a big venue and I'd never be able to afford a ticket to a small venue if they played.
I think most people don't realize that a "record company" is just a bank making the artist a loan and the company is using the music sales as collateral for the return on " their investment".
Same as a "movie studio".. just a bank for movies to be made.
Once everyone realizes that, then we can see why the RIAA and all the lawyers are involved with royalties, copyrights and money.
Dan plays mostly mid-range venues now. They probably don’t get the breadth of sound you hear in the albums, but they do a good job of creating a good Steely Dan sound that carries them through the show. They’re rehearsed very tight and surround themselves with musicians that can pull it off. And they’re having fun, the big difference between Dan touring in the 70s and since the reformation is they hated it then but they like it now, musicians enjoying themselves on stage will always make for a good show even if it lacks certain bits of technical perfection.
Well record companies do a bit more (promotion and distribution) but at their hearts yes they’re basically loan officers, and they want the money. The RIAA tends to go too far, I’ll be the first to agree with that, but it doesn’t excuse violating copy right. Most bands don’t make a lot of money, it’s easy to watch an episode of Crib and say they won’t miss a couple of pennies from bootlegs. But most bands don’t get those cribs, 90% of the bands out there are working their butts off for the members to live a middle class life (or less), now they’re OK with that because the love what they’re doing, but they do miss a couple of pennies from bootlegs.