Maps of Music

Alive in America (1995)

Where the lyrics of Alive in America take you, and where it was really made.

Steely Dan had not played live since 1974, and this album comes from the 1993 and 1994 tours that ended that silence.

Key places

A recording site for the tour live tracks (1995)

Recording site Tropicana Field — This venue is listed as a recording location for the live tracks. The tour recordings span the summers of 1993 and 1994. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

A recording site for the tour live tracks (1995)

Recording site Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre — This venue is listed as a recording location for the live tracks. The tour recordings span the summers of 1993 and 1994. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

A recording site for the tour live tracks (1995)

Recording site Pine Knob Music Theater — This venue is listed as a recording location for the live tracks. The tour recordings span the summers of 1993 and 1994. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

A recording site for the tour live tracks (1995)

Recording site Poplar Creek Music Theater — This venue is listed as a recording location for the live tracks. The tour recordings span the summers of 1993 and 1994. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

A recording site for the tour live tracks (1995)

Recording site Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre — This venue is listed as a recording location for the live tracks. The tour recordings span the summers of 1993 and 1994. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

A recording site for the tour live tracks (1995)

Recording site PNC Music Pavilion — This venue is listed as a recording location for the live tracks. The tour recordings span the summers of 1993 and 1994. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Mixing and mop-up site (1995)

Recording site Record Plant Studios — The album was mixed at River Sound in New York. The mop-up and mixdown work was done at this studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Alive in America: first live album by the American rock group Steely Dan
• Released October 17, 1995
• Collects recordings from the band's 1993 and 1994 tours
• These tours were the first live Steely Dan performances since 1974
• The tour also supported Donald Fagen's album Kamakiriad
• Additional live tracks from the tour were later released on the Cousin Dupree single
• Recordings were made on tour during the summers of 1993 and 1994
• Produced by Donald Fagen
• Mixed by Roger Nichols at River Sound in New York
• Mastered by Scott Hull at Masterdisk in New York
• The booklet runs 12 pages and contains credits, notes, photos and artwork

Background

• The album came after a reunion in 1993, following fifteen years without the band
• It was the first release after the studio album Gaucho
• Walter Becker had worked on Donald Fagen's New York Rock and Soul Review in 1991
• The album's track list is built from the band's 1970s catalogue
• Book of Liars, credited to Becker, was the only track not drawn from an earlier studio album by the group

Recording

• Recording dates run from August 19, 1993 to September 19, 1994
• Tape was supplied by Ampex
• Mop-up and mixdown took place at River Sound in New York
• Additional engineer Phil Burnett
• Second engineers Anthony Gillis and Tony Gonzalez

Cover

• Art direction by Carol Bobolts of Red Herring Design
• Photography by Stephen Cridland, Jacky Sallow, Pete Fogel and Donald Fagen

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · de.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1971 by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.
• Becker and Fagen met in 1967 at Bard College and began writing songs together.
• They moved to Los Angeles after producer Gary Katz hired them as staff songwriters for ABC Records.
• The band takes its name from a dildo mentioned in William S. Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch.

Members

• Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals) were the core duo.
• Early band members included Denny Dias, Jeff Baxter, and Jim Hodder.
• Fagen reluctantly took on lead vocals after the search for a suitable singer failed.

Career

• Debut album Can't Buy a Thrill (1972) produced the hits "Do It Again" and "Reelin' in the Years".
• After 1974 the band stopped touring and continued as a studio project using session musicians.
• Aja (1977) became the band's top-selling album and won a Grammy for engineering.
• The band disbanded in 1981 and reunited in 1993.
• Two Against Nature (2000) won the Grammy for Album of the Year.
• Becker died in 2017; Fagen continued the band until 2024 and retired in 2026.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001; has sold over 40 million records.

Reception

At release

• Carola Dibbell wrote about the album for The Village Voice in 1995
• She found the album naturally excellent
• She had seen most of the featured performances in person
• She said the album sounded better truly live
• She preferred the band's complete studio-album compilation Citizen Steely Dan (1993)
• Rolling Stone was very critical of the album and gave it two of five stars

Records

• Released by Giant Records according to the Discogs release record
• The release is listed with a 12-page booklet
• Chart positions, sales figures and certifications are not given in the source material for this album

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · de.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Additional live tracks from the tour were later released on the Cousin Dupree single.
• Tape for the recordings was supplied by Ampex.
• Book of Liars is the only track whose original studio version appears on Walter Becker's solo album 11 Tracks of Whack.
• Aja, the closing track at 9:00, is the longest entry in the album's track list.
• Warren Bernhardt is credited with piano and rehearsal direction.
• Walter Becker sang lead vocals only on the sixth track.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · fr.wikipedia.org · de.wikipedia.org

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