Steely Dan - Josie (live TV 1995)

[Jelle]

I'm learning to play the "Aja" album on piano so I was searching for some YouTube video's...
Then I saw this one and thought:
Is that erskoman on drums?! (Looks like him but I'm not sure...)

[Gaddabout]

It was! He and Dennis Chambers split the drum chair on the first ever official Steely Dan live tour. You should pick up the live album. It KILLS.

[Rene]

Yep, a must have. Chambers plays an awesome solo on the Josie track. Cost me some time to figure out what he was doing ...

[gretsch-o-rama]

Dennis Chambers is amazing but Erskoman was a better fit for Steely Dan. That sounded awesome!

[Rhythmatist]

Yeah! the live album with Frankenstein on the cover...Excelent stuff by DC and Ersko.

[patdrums]

Man! Peter just NAILS this stuff. I gotta admit, years ago when I first heard he had gotten the gig I was a bit miffed. I just couldn't really see him doing it justice based on his heavy jazz background and what he had become really known for prior. And then I heard him do it......

I was, and still am, blown away by how incredibly great he sounded with the Dan. I got the "Alive In America" disc with him and Dennis and I was really bummed that they only used two tracks of his. Those two are FAR and AWAY the highlights of that record for me. I love Dennis. He's amazing. Don't get me wrong. I've been diggin him for years since I first heard him with Scofield. But I have to agree with gretsch-o-rama that Erskoman was a much better fit for Steely Dan. Dennis' sharp, angular, staccato pocket just didn't move me on their stuff. Peter took the time to really grab the smooth, rounded, laid-back groove thing that made them so great and just BLISTERED the stuff. He's just so good it's silly.

I remember a few years back when he did a Denon clinic tour with Abercrombie, Mintzer, Pattitucci etc. They played at the local Mars Music here in Nashvegas. There was space behind the stage and I went back there to really watch him up close from right behind the kit. I was mesmerized. I looked up at one point and noticed that several other people had come back there as well. I realized who all had come back there and realized the power a true master commands. To both sides of me stood Mitch Mitchell, Victor Wooten, Ian Wallace, Paul Leim, Eddie Bayers George Lawrence and several local Nashville pro drummers---all of us with our jaws dropped just amazed by his incredible touch and how masterfully he played. We were all just shaking our heads in awe. It was simply amazing.

[Andrew<3'sVinnie]

Dude, seriously, outside of the instrumental Jazz world, nothing comes close to the Dan. It's just untouchable.

I also agree Ersko was the better fit. Third World Man on the live disc is so sick. The tempo is even slower than the album but Ersko makes it work so deliciously well.

That said, as a Dan aficionado, the live disc definitely has many sore spots, particularly Donald's voice and the band sounds thinner than it does in later years.

But that vid is pretty burnin. Thanks for postin. Must be Ersko!

[deseipel]

the Alive in America album should be required study at all major universities. it was and still is, the definition of how to groove. period. PERIOD!

[Gaddabout]

FWIW, that live version of Josie feels about 6 to 8 BPMs too fast. That's not a song that I think works at that tempo. There's a needed breath in the rhythm guitar riff on verse between 1 and 2 every bar. That riff is the hook. You can't mess with the hook.

But I'm just being nitpicky because I cut my teeth on the Dan studio albums which are blissful perfection.

[Jim Richman]

This band would be great of they got rid of the singer and lead guitarist.