> *** STEELY DAN SUNDAY INDEX *** With Steely Dan completely freed up to go out and get the best musician for any part within any song, Becker and Fagen started mixing and matching more liberally on Katy Lied. At the same time, they made heavy use of two membersRead More

“Black Friday is the first track from Katy Lied, a snakebitten set of recordings to studio perfectionists Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. For the rest of us, this album is a dandy. You May Also Like: Steely Dan Sunday: Katy Lied turns 40 this month

I never really understood what the heck the story line in this Steely Dan song was really about. The title, I suspect, provides the clue.

At ninety seconds, it’s the briefest of all Steely Dan songs, and one of only a couple SD recordings where strings accompaniment was used. You May Also Like: No related posts.

Going straight from a tribute to one jazz icon right to a tribute to another jazz icon. Ha, and they call themselves a rock band? You May Also Like: Steely Dan, “Carey” (circa 2001): Steely Dan Sunday Steely Dan, “Things I Miss the Most [Live]” (2021): Steely Dan Sunday

One litmus test to tell if you’re a baby boomer or older is if you can remember when the term “dude” was only used by surfer dudes or stoners out in California. In those days, everyone was aware of the term, but most people outside those two groups generally stayedRead More

“Night By Night” falls right in the middle of the best three song sequence on any Steely Dan album. Last week we took the occasion of “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” to reflect on the genius of Jim Gordon. If Jim Gordon was the heir to Hal Blaine as theRead More

“Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” was a Top 5 hit in part because Steely Dan didn’t cut corners – especially when it came to the drummer.

It’s something we’ve visited before, but many Steely Dan songs touch on topics from Becker and Fagen’s youth in the 1960s (see “Boston Rag”, “My Old School”). Donald Fagen would later explicitly make an entire album recounting his aspirations and hopes from the late 1950s and early ’60s; I thinkRead More

A country love song delivered almost without any detectable irony is what follows “My Old School” on Countdown To Ecstasy. The charm of Countdown is it being full of styles and devices Becker and Fagen never visited again You May Also Like: Steely Dan, “Bodhisattva” from ‘Northeast Corridor’ (2021): SteelyRead More