Michael McDonald - ...featuring (2022)

Time for another post from Mike S, and this time he's been trawling his record collection for recordings that feature one particular vocalist, so over to Mike...

Michael Solof back with you for another round of fun tunes. I was inspired this time by pj's wonderful '...and on guitar' series. I was listening to an old Steely Dan album the other day and I followed it with Christopher Cross’s first album and realized that Michael McDonald was on both albums singing background vocals (and almost co-lead at times) and that got me thinking about how many songs I loved that he'd contributed to over the years. McDonald is known for his distinctive, soulful voice and was a member of two of the biggest bands of the 70's/80's, with stints in the Doobie Brothers from 1975–1982, and Steely Dan during 1973 and 1974. He wrote and sang several hit singles with the Doobie Brothers, including 'What A Fool Believes', 'Minute By Minute', and 'Takin' It To The Streets', and his solo career consists of nine studio albums and a number of singles, including the 1982 hit 'I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near)'. However, it's his session work that we're looking at here, as during his long career he's collaborated with a huge number of other artists, including James Ingram, David Cassidy, Van Halen, Patti LaBelle, Lee Ritenour, the Winans, Aretha Franklin, Toto, Grizzly Bear, Joni Mitchell, and Thundercat, and unlike almost all other background vocalists who literally do "disappear into the background", McDonald's voice always broke through that haze and became a unique, distinctive and very important part of each song he contributed to. His beautiful tone just added a lushness to the harmonies that you couldn’t help but notice. I therefore started going through his entire musical catalog and pulling out two different ways that he'd helped many wonderful fellow musicians throughout the years. One way was just as a background vocalist and the other was as a co-lead or guest vocalist (and often times songwriter), and then I broke up the collection accordingly. The first volume is his guest vocals on other artist's songs, while the other two volumes feature his backing vocals for a wide variety of artists over an extra-ordinary 46-year career. 

Track listing

Volume 1
01 Let Me Go, Love (from 'In The Nick Of Time' by Nicolette Larson 1979)
02 I've Got My Mind Made Up (from 'Together?' soundtrack with Jackie DeShannon 1979)
03 Heart To Heart (from 'Heart To Heart' by Kenny Loggins 1982)
04 Arcade (from 'Swing Street' by Patrick Simmons 1983)
05 Let's Stay Together (from 'Tribute To Jeff Porcaro' by Paulette Brown & David Pack 1997)
06 Moondance (from 'Nathan East' by Nathan East 2014)
07 Long Haul (from 'Unfinished Business' by Robben Ford 2014)
08 Night Of Our Own (from 'Someday, Somehow' by Steve Porcaro 2016)
09 Love In The World (from '2' by CWF 2020)
10 Higher Ground (mixed by Tomey Maguarfield, feat. McDonald/Red Hot Chilli Peppers 2022)

Volume 2
01 Any World (That I'm Welcome To) (from 'Katy Lied' by Steely Dan 1975)  
02 See What You Done (from 'Chunky, Novi And Ernie' by Chunky, Novi And Ernie 1977)
03 Strengthen My Love (from 'White Shadows' by Tim Moore 1977)
04 Red Streamliner ('Waiting For Columbus' out-take by Little Feat 1978) 
05 Losing Myself In You (from 'Bish' by Steven Bishop 1978)
06 I Really Don't Know Anymore (from 'Christopher Cross' by Christopher Cross 1979)
07 This Is It (from 'Keep The Fire' by Kenny Loggins 1979)
08 Please Don't Leave (from 'Lauren Wood' by Lauren Wood 1979)
09 Young Blood (from 'Rickie Lee Jones' by Ricky Lee Jones 1979)
10 One Fine Day (from 'Satisfied' by Rita Coolidge 1979)
11 Steal Away (from 'Robbie Dupree' by Robbie Dupree 1980)

Volume 3
01 Why You Givin' Up (from 'Arcade' by Patrick Simmons 1983)
02 I Just Can't Let Go (from 'Anywhere You Go' by David Pack 1985)
03 I'll Be Over You (from 'Fahrenheit' by Toto 1986)
04 A Fool And His Money (from 'Mosaic' by Wang Chung 1986)
05 Never Give Up (from 'Outrageous Temptations' by Tim Weisberg 1989)
06 Same World (from 'Same World' by Henry Kapono 1991)
07 Where Words End (from 'Just Across The River' by Jimmy Webb 2010) 
08 Some Children (from 'Holy Ghost!' by Holy Ghost! 2011)
09 The Best Of Me (from 'Starting Now' by Toad The Wet Sprocket 2021)

McDonald has one of the finest, smoothest, most mellow voices in All of Music. It’s the reason he is still in such high demand over 40 years after his debut.

I hope you like this collection as much as I do.

Mike S

For MAC users

Press command+shift+period (to show hidden files) and a grayed out folder '...and on guitar" will appear and the mp3s will be inside. Either drag those to another folder OR rename the folder without any periods at the beginning. Press command+shift+period to once again hide the hidden files.

Steely Dan - The Lost Gaucho (1980) UPGRADE

Thanks to king0elizabeth for letting me know that a couple of  fans have attempted to improve the sound quality of  the band version of 'The Second Arrangement' from this album, and reddit user ZestyLemon571 has nailed it by mixing the two restored versions of the song together, while Youtuber Dan The Vault has made it available to the wider audience. It does mean the the lyrics from the first version have now replaced the ones on the band version, but to be honest I'd rather have the hugely improved sound quality. This prompted me to check to see if there was a better version of the other track that let down the album, and I've found a speed/pitch corrected version of 'I Can't Write Home About You' which has also removed much of the muddiness from the vocals, so an updated version of the whole album is now available for download.    

Steely Dan - Snowbound (1994)

After producing six of the very best albums of the 70's with Steely Dan, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen took a break from songwriting for most of 1978 before starting work on their next project 'Gaucho'. The project did not go smoothly, with technical problems, when an assistant engineer accidentally erased most of one of their favourite songs 'The Second Arrangement', and legal issues with their record label meant that the band could not release an album for over a year, with 'Gaucho' eventually appearing in 1980. These problems, plus some personal setbacks for Becker, went some way towards Becker and Fagen's decision to suspend their partnership for over a decade, officially disbanding Steely Dan in 1981. Fagen didn't waste any time, though, and released his first solo album 'The Nightfly' in 1982, giving him a platinum record in both the U.S. and the U.K., and yielding the Top Twenty hit 'I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World)'. However, following this success, and writing the score for 'Bright Lights, Big City' in 1988, he recorded little in the following years. Becker, in the meantime, had moved to Maui, where he stopped using drugs, and became an avocado rancher and self-styled critic of the contemporary scene. Both men occasionally did production work for other artists, with Becker gaining some acclaim for his work with UK indie/pop band China Crisis, who were strongly influenced by Steely Dan. In 1986 Becker and Fagen performed on 'Zazu', an album by former model Rosie Vela, which led to a rekindling of their friendship, and they wrote some new material together between 1986 and 1987, but the results remained unfinished. 
In 1993/1994 the stars must have aligned, as both Becker and Fagen released solo albums at the same time, Fagen's second, and Becker's debut. Not only that, but Fagen co-produced and played keyboards on Becker's, and Becker produced and played guitar and bass on Fagen's, as well as co-writing one of the songs, 'Snowbound'. If only they'd got together a little earlier and considered reforming Steely Dan, they could have pooled their songs to produce an album that fans had been waiting over a dozen years to hear. As they didn't think of it, it's up to me to do it for them, taking what I think are the most Dan-like tracks from each of their solo albums, along with a couple of excellent out-takes from Becker, one from the Japanese edition of his album, and the other which was released by his estate following his passing in 2017. It will never be as good an album as if they had collaborated fully on the writing and arrangement of the songs, but it hangs together pretty well, and shows that neither artist had lost any of their songwriting skills following their decade-long semi-retirement in the 80's. I've named it after the one of the two co-writes on the album, and based the cover on that as well.  

Track listing

01 Snowbound (Becker/Fagan)
02 Book Of Liars (Becker)
03 Junkie Girl (Becker)
04 On The Dunes (Fagan)
05 Love In The 4th (Becker)
06 Teahouse On The Tracks (Fagan)
07 Fall Of '92 (Becker/Fagan)
08 Springtime (Fagan)

There was a slight update to this post, as neplicot suggested a couple of songs that I could have included, one of which I had completely missed. The Becker/Fagan co-write 'Fall Of '92', which was left off Becker's '11 Tracks Of Whack' album, is a great song, and would fit perfectly on here. I'm therefore replacing Becker's 'Medical Science', as while it's also a great track, I never really felt it fitted in with the others, whereas 'Fall Of '92' just slots right in. 

Mark Knopfler - ...and on guitar (1985)

Mark Freuder Knopfler was born on 12 August 1949 in Glasgow, the middle child of three, with an older sister Ruth, and a younger brother David, who is also a musician. During the 60's he formed and joined several bands and listened to singers like Elvis Presley and guitarists Chet Atkins, Scotty Moore, B.B King, and Hank Marvin, and at sixteen years of age he made a local television appearance as part of a harmony duo, with his classmate Sue Hercombe. In 1968, after studying journalism for a year at Harlow College, Knopfler was hired as a junior reporter for the Yorkshire Evening Post, and during this time he made the acquaintance of local furniture restorer, country blues enthusiast and part-time performer Steve Phillips, from whose record collection and guitar style Knopfler acquired a good knowledge of early blues artists. The pair subsequently formed a duo called The Duolian String Pickers, and performed in local folk and acoustic blues venues, but two years later he decided to further his education, later graduating with a degree in English at the University of Leeds. In April 1970 he recorded a demo of an original song he'd written called 'Summer's Coming My Way'. enlisting Steve Phillips to help out on second guitar, along with Dave Johnson on bass, and Paul Granger on percussion. In 1973, Knopfler moved to London and joined a band based in High Wycombe called Brewers Droop, appearing on their 'The Booze Brothers' album, after which he took a job as a lecturer at Loughton College in Essex, and stayed there for three years while continuing to perform with local pub bands, including the Café Racers. 
By the mid-70's his brother David had moved to London, where he shared a flat with bass guitarist John Illsley, and in 1977, Mark moved in with David and John and all three began playing music together, forming a new band called Dire Straits. The group's first demos were recorded in three sessions in 1977, with David Knopfler as rhythm guitarist, John Illsley as bass guitarist, and Pick Withers as drummer. After signing to Vertigo Records, their debut album was released in 1977 to little fanfare in the UK, but when 'Sultans Of Swing' was released as a single, it became a chart hit in the Netherlands and album sales took off – first across Europe, and then in the United States and Canada, and finally in the UK. The group's second album 'Communiqué' was produced by Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett and was issued in 1979, reaching number one in France, and 'Making Movies' quickly followed the next year. This album moved towards more complex arrangements and production, which continued for the remainder of the group's career, resulting in my favourite of their albums, 1982's 'Love Over Gold'. By the time 'Brothers In Arms' came out in 1985, the band were a world-wide phenomenon, with Knopfler also making a name for himself composing film music scores, and writing songs for other artists, including 'Private Dancer' for Tina Turner's comeback album of the same name. 
After his guitar style became noticed following the 'Sultans Of Swing' single, he was often asked to play on other artist's records, including such global superstars as Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Steely Dan. He played on Phil Lynott's first solo album 'Solo In Soho' in 1980, and was invited back to help out on the follow-up 'The Philip Lynott Album' two years later. After helping out on Kate & Anna McGarrigle's first album in 1983, he joined family and friends by appearing on albums by his bother David and former band-mate John Illsley. In 1985 he got to play with one of his earliest heroes Chet Atkins, contributing some superb guitar to 'Cosmic Square Dance'. Although this album ends in 1985, Knopfler continued to play on records from artists such as Sting, Randy Newman, Joan Armatrading, Jeff Healey and Hank Marvin up to 1997, adding his instantly recognisable guitar-playing to over 40 releases during that time. For this album, though, enjoy his earliest appearances on some classic albums of the 80's.    

Track listing

01 Gotta Serve Somebody (from 'Slow Train Coming' by Bob Dylan 1979)
02 Loving You (from 'Oh! What A Feeling' by Mavis Staples 1979)
03 Time Out Of Mind (from 'Gaucho' by Steely Dan 1980)
04 Ode To Liberty (The Protest Song) (from 'The Philip Lynott Album' by Phil Lynott 1982)
05 Cleaning Windows (from 'Beautiful Vision' by Van Morrison 1982)
06 Love Over And Over (from 'Love Over And Over' by Kate & Anna McGarrigle 1982)
07 Blanket Roll Blues (from 'Climate Of Hunter' by Scott Walker 1983)
08 Madonna's Daughter (from 'Release' by David Knopfler 1983)
09 Never Told A Soul (from 'Never Told A Soul' by John Illsley 1984)
10 Cosmic Square Dance (from 'Stay Tuned' by Chet Atkins 1985)

Walter Becker & Donald Fagen - You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It (1971)

'You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat' is a 1971 comedy-drama film directed by Peter Locke, involving a young hippie and his search for the meaning of life while in Central Park. Its soundtrack includes some of the earliest released music by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who later became the core duo behind Steely Dan, and the film also stars Richard Pryor in an early role playing his signature 'wino' character, as well as actor/director Robert Downey Sr, and it was edited by Wes Craven. Despite this plethora of future talent it wasn't a great film, and it's soundtrack is probably it's greatest legacy. Although strictly speaking this album does exist it's nigh-on impossible to track down, and so for Steely Dan fans who might not know of it, here's a tad over half an hour of Becker & Fagen playing together with Denny Dias in 1971. 

Track listing

01 You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It
02 Flotsam And Jetsam
03 War And Peace
04 Roll Back The Meaning
05 Dog Eat Dog
06 Red Giant - White Dwarf
07 If It Rains
08 You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It (Reprise)

Steely Dan - The Lost Gaucho (1980)

This bootleg of out-takes from the 'Gaucho' sessions is fairly freely available online, but I was listening to it again recently, and though that it was just so good that I had to post it here for Steely Dan fans who haven't yet heard these songs. When the band went into the studio to record tracks for 1980's 'Gaucho' they laid down enough songs to almost make a double album, but it was trimmed down to a single record, and the left-over songs were filed away. They eventually leaked online, and a 2 CD set soon appeared, with a mixture of completed new and unheard songs, alongside demos of other tracks, some of which eventually made the album. The completed songs are superb sound quality, and included an early version of 'Third World Man' with different lyrics called 'Were You Blind That Day', and a lovely instrumental take of the title track. The demos weren't quite as good sound-wise, so I've taken all of the new songs and added just two of the demos, as 'I Can't Write Home About You' was another new song, unavailable elsewhere, and 'The Second Arrangement II' is a full band version of one of the earlier songs. This makes a nice 47 minute companion album to the original 'Gaucho', and if there are any Dan fans out there who haven't heard this yet then you're in for a treat.    

Track listing

01 Kind Spirit
02 Were You Blind That Day
03 If You Got The Bear
04 The Second Arrangement
05 Talkin' About My Home
06 I Can't Write Home About You
07 Kulee Baba
08 Time Out Of Mind
09 Gaucho
10 The Second Arrangement II

Walter Becker & Donald Fagen - Sun Mountain (1970)

Walter Becker and Donald Fagen met in 1967 at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. As Fagen passed by a café, The Red Balloon, he heard Becker practicing the electric guitar. He introduced himself to Becker and asked, "Do you want to be in a band?" Discovering that they enjoyed similar music, the two began writing songs together. After Fagen graduated in 1969, the two moved to Brooklyn and tried to peddle their tunes in the Brill Building in midtown Manhattan. Kenny Vance (of Jay and the Americans), who had a production office in the building, took an interest in their music, which led to work on the soundtrack of the low-budget Richard Pryor film 'You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat' (which I'll be posting later), which they later admitted that they did solely for the money. They also recorded a number of demos between 1968 and 1970 which have since leaked onto the internet in various forms. They are notable for their sparse arrangements (Fagen plays solo piano on many songs) and lo-fi production, in stark contrast with Steely Dan's later work, and although some of these songs ('Caves of Altamira', 'Brooklyn', 'Barrytown') were re-recorded for Steely Dan albums, most were never officially released. For this collection I've chosen the best of those unreleased songs, and so haven't included ones that later turned up on Dan albums. As previously mentioned, the quality isn't the best, but you can still hear the spark of what was to become one of the best song-writing partnerships in modern music.

Track listing

01 Don't Let Me In
02 A Little With Sugar
03 Sun Mountain
04 Android Warehouse
05 You Go Where I Go
06 The Mock Turtle's Song
07 Undecided
08 Come Back, Baby
09 Stone Piano
10 The Yellow Peril
11 I Can't Function
12 This Seat's Been Taken
13 The Braintap Shuffle