Back in the day when people actually tried to get the best sound out of their audio equipment, I remember that Steely Dan's "Aja" was the demo album of choice. Those crisp, scintillating highs, that deep but precise bass, all that futzy stuff with the guitars -- audiophile nirvana. Of course, "Aja" was probably in the Top Ten of Most Manipulated Sound Production albums ever. Yeah, it sounded pretty slick, but so sterile. For my money, I much preferred the live sound captured on this Donny Hathaway album -- a live room sound (better in what we Cro-Magnons refer to as Side One than Side Two from a different date.) Willie Weeks, Cornell Dupree -- the cream of soul studio musicians (though you'd never glean this information from the criminally sparse liner notes that came with my German import.) While this has been more recently rejigged (as "These Songs for You, Live!") with alternate versions and extra tracks, the sliced-and-diced track sequencing is terrible; stick with the original (though I will spend some time finding out if this album has been remastered since my copy was purchased.)
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