Last September, as you may recall, Expanding Dan published rare audio of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen’s stint moonlighting as jazz radio DJs on listener-sponsored New York station WBAI in 1988. The boys spun some favorite records, bantered amusingly, and even revealed that they were again making music together. I was particularly interested in the tape—generously donated by loyal subscriber and Major Dude™ Toby Howard—as an artifact from Steely Dan’s post-Gaucho hiatus, a period when Becker and Fagen made few public appearances together.
There was just one problem: the bootleg did not include a portion of the program. A partial transcript of the show, apparently made from the same incomplete recording, first appeared in the July 1991 issue of the Steely Dan fanzine Metal Leg. “We are reliably informed,” the publication noted, “that only the first 15 minutes is missing.” Even in its fragmentary form, the audio of the broadcast was well worth publishing. At the same time, I wondered whether the lost section would ever turn up.
Last month I received a note from Howard. Somehow he had located the missing piece of the recording. “There is some great talk in that beginning section that I think you will enjoy,” he wrote.
