Steely Dan's "Peg": Four-Part Harmony Breakdown of Michael McDonald's Backing Vocals
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- Опубліковано 3 жов 2024
- A breakdown of the four-part vocal harmony sections in Steely Dan's "Peg". This video focuses on the smooth backing vocals during the chorus sections and how the harmonies are constructed and relate to the accompanying chords.
Michael did mention how difficult it was to discern the close intervals... BUT he did an amazing job...
Awesome video. I got Aja on vinyl in the 70s when I was maybe 6 years old and have since replaced that worn out copy with CD and later digital files. I was and wasn't surprised when studying sound engineering in 1994 at the Colorado Institute of Art that many live engineers use that album to set live sound, and even recording studio acoustics are adjusted to its reproduction due to Roger Nichols' stringent standards of engineering. I, personally, have set systems for 300k+ person live gigs with it. I had always thought that it was just me who appreciated Aja, being brought up in a mostly rock and roll landscape. Recently, the last 5 or so years, attention has been brought to Aja and I am all for it. I suppose Steve Gadd's work on it as well as that by Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour have played a part in that beyond what the documentary puts forth, although the personnel list is huge and every player is simply awesome. Michael's vocals were always the cherry on top of every single other thing in that collection of songs. When his voice comes in it's like an already vibrant color palette goes into hyper-color, you have just shifted from oils into acrylics. I highly recommend listening back to Aja on vinyl through a late 70s Sansui system (minimum 3-way, 200w) that's been either preserved very well or completely reconditioned. What a wonderful mix. Roger was one of the top 3 all time recording and mix engineers. I got Larry's signature on a copy of Aja about 20 years ago in St. Louis (few were paying attention to his band playing a blues festival on the street until I waved that carton just right in the sun to catch his attention, gave a look, he nodded back with a smile, then went into Josie and that crowd went F-ing nuts, we laughed about it after).
Thanks for sharing that and thanks for watching.
I was turned on to this record mainly by reading Rhythm magazine, when I used to be obsessed with drumming. Previously I had heard Steve gadd on the chick corea record, mad hatter. And when I got this record, I was really blown away by how unusual it was. Because I had a fairly narrow musical exposure as a kid. Along with chick corea and everything else.
Aside from being a fantastic player, you are an great teacher and educator.
He really is
Great video. Yeah Michael McDonald's work is on another level.
Many thanks.
MM's harmony almost sounds sampled... Fabulous singer.
This is a truly excellent explanation. I've transcribed it myself and this vid helped me out with corrections. Especially oblique motion on 'shutter falls' I just couldn't figure that moment out. Thanks a million.
On the choruses near the end there are extra ad libs from MMcD. The "ooh ooh yeah yeah" at around the 3 minute mark for example.
I'm really fortunate in that I'm somehow able to listen to multi-part vocal harmony, and pick out each part separately; I've always just been able to follow each line, and never wanted to look too deeply into how!☺
But this is a fantastic video, because I've never studied too much music theory, so to hear it explained like that is really cool.
Michael McDonald is a beast. Always has been.
Superb. This couldn't have been easy, even for someone with good ears.
Thank you Chanan, Michael Mcdonald is a beautiful vocalist. Really appreciate your analysis, deepening my understanding and enjoyment.
You're welcome and thanks for watching.
Thank you! Now I can go in and try to fix the vocals on my version!
dude, thank you for breaking this down for us…
love that you do it on this level
Chanan - your presentation and analysis is almost as smooth and cool as Michael McDonald's voice ;-)
Very kind, thanks for watching.
Steely Dan always brings me the sweetest chills, thanks bro
You're welcome and thanks for watching.
Thank you! Very helpful.
Thanks for sharing! It is amazing to have someone break down such complex vocal parts with close dissonances! Amazing talent on both ends!
You're welcome and thanks for watching.
You did a great job thanks I’m going to try and make use of it in my writing
Check out Beato’s interview. Michael said recorded the vocals (with difficulty) without playback of his voice. Basically, he did it from feel. Just an amazing performance.
So many of the most loved songs have some really compelling harmonies and progressions kind of hiding in the crowd. That’s why I love great a cappella covers of songs. The beauty of the harmonies is just sounds amplified to my ears when covered by the human voice, like Noteworthy’s Madness by Muse.
Getting to the heart of Peg
Those harmonies in isolation sound quite progressive. They remind me of bands like Gentle Giant.
Really cool sir!
These analyses are fascinating.
Thank you.
Chanan -- time well spent, sir! I've always loved McDonald's harmonies on PEG. It's one thing for 4 folks to sing harmony together, simultaneously, and make/move chords. It's something different entirely when 1 "folk" has to sing all 4 parts, individually, and keep the chord(s) in tune. Another great job! As a former AOR disc jockey, believe me -- I have heard PEG. Or at least, until now, I thought I had!
Thank you Victor!
Thank you for posting this!
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Great and impeccable job, Sir :)
Excellent vid and analysis, thank you for putting the time and effort in, Chanan. As you say it must be very hard to pick those harmonies apart without access to the multiple Michaels on the multitrack!
That's ear training, bay bee!
Beautiful
Wow!! You have an amazing gift! Thank you for sharing. I would love for you to do a video/transcription for the vocal chorale, "Critical Mass". David Crosby composed it for the Crosby/Nash album, "Wind on the Water."
Great analysis, thanks.
Amazing. Thank you!
Brilliant!
Great video, thank you
I loved when Walter and Donald solo Michaels vocals on peg and your hear him dry and flat, they say "sorry Michael", not sorry
Great video so well done! I'm going to record my own version thanks to this haha you helped so much!
I noticed after watching the video of the making of Aja that it appeared to me that the mixing of the parts were slightly more important than the recording of the parts-which was extremely important. I came to realize that when Donald and Walter were sitting at the mixing desk reviewing the track recording, and making the level adjustments to the various tracks, and when the drummer commented on the hi-hat track and how it was audible to hear the opening and closing of the HH. Then there was the blurb from Donald about Deacon Blues having a flute part but since they did not have a flute player they used a synth instead-isolated that part sounded terrible, but in the mix-passable, go figure. They even made fun of the isolated McDonald harmony, and based on Michael's comments he must have spent hours and dozens of takes to get it done to Walter and Donald's approval.
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Love this!!! thanks, man!. I'm gonna share this video with musicians I know that love Steely Dan
Genius !
This is exactly what I was looking for, great job!
I like it!
What a musician Michael macdonald is too, by the way. Doobie brothers etc. Epic. Legendary.
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Michael later said that he asked on some of the takes NOT to hear the other parts played in his monitor
(Thats 8) I find it helps me with the overall feel of said piece. Like if I was conducting the thing. This made me feel his music sooo much better, even if its not correct on paper or how to understand it musically. I would love to here your thoughts on this approach if you would try it. It would mean a lot and it works on many of his pieces. Pedros, Duke of prunes etc.. but especially Frank and Vinnie…..
Thanks for sharing! I've often marveled at the vocal harmonies here. I found your harmonic analysis a little unclear for my level of understanding (not super high, but not plebian). It would be helpful in future, for example, when exemplifying voice leading (eg 6 to b7), to play the individual line, as well as the clustered chord, to allow the listener to identify specific notes and their resolutions. Regardless, great to be able to sit down and work through the vocal harmonies without having to do the dirty work of transcribing...
Such a great post! The analysis of this harmony is the most detailed I’ve ever seen. I wonder how long it took Becker and Fagen to record this with McDonald. Especially since they were such notorious perfectionists who swapped out entire “ bands” during the recording of Aja to get the sound they wanted. That wasn’t an option with McDonald, he was the best in the business and also a Steely Dan discovery. I wonder how long it took to record that section. I imagine it would be like acting for Stanley Kubrick who just as demanding in his films and would often make his actors do multiple retakes until he was satisfied. In The Shining for a critical scene he had the actors do 148 takes! Maybe Becker and Fagen weren’t that bad but you never know.
Many thanks.
Agreed John - phenomenal video by Chanan. I am especially curious about how these harmonies are composed in the first place. Do you think they built the chords on the piano, and then allocated for part of the harmony to McDonald's voice? or maybe McDonald just added layer by layer to the first few notes of the chord. In any case its masterful harmony.
@@akinpaksoy2127 excellent question. I have no idea how the creative process, or “ workflow” happens between Becker and Fagen. I remember reading somewhere how when they got together to start working on an album, they both brought files of songs in various stages of development.
This dude has an uncluttered mind.
This is a good companion piece to the Classic Albums Series the Making of Aja by Steely Dan.
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I think it expands the downbeats and feel.
Return of SUAPYG
Really enjoyed this (and other videos on XTC, Zappa, Vai). Keep them coming! One question and a slightly geeky suggestion for you... Were you first able to figure out these golden harmonies after the "vocals only" mixes were made available in recent years? I've adored these parts for years, just sublime harmony and timbre. I worked out most parts from the stereo mix, but there were bits I wasn't sure about. When the vocals only mixes came out, bingo! I wonder if you had similar experience, only being able to clinch those last crucial notes from the vocals mix? And a suggestion: on "back to you" I think it's 4 parts here, GACD and ABDE. So a bit like a sus2sus4 chord based on G and A. The extra note doesn't change things much, though it thickens things nicely on the second chord. I like the fact these chords stack two pairs of notes a tone apart together. And on "3D" I used to think it was just two parts (singing a perfect 4th, DG), but somehow I felt I was missing something, but I couldn't hear it. Your video made me realise - that extra note (E) again just fattens things nicely, without overdoing it. So thanks! I wonder why they didn't use 4 parts here (BDEG), decent voice leading and fits the chords...? Who knows!
Hi Howard, Thanks for your comment. I went back and listened to the vocals and "back to you" still sounded like 3-parts, but then sometimes I could hear the A to B, it's quite a tricky one to decipher. The A and B could well be there and I'm just not hearing them, or only sometimes hearing them. I checked out "3D" again, and there is definitely an E in that part. My only deduction as to why it breaks into 3 part for "3D" is that the underlying chord is a 7#9 and although a B note would work, it doesn't sound particularly good. I sang the B along with the recording and it didn't add anything to the part to be honest. So, I suppose it's possible Becker and Fagan left it out, if it was even there in the first place.
@@ChananHanspal Thanks for the feedback. On "3D" you're right for sure, the E is there. When I tried working it out some while back, I could only hear two notes, but it felt like I was missing something - I just couldn't hear what it was. Your video plugged the gap for me with the note I'd missed 🙂
Great video! Why call it Asus2/E? Wouldn’t Esus4 or Emadd11 represent it better?
Michael McDonald is great recently on the Rick Beato....
Oh durn, got cut off. I was saying pls count SUAPYGuitar cut time. ONE TWO ONE TWO
Pretzel logic
Please just say the note names. I dont speak music
Good analysis but very hard to follow. Should have done this on a piano with the piano showing at the bottom for much clearer visualization
Id like to suggest you do a video on Ray Charles. I never thought much of Ray Charles growing up (Im a genX'er) but I recently watched an interview of Donald Fagen talking about how Ray Charles had a huge affect on his music because Ray Charles was part of the jazz based blues that lost out to more rock based blues in the 60s.