Yesterday, Steely Dan announced the kickoff of its Absolutely Normal Tour ’21 which will take the Donald Fagen-led band up and down the U.S. east coast in October and November.  To coincide with the tour, two new live releases will arrive from UMe in CD and digital formats on September 24 and 180-gram vinyl one week later on October 1: Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live! and Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly Live.  These are the first Steely Dan albums without founding member Walter Becker who passed away in 2017.

The first Steely Dan live album since 1995’s Alive in America, Northeast Corridor was recorded on the group’s last tour at venues including New York’s Beacon Theater, The Met Philadelphia, and others.  (The band’s nine-show Beacon residency in 2018 featured themed shows including performances of full albums, a “By Popular Demand” night, and more.)  The single-disc set of 12 songs (of course abbreviated from a typical tour setlist) features songs off Can’t Buy a Thrill (“Reelin’ in the Years”), Countdown to Ecstasy (“Bodhisattva”), Pretzel Logic (“Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”), Aja (“Black Cow,” “Aja,” “Peg”), The Royal Scam (“Kid Charlemagne”), Gaucho (“Hey Nineteen,” “Glamour Profession”), and Everything Must Go (“Things I Miss the Most”), plus a cover of “A Man Ain’t Supposed to Cry.”  The Norman Gimbel/Frankie Laine/Irving Reid tune was recorded by Arthur Prysock, Chuck Jackson, and Joe Williams, among others.

Donald Fagen’s 1982 solo debut The Nightfly picked up where his work with Steely Dan left off, albeit with a more autobiographical lyrical bent.  The recording by producer Gary Katz, engineer Roger Nichols, and mixing engineer Elliot Scheiner took full advantage of early digital capabilities to bring Fagen’s sly, jazz-pop compositions to life.  The album yielded the hits “I.G.Y.” and “New Frontier,” netted seven Grammy nominations, and was certified Platinum in the U.S. and in the U.K., as well.  Now it’s returning in a start-to-finish live performance by The Steely Dan Band from 2019.

Look for Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live! and Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly Live on September 24 (CD and digital) and October 1 (180-gram vinyl LP) from UMe.  You’ll find pre-order links and the track listings below.

Steely Dan, Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live! (UMe, 2021)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

1. Black Cow
2. Kid Charlemagne
3. Rikki Don’t Lose That Number
4. Hey Nineteen
5. Any Major Dude Will Tell You
6. Glamour Profession
7. Things I Miss the Most
8. Aja
9. Peg
10. Bodhisattva
11. Reelin’ in the Years
12. A Man Ain’t Supposed to Cry

The Steely Dan Band, Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly Live (UMe, 2021)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

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 the Raindrops