A new Gaucho song is out, there’s a mutiny going on in Russia, and the year is somehow not 1980. Time is a social construct, man. More than four decades after being feared forever lost owing to a studio technician error, Steely Dan’s “The Second Arrangement†has surfaced in high-fidelity glory. The Expanding Dan Substack reports that Roger Nichols, one of the band’s longtime engineers, made a rough mix of the track on a cassette tape during the 1979 recording sessions prior to its accidental erasure. This tape was unearthed by Nichols’s daughter, who received confirmation from band advisers that this version of “The Second Arrangement†was indeed the “original recording of the song in its nearly finished form.†The digital audiotape clocks in at five minutes and 46 seconds — perhaps it would’ve been a fittingly louche side-one closer after “Glamour Profession†— and here’s a taste of how the chorus goes:
And I run to the second arrangement
It’s only the natural thing
Who steps out with no regrets
A sparkling conscience
A new address
When I run to the second arrangement
The home of a mutual friend
Now’s the time to redefine the first arrangement again
Prior to this Dan-sanctioned discovery, “The Second Arrangement†had only been available in low-quality bootlegs of questionable origin. Gary Katz, the band’s producer, told Expanding Dan that he envisioned the song as a proper Gaucho single — a distinction that would go on to be bestowed to “Hey Nineteen†and “Time Out of Mind.†The Substack also tracked down the hapless technician who deleted the track, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “I just didn’t have my head in the right place, and I made a mistake,†he said, admitting to marijuana use. “While we were conscious of maintaining attentiveness while working, yeah, earlier in the day, I smoked weed. We all did. In a studio environment like that, with artists coming through, there was pot smoke all over the place almost all the time.â€
As the lore goes, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker attempted to rerecord “The Second Arrangement†again in the studio but could never recapture its essence. It was abandoned in favor of “Third World Man.†You can listen to the full song here, ideally with Cuervo Gold and fine Colombian in hand.