The Dukes of September (Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald & Boz Scaggs) - The Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, 9-29-2010

A few days ago, I didn't even know this group existed. I randomly stumbled on this recording while searching for something else. I was so impressed by the sound quality of this bootleg recording, as well as the performance, that I'm sharing it straight away.

The Dukes of September are mainly made up of Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers, and Boz Scaggs from his long solo career. From time to time, some artists who were big in earlier decades have teamed up with others so they can still play larger concert venues. For instance, Bob Dylan shared a billing with Paul Simon for a tour so they could fill the largest stadiums. But this is different. This isn't just a case of one person doing a set of their hits, followed by someone else doing their hits, etc... Instead, all three stars stayed on stage the whole concert and played and/or sang on all the songs. For another, while they did do some of their best known hits, about half of the songs are covers that none of them had previously done on record.

You can read more about the Dukes of September at the Wikipedia entry here:

The Dukes of September - Wikipedia

My short summary is that these three stars went on tour together from 1989 to 1992, along with some other less famous stars, such as Phoebe Snow, Eddie Brigati of the Rascals, and blues legend Charles Brown, under the name The New York Rock and Soul Revue. They released a live album in 1991 entitled "Live at the Beacon." They revived their partnership with a new name and more concert tours from 2010 to 2012, though this time without the other stars. However, two female vocalists were included, Carolyn Escoffery and Catherine Russell, and they sing lead vocals on a few of the songs here.

Personally, based on this recording, I prefer the Dukes of September over the New York Rock and Soul Revue, and I much prefer this concert bootleg over that other band's live album. It helps that this one is a lot longer, at two hours and eight minutes compared to an hour and six minutes. But also, I think it works better with more of a focus on the three major stars instead of including a bunch of lesser stars. For instance, on "Live at the Beacon," Boz Scaggs only sang lead on one song, whereas here he sang a bunch.

Strangely, the Dukes of September never released any official album, live or studio. They closest they came is a performance recorded in New York City and played as part of "Great Performances" on PBS. It was later released as a DVD, but not in any audio format. About half of the songs on that are different than the ones here, so maybe I'll find enough material to post a different concert from this bunch someday.

It seems Donald Fagen of Steely Dan was the main impetus for this group. His wife was the producer for their tours and those of their earlier incarnation, and Fagen acted as an MC of sorts, doing most of the talking between songs.

As I mentioned above, the sound quality of this is absolutely fantastic. It's hard to believe it's only a bootleg, because it's recorded and mixed so well that it sounds better than many official live albums. I can only guess that this was professionally done with plans for a possible official album that never came to fruition. 

There's only one snag, and it's a rather big one, in my opinion: the soundboard recording was so very good that not much of the audience could be heard after each song. But there was enough there so that I was able to boost the volume until it more or less sounded like a typical cheering crowd.

If you're a fan of Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, and/or Boz Scaggs, you should check it out. As nice as their versions of their own songs are, I think it's even more interesting hearing this bunch do lots of unexpected cover songs. They played songs by Don Covay, the Grateful Dead, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin, the Band, Mink DeVille, the O'Jays, the Beach Boys, Thunderclap Newman, and more. I think it's pretty clear they were having an especially good time playing songs other than their same old hits that probably bored them by this point in their careers.

01 Sookie Sookie (Dukes of September)
02 Heighty Hi (Dukes of September)
03 talk (Dukes of September)
04 Don’t Mess Up a Good Thing (Dukes of September)
05 talk (Dukes of September)
06 Shakedown Street (Dukes of September)
07 talk (Dukes of September)
08 You Never Can Tell (Dukes of September)
09 talk (Dukes of September)
10 I've Got News for You (Dukes of September)
11 Green Flower Street (Dukes of September)
12 talk (Dukes of September)
13 Miss Sun (Dukes of September)
14 talk (Dukes of September)
15 I Keep Forgettin' (Dukes of September)
16 talk (Dukes of September)
17 Rock Steady (Dukes of September)
18 talk (Dukes of September)
19 Rag Mama Rag (Dukes of September)
20 The Shape I'm In (Dukes of September)
21 Love TKO (Dukes of September)
22 talk (Dukes of September)
23 I Live the Life I Love (Dukes of September)
24 talk (Dukes of September)
25 Cadillac Walk (Dukes of September)
26 talk (Dukes of September)
27 What a Fool Believes (Dukes of September)
28 IGY [What a Beautiful World] (Dukes of September)
29 talk (Dukes of September)
30 Lowdown (Dukes of September)
31 Takin' It to the Streets (Dukes of September)
32 talk (Dukes of September)
33 Reelin' in the Years (Dukes of September)
34 Love Train (Dukes of September)
35 talk (Dukes of September)
36 Help Me Rhonda (Dukes of September)
37 Peg (Dukes of September)
38 talk (Dukes of September)
39 Something in the Air (Dukes of September)
40 talk (Dukes of September)
41 Sookie Sookie [Reprise] (Dukes of September)

https://www.imagenetz.de/hRYQp

The cover art shows, from left to right: Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs, and Donald Fagen. It was taken in August 2010, but I don't know the location.