Disco de Steely Dan: “Yellow Peril”

This is from the Dan's official web site, used without bothering to ask permission because those of us who love the band would like to do us fans AND the band a favor (there's a nice list of all the fake SD CDs at the end, and it includes this one):

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Hey Craig:

I was over at Tower Records last night, buying CDs for the Radio Free Steely Dan thing - and when I checked the SD bin it was once again choked with all kinds of fake SD records - bootlegs and the same set of crummy old demos repackaged on all sorts of little fly-by-night labels*. I feel sorry for the fans who buy these stinkeroos thinking they are getting the new Steely Dan CD but I also feel sorry for us, because as you are aware we don't get a penny in royalties from any of these old repackages. It's just not fair - we work our butts off doing the guitar solo on "Jack of Speed" and some newbie runs out and buys "I Can't Function." Is there no justice in the world? In the words of Warren Beatty - is there no protest? Is there no outrage?

Look, I have an idea that will help us get our foot in the door of the booming fake SD market. My engineer at Hyperbolic Sound in Hawaii, Dave Russell, has made a childrens' album called "The Singing Mongooses." He sells them in stores in Hawaii and on the internet. It's a spinoff on the old chipmunk records, with sped-up voices and all - but this time they're not chipmunks, they're mongooses, like the ones you see all over Hawaii - get it? They sing cute little songs about living in Hawaii. See what I mean? Dave did all the vocals and played all the instruments too, and he did a great job.

Anyhoo, sales of The Mongooses have begun to slack off a bit and, although Dave hasn't mentioned anything about this, I couldn't help but notice that there are several large stacks of unsold Mongoose CDs stashed in his office. My plan, Craig, is simply this: we buy out the remaining stock of The Mongoose CDs. We slap a sticker on the front of the things that says "Steely Dan: The Furry Years." We promote the hell out of them here on the internet, sell 'em through the website, maybe even send a couple down to Tower Records in NYC to see what happens. Of course neither Donald nor I are on the record but, what with the sped-up vocals, who's gonna know that for sure? Nobody, that's who. I mean, what the hell - it'll be a rip-off, but at least it will be OUR rip-off. For a change.

W 1/19/00

* Note - This is a partial list: Additional re-re-re-releases appear almost monthly

Android Warehouse

Any World That I'm Welcome To

Art Crimes

Becker & Fagen of Steely Dan

Becker and Fagen - The Collection

Becker and Fagen - The Early Years

Becker and Fagen - The Masters

Beginnings

Berry Town

Brooklyn

Catalyst

Collection

Come Back Baby

Cosmic Forces

Doing It Again

Featuring Walter Becker & Donald Fagen

Fleetwood Mac and Steely Dan

Forward Into The Past

Founders of Steely Dan Vol I & II

Legends

Old Regime

Origins of Steely Dan

Roaring of the Lamb

The Root of Steely Dan

Roots of Steely Dan

Spotlight on Steely Dan

Star Power

Steely Dan

Steely Dan Featuring Becker & Fagen

Steely Dan Featuring Walter Becker and Donald Fagen

Stone Piano

Sun Mountain

Tempus Fugit

The Caves of Altamira

The Collection

The Early Times

The Early Years

The Legends Collection

The Root of Steely Dan

The Steely Dan Collection

This Is Steely Dan

Yellow Peril

You Go Where I Go

Walter Becker and Donald Fagen

This CD is just another in the long list of unauthorized Steely Dan CD's that all contain the same songs.

Having obtained this out of curiosity only (I bought this with Donald Fagen's stupendous "The Nightfly" and "Kamakiriad" releases...thus cleansing my conscience for the time being) it is exactly how Walter Becker described it:

"...crummy old demos..."

The sound is what it is: No budget cassette or reel-to-reel. Definitely not up to par with SD's official discography. And, sadly, the purchase of this means that someone else other than the artists involved get the dough.

No matter whatever way one looks at this, from its shoddily ugly artwork down to its poor production values, it just sucks. Morally and sonically.

Keep your conscience clean: Buy the REAL deal!

Why does Amazon even sell this? The title "Yellow Peril" is well taken, although perhaps "Yellow Snow" would be more apt. The Dan deserve the royalties they earn from their legitimate releases. I wish Amazon would stick to them.