Maps of Music

Katy Lied (1975)

Where the lyrics of Katy Lied take you, and where it was really made.

Steely Dan's first album after quitting the road was built on studio musicians, and its lead single Black Friday peaked at number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Key places

Recorded at ABC Recording Studios, Los Angeles (1975)

Recording site ABC Recording Studios — The album credits list ABC Recording Studios in Los Angeles as the recording location. The point marks the studio area at the city-level coordinates given in the source. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Muswellbrook in the Black Friday lyrics (1975)

In the lyrics Muswellbrook — The lead single Black Friday relates a crooked speculator's escape to Muswellbrook in New South Wales, Australia. The point is set at the town centre, not at a specific building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

Album story

Overview

• Katy Lied: fourth studio album by American rock band Steely Dan
• Released March 1975 by ABC Records
• Reissued by MCA Records after MCA acquired ABC in 1979
• First album Steely Dan made after the band stopped touring
• Recording debut of Michael McDonald, who sang prominent backing vocals on four songs
• Cover shows a katydid; the title comes from the lyrics of Doctor Wu

Background

• Guitarists Jeff Baxter and Denny Dias and drummer Jim Hodder were dismissed from the group
• Becker and Fagen decided to stop touring and record only with various studio musicians
• Dias played on the album as a session musician
• McDonald and drummer Jeff Porcaro were members of the final touring band
• Porcaro was only 20 years old and played drums on every track except Any World (That I'm Welcome To)
• Biographer Anthony Robustelli says Michael Omartian played most of the keyboards
• Omartian bought a Bösendorfer piano for $13,000 for the sessions
• Mr. Sam was recorded during the sessions but not used

Recording

• Recorded at ABC Recording Studios in Los Angeles
• Larry Carlton added guitar to Daddy Don't Live in That New York City No More
• Becker and Fagen were unhappy with the sound after an equipment malfunction with the new dbx noise reduction system
• Dias said the 24-track masters were fine and the album was remixed with the older Dolby system
• Becker said even the original masters were affected by the dbx system

Cover

• Katydid, a stridulating insect related to crickets and grasshoppers, on the front cover
• Back cover photo of Donald Fagen and Denny Dias taken by Becker during a 1972–73 session for a Schlitz beer jingle

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1971 by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.
• Becker and Fagen met in 1967 at Bard College and began writing songs together.
• They moved to Los Angeles after producer Gary Katz hired them as staff songwriters for ABC Records.
• The band takes its name from a dildo mentioned in William S. Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch.

Members

• Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals) were the core duo.
• Early band members included Denny Dias, Jeff Baxter, and Jim Hodder.
• Fagen reluctantly took on lead vocals after the search for a suitable singer failed.

Career

• Debut album Can't Buy a Thrill (1972) produced the hits "Do It Again" and "Reelin' in the Years".
• After 1974 the band stopped touring and continued as a studio project using session musicians.
• Aja (1977) became the band's top-selling album and won a Grammy for engineering.
• The band disbanded in 1981 and reunited in 1993.
• Two Against Nature (2000) won the Grammy for Album of the Year.
• Becker died in 2017; Fagen continued the band until 2024 and retired in 2026.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001; has sold over 40 million records.

Reception

At release

• Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, found the album musically disappointing and pointed to the loss of lead guitarist Jeff Baxter
• Christgau still played the album often and placed it third on his 1975 Pazz & Jop ballot, where the album finished sixth
• John Mendelsohn in Rolling Stone called the music immaculately crafted but emotionally distant
• Mendelsohn found the lyrics interesting but obscure and Donald Fagen's singing unique but passionless
• In 1977 Cameron Crowe wrote in Rolling Stone that the album was anonymous but impeccable swing-pop

Reappraisal

• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine described it as a smoother version of Pretzel Logic and another excellent record
• Travis Elborough (2008) said it was not on par with Pretzel Logic or Aja but still ranked among jazz rock staples
• Rob Sheffield (The Rolling Stone Album Guide, 2004) said it completed a trilogy with Countdown to Ecstasy and Pretzel Logic
• Jazz historian Ted Gioia cited it as an example of pop-rock benefiting from jazz

Records

• US: peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart
• US: certified Gold by the RIAA
• Black Friday: number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100
• Bad Sneakers: did not enter the Hot 100, peaking at number 103
• Cash Box praised Black Friday for the elements that made earlier singles successful and for Gary Katz's production

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The Black Friday lyrics send a crooked speculator to Muswellbrook in New South Wales, Australia, and Fagen said it was the place most far away from LA we could think of.
• Porcaro struggled so much with Your Gold Teeth II that Fagen gave him a Charles Mingus album with Dannie Richmond on drums to study.
• Omartian bought a Bösendorfer for $13,000, to the dismay of ABC executives when they received the bill.
• Carlton nailed his guitar part so quickly that he was out of the studio within an hour.
• Phil Woods's saxophone solo on Doctor Wu was done in one take.
• The back cover photo was taken by Becker during a 1972–73 session for a Schlitz beer jingle.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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