Your Gold Teeth II

jcdrum14

Member
Hey guys, I've recently decided I want to learn Your Gold Teeth II by Steely Dan off the

Katy Lied album.

It is such a complex arrangement, to me anyway.

There are always a few bars of odd time thrown into the groove.

If I remember correctly, it is Jeff Porcaro playing this song, and he does a phenomal job,

he really dominates the tune.

Does anyone have any experiences playing this song, or anything related to Steely Dan?
 
Hey guys, I've recently decided I want to learn Your Gold Teeth II by Steely Dan off the

Katy Lied album.

It is such a complex arrangement, to me anyway.

There are always a few bars of odd time thrown into the groove.

If I remember correctly, it is Jeff Porcaro playing this song, and he does a phenomal job,

he really dominates the tune.

Does anyone have any experiences playing this song, or anything related to Steely Dan?

I've messed around on this song and if memory serves, it's 3/4 swing with a 4/4 intro. I don't think it diverges from that after the beginning but I may be wrong. If you haven't played jazz before this will take a lot of work to learn. If you have the patience I would highly recommend keeping at it. Good luck!
 
I have played jazz before, and am in my school's jazz band, and take lessons so the beat is not the problem, just the song structure. I think im going to chart out the song tonight. Jeff Porcaro plays this song like a jazz monster i think. The short drum break is just amazing because of his impeccable musicality.

P.S. - Pretzel Logic, is that your favorite album? ;)
 
I have played jazz before, and am in my school's jazz band, and take lessons so the beat is not the problem, just the song structure. I think im going to chart out the song tonight. Jeff Porcaro plays this song like a jazz monster i think. The short drum break is just amazing because of his impeccable musicality.

P.S. - Pretzel Logic, is that your favorite album? ;)

I just gave it another listen and I very much underestimated it XD. It's apparently in 3/8, 6/8, and 9/8. Here's a Porcaro quote about the song:

"'Your Gold Teeth II' is a song with lots of bars of 3/8. 6/8. amd 9/8. And it's bebop! I could swing the cymbal beat and fake it, but that always bothered me. After recording it, Fagen gave me a Charles Mingus record with Dannie Richmond on drums. It had a tune that was full of 6/8 and 9/8 bars. I listened to that for a couple of days, and we tried it again and it worked. What a cool thing! The ride cymbal on that, and on the whole record, is an old K Zildjian my dad gave me. Unfortunately, all the cymbals are clipped and phased on the album because the DBX didn't work. That was real heart-breaking for those guys. "

Jeez, good luck figuring this out. I don't want to try to play anything that people compare to a Mingus composition! Best of luck, bud, let us know how it works out.

P.S. I'm actually a pretty big Aja guy. Aja might be a strange username for a guy though 0_o.
 
Yea, I have the first verse and chorus figured out, then it gets a little crazy. This is definitely going to turn into a long term project XD.

Oh and about Aja, I really can't tell what is on the cover of the album, forgive me if it's obvious but I don't really see anything special haha.
 
Sorry, no help on Your Gold Teeth but you may find this of interest. There is a very cool video available on the making of the Aja album. I got it from Netflix and I believe it was originally a VH1 production. Cool interviews and insight from Becker, Fagan, and a good number of the musicians on the record. Marotta does a style analysis of his parts. Purdie of course demos "the Purdie shuffle", etc. One thing to keep in mind on Steely Dan stuff is that regardless of how complex a song is, they are VERY groove oriented.

Hard to see on the cd but if you have a copy of the original album you can see that the cover of Aja is a girl standing in the shadows.
 
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