• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Do you have audio editing experience and want to help out with the Famiboards Discussion Club Podcast? If so, we're looking for help and would love to have you on the team! Just let us know in the Podcast Thread if you are interested!

Discussion Katy Lied is my favorite Steely Dan album, and I am eager to explain why in excruciating detail

Raccoon

Fox Brigade
Pronouns
He/Him
Pardon me for my arrogance, but I feel that there is no better way for me to introduce myself to a new forum than to write a long threaditorial about a music act from the 70s I like.

steely-dan.jpg


Steely Dan was a band founded in 1971 by Bard College alumni Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Originally conceived as a more traditional group, after their third album Pretzel Logic Steely Dan became primarily the outlet of Becker and Fagen (though guitarist Denny Dias stuck around), with many studio musicians filling in the roles that Fagen, lead vocalist and piano player, and Becker, bassist and guitarist, either could not or chose not to play themselves.

The first album to be recorded in this style was 1975's Katy Lied. I often think about how I would rank the Steely Dan discography, and I recently came to the firm conclusion that this album is my favorite. As such I will now drop the pseudo-encyclopedic pretense of this thread and simply present my argument as to why it is my favorite.



The first thing that any Steely Dan fan will tell you about Katy Lied is that it should've been better. Alleged to have at one point been sonically superior to any Steely Dan album that followed it, Katy Lied was the victim of an engineering mishap that greatly reduced its sound quality. While the album was purportedly nearly fully restored, many of the people involved with its production were dissatisfied, especially Fagen and Becker. This misfortune heightens the album's sense of melancholy.

One of the things that I find most compelling about Katy Lied is the performances. All but one of the album's ten tracks feature Jeff Porcaro, at that point a precocious drumming wunderkind, only 21 years old. Jeff's performances on Katy Lied are perhaps on par with any others in his legendary career, and they heighten the strength of the songwriting considerably.



Said songwriting is, in my opinion, greatly underrated in the general zeitgeist of the Steely Dan affectionate. Three of the album's ten tracks, being "Bad Sneakers," "Doctor Wu," and "Your Gold Teeth II," take the top three spots in the group's entire discography. Four more are quite good, and only three range from mediocre to bad. Yes, there are a few duds on this album, rare for a Dan album, but I feel that they give the work as a whole character. Katy Lied is one of few albums of the disjointed pop template to have an overall climax: an emotional, title-dropping pre-chorus in "Doctor Wu." The arrangement of the piano-oriented tracks is absolutely choice; returning to the performances, Michael McDonald and David Paich contribute keyboard and piano performances.



I am now feeling entirely overwhelmed by both my love of this album and the excitement surrounding the launch of this new site. By now I'm sure that the off-topic board has already seen its share of threads, but I hope that this little essay winds up on the earliest page. Let's all try to make the most of this new forum.
 
0
I’ve never listened to Steely Dan before, I’m definitely going to check them out after this fantastic introduction.
 
I randomly got a copy of Aja years back and enjoyed it
I’ve never listened to Steely Dan before, I’m definitely going to check them out after this fantastic introduction.
If you want a criminally overlooked group, Argent is one of my all time faves, tho a few of their songs are better known due to covers and one particularly infamous sequel(that being God gave Rock and Roll to you, with KISS’s cover/sequel God Gave Rock&Roll 2 you). Such a great use of organ in a bunch of their songs, one of my faves has to be this though

The 2 big names on the band were Rod Argent(Zombies) and Russ Ballard(writer on a ton of songs)
 
0


Back
Top Bottom