I mean no offense to those who've raved about Owsley's live note-for-note
cover of "My Old School" (right down to his meticulously copying the Skunk
Baxter guitar solo) and who'd like to hear him re-create it for a proposed
power-pop Steely Dan tribute album. But I thought that the whole point of
recording a cover -- as opposed to performing one live in order to win over
a crowd by giving them something familiar -- was to put your own stamp on
the song, not to render a Rundgren-*Faithful*-type studio simulacrum of the
original version.

Frankly, I'd love to hear Owsley do something else by Steely Dan for the
tribute album, preferably a song he hasn't already painstakingly mastered.
Let someone less familiar with the song do "My Old School" -- they'll
probably bring fresher ideas to the table.


Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 19:51:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: scott klass <scott_klass@yahoo.com>
To: audities@smoe.org
Subject: Re: Steely Dan  cover
Message-ID: <20040831025113.74156.qmail@web51408.mail.yahoo.com>

We've covered "midnight cruiser" several times in the
past and would love to put it on a record!

scott klass
the davenports


That's my favorite SD song, Scott. If you Noo Yawkers ever make it out here
to Chicago, be sure to add "Midnight Cruiser" to your set list for that gig.
Believe me, you don't want to have to deal with me standing front-and-center
in the crowd screaming it as a request all night. I can be very persistent!


Gregory Sager