As a live band member you are a different animal than the guys in the studio.
You are so right!
I'm always slightly in awe of live players - I was never any good at it.... fine in the studio, left to my own devices.
The opposite way round for me! In a "one take" session for the BBC for example there is immense pressure for six musicians to get it right first time, this seldom leads to a natural, impulsive and tight sound. A live gig on the other hand was always more relaxed as you could "go for it" knowing a slight slip wouldn't be noticeable to the majority of the crowd. A live session that was being recorded was a whole different ball game, but I still preferred it to the studio.
I meant it more like Gordon did. I wouldn't say that I wanted to offset the qualities of the live band with the skills of the studio musicians. But the stress in the studio is enormous for someone who only plays his own boot. That becomes clear in this interview.
[video:youtube][/video]
Back to the thread regarding live performance. Here is a song of my favorite band or artists ever. As far as Steely Dan's extraordinary live performance is concerned, it was born out of neurosis, at least in my opinion. Steely Dan is a good example when it comes to bringing the most extraordinary sound of a studio recording "on stage". So it's the other way round than most of the time...at least when I think of bands as it used to be that they tried to bring the stage sound into the recording session. Donald Fagen never performed live for about 20 years because he and Walter Becker were too shy and their standards were too high. In 1977 they probably could not have really realised the album "Aja" on the live stage.
But the sting of ambition never left Donald. It wasn't until, I think, 1991 that the time came. The first live performance (and album) in decades. Donald and Walter had brought together the best studio and live musicians and formed a breathtaking band. With greats like Peter Erskine on drums, who knows both worlds very well, e.g. with the band Weather Report. Other studio musicians, like Larry Carlton, suddenly became known as live musicians, so that Larry even formed his own live band. In summary, Donald Fagen has brought the best of the best of the studio scene on stage and he has formed a band. There is a 60 min. video from 1997 about the making of "Aja". A studio guitarist says: "We rehearsed the parts and rehearsed them again...until it was perfect but anaemic. Then we recorded it after a day or so and it was on fire".
Here is Steely Dan live, if anyone wants to watch, e.g. at 1:49 the track "Kid Charlemagne"...with horns to die for in the B-part.
