Pre-Dan Demos

The Pre-Dan demos are a series of demos recorded from 1968 through 1971. In their days fresh out of Bard College, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker wrote various songs and demos to sell to other musicians. These demos either stayed in their demo stages, or were recycled for use on Steely Dan albums like "Charlie Freak" and "The Caves of Altamira". These demos were only rumored to have existed until the mid 1980's, when Fagen and Becker's old contributor Kenny Vance sold them off to small record labels. This has led to very poorly made bootlegs and a complicated understanding of how many demos circulate.

Recording history
The earliest demos on those bootlegs were recorded in 1968 at the Brill Building in Manhattan. These demos consist of simple piano, bass, drum, and vocal performances by Fagen and Becker. The two artists would go around Brooklyn, selling these demos to record labels. Demos from this period include "Stone Piano" and "Oh Wow, It's You Again". These types of demos were recorded until 1969, when fellow musician Keith Thomas started working alongside Fagen and Becker. These demos sound more like studio outtakes, with guitar segments and other instruments. Songs from this period include "Brain Tap Shuffle" and "Brooklyn". In 1970, the recordings developed once again. Judging by the fact the demo "Come Back Baby" from this period was included alongside "Dallas" and "Sail the Waterway" on a demo reel from 1972, it is thought these demos were considered to be re-recorded for Steely Dan's debut album Can't Buy a Thrill. During this time, the band was also working on the soundtrack for the movie You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It (or You'll Lose That Beat). This means their producer, Kenny Vance, worked on a few of these demos. For example, Vance sang lead vocals on the alternate version of "Sun Mountain". Fagen and Becker toured with Vance's band Jay and the Americans as well, and when they left The Americans, Vance made them sign a contract promising he'd get money from their first singles and album. This is why Vance's company Red Giant is credited as the co-publisher of the Can't Buy a Thrill album.

Vance's tapes and the boot-wave
Even after Steely Dan went on hiatus, Kenny Vance still held onto the tapes that housed Fagen and Becker's old demos. To cash in off the popularity of Steely Dan, Vance sold copies of his tapes to small record labels. This caused a wave of bootlegs to appear in the mid 80's. These bootlegs usually retained the forms of compilations, with only a few demos on each and not a complete set. This also caused imperfections in quality, song titles, and proper lengths. As with Can't Buy a Thrill, Vance's company Red Giant also published these bootlegs. Vance did not release all of the songs though. Tracks like "Anyway You Want It" and "Oh, Mr. Lyle" are omitted from all bootlegs and remain lost. The track "Anyway You Want It" does appear on the tracklist of the cassette version of Sun Mountain, though it isn't included on the actual cassette.

Bootleg imperfections
As stated in the last section, Pre-Dan bootlegs often suffer from generation loss and poor editing. For example, the song "Old Regime" appears on the bootleg Featuring Becker & Fagan [sic] in high quality, while later bootlegs feature the song with an audible hiss or reverb. Newer bootlegs also claim to contain alternate versions of "Barrytown" and "Any World (That I'm Welcome To)", as well as a demo of "Any Major Dude Will Tell You". This is false, as these alternate versions are actually low quality versions of those songs' respective album versions. Another problem, mainly with the first bootlegs, are the shortening of certain tracks. A few of these only include the first and/or last seconds of tracks being cut of such as "Yellow Peril" and "A Horse in Town". The track "Roaring of the Lamb" is cut near the middle, either appearing only as a fragment of the full song on some boots, while both halves being listed as their own songs on others. Speculation claims this happens because "Roaring of the Lamb" was recorded in two takes.

The biggest problem with these bootlegs are the mistitling of tracks. The biggest example of this is the situation between "The Caves of Altamira", "Android Warehouse", and "Undecided". Starting on early bootlegs, the song "The Caves of Altamira" is mistitled as "Android Warehouse", though they are completely different demos. Some bootlegs borrowed from others, which lead to "The Caves of Altamira" appearing on some boots twice, just under different names. Another song, "Undecided", is also a mistitling for "The Caves of Altamira". Like "Android Warehouse", it is also it's own song. Many things are also misspelled and misheard, such as "Mock Turtle Song" being called "Mock Gurgle Song" as well as Fagen being misspelled as Fagan.

Bootlegs to search for
Out of all bootlegs, three stand out especially. These being:


 * Featuring Becker & Fagan
 * Catalyst: The Original Recordings 1968-71
 * Android Warehouse (Age of Panik label)

Featuring Becker & Fagan isn't a complete collection by any means, thought it houses the highest quality versions of the songs featured on the bootleg. This boot suffers less from generation loss and other common problems that most bootlegs retain. Catalyst is a 2 CD collection of every demo released on these bootlegs, only missing the alternate version of "Stone Piano". Though it is the most complete, it lacks the quality that some other bootlegs have. If you value quantity over quality or want to hear the songs you missed, this bootleg is for you. There are multiple bootlegs called Android Warehouse, though this one is on the Age of Panik label's release. It is almost exactly the same as Catalyst besides the fact it is missing the alternate version of "Sun Mountain".

Other sources
Two other sources were a few alternate versions of Pre-Dan boots can be found are the digital bootleg Magdalenian Pries as well as the Knuckle Sandwich reel. Magdalenian Pries is a long circulated digital compilation of Pre-Dan tracks and Katy Lied outtakes. This compilation features alternate versions of "Ida Lee" and "Don't Let Me In". The Knuckle Sandwich reel came to light when a Facebook user in a Steely Dan fangroup asked "Does Knuckle Sandwich mean anything to anyone?". The user went on to explain that an aquaintance obtained the reel from a deli worker who knew a sound engineer for Fagen and Becker's band, which at the time was called Knuckle Sandwich. The reel contained alternate takes of "Brain Tap Shuffle", "A Horse in Town", and "Old Regime", as well as an untitled instrumental jam. This jam is said to have evolved into the song "Your Gold Teeth" on Countdown to Ecstasy. Magdalenian Pries can be found on music trading websites and peer-to-peer file sharing programs, while the contents of the Knucklehead Sandwich reel are much harder to find.

Full list of circulated demos
This section contains a full list of circulated demos from this era. These lists are split into two sections, one section featuring all the demos released on bootlegs while the other section listing demos from other sources. This list is in no particular order.

Tracks on bootlegs:

 * "Sun Mountain"
 * "Sun Mountain" (Alternate Version)
 * "Barrytown"
 * "Take It Out on Me"
 * "The Caves of Altamira"
 * "Charlie Freak"
 * "You Go Where I Go"
 * "Any World (That I'm Welcome To)"
 * "A Little With Sugar"
 * "Android Warehouse"
 * "More to Come"
 * "Parker's Band"
 * "Oh Wow, It's You Again"
 * "Stone Piano"
 * "Stone Piano" (Alternate Version)
 * "Yellow Peril"
 * "Roaring of the Lamb"
 * "This Seat's Been Taken"
 * "Ida Lee"
 * "Undecided"
 * "A Horse in Town"
 * "Let George Do It"
 * "Old Regime"
 * "Brain Tap Shuffle"
 * "Mock Turtle Song"
 * "Soul Ram"
 * "Brooklyn"
 * "Don't Let Me In"
 * "Come Back Baby"
 * "I Can't Function"

Tracks from other sources:

 * "Ida Lee" (Alternate Verison)
 * "Don't Let Me In" (Alternate Version)
 * "Old Regime" (Alternate Version)
 * "Brain Tap Shuffle" (Alternate Version)
 * "A Horse in Town" (Alternate Version)
 * Untitled Instrumental Jam