Donald Fagen: Nightfly Trilogy

I'd buy if there was a remastering, sucker that I yam.

 

They don't need remastering, unless you want them LOUDER!!!

 

I say, let Steve remaster all three albums. That way we can all learn if it's possible to improve the way Kamakiriad can sound. That's like wondering how hot the sun can get without burning us all up.

Take the best tracks off of Morph The Cat and mix them up with the best tunes off of Everything Must Go-wow, Steely Fagan has arrived!

 

AmazonUK now lists this set as "cancelled". Oh well.....

 

.

 

Ditto.

 

Wonderful.

I guess we can add this to the deleted pile with those MCA-era SACD's from a couple years back that never materialized.

 

Update...this release is now officially announced on the Steely Dan website as part of the press release for their upcoming tour:

"The Dan's extraordinary, three-decade-plus catalog of smash songs
is also captured on The Best of Steely Dan: The Millennium
Collection, due October 2 on Universal Records, and The Donald Fagen
Trilogy Collection coming out May 22 on Rhino Records."

Here is the link to the full press release as well:

http://www.steelydan.com/tour07pr.html

 

October 2, 2007?

 

RoyalScam, are we talking HiRez here or is this more smoke and mirrors from Universal?

 

Gosh, who knows? Doesn't say so in the press release...

 

Okay, here's the official story...now postponed AGAIN till June 5th:

Donald Fagen's Nightfly Trilogy 3-CD box set due June 5th

(from a Rhino press release)

LOS ANGELES - Donald Fagen and Walter Becker - AKA Steely Dan - carved out a unique space in popular music scoring hits with tightly arranged songs that combined literate, ironic lyrics, their own eccentric musical idiom and sophisticated production. As a solo artist, Fagen recorded a trio of peerless albums spread out over 25 years including The Nightfly, Kamakiriad (both Grammy-nominated for Album of the Year) and Morph The Cat, which earned a 2006 Grammy for Best Surround Sound. Rhino presents all three in a special MVI (Music Video Interactive) boxed set that includes each as a DTS 5.1, Dolby 5.1 and PCM Stereo mix along with bonus audio and video. Each disc will also feature the UrTone application, which is a brand-new technology that allows customers to select any track or any portion of a track they want as their ringtone by using a simple drag bar. THE NIGHTFLY TRILOGY will be available June 5 at regular retail outlets and www.rhino.com for a suggested price of $59.98.

The MVI (Music Video Interactive) disc is a DVD loaded with exciting new features. Superior sound quality plus a wide range of video and interactive content combine to bring you closer to the artists and their music. It plays in all standard DVD players, computers and game consoles with DVD drives. Digital music files are compatible with all MP3 devices.

The boxed set takes its name from Fagen's 1982 solo debut. A note from the original The Nightfly album sleeve explains the concept: "The songs on this album represent certain fantasies that might have been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties, i.e., one of my general height, weight and build."

The MVI album contains all eight original album cuts including the hit "I.G.Y.," "New Frontier" and the title track, a collective portrait of the late-night radio personalities Fagen grew up listening to. The bonus material features "Century's End," a song composed for the film Bright Lights Big City, "True Companion," which was written for the animated movie Heavy Metal, plus a live version of The Nightfly song "Green Flower Street", originally released on Fagen's Live at the Beacon: The NY Rock & Soul Revue. The disc also contains videos for "New Frontier" and "Century's End."


Explaining the 11-year gap between The Nightfly and its follow-up Kamakiriad, Fagen writes in the boxed set's liner notes: "During the final mix down of [The Nightfly], I started to feel kind of funny, and that feeling turned into an even weirder feeling that had to do with work and love and the past and mortality and so forth. I wouldn't complete another CD until 1993. So I'm glad I made The Nightfly before a lot of the kid-ness was beat the hell out of me, as happens to us all."

His second solo effort, Kamakiriad, centers around a journey in a futuristic car, a Kamakiri Steam Power 10. Produced by Walter Becker, the MVI album contains all eight original songs including the album opener, "Trans-Island Skyway", "Snowbound" (co-written with Becker) and the single "Tomorrow's Girls." The bonus tracks include the instrumentals "Shanghai Confidential" and "Blue Lou", a composition written for tenor man Lou Marini. Also included are demo versions of "Confide In Me" and "Big Noise New York", a song originally written for Spike Lee. The bonus videos feature "Tomorrow's Girls" and "Snowbound" as well as a behind-the-scenes documentary.

Winner of the Grammy for Best Surround Sound, Morph The Cat was released in 2006. In the boxed set's liner notes, Fagen writes about the album's origins: "September 10, 2001: My mother turned 76. September 11, 2001: You know about that one. January 9, 2003: My mother died of Alzheimer's disease. January 10, 2003: I turned 55. All these numbers somehow add up to this album, the last in this series." The album's original nine songs are presented on the MVI album featuring the title track, "Brite Nitegown" and "Security Joan," a song about a romance sparked when the narrator is wanded during a tedious airport security check by an enchanting female officer. The bonus tracks include previously unreleased live versions of "Hank's Pad" and "Viva Rock And Roll" along with "Rhymes" (an Al Green song originally intended to promote a review that never came off) and an interview originally aired on NPR's World Cafe program.

Taken together, the three albums present a rich and wry musical portrait of a the artist and his times.


THE NIGHTFLY
Track Listing

1. "I.G.Y."
2. "Green Flower Street"
3. "Ruby Baby"
4. "Maxine"
5. "New Frontier"
6. "The Nightfly"
7. "The Goodbye Look"
8. "Walk Between Raindrops"

Bonus Audio:
1. "True Companion"
2. "Green Flower Street" (Live)
3. "Century's End"

Bonus Video:
1. "New Frontier"
2. "Century's End"


KAMAKIRIAD
Track Listing

1. "Trans-Island Skyway"
2. "Countermoon"
3. "Springtime"
4. "Snowbound"
5. "Tomorrow's Girls"
6. "Florida Room"
7. "On The Dunes"
8. "Teahouse On The Tracks"

Bonus Audio:
1. "Big Noise New York"
2. "Confide In Me"
3. "Blue Lou"
4. "Shanghai Confidential"
5. Dean Seay Interview/Reprise Promo (1993)

Bonus Video:
1. "Tomorrow's Girls"
2. "Snowbound"
3. Kamakiriad Behind The Scenes Documentary


MORPH THE CAT
Track Listing

1. "Morph The Cat"
2. "H Gang"
3. "What I Do"
4. "Brite Nitegown"
5. "The Great Pagoda Of Funn"
6. "Security Joan"
7. "The Night Belongs To Mona"
8. "Mary Shut The Garden Door"
9. "Morph The Cat" (Reprise)

Bonus Audio:
1. "Rhymes"
2. "Hank's Pad" (Live)*
3. "Viva Rock And Roll"*
4. World Cafe Interview

*Previously Unreleased


So here are the questions:

1. Who remastered it? (Contenders: Bill Inglot, Roger Nichols, Darcy Proper)

2. No Bass, Drum & Vocal versions or Radio Edits from the Kamakiriad era singles?

3. Who will be the first to have "I'm Lester the Nightfly, Hello Baton Rouge" as their ringtone? (Not me, I hate ringtones)

 

Probably Dan Hersch at Digiprep

 

Great news. "Confide In Me" is one of Donalds' best tracks, in my opinion. Nice to see it available again.

 

My guess is no one. They probably just took the exisiting ones and stuck em all together.

 

Good news.

I'm a little down that Bright Lights, Big City has once again escaped official release.

I wonder if the version of Century's End is the one on the Bright Lights, Big City soundtrack, or is the remix from Gold-Expanded Edition? I guess it doesn't really matter since the differences are so subtle. I prefer the original mix, though.

The radio edits of New Frontier and Tomorrow's Girls would have been nice. Of course, I have 'em already, but that's not the point.

Was there a radio edit of I.G.Y.? I always thought that the album version was the same as the one I remember being played on the radio.

 

Are the bonus tracks in 5:1??
The release doesn't imply that they are...or does it?

 

Odd men left out:

Bass, drum, vocal mixes of Kamakiriad tunes. No big loss, IMHO.

"Home At Last" live at the Beacon. I know this one doesn't really belong on this set, but it would be nice to see it somewhere - it's a nice version.

 

very good news..... !!!

 

I want my ringtone to be: "Won't you pour me a Cuban Breeze, Gretchen"

 

I doubt it...

Though it's unclear if the bonus audio is on the CD, or the DVD, or both, if it's on the CD then I would imagine they remastered everything so they sound more "of a set" (read: louder)

And I'll add Bob Ludwig to my list of potential remasterers for this project...I just re-checked my DVD-A's of Nightfly and Kama and Mr. Ludwig is listed as the mastering engineer for those.

 

That's what I was wondering when I read it.

Speaking of DVD-A, I find it interesting that The Nightfly DVD-A is so highly regarded, or at least it seems to be by most, given that it was originally recorded at 16 bit 50khz (or so i have read), and then converted to 24 bit 48khz for the DVD-A. We all know you can't magically pull extra bits out of thin air to make 16 bit sound like 24. I wonder why they didn't leave it at 16 bit. Of course, I don't know the whole process that was involved in the transfer. It's too bad they had to change it from 50k to 48k, I'd think it would suffer during that conversion. I suppose DVD-A is not capable of doing 50k, it is an unusual rate by todays standards.

Anyway, since everybody says great things about it, it's on my to get list.

 

Thanks for sharing this info. Unless I'm missing it, does it explicity state that the DVDs will be in lossless surround?

 

Looks like LOSSY to me:

 

Bleh.