A ‘lost’ Steely Dan song from 1979 has surfaced online.
The song, “The Second Arrangement”, was originally recorded for the band’s 1980 album Gaucho – but the tapes were accidentally erased in the studio. It’s long been considered the ‘holy grail’ of the Steely Dan catalog.
But the song has reappeared, after the daughters of late engineer Roger Nichols found a rough mix of the song dubbed onto a cassette tape.
“As my father’s daughter, I wanted to make sure it was getting played and recorded digitally at the same time just in case,” Nichols’s daughter Cimcie said. “I felt a lot of pressure, because the fans wanted it so badly. I was like, ‘What if nothing’s on it, and I disappoint all these people? They might hang me by my toenails.’”
The song was released on the Steely Dan-related Substack ‘Expanding Dan’, and the cassette will be auctioned off for charity. Listen to the tape here.
