What Makes This Song Great? Rick Beato on Roundabout
Music producer Rick Beato is a monster! Seemingly, the dude knows everything.
Back in 2018, Rick published his breakdown of the song Roundabout by prog-rock group Yes. Beato used his computer to isolate individual instrument and vocal tracks, explaining exactly how the song was constructed. Along the way, Beato played a few of the guitar and organ parts himself, making it easy to see the fingerings that were used.
What a delight!
Last month, Bill Bruford, the drummer for Yes, reposted the whole thing, saying of Beato, "I enjoy Beato’s analyses; he always seems spot-on even with the over-use of the word ‘incredible’." Lol.
Listening to Beato's breakdown of Roundabout got me a little excited. His analysis is not just for musicians. Anyone who likes the tune will probably be hooked in the first couple of minutes.
I stumbled into this new, remastered Fagen/Becker townhall setting performance, no longer bass-shy and more distinct individual voices and instruments “hearable”, excellent audio (and video) rendition:
The place I work is so dead silent that we have speakers that play white noise so we don’t eavesdrop by accident. So yea, I’m listening to white noise.
"Before Pro-Tools, there were pros!" So says Rick Beato in this breakdown of the song Josie from the 1977 album Aja.
A quick look at the list of players joining Walter Becker and Donald Fagen makes the point. Studio greats Larry Carlton, Dean Parks, Victor Feldman, Chuck Rainey and Jim Keltner are all present.
Boomers have the bad habit of saying that music was better back their day. The truth is that every generation produces its own musical masterpieces. Nevertheless, songs like Josie make it easy to fall into the trap. Most of today's music sounds more than a little thin compared to songs like this.
Of course, the same was true back in 1977.
For those that want to hear the full song without interruptions, here is the link from Steely Dan's official YouTube channel:
Jerry Douglas and the rest of the gang are all here, but the focus is on the angelic voice of Alison Krauss. This performance comes from the Austin City Limits broadcast in 2000.
Enjoy.
Check out my post from last October that features Jerry Douglas:
Brendan Kavanagh Stoking Up a Party in the Underground
Here is proof that music is too important to be left up to experts!
I'm blown away by how much fun this guy Brendan Kavanagh creates playing the pianos of the London Underground. His videos are addictive. I've binged on a bunch of them.
