steely dan fm no static at all

I have a needledrop that's closer to 3:49, but that's when surface noise overwhelms the music; it could conceivably extend another second or two.

The fade is absurdly long on the 45 - it's as if Donald and Walter wanted to slowly sneak out of the party without being noticed.

For the LP version, I use the original A Decade Of, with mastering credits by Bob Ludwig and Roger Nichols. Here, the LP version sounds spectacular and runs 4:50. (Later masterings of Decade are credited to Glenn Meadows, which run 4:48, are mastered a little too loud, and have noise reduction. Avoid for "FM".)

If your fade has a sinusoidal shape (as it does on my old copy of Cool Edit Pro), you can use a 64-beat fade from 3:14.1 to 3:49.2.

FYI, the A-side of the 45 and the LP version contain a short sax solo. The B-side of the 45, labelled as "Reprise", includes the full sax solo, and no lyrics.

The version of "FM" on the Citizen box set (1993) is a Frankensteined version that never existed in 1978. 0:00.0 to 3:07.3 of Citizen matches the same portion of the LP and A-side of the 45. 3:07.3 to 5:04 (end) of Citizen matches 0:54 to 2:51 (end) of the B-side of the 45, with the sax stuff. 0:18 to 0:54 of the B-side corresponds to 1:50 to 2:25 of the LP/45 version. The first 18 seconds of the B-side of the 45 don't exist on CD.

Edited by crapfromthepast

There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.

It's an extremely long, gradual fade.

If you use a sinusoidal-shaped fade (one of only a few options in my ancient version of Cool Edit Pro), then the fade doesn't have much of an effect for the first few seconds. If your fade shape has a more abrupt start, then you can start it later than 3:14.

There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.

Still trying to figure this out...

I think the Frankensteined version (the one that incorporates most of the sax stuff from the B-side of the 45) first appeared on the 1991 CD Gold (Expanded Edition), which I don't have.

There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.

crapfromthepast wrote:

The first 18 seconds of the B-side of the 45
don't exist on CD.

"FM - Reprise" is available on CD on the FM soundtrack.

I never owned the 45 so I'm assuming that this is the same song.

Edited by RichM921

I was watching the movie "FM" recently, and found out that there was an AM radio version that was played instead. I never heard it as a kid, but this sounds interesting.

Steely Dan Sings "Fffffff - er, I Mean AM"

Cheers,
Jody Thornton
(Richmond Hill, Ontario)