Genre: Pop Rock
Size: 12"
Format: 45RPM,

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Steely Dan The Royal Scam Numbered Limited Edition UHQR 200g 45rpm 2LP Box Set

Steely Dan

$149.99
 
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SKU:
APQR0013-45
UPC:
753088134579
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Limited to Two Copies Per Customer Per Address!
Ultra High Quality Record 45rpm 2LP!
Mastered Directly from the Original Master Tape by Bernie Grundman!
Pressed at QRP using 200g Clarity Vinyl®!
Limited to 20,000 Numbered Copies!

Michael Fremer Rated 10/10 Music, 10/10 Sound!

Steely Dan's platinum-selling fifth studio album The Royal Scam, was produced by Gary Katz and was originally released by ABC Records in 1976. The Royal Scam features more prominent guitar work than the prior Steely Dan album, Katy Lied, which had been the first without founding guitarist Jeff Baxter. Guitarists on the recording include Walter Becker, Denny Dias, Larry Carlton, Elliott Randall and Dean Parks.

The Royal Scam was certified platinum-selling and peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200. The album is known for its intricate arrangements, sophisticated musicianship, and cynical lyrics, and is considered one of the band's most musically adventurous works.

The album features a diverse range of musical styles, from the funky and up-tempo "Kid Charlemagne" to the Latin-influenced "The Caves of Altamira" and the jazzy "Don't Take Me Alive." The lyrics explore themes of deception, corruption, and disillusionment, with characters that are often morally ambiguous or outright villainous.

In common with other Steely Dan albums, The Royal Scam is littered with cryptic allusions to people and events both real and fictional. In a BBC interview in 2000, Becker and Fagen revealed that "Kid Charlemagne" is loosely based on Owsley Stanley, the notorious drug "chef" who was famous for manufacturing hallucinogenic compounds, and that "Caves of Altamira," based on a book by Hans Baumann, is about the loss of innocence, the narrative about a visitor to the Cave of Altamira who registers his astonishment at the prehistoric drawings.

Musically, the album is notable for its use of complex harmonies and intricate instrumental arrangements, with the band utilizing a wide range of instruments including guitars, keyboards, horns, and percussion. The production is polished and professional, with a clean and precise sound that emphasizes the band's technical proficiency.

Rolling Stone, in its review of the album, described The Royal Scam, as Steely Dan's "mostatypical record, possessing neither obvious AM material nor seductive lyrical mysteriousness. It also contains some of their most accomplished and enjoyable music.

"... the overall feeling of Scam is one of just that: tension. There is little of the self-confident gentleness that dotted Pretzel Logic, less still of the omniscience that suffused Katy Lied. The Royal Scam is a transitional album for Steely Dan; melody dominates lyric in the sense that the former pushes into new rhythmic areas for the group (more 'pure' jazz, semireggae and substantially more orchestration than before) while the verbal content is clearer, even mundane, by previous Dan standards," said the Rolling Stone review.

Nearly every song on Scam concerns a narrator's escape from a crime or sing recently committed, the review continued. "Becker and Fagen have really written the ultimate 'outlaw' album here, something that eludes myriad Southern bands because their concept of the outlaw is so limited. Rather than just, say, robbing banks ('Don't Take Me Alive,' in which the robber is a 'bookkeeper's son'), Becker and Fagen's various protagonists are also solipsistic jewel thieves ('Green Earrings'), spendthrift divorcées ('Haitian Divorce') and murderously jealous lovers ('Everything You Did')."

AllMusic gives the album 4.5 stars, saying the best songs on The Royal Scam, "Kid Charlemagne" and "Sign in Stranger," "rank as genuine Steely Dan classics."

The album cover shows a man in a suit, sleeping on a radiator, and apparently dreaming of skyscraper-beast hybrids. The cover was created from a painting by Zox and a photograph by Charlie Ganse, and was originally created for Van Morrison's unreleased 1975 album, Mechanical Bliss, the concept being a satire of the American Dream. In the liner notes for the 1999 remaster of the album, Fagen and Becker claim it to be "the most hideous album cover of the seventies, bar none (excepting perhaps Can't Buy a Thrill)."

After a brief battle with esophageal cancer, Walter Becker died on September 3, 2017 at the age of 67. Steely Dan has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2001. VH1 ranked Steely Dan at No. 82 on their list of the 100 Greatest Musical Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone ranked them No. 15 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time.

This stereo UHQR reissue will be limited to 20,000 copies, with gold foil individually numbered jackets, housed in a premium slipcase with a wooden dowel spine.

Overall, Steely Dan's The Royal Scam is a challenging and rewarding listen, showcasing the band's unique blend of rock, jazz, and funk, and their uncompromising approach to songwriting and production.

Compared to originals, the new UHQR sounds demonstrably better in every way: quieter, much quieter black backgrounds, far cleaner, super clean transients...Assuming your turntable is up for the spin, you're guaranteed to hear details you've never before heard, unless you really put in some serious previous work digging them out. Here they just effortless appear. The more the original is embedded in your brain the more fun the first spin will be...if this one's ingrained in your musical memory the UHQR will most likely shake things up for you and in a good way.
-Michael Fremer, Tracking Angle, Music 10/10, Sound 10/10

Features

  • Limited to Two Copies Per Customer Per Address
  • Numbered, Limited Edition - 20,000 Copies
  • Ultra High Quality Record (UHQR®)
  • 200g Vinyl
  • 45rpm
  • Double LP
  • Mastered Directly from the Original Master Tape by Bernie Grundman
  • Pressed at Quality Record Pressings using Clarity Vinyl®
  • Purest Possible Pressing
  • Tip-On Old-Style Gatefold Double Pocket Jackets with Film Lamination by Stoughton Printing
  • Gold Foil Individually Numbered Jackets
  • Premium Slipcase with a Wooden Dowel Spine

Selections

  1. Kid Charlemagne
  2. The Caves of Altamira
  3. Don't Take Me Alive
  4. Sign In Stranger
  5. The Fez
  6. Green Earrings
  7. Haitian Divorce
  8. Everything You Did
  9. The Royal Scam
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