Though those days were numbered by the time of Katy Lied, Steely Dan liked the occasional break on their records from the ceberal arty jazz-rock of their preference and just jam out with some simpler, blues-based ditty. “Chain Lightning” with its standard 12 bar blues approach can be seen as a follow-up to “Pretzel Logic” (the song, not the album), and like that tune, the harmony was tinkered with to make the song stand out a bit. In fact, when you dissect the song, it’s only really “simple” relative to other SD songs. With another appearance by guitar great Rick Derringer, “Chain Lightning” can also be construed as a follow-up to the earlier “Show Biz Kids.”
“Show Biz Kids,” as we recounted, was a one-chord song where Derringer was allowed to play his vicious slide from beginning to end. “Chain Lightning” has far more chords and Derringer doesn’t slide, but he no less owns this song than he did the other. His raw, biting licks alone put an edge to the song that more than cancelled out Fagen’s airy and harmonized vocals. In the intervening time between the songs, he attained a measure of stardom from this first solo album and the evergreen boogie rock hit from the record, “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo,” but Derringer is first and formost a blues guitarist and as with his first time out in a Steely Dan session, he fit the bill for “Chain Lightning” perfectly.
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