50 Years Later: Steely Dan Shapes Iconic Sleek Jazz & Pop Mold With ‘Katy Lied’

Steely Dan co-leaders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker cultivate the most sympathetic characters of their career on the ten songs composed for the now fifty-year-old Katy Lied. But as an ironic twist in keeping with the duo’s acerbic persona, for the first record the group made after the cessation of touring, the titular leaders of the group enlisted anonymous but eventually famous session musicians and singers (including vocalist Michael McDonald) to take the place of (most of) the band pictured on the back of what is arguably the best of all Dan LPs, 1973’s Countdown to Ecstasy.

The transition to such accompaniment was gradual, though. On the third Steely Dan album, Pretzel Logic, the quintet, which included drummer Jim Hodder and guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, was augmented by many prominent Los Angeles-based studio musicians, including drummers Jim Gordon (Derek and the Dominos) and Jeff Porcaro (Toto).

The dense thirty-five-plus minutes of the follow-up begins with “Black Friday.” It’s hardly the first blues shuffle Steely Dan had ever recorded, but it is the most focused one (and an ominous companion piece to this LP’s “Chain Lightning”). Like many of the selections here, the verbiage of the song consists of an inner dialogue embroidered upon by the musicianship, the accuracy of the electric guitar fills by Becker cementing the pervasive impression of disillusionment.

Fagen’s vocal delivery leaves the lyrics floating for such target play. His style of phrasing through nasal tones is also suitable for the wordy likes married to unpredictable musical changes in “Bad Sneakers.” ‘…And I’m going insane…laughing at the frozen rain…’ turns into a thought worth hearing out loud through the soulful tones of McDonald (significantly, he is in the background, almost like an inner voice).

Five decades of hindsight reminds me that this all happened before the latter also joined the Doobie Brothers (along with Baxter as well). No such ignominy befell guitarists Rick Derringer (“Chain Lightning) or Larry Carlton (“”Daddy Don’t Live in that New York City No More;” their guest spots on this and other Steely Dan albums, including The Royal Scam and Gaucho, were simply more additions to lengthy resumes including credits for work with Johnny Winter and Joni Mitchell, respectively.

As much as genuine melancholy pervades “Doctor Wu,” thanks in considerable measure to saxophonist Phil Woods’ bittersweet solo, traces of the suspicious subject matter of later Steely Dan titles crop up in “Everyone’s Gone To The Movies;” they are nonetheless cushioned by the warm tones of Victor Feldman’s vibes. The accuracy of the audio on Katy Lied is paramount in that specific arrangement, as it also captures the sparkle of the electric piano. 

Initially recorded by engineer Roger Nichols and produced by Gary Katz on a then-novel noise reduction system, the sonics displeased Fagen and Becker. Retrospect suggests, however, that this objection may have marked where the irascible pair’s obsession with studio details began to manifest itself (and subsequently become stories of OCD legend). 

Whether or not that’s true, their concentration for Katy Lied resulted in the most fully consolidated blend of pop and jazz ever issued under the Steely Dan moniker.  Fagen and Becker’s deeply tongue-in-cheek essay for the 1999 CD reissue of the title may seem to cast aspersion on such fruitful ends–as does the near-terminal fatalism in “Any World I’m Welcome To”–but there’s no denying how implicitly scurrilous sentiments on “Throw Back The Little Ones” turn forgivable when surrounded by the horn arrangement.

Still, half a century after the long-player originally came out (with a singing insect appropriately adorning the front cover), the Steely Dan persona is ultimately more polished and accessible than it is off-putting on Katy Lied.