Album : Steely Dan – Katy Lied

This album was just more music from a band that CB was digging more and more. They had their own sound and it just appealed to me. The album fades in like the band has been playing and you’ve just walked in on them. ‘Black Friday’ starts the trip and it just keeps going. Great groove on ‘Daddy Don’t Live in NY City ..’ Fagen’s lyrics are some of my favorites and throughout the record he stirs up images with his word play. Try getting the ‘Dr Wu’ lyric out of your head. Some nice sax work on this one. I’m a sucker for women’s names and SD does it a couple time on this album.

‘Everyone’s Gone To the Movies’ opens side two with the song’s main character Mr Lapages up there in Uncle Ernie territory. ‘Gold Teeth’ (SD and Zappa always caught me the same) is another great lyric by Fagen. Just a great image for CB. Some real nice jazz guitar licks on this one. Love the cut. Hit CB’s jazz bone. ‘Chain Lightning’ is just a smooth groove with that Steely Dan sound. Again some nice guitar work.

 

‘Katy Lied’ just solidified Steely Dan’s hold on me. So much good music on this one. The playing is top notch. Musical ideas coming together. The Fagen /Becker combo just works for me. They know how to use the musicians around them to put some really good tunes together. Not a bad cut. Dan and Zappa were leading CB into jazz territory. I found a lot of similarities in their music especially the guitar work and how they used the guest musicians. Great album. It goes by quick.