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Gaucho Jarrett ::
In another round of filling-in-holes-in-record-collections, I recently picked up Steely Dan’s Gaucho, which I hadn’t heard much of since retiring the record player in the mid-80's. Well, except for the songs that Aja Vu cover.
The title track played in the car the other day, and it had me fooled at first; I was sure I was listening to Keith Jarrett’s “‘Long as You Know You’re Living Yours”, from Belonging. I made a mental note to put together this short mashup to illustrate: [listen - .m4a] (It begins and ends with Jarrett’s tune; the middle bit is the intro to Gaucho.)
Then I thought, I bet someone else has noticed this before. Sure enough, Keith Jarrett did:
The title track was intended as a tribute to Keith Jarrett, and was originally credited only to Fagen and Becker. However, after hearing the album, Jarrett insisted that the track uses a part of his composition “Long As You Know You’re Living Yours,” and threatened Steely Dan with legal action. Becker and Fagen were then forced to add his name to the credits and to include him in future royalties.
I have no recollection of hearing about this dispute, but who knows, it was almost 30 years ago.
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3 comments
Well known in the Steely Dan fan community.
– John, Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 6:42 AM PST
Thats the complete opposite of what the steely dan wikipedia page says
“Another lawsuit dogged the band, this time regarding the title track for the album. Jazz composer Keith Jarrett claimed that the song had been based on one of his own compositions, entitled “Long As You Know You’re Living Yours”. Fagen later admitted he’d loved the song and was strongly influenced by it.[29] Jarrett sued for copyright infringement and eventually settled for a sum of approximately one million dollars, the deal stipulating that Becker and Fagen keep the songwriting credit. Fagen later told the press that maintaining their reputations as songwriters was an important factor in the decision to settle for such a substantial sum.”
– Zac, Sunday, 27 September 2009, 9:35 AM PDT
Ha, well, then one of the Wikipedia pages is wrong and should be updated.
I guess all I was trying to point out was that the relationship between the songs was obvious enough to me, not knowing (remembering?) the lawsuit, that it’s not at all surprising that Keith Jarrett noticed.
– Doug, Sunday, 27 September 2009, 10:45 AM PDT
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