Katy Lied

Last updated
Katy Lied
Steely Dan-Katy Lied.jpg
Studio album by
Steely Dan
ReleasedMarch 1, 1975
RecordedNovember 1974–January 1975
Studio ABC, Los Angeles, California
Genre Pop rock
Length35:20
Label ABC
Producer Gary Katz
Steely Dan chronology
Pretzel Logic
(1974)		Katy Lied
(1975)		 The Royal Scam
(1976)
Singles from Katy Lied
  1. "Black Friday"
    Released: May 1975 [1]
  2. "Bad Sneakers"
    Released: September 1975

Katy Lied is the fourth studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records in March 1975; reissues have been released by MCA Records since ABC Records was acquired by MCA in 1979. It was the first album the group made after they stopped touring, as well as their first to feature backing vocals by Michael McDonald.

Contents

In the United States, the album peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, and it has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). [2] The single "Black Friday" charted at number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100. [3]

Recording

The album was the first one recorded by Steely Dan after guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Jim Hodder left the group as a result of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen's decision to stop touring and focus solely on recording with various studio musicians. Guitarist Denny Dias, a founding member of Steely Dan, contributed to the album as a session musician, as did vocalist Michael McDonald and drummer Jeff Porcaro, who were both members of Steely Dan's final touring band. Then only 20 years old, Porcaro played drums on every track on the album except "Any World (That I'm Welcome To)", which features session drummer Hal Blaine. Larry Carlton, who became a regular collaborator of the group, made his first appearance on a Steely Dan album playing guitar on "Daddy Don't Live in That New York City No More".

Band leaders Becker and Fagen said they were dissatisfied with the album's sound quality because of an equipment malfunction with the then-new dbx noise reduction system. [4] The damage was mostly repaired after consulting with the engineers at dbx, but Becker and Fagen still refused to listen to the completed album.

Lyrics

"Black Friday", which features Michael Omartian on piano and David Paich on Hohner electric piano and was released as the first single from the album, relates the story of a crooked speculator who makes his fortune and absconds to Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia, as, according to Fagen, "It was the place most far away from LA we could think of". The town also "fit[s] the metre of the song and rhyme[s] with 'book'", [5] though Fagen did not realise that locals pronounce it "Musselbrook" (omitting the "w"), which makes the song grating for Australian fans. [6]

Title and packaging

The album's title comes from the lyrics of "Doctor Wu" ("Katy lies / You can see it in her eyes"), and the album cover is a picture of a katydid, a "singing" (stridulating) insect related to crickets and grasshoppers, as a pun on the title. Walter Becker told Rolling Stone , during the band's 2009 tour: "It's about that uneasy relationship between the patient and doctor. People put faith in doctors, yet they abuse their power and become dangerous." [7] The back cover photograph of Donald Fagen (in reindeer sweater) and Denny Dias (in overalls and sombrero and holding a tank of helium) was taken by Becker during the session (sometime in 1972-73) for their Schlitz beer jingle. [8]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [9]
Chicago Tribune Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [10]
Christgau's Record Guide A− [11]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [12]
The Great Rock Discography 8/10 [13]
MusicHound Rock 4/5 [14]
Pitchfork 9.1/10 [15]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [16]
Select U+25A0.svgU+25A0.svgU+25A0.svgU+25A1.svgU+25A1.svg [17]
Tom Hull – on the Web A [18]

Reviewing the album in 1975 for The Village Voice , Robert Christgau said that, while Katy Lied might be Steely Dan's "biggest" album to that point, he found it "slightly disappointing" on a musical level, citing the loss of lead guitarist Baxter and what he perceived as "cool, cerebral, one-dimensional" jazz guitar influences. Nonetheless, Christgau admitted that he played the album frequently, [19] and he voted it the third-best album of the year on his ballot for the 1975 Pazz & Jop critics poll, [20] on which it placed sixth. [21] John Mendelsohn was more critical in Rolling Stone , writing that "however immaculately tasteful and intelligent" Steely Dan's music may be in theory, it did not register with him emotionally and remained "exemplarily well-crafted and uncommonly intelligent schlock". Mendelsohn found the lyrics interesting, but inscrutable, the musicianship tasteful and well-performed, but not stimulating, and Fagen's singing unique-sounding, but seemingly passionless. [22] In a review in Rolling Stone from 1977, Cameron Crowe called the album "anonymous, absolutely impeccable swing-pop" with "no cheap displays of human emotion". [23]

Retrospectively, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described the album as "a smoother version of Pretzel Logic" and "another excellent record" by Steely Dan. [9] Travis Elborough wrote in his 2008 book The Long-Player Goodbye: The Album from LP to iPod and Back Again that Katy Lied, while not on par with Pretzel Logic (1974) or Aja (1977), was still "up there as jazz rock staples go". [24] In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Rob Sheffield said the album completed a trilogy of Steely Dan albums (the other parts being Countdown to Ecstasy (1973) and Pretzel Logic) that is "a rock version of Chinatown , a film noir tour of L.A.'s decadent losers, showbiz kids, and razor boys". [16] Jazz historian Ted Gioia cited the album as an example of Steely Dan "proving that pop-rock could equally benefit from a healthy dose of jazz" during their initial tenure, which coincided with a period when rock musicians frequently experimented with jazz idioms and techniques. [25]

Of lead single "Black Friday", Cash Box said that it contains elements that made earlier Steely Dan singles successful, such as "Hot Fender Rhodes piano tracks, lead guitar work, rhythm that won't stop cooking and identifiable vocals and mix that lets you know Gary Katz has been hard at work on the knobs." [26]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Black Friday"3:40
2."Bad Sneakers"3:16
3."Rose Darling"2:59
4."Daddy Don't Live in that New York City No More"3:12
5."Doctor Wu"3:59
Side two
No.TitleLength
6."Everyone's Gone to the Movies"3:41
7."Your Gold Teeth II"4:12
8."Chain Lightning"2:57
9."Any World (That I'm Welcome To)"3:56
10."Throw Back the Little Ones"3:11
Total length:35:20

Personnel

Steely Dan
Additional musicians

Charts

Album

Chart (1975)Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) [27] 28
UK Albums (OCC)13
US Billboard Top LPs & Tape [2] 13

Singles

YearSingleCatalogue numberPeak
position		Chart
1975"Black Friday" (B-side: "Throw Back the Little Ones")ABC 1210137US Billboard Hot 100 [3]
1975"Bad Sneakers" (B-side: "Chain Lightning")ABC 12128103

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steely Dan</span> American rock band

Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Originally having a full band lineup, by the end of 1974 Becker and Fagen chose to stop playing live and continue Steely Dan as a studio-only duo, utilising a revolving cast of session musicians. Rolling Stone has called them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the seventies".

<i>Pretzel Logic</i> 1974 studio album by Steely Dan

Pretzel Logic is the third studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records on February 20, 1974. It was recorded at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, California, with producer Gary Katz. The album was Steely Dan's last to be made and released while the group was still an active touring band, as well as the final album to feature the band's full quintet-lineup of Becker, Fagen, Denny Dias, Jim Hodder, and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, though it also features significant contributions from many prominent Los Angeles-based studio musicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Fagen</span> American musician

Donald Jay Fagen is an American musician who was the co-founder, lead singer, co-songwriter, and keyboardist of the band Steely Dan, formed in the early 1970s with musical partner Walter Becker. In addition to his work with Steely Dan, Fagen has released four solo albums, beginning with The Nightfly in 1982, which was nominated for seven Grammys.

<i>Cant Buy a Thrill</i> 1972 studio album by Steely Dan

Can't Buy a Thrill is the debut studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records in November 1972. It was written by band members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, and recorded in August 1972 at the Village Recorder in Los Angeles with producer Gary Katz. The album is one of Steely Dan's most stylistically eclectic, encompassing the sounds of soft rock, folk rock, jazz-rock and pop, alongside philosophical, elliptical lyrics.

<i>Aja</i> (album) 1977 studio album by Steely Dan

Aja is the sixth studio album by the American jazz rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records on September 23, 1977. On the album, band leaders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker pushed Steely Dan further into experimenting with different combinations of session players, enlisting the services of nearly 40 musicians, while pursuing longer, more sophisticated compositions and arrangements.

<i>Countdown to Ecstasy</i> 1973 studio album by Steely Dan

Countdown to Ecstasy is the second studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records in July 1973. It was recorded at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, California, except for Rick Derringer's slide guitar part for "Show Biz Kids", which was recorded at Caribou Ranch in Nederland, Colorado. After the departure of vocalist David Palmer from Steely Dan, the group recorded the album with Donald Fagen singing lead on every track.

<i>The Royal Scam</i> 1976 studio album by Steely Dan

The Royal Scam is the fifth studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records in 1976; reissues have been released by MCA Records since ABC Records was acquired by MCA in 1979. It was produced by Gary Katz. In the United States, the album peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, and it has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

<i>Gaucho</i> (album) 1980 studio album by Steely Dan

Gaucho is the seventh studio album by the American rock band Steely Dan, released by MCA Records on November 21, 1980. The album marked a significant stylistic shift for the band, with more focus on rhythm and atmosphere than their earlier work, but the recording sessions demonstrated the group's typical obsessive nature and perfectionism, as they used at least 42 different musicians, spent over a year in the studio, and far exceeded the original monetary advance given by the record label. At the 24th Annual Grammy Awards, Gaucho won Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical, and was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kid Charlemagne</span> 1976 single by Steely Dan

"Kid Charlemagne" is a song by the rock group Steely Dan, which was released as a single from their 1976 album The Royal Scam as its opening track and reached number 82 in the Billboard charts. It is a fusion of a funk rhythm and jazz harmonies with rock and roll instrumentals and lyrical style. The guitar solo by jazz fusion guitarist Larry Carlton was ranked #80 in the list of the 100 greatest guitar solos by Rolling Stone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deacon Blues</span> 1978 single by Steely Dan

"Deacon Blues" is a song written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen in 1976 and recorded by their group Steely Dan on their 1977 album Aja. It peaked at number 19 on the Billboard charts and number 17 on the U.S. Cash Box Top 100 in June 1978. It also reached #40 on the Easy Listening chart. In Canada, it peaked at #14, a position it occupied for two weeks, and #20 Adult Contemporary. In 2021, it was listed at No. 214 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Dennis Dias is an American guitarist, best known for being a founding member of Steely Dan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reelin' In the Years</span> 1972 single by Steely Dan

"Reelin' In the Years" is a song by American rock band Steely Dan, released as the second single from their 1972 debut album, Can't Buy a Thrill. It peaked at No. 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and at No. 15 in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Do It Again (Steely Dan song)</span> 1972 single by Steely Dan

"Do It Again" is a 1972 song composed and performed by American rock group Steely Dan, who released it as a single from their debut album Can't Buy a Thrill as its opening track. The single version differed from the album version, shortening the intro and outro and omitting the organ solo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pretzel Logic (song)</span> 1974 single by Steely Dan

"Pretzel Logic" is a song written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, released as a single by Steely Dan from their album Pretzel Logic, originally in 1974 by ABC Records. It reached number 57 in the Billboard charts.

"Any Major Dude Will Tell You" is a song written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker that was first released by Steely Dan on their 1974 album Pretzel Logic. It was also released as the B-side of the first single from that album "Rikki Don't Lose That Number". It was later released on several of the band's compilation albums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bad Sneakers</span> 1975 single by Steely Dan

"Bad Sneakers" is a song by jazz rock band Steely Dan. It was released as the second single and track on their 1975 album Katy Lied. Producer Gary Katz later regretted not releasing the song as the first single.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rikki Don't Lose That Number</span> 1974 single by Steely Dan

"Rikki Don't Lose That Number" is a single released in 1974 by rock/jazz rock group Steely Dan and the opening track of their third album Pretzel Logic. It was the most successful single of the group's career, peaking at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FM (No Static at All)</span> 1978 single by Steely Dan

"FM (No Static at All)" is a song by American jazz-rock band Steely Dan, the title theme for the 1978 film FM. It made the US Top 40 that year when released as a single, a success relative to the film. Musically, it is a complex jazz-rock composition driven by its bass, guitar and piano parts, typical of the band's sound from this period; its lyrics look askance at the album-oriented rock format of many FM radio stations at that time, in contrast to the film's celebration of that medium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josie (Steely Dan song)</span> 1978 single

"Josie" is a song written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen and first released by Steely Dan on their 1977 album Aja. It was also released as the third single from the album and performed modestly well, reaching number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 44 on the Easy Listening chart that year. It has appeared on several Steely Dan live and compilation albums.

"Aja" is a jazz rock song, with elements of jazz fusion and progressive rock, by the American rock band Steely Dan from the album of the same name, their sixth studio album, released in 1977. Composers Becker and Fagen play guitar and synthesizer, respectively, with studio musicians playing the other parts. Fagen sings lead vocals. Production duties were handled by Gary Katz; the album was released through ABC Records. Musically, it is tonally sophisticated and a structurally complex work that was praised upon release as the most ambitious track the duo had ever attempted. The song's lyrics voice the interior monologue of a man who runs to the title character to escape the stresses of his life "up on the hill." Fagen claimed that it was inspired by the relative of an acquaintance, who had married a Korean woman named Aja. He has described the song as being about the "tranquility that can come of a quiet relationship with a beautiful woman."

References

  1. ↑ Strong, Martin Charles (1995). The Great Rock Discography. p. 782. ISBN   9780862415419.
  2. 1 2 "Steely Dan Chart History: Billboard 200". Billboard . Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  3. 1 2 Katy Lied - Steely Dan > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles at AllMusic . Retrieved 27 October 2004.
  4. ↑ Dias, Denny (2000). "Katy and the Gremlin" . Retrieved 24 May 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ↑ Sweet, Brian (2000). Steely Dan: Reelin' in the Years . Omnibus Press. ISBN   9780711982796.
  6. ↑ "How to Pronounce Muswellbrook (NSW)". YouTube .
  7. ↑ "Dr. Wu by Steely Dan - Songfacts".
  8. ↑ Malooley, Jake (July 21, 2023). "Hear Steely Dan's Schlitz beer jingle". Expanding Dan. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  9. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Katy Lied at AllMusic. Retrieved 27 October 2004.
  10. ↑ Kot, Greg (August 16, 1992). "Thrills, Scams and Nightflys". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  11. ↑ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: S". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor & Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved March 9, 2019– via robertchristgau.com.
  12. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Steely Dan". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN   978-0-85712-595-8.
  13. ↑ Strong, Martin Charles (2002). "Steely Dan". The Great Rock Discography. The National Academies. ISBN   1-84195-312-1.
  14. ↑ Graff, Gary (1996). "Steely Dan". In Graff, Gary (ed.). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide . Visible Ink Press. ISBN   0787610372.
  15. ↑ Richardson, Mark (November 20, 2019). "Steely Dan: Katy Lied". Pitchfork . Retrieved November 24, 2019.
  16. 1 2 Sheffield, Rob (2004). "Steely Dan". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide . Simon and Schuster. pp.  778–9. ISBN   0743201698.
  17. ↑ Prendergast, Mark (September 1990). "Steely Dan: Katy Lied". Select . No. 3. p. 106.
  18. ↑ Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Grade List: Steely Dan". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  19. ↑ Christgau, Robert (April 21, 1975). "What Kind of a Best Rock and Roll Band in the World Is This?". The Village Voice . Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  20. ↑ Christgau, Robert (December 29, 1975). "It's Been a Soft Year for Hard Rock". The Village Voice. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  21. ↑ Anon. (December 29, 1975). "The 1975 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  22. ↑ Mendelsohn, John (May 8, 1975). "Steely Dan Katy Lied > Review". Rolling Stone . No. 186. Archived from the original on December 17, 2007. Retrieved 28 August 2007.
  23. ↑ Crowe, Cameron (December 15, 1977). "[no title]". Rolling Stone.
  24. ↑ Elborough, Travis (2009). The Vinyl Countdown: The Album from LP to iPod and Back Again. Soft Skull Press. p. 322. ISBN   978-1593763480.
  25. ↑ Gioia, Ted (2011). The History of Jazz. Oxford University Press. p. 332. ISBN   9780199831876.
  26. ↑ "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. May 17, 1975. p. 23. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  27. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992: 23 years of hit singles & albums from the top 100 charts. St Ives, N.S.W, Australia: Australian Chart Book. p. 292. ISBN   0-646-11917-6.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.