Steely Dan – Sun Mountain

Sun Mountain was the first in a long long series of bogus Steely Dan demo product that would plague them forever. I like this UK LP because it is the 1st on Vinyl. German press: Berrytown, is a very close twin release from the same year ('85)...but I love the Sun Mountain record. It's a pro looking UK LP and the cover photo is great. It Includes Barrytown, Any World I'm Welcome To, Caves of Altramira and Parker's Band....DEMOS!!!!! That's a lot of cool stuff. The title track is my fave SD Demo however. Great song. N

Pretend that I’m just a so-so fan of Steely Dan and this album fell into my lap and I’m gonna stomp in the puddle and soak you with sonic truth: The sound quality is nearly a joke, with there being no reason most of these songs and partial songs to have ever seen the light of day, and that being said, I imagine that at the time Fagen and Becker were rather embarrassed that his collection is out there.

Now: Containing collections of demo versions, including “Barrytown along with “Caves of Altamira,” as well as little known and unheard of material left on the cutting room floor, Sun Mountain first surfaced under the title Android Warehouse many years ago, and has been repackaged several times. Granted, the recordings are no where near perfect, far from it, with several of the songs later being polished and finding their way onto formal Steely Dan releases, such as “Charlie Freak, “Parker’s Band” and several others that have all gone on to become staples of the Dan catalog. And then there’s the studio chatter which can be both annoying and informative, nevertheless, it’s not a collection of songs anyone is going to play often, it’s more that it’s reference material, where comparisons can be made, ideas developed and used in other places. If you’re lucky enough to have two turntables it’s wonderful to play the material side by side, especially on the radio, as I’ve done many times.

The thing that got to me was that there are a number of songs which should have found their way to being developed refined and polished into the bright and infectious gems they are. Oddly enough, all of the tracks were recorded between 1968 and 1971, easily showing that Steely Dan were lightyears ahead of their time in perfecting a sound that was both original and delightfully out of step with anything that was being laid down during the psychedelic 60’s.

Review by Jenell Kesler