New Wax Wednesday

“It was the hippest of times, it was the squarest of times — mostly the latter.” Ever cleverly dour, that was how the principal members of Steely Dan (a.k.a. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen) opened the three-paneled liner-notes portion of the folded booklet within the MCA CD reissue of their masterful May 1976 ABC album The Royal Scam. Thankfully, the music found therein was much more hip than square — and, now, after a 40-year wait (!), The Royal Scam is finally seeing proper vinyl reissue courtesy separate Geffen/UMe and Analogue Productions editions on June 6, 2025.

The Royal Scam is the final entry in Steely Dan’s seven-album ABC/MCA-era reissue series, which concludes the extensive catalog-refresh program that began in November 2022 with the updated version of their notable November 1972 debut ABC LP, Can’t Buy a Thrill. As many of us likely already know, this important reissue series, which has been personally overseen by co-founding SD bandmember Donald Fagen, has sought to upgrade a quite formidable and formative catalog, many albums of which haven’t been available on high-grade LPs since their original releases.

We here at AP have done extensive, in-depth reviews of each of the previous six SD reissues in this series, and we will do the same with The Royal Scam, once we have it in hand. Most likely, we will again deploy the three-pronged evaluation approach we took with the recent reissue of SD’s Katy Lied back in February 2025, in which myself, Mark Smotroff, and Ken Micallef all reviewed it together in round-robin style. (Footnote 1) For his part, Mark has often mentioned how The Royal Scam is his personal favorite Steely Dan LP, so our expectations are already quite high.

But for now, back to the stats! The Geffen/UMe version of The Royal Scam will appear as a 33⅓rpm 180g 1LP release on black vinyl, as housed in a reproduction of the original artwork. The Geffen/UMe edition has been remastered by Joe Nino-Hernes at Sterling Sound from hi-res digital files — which is SOP for the Geffen/UMe portion of the SD reissue series — and pressed at Precision. As per the balance of the Geffen/UMe SD reissues, the SRP for this version of The Royal Scam is $29.99.

Meanwhile, the Analogue Productions version of The Royal Scam has been remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes, and it will appear in limited-edition premium 45rpm 200g 2LP form on Ultra High-Quality Vinyl (UHQR). This edition will be pressed at Analogue Productions’ Quality Record Pressings (QRP) facility on 200g Clarity Vinyl, packaged in a deluxe box, and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a certificate of inspection — as well as the last round of liner notes specifically written by Fagen for these SD UHQR releases. As is SOP for all UHQR releases, the SRP for the Analogue Productions edition of The Royal Scam is $149.99.

Both the Geffen/UMe and UHQR editions of The Royal Scam can be pre-ordered from Music Direct here, and/or via the MD link graphic that appears just ahead of the tracklisting section at the end of this post. (We don’t yet have the four-side breakdowns of the 2LP UHQR edition in hand, so you will only see the Geffen/UMe side breaks there.)

I, for one, am very much looking forward to having both new LP versions of The Royal Scam to evaluate and to enjoy on my turntable — if just for the nuances of Fagen’s second, breathy read on the line “Yes, there’s gas in the caaaar” in the album-opening “Kid Charlemagne” alone. (Okay, okay, I do freely admit that I wanna hear that killer Dean Parks/Becker talkbox activity on “Haitian Divorce” too.)

My original 1976 ABC Santa Maria pressing of The Royal Scam (ABCD-931) has certainly seen much, much better days — and though my replacement/backup copy is certainly more than passable, it will need quite the good and thorough Degritter cleaning session before the needle hits the wax on either side for a proper comparison. It will also be interesting to see if either/both of the new editions of Scam replicate the flower etching in the runout groove on Side A, and the seagulls in flight on Side B.

The official, accompanying press release notes that The Royal Scam reached No. 15 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and that the LP has been certified platinum. Scam also features the first appearance of drummer Bernard Purdie on a Steely Dan LP, having supplied his signature groove to tracks like the aforementioned “Kid Charlemagne” and “Green Earrings.” Guitarist Larry Carlton delivers searing solos throughout the album (particularly on “Don’t Take Me Alive”), and there are also plenty of key contributions from bassist Chuck Rainey, keyboardist Paul Griffin, a smokin’ hot horn section (especially on the album-ending title track), and the always soaring background vocals of Michael McDonald and Timothy B. Schmit (which are actually listed as “back-up vocals,” and the Eagles/Poco singer’s name is given there as the shorter “Tim Schmit”).

As Becker and Fagen posited in those above-mentioned 1999 CD liners, “We yet aspire to see our own names written on the stars alongside the greats, near greats, and ingrates of jazz, funk, and/or rhythm and blues, depending.” Many would say The Royal Scam went a long way in cementing those steely lads’ wishes — but, as I wonder to no one in particular, can I (or rather, we) review either of these forthcoming new editions without The Fez on. . .? Well, we shall soon enough find out either way, so stay tuned to the AP Music review section for the inevitable Royal vinyl lowdown!

STEELY DAN
THE ROYAL SCAM
180g 1LP (Geffen/UMe)

Side A
1. Kid Charlemagne
2. The Caves Of Altamira
3. Don’t Take Me Alive
4. Sign In Stranger
5. The Fez

Side B
1. Green Earrings
2. Haitian Divorce
3. Everything You Did
4. The Royal Scam

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Footnote 1: For our extensive reviews of the first six SD UHQR and Geffen/UMe reissues, go here, and scroll down accordingly to find our takes on Katy Lied, Gaucho, Aja, Pretzel Logic, Countdown to Ecstasy, and Can’t Buy a Thrill.