Gaucho (album)

Gaucho is the seventh studio album by the American rock band Steely Dan, released by MCA Records on November 21, 1980. The album marked a significant stylistic shift for the band, with more focus on rhythm and atmosphere than their earlier work, but the recording sessions demonstrated the group's typical obsessive nature and perfectionism,^[2][3] as they used at least 42 different session musicians, spent over a year in the studio, and far exceeded the original monetary advance given by the record label.^[4] At the 24th Annual Grammy Awards, Gaucho won Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical, and was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Gaucho
Studio album by Steely Dan
Released	November 21, 1980
Recorded	1978–1980
Studio	Soundworks, New York City A&R, New York City Sigma Sound, New York City Automated Sound, New York City Village Recorder, Los Angeles, California Producer's Workshop, Hollywood
Genre	Jazz-rock, pop rock, yacht rock
Length	37:55
Label	MCA
Producer	Gary Katz
Steely Dan chronology
Aja (1977) Gaucho (1980) Alive in America (1995)
Singles from Gaucho
"Hey Nineteen" Released: November 21, 1980 "Time Out of Mind" Released: March 1981 (US) "Babylon Sisters" Released: March 1981 (UK)[1]

The making of the album was plagued by a number of creative, personal, and professional problems,^[5] and, once it was completed, there was a three-way legal battle between MCA, Warner Bros., and Steely Dan over the rights to release it. After the album was released, jazz pianist Keith Jarrett sued Walter Becker and Donald Fagen for copyright infringement, claiming the title track plagiarized "'Long As You Know You're Living Yours" from his 1974 album Belonging, and he was given a co-writing credit. Steely Dan did not release another studio album until Two Against Nature, nearly 20 years later.

Background

Exceptional difficulties plagued the album's production. By 1978, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had established themselves as the only two permanent members of Steely Dan and were using a revolving cast of session musicians to record the songs they wrote together. However, the pair's working relationship began to become strained, largely because of Becker's escalating drug use.^[5]

During the course of the recording sessions for Gaucho, Becker was hit by a car late one Saturday night while walking home to his apartment on the Upper West Side.^[6][7] He managed to push the woman he was with out of harm's way, but sustained multiple fractures in one leg, a sprain in the other leg, and other injuries.^[6][7] During his six-month recovery,^[8] he suffered from secondary infections.^[6] While Becker was in the hospital, he and Fagen continued their musical collaborations via telephone.^[7]

Becker's personal problems continued to mount when his girlfriend, Karen Roberta Stanley, died of a drug overdose at his home on January 30, 1980.^[9][10] Her family sued Becker for $17.5 million in January 1981, claiming that he had introduced Karen to cocaine, morphine, barbiturates, and heroin.^[10] The court later ruled in Becker's favor.^[11]

Recording

Recording sessions

After recording Steely Dan's first four albums entirely in Los Angeles, with 1976's The Royal Scam Becker and Fagen began to record in New York City as well as L.A., and sessions for Gaucho began in New York in 1978.^[8] Many of the session musicians enlisted to play on the album were unenthusiastic about Becker and Fagen's increasingly obsessive, perfectionist recording style.^[12] Mark Knopfler was hired to play the guitar solo on "Time Out of Mind" on the strength of his playing on Dire Straits' hit single "Sultans of Swing", and has described the session as long and gruelling. His playing features on more than half of the final track, though a commonly repeated myth^[13] states that his playing is only audible for about 15 seconds. Becker did not perform on the tracks "Babylon Sisters", "Glamour Profession", "My Rival", or "Third World Man".

The album's mixing proved to be just as difficult as the recording. As an example, it took Becker, Fagen, recording engineer Roger Nichols, and producer Gary Katz more than 55 attempts to complete a satisfactory mix of the 50-second fade out of "Babylon Sisters".^[6][14]

Drum recording

The Platinum record awarded to "Wendel", the drum machine used on Gaucho, which was invented by recording engineer Roger Nichols.

Even though the session musicians who played on Gaucho were amongst the most talented from both the East and West Coasts, Becker and Fagen were still not satisfied with the basic tracks for some of the songs, particularly with regard to the timing of the drum tracks.^[15] In a 2006 interview for Sound on Sound, Fagen stated that he and Becker said to Nichols:

"'It's too bad that we can't get a machine to play the beat we want, with full-frequency drum sounds, and to be able to move the snare drum and kick drum around independently.' Nichols replied 'I can do that.' This was back in 1978 or something, so we said 'You can do that???' To which he said 'Yes, all I need is $150,000.' So we gave him the money out of our recording budget, and six weeks later he came in with this machine and that is how it all started."^[16]

Nichols named the drum machine "Wendel".^[15] When Gaucho sold one million copies, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awarded Wendel its own Platinum record. According to a 2021 interview with recording engineer Elliot Scheiner, who recorded the rhythm section tracks for Gaucho, the Wendel drum machine was used for the basic drum beats on "Hey Nineteen", "Glamour Profession", and "My Rival". Drum fills for these tracks were played live by the drummer credited for the track. Scheiner said in the same interview that "Babylon Sisters", "Time Out of Mind", and "Third World Man" did not use the "Wendel" machine. (Scheiner was not asked about the drums on the title song, "Gaucho".)^[17] According to Ken Micallef in an article in Modern Drummer, the drum track for the title song was assembled from 46 different takes. The drummer on the session, Jeff Porcaro, has been quoted as saying:

"From noon till six we'd play the tune over and over and over again, nailing each part. We'd go to dinner and come back and start recording. They made everybody play like their life depended on it. But they weren't gonna keep anything anyone else played that night, no matter how tight it was. All they were going for was the drum track."^[18]

Drummer Bernard Purdie plays his signature half-time shuffle beat, the "Purdie Shuffle", on "Babylon Sisters".

Outtakes and bootlegs

A number of songs were written for the album, but not included in the final release. Some of these were included on a bootleg album titled The Lost Gaucho, which features recordings from early in the Gaucho sessions. Song titles include "Kind Spirit", "Kulee Baba", "The Bear", "Talkin' About My Home", and "The Second Arrangement".^[19] An early version of "Third World Man", dating from the Aja sessions and with alternate lyrics, is included on The Lost Gaucho under the title "Were You Blind That Day".^[19]

"The Second Arrangement" was one of Katz and Nichols' favorite songs from the Gaucho sessions.^[20] In late December 1979, after weeks of working on a particular version of the song, approximately three-quarters of the track was accidentally erased by an assistant engineer, who had been asked by Katz to ready it for listening.^[5][20] The band attempted to re-record the track, but eventually abandoned the song entirely,^[20] focusing instead, according to Steely Dan biographer Brian Sweet, on "Third World Man".^[19] During a guitar clinic in 2011, Larry Carlton said of "Third World Man":

"When Billboard magazine came out ... about Gaucho, it's writing about the news 'Steely Dan released ... bla bla bla ... and great guitar solo by Larry Carlton', and I said, 'but I didn't play on Gaucho!, they'd cut it in New York, I didn't play on it!'. So I found out later: they had finished mixing in New York, and one of the second engineers erased one of their master tracks. So "Third World Man" was in the can from The Royal Scam and they had to reach back into the old tapes and find something to finish the album, and that's how I ended up on Gaucho playing "Third World Man".^[21]

Steely Dan did not perform "The Second Arrangement" live until a rarities show on September 17, 2011, and a studio recording of the song has never been officially released,^[20] though several demo and outtake recordings of the song exist in bootleg form.^[22] In 2020, Cimcie Nichols, the daughter of Roger Nichols, said the family had discovered three cassettes that might include rough mixes of "The Second Arrangement".^[23] The possibility proved to be an actuality, and Roger Nichols' tape (and a second DAT version) were preserved in September 2021 and March 2023, and released in June 2023 in the Substack newsletter "Expanding Dan".^[24][25]

Music and lyrics

According to Mike Powell of Stylus Magazine, Gaucho combines "bitter, poetic cynicism with freewheeling jazz-rock",^[26] while Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic says it "essentially replicates the smooth jazz-pop of Aja, but with none of that record's dark, seductive romance or elegant aura".^[27] Similarly, rock historian Joe Stuessy suggested it was one in a series of Steely Dan albums that showed a progression of jazz influences in the band's sound, which was often described as "jazz-rock fusion".^[28] Music journalist and broadcaster Paul Sexton wrote that, while Aja had "announced [Steely Dan's] ever-greater exploration of jazz influences", Gaucho is "their yacht rock masterpiece".^[29] In connection with the latter genre, Timothy Malcolm of Houstonia magazine said the album features "a number of yachty delights",^[30] and Erlewine highlighted the title track as exemplary of the genre.^[31] Patrick Hosken of MTV News said that, like Aja, Gaucho shows how "great yacht rock is also more musically ambitious than it might seem, tying blue-eyed soul and jazz to funk and R&B".^[32]

Hal Leonard's The Best of Steely Dan describes Gaucho as "a concept album of seven interrelated tales about would-be hipsters."^[33] According to Ian MacDonald, "Two songs are about hookers, two more concern the doings of coke dealers, and a fifth depicts the denouement of a seedy marital dispute. What redeems it all is the humour and artistry. Lyrics exude class as well as underclass, while the music, whatever its guise or disguise, is immaculate".^[34] The lyrics of "Hey Nineteen" are about an aging hipster attempting to pick up a girl who is so young that she does not recognize "'Retha Franklin" playing on the stereo,^[35] and the song closes with the ambiguous line, "The Cuervo Gold, the fine Colombian, make tonight a wonderful thing", leaving it up to the listener whether the narrator is consuming tequila and drugs with the love interest, or if he is alone.^[35][36] Stewart Mason of AllMusic wrote that "Time Out of Mind" is "a barely veiled song about heroin, specifically a young man's first experience with the drug at the hands of a pretentious, pseudo-religious crank talking of 'chasing the dragon' with the 'mystical sphere direct from Lhasa'",^[37] and Record World said that the song "offers an aural array of rich keyboard/guitar figures."^[38]

Keith Jarrett lawsuit

Following the release of Gaucho in 1980, it was noticed that Gaucho's title track, credited to Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, bore a resemblance to jazz pianist Keith Jarrett's instrumental "'Long As You Know You're Living Yours" from his 1974 album Belonging. When asked about this during an interview with Musician magazine, Becker replied that he loved the Jarrett composition, while Fagen said "we were heavily influenced by that particular piece of music."^[39] After these comments were published, Jarrett sued for copyright infringement, and Becker and Fagen were legally obliged to add his name to the credits and provide Jarrett with publishing royalties.^[40][12]

Packaging

The album's cover art is based upon a low relief sculpture by Argentine artist Israel Hoffmann. Entitled "Guardia Vieja – Tango" (Old Guard – Tango),^[41] the original is located in a street museum known as Caminito in La Boca, a neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Marketing and sales

MCA made the album, along with Hard Promises by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Xanadu soundtrack by Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra, a test case for its new "superstar pricing" policy, whereby new albums by top-selling artists would sell for one dollar more than those of other artists ($9.98, rather than $8.98).^[42] Steely Dan was opposed to this idea, fearful that their fans would blame them for the higher price.

In the United States, Gaucho reached number 9 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, and it has been certified Platinum by the RIAA. In the UK, the album reached number 27 on the UK Albums Chart. "Hey Nineteen" reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the single topped the charts in Canada.^{[citation needed]}

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[27]
Chicago Tribune	[43]
Christgau's Record Guide	B−[44]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[45]
The Great Rock Discography	6/10[46]
MusicHound Rock	[47]
Pitchfork	9.4/10[48]
Rolling Stone	[49]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[50]
Tom Hull – on the Web	B+[51]

Upon its release, the album was met with mostly positive reviews. Ariel Swartley of Rolling Stone said: "After years of hibernation in the studio, the metamorphosis that began with The Royal Scam is complete. Steely Dan have perfected the aesthetic of the tease."^[49] John Griffin of The Gazette wrote that "The music is perfection throughout" the album.^[52] The New York Times gave Gaucho a positive review,^[53] and later ranked it ahead of such albums as Remain in Light by Talking Heads and Closer by Joy Division as the best album of 1980.^[54]

On the other hand, Pete Bishop of The Pittsburgh Press found Gaucho "too well-crafted, too artificially sophisticated", and lacking in spontaneity.^[55] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice remarked that "Even the song with Aretha in it lends credence to rumors that the LP was originally entitled Countdown to Lethargy",^[44] referring to "Hey Nineteen" and its lyric about "'Retha Franklin".^[56] The album received a rating of 1 star out of 5 in the second edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide (1983), in which critic Dave Marsh called it "the kind of music that passes for jazz in Holiday Inn lounges, with the kind of lyrics that pass for poetry in freshman English classes."^[57]

In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that Gaucho, while sonically similar to Aja, features musical performances that have been overly rehearsed to the point of lacking emotional resonance, as well as inferior songwriting, except for the highlights "Babylon Sisters", "Time Out of Mind", and "Hey Nineteen", which "make the remainder of the album's glossy, meandering fusion worthwhile".^[27] David Sakowski of PopMatters reappraised the album as a "classic" that was largely "lost in the shadow of Aja and the changing tides of music".^[58] In 2000, Gaucho was voted number 504 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums.^[59]

Accolades

At the 24th Annual Grammy Awards, Gaucho won Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical, and was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Babylon Sisters"	5:51
2.	"Hey Nineteen"	5:07
3.	"Glamour Profession"	7:29

All tracks are written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, except where noted

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
4.	"Gaucho"	Becker, Fagen, Keith Jarrett[60]	5:32
5.	"Time Out of Mind"		4:13
6.	"My Rival"		4:32
7.	"Third World Man"		5:14
Total length:			37:55

Personnel

Adapted from the liner notes.

• Steely Dan, Rob Mounsey, Don Grolnick, Paul Griffin – rhythm arrangements

Side A 1. "Babylon Sisters" Donald Fagen – lead vocals Bernard Purdie – drums Chuck Rainey – bass guitar Don Grolnick – electric piano, Clavinet Steve Khan – guitar Errol "Crusher" Bennett – percussion Randy Brecker – trumpet, flugelhorn Tom Scott – tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, clarinet George Marge, Walter Kane – bass clarinets Lesley Miller, Patti Austin, Toni Wine, Lani Groves, Diva Gray, Gordon Grody – backing vocals Rob Mounsey – horn arrangement 2. "Hey Nineteen" Donald Fagen – lead vocals, electric piano, synthesizer Rick Marotta – drums Walter Becker – bass guitar, guitar Hugh McCracken – guitar Victor Feldman, Steve Gadd – percussion Frank Floyd, Zack Sanders – backing vocals 3. "Glamour Profession" Donald Fagen – lead vocals, electric piano, synthesizer Steve Gadd – drums Anthony Jackson – bass guitar Rob Mounsey – piano Steve Khan – guitar Ralph MacDonald – percussion Michael Brecker – tenor saxophone Tom Scott – tenor saxophone, Lyricon, horn arrangement Lesley Miller, Valerie Simpson, Frank Floyd, Zack Sanders – backing vocals

Side B 4. "Gaucho" Donald Fagen – lead vocals, electric piano, synthesizer Jeff Porcaro – drums Walter Becker – bass guitar, guitar solo Rob Mounsey – piano Steve Khan – guitar Errol "Crusher" Bennett – percussion Tom Scott – tenor saxophone, horn arrangement Randy Brecker – trumpet Lesley Miller, Valerie Simpson, Patti Austin – backing vocals 5. "Time Out of Mind" Donald Fagen – lead vocals, electric piano, synthesizer Rick Marotta – drums Walter Becker – bass guitar, guitar Rob Mounsey – piano, horn arrangement Hugh McCracken – guitar Mark Knopfler – guitar solo Randy Brecker – trumpet Michael Brecker, Dave Tofani – tenor saxophone David Sanborn – alto saxophone Ronnie Cuber – baritone saxophone Michael McDonald, Lesley Miller, Patti Austin, Valerie Simpson – backing vocals 6. "My Rival" Donald Fagen – lead vocals, organ, synthesizer Steve Gadd – drums Anthony Jackson – bass guitar Pat Rebillot – electric piano Hiram Bullock, Rick Derringer – guitars Steve Khan – guitar solo Ralph MacDonald – percussion Nicholas Marrero – timbales Randy Brecker – flugelhorn Michael Brecker – tenor saxophone Tom Scott – tenor saxophone, Lyricon, horn arrangement Wayne Andre – trombone Valerie Simpson, Frank Floyd, Zack Sanders – backing vocals 7. "Third World Man" Donald Fagen – lead vocals Steve Gadd – drums Chuck Rainey – bass guitar Joe Sample – electric piano Steve Khan – acoustic guitar, electric guitar Larry Carlton – guitar solo Rob Mounsey – synthesizer

Production

• Gary Katz – producer
• Roger Nichols – executive engineer, overdub engineer
• Elliot Scheiner – tracking engineer, mixdown engineer
• Bill Schnee – tracking engineer
• Jerry Garszva – overdub engineer
• Roger Nichols and WENDEL – sequencing and special effects
• Barbara Isaak, Tom Greto, Georgia Offrell, John "Doc" Dougherty, Carla Bandini, Craig Goetsch, Gerry Gabinelli, Rosa Howell, John Potoker, Marti Robertson, Linda Randazzo – assistant engineers
• Bob Ludwig – mastering engineer
• Don Farrar – piano technician
• Victor di Suvero – Italian translation (one line of track 7)
• Front Line Management – management
• Leonard Freedman – cash
• Suzanne Walsh – album design and art direction
• John Tom Cohoe – art design assistant
• René Burri/Magnum – photography

Reissue

• Paul Bishow – executive producer
• Andy McKaie – producer
• Roger Nichols– remastering engineer
• Beth Stempel – production coordinator
• Vartan – art direction
• Michael Diehl – design
• Daniel Levitin – consultant

Charts

Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for Gaucho Chart (1980–1981) Peak position Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[61] 9 Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[62] 18 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[63] 44 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[64] 57 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[65] 7 Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[66] 5 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[67] 15 UK Albums (OCC)[68] 27 US Billboard 200[69] 9 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[70] 19

Year-end charts Year-end chart performance for Gaucho Chart (1981) Position Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[71] 86 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[72] 42 US Billboard 200[73] 29

Certifications

Certifications for Gaucho

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[74]	Platinum	50,000^
New Zealand (RMNZ)[75]	Gold	7,500^
United States (RIAA)[76]	Platinum	1,000,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

1. Strong, Martin Charles (1995). The Great Rock Discography. p. 782. ISBN 9780862415419.
2. Canada.com: Steely Dan still feeling the groove Archived 2009-07-03 at the Wayback Machine.
3. MSN Inside Music – Re:Masters: Steely Dan Think Fast and Tour Archived 2010-09-04 at the Wayback Machine.
4. PopMatters review: "Steely Dan – Guacho."
5. Mojo article: "The Mojo Interview."
6. The Tuscaloosa News article: "Steely Dan Keeps Tackling Tough Topics."
7. Anchorage Daily News article: "Rockers in need find a friend indeed Link not working."
8. Sutherland, Donnie (December 28, 1980). "Recluses Who Speak Through Music". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
9. The Madison Courier article: "Personalities."
10. The Miami News article: "Steely Dan founder named in drug death allegation."
11. "(1950-2017) Walter Becker: el guitarrista influyente del sonido perfecto". LA NACION (in Spanish). September 4, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
12. "Gaucho by Steely Dan". Classic Rock Review. River of Rock Music Network. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
13. Ivie, Devon (November 12, 2018). "6 Times Steely Dan Nearly Crushed Famous Musicians' Morale".
14. AllMusic song review: "Babylon Sisters."
15. Steely Dan – Gaucho (2000 Reissue) (CD liner notes by Walter Becker & Donald Fagen). MCA Records. 088 112 055-2
16. Tingen, Paul. "Donald Fagen – Recording Morph The Cat". soundonsound.com. Sound On Sound Magazine. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
17. Burns, Tyler (May 4, 2021). "Engineering Steely Dan's GAUCHO (1980): Interview w/ Elliot Scheiner" (video). youtube.com.
18. Payne, Jim (September 8, 2010). The Great Drummers of R and B Funk and Soul (Paperback ed.). Mel Bay Publications. p. 146. ISBN 9781609745820. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
19. Big O Worldwide article: "The Lost Gaucho Archived June 25, 2021, at the Wayback Machine."
20. Steely Dan: Reelin in the Years by Brian Sweet – page 137
21. 335 Records – Larry Carlton Clinic – Third World Man on YouTube
22. Steely Dan Database: "The Second Arrangement" song info Archived 2011-05-30 at the Wayback Machine.
23. Kielty, Martin. "Steely Dan Lost 'Second Arrangement' Tapes Found". Ultimate Classic Rock.
24. Koning, Joe (June 25, 2023). "'The most important cassette on the planet': how Steely Dan fans uncovered their holy grail". The Guardian. Retrieved June 26, 2023.
25. Malooley, Jake (June 24, 2023). "Tale of the tape". Expanding Dan. Retrieved June 26, 2023.
26. Mike Powell (June 27, 2006). "On Second Thought: Steely Dan – Gaucho". Stylus Magazine. Archived from the original on June 16, 2021. Retrieved June 3, 2020. As if matching bitter, poetic cynicism with freewheeling jazz-rock wasn't enough, with Gaucho, Fagen and Becker approached anti-music in the same way that plastic surgery approaches being anti-human...
27. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Gaucho – Steely Dan". AllMusic. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
28. Joe Stuessy (1990). Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development. Prentice Hall. p. 335. ISBN 9780137824267.
29. Sexton, Paul (September 17, 2019). "Yacht Rock: A Boatload Of Guilty Pleasures". uDiscoverMusic. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
30. Malcolm, Timothy (July 12, 2019). "This Is the Definitive Definition of Yacht Rock". Houstonia. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
31. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (June 25, 2014). "AllMusic Loves Yacht Rock". AllMusic. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
32. Hosken, Patrick (February 7, 2017). "Are We in the Middle of a Yacht-Rock Revival". MTV News. Archived from the original on February 7, 2017. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
33. The Best of Steely Dan songbook, published by Hal Leonard. pp. 5.
34. MacDonald, Ian. Decadent Diversions: Steely Dan's Gaucho, in "The People's Music: Selected Journalism" (2003)
35. Allmusic song review: "Hey Nineteen."
36. "Remembering Walter Becker Of Steely Dan: 'Hey Nineteen' Banter". JamBase. December 27, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
37. AllMusic song review: "Time Out of Mind".
38. "Hits of the Week" (PDF). Record World. March 7, 1981. p. 1. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
39. Breskin, David (March 1, 1981). "Steely Dan interview". The Steely Dan Reader. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
40. Don't Mess with Steely Dan Archived January 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine; Brian Sweet, Steely Dan: Reelin' in the Years (London: Omnibus Press, 1994), p. 144.
41. SteelyDanDatabase: "." Archived August 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
42. Sarno, Michael. "Gaucho: The near implosion of Steely Dan's Yacht Rock masterpiece". Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
43. Kot, Greg (August 16, 1992). "Thrills, Scams and Nightflys". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
44. Christgau, Robert (1990). "Steely Dan: Gaucho". Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-73015-X. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
45. Larkin, Colin (2011). "Steely Dan". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
46. Strong, Martin Charles (2002). "Steely Dan". The Great Rock Discography. The National Academies. ISBN 1-84195-312-1.
47. Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). "Steely Dan". MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
48. Pappademas, Alex (November 20, 2019). "Steely Dan: Gaucho". Pitchfork. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
49. Swartley, Ariel (February 5, 1981). "Gaucho". Rolling Stone. New York. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
50. Sheffield, Rob (2004). "Steely Dan". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 778–79. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
51. Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Grade List: Steely Dan". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
52. Montreal Gazette article: "Steely Dan's Gaucho takes a smooth ride."
53. Holden, Stephen (January 18, 1981). "Steely Dan's New Songs". The New York Times. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
54. New York Times article: "The Pop Life; The 10 best of the albums issued in 1980."
55. Bishop, Pete (January 24, 1981). "'Gaucho' Humdrum". Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
56. "LYRICS | GAUCHO (1980)". SteelyDan.com. Archived from the original on November 4, 2006. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
57. Marsh, Dave; Swenson, John (1983). "Steely Dan". The New Rolling Stone Record Guide (2nd ed.). New York: Random House/Rolling Stone Press. p. 488. ISBN 0-394-72107-1.
58. Sakowski, David. "Steely Dan: Gaucho". PopMatters. Archived from the original on June 19, 2004. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
59. Colin Larkin (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 176. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.
60. Initial copies of the album credited Becker and Fagen as the authors of this track. Keith Jarrett was added as co-author on all subsequent reissues.
61. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
62. "Top RPM Albums: Issue 0292". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
63. "Dutchcharts.nl – Steely Dan – Gaucho" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
64. "Offiziellecharts.de – Steely Dan – Gaucho" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
65. "Charts.nz – Steely Dan – Gaucho". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
66. "Norwegiancharts.com – Steely Dan – Gaucho". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
67. "Swedishcharts.com – Steely Dan – Gaucho". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
68. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
69. "Steely Dan Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
70. "Steely Dan Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
71. "RPM Top 100 Albums of 1981". Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
72. "Top Selling Albums of 1981 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart". Recorded Music New Zealand. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
73. "Top US Billboard 200 Albums - Year-end 1981". BestSellingAlbums.org. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
74. "Billboard Vol. 94, No. 23: Majors Flight Economics with Quirky Rock Originals". Billboard. December 6, 1982. p. A-NZ 8. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
75. "New Zealand album certifications – Steely Dan – Gaucho". Recorded Music NZ. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
76. "American album certifications – Steely Dan – Gaucho". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved January 23, 2021.

External links

• Complete lyrics
• Gaucho on YouTube