Katy Lied - Steely Dan

perhaps a tad underated for sure.

The entire album is rather good. But I love the 'Dr. Wu' in particular. Great harmony and beautiful chord progression!

This has always been my favourite of the first half of their career.

There are a number of stand out tracks for me. Black Friday is a great start to the CD full of momentum and drive.

I love Everyone has gone to the Movies and Chain Lightning has a great groove.

A classic Dan album of which there are so many. it still sounds so fresh after all these years - they just don't make music as good as this anymore!

Adrian

quote:

Originally posted by Expat in Oz:
A classic Dan album of which there are so many. it still sounds so fresh after all these years - they just don't make music as good as this anymore!
Adrian

Very true, all we have today is white stripes, keane, etc etc. No talent IMO at all compared to the musicians that play in steely dan albums. - Some of these albums took years to put together.

Katy Lied has some of my favourite Dan songs. In addition to those already mentioned, Bad Sneakers, Rose Darling and Any World That I'm Welcome To are all wonderful. I can't understand why this is sometimes regarded as a dud in their canon. Its certainly miles better than Two Against Nature, Kamakiriad or Eleven Tracks of Whack. Can't wait for Piano Jazz, though.

I think Katy lied marks the the point where Fagan and Becker no longer 'hid' behind the pretence of the Dan being a band in the traditional sense. What had been developing with the first three albums became the de facto way of working for the katy sessions. Touring had been given up on, certain 'band' members had moved on, mostly as they realized that, with session men coming in on the album and no more live duties, their purpose had become greatly reduced.

The songs were taking on ever more complex arrangements and the use of jazz session men was becoming prevalent. What is great however, is that Katy lied is essentially a pop record, although in the very best sense of the word. Becker and Fagan had totally found their feet musically, had time and money to spend and were expanding musically at every step. The album is almost comparable to revolver whereby great creative enery is being released but within the confines of a taught, economic approach. As much as I love aja or the beatles Abby rd etc, Katy Lied, like revolver, is an album full of purpose and marks a crossroad of creative expression.

The use of piano predominantly makes for a very heartwarming, melodic and soulfull album, perhaps more intimate and less rocky than the very much more guitar led Royal scam album. Some of the best 'sing a long' dan is to be found on this album I.M.O.

As to the recording process, that is another story in itself and was the cause of huge expense, time, cost and heartache to the duo. If you read up you can appreciate that their pursuit of musical perfection would put us hi-fi tweaker exploits to absolute shame.

10 points bonus for revealing who the mysterious Dr Wu was?

Enlightening as ever Simon, I just think this album has no flab and does not skirt with self indulgence like Aja (which I still like very much). The amazing thing about this album is the sheer number of musicians used!

After gassing on about it today its due to get a thorough blasting tonight! As great as the new CD remasters are there is something special about my nice early US abc vinyl copy.

At the end of the day any album that can't find room for 'Hear at the Western World' has to be bloody special.

(i'll squeeze it in for a play around the new kraftwork one!!)

'Here at the Western World' - God my spelling is dire!!

quote:

As great as the new CD remasters are there is something special about my nice early US abc vinyl copy. )

Now you made me go out and get the copy!

You're right about 'Katie' is more piano focused than others. Maybe this is why I like this album so much!

Never heard of the album being referred to as a dud before. Apparently the album was nearly scrapped due to a mixing problem that damaged the sound quality. Sounds pretty good to me, definitely one of my favourites.

Always happy to be reminded to re-spin a 'Dan' classic.

I think a lot of our favourite music is linked to happy/formative periods of our life, and music heard at those times really 'sticks'.

I discovered the wonderful enigmatic music of Steely Dan with 'Can't Buy a Thrill', and that opening percussive riff of 'Do It Again' still lights up my face, 30+ years later.

So for me it's probably 'Thrill' or 'Countdown to Ecstasy' which followed it. That guitar in 'Boston Rag' - sheer magic!

John.

I also gave 'The Royal Scam' a good blast yesterday; first time for a while - really enjoyable!

They NEVER dissapoint me.

I've always liked the line on the LP sleeve notes of Katy Lied, "For best results observe the R.I.A.A curve"!!

One of my favourite Dans, although I found the remastered CD a bit disappointing compared to my 1975 vinyl.

For those who want to get a bit more understanding of the meanings behind those clever lyrics try:

http://www.steelydandictionary.com

It is quite funny to learn the meaning of lyrics I have been singing along to for over a quarter of a century!!!!

Interesting website, most of the terms I knew but then I"m from southern California. Santa Ana winds are a blessing and a curse. Camarillo used to be a boring agricultural town you passed by but now is getting upscale and commuter close to LA. I think the mental hospital is now closed down.

I'll be listening closer to SD's lyrics. Gee I think it's time to put on one of my two albums, definitely room to aquire more in my collection, I'll look out for Katy Lied.

glenn

quote:

Originally posted by woodface:
I also gave 'The Royal Scam' a good blast yesterday; first time for a while - really enjoyable!

One of my favorites of the Steely Dan catalog albeit sort of poorly recorded. Denny Dias guitar work on Kid Charlemagne is the hottest work I've ever heard!!!

Stunning.

Not Denny - I found this...


"Kid Charlemagne - Larry Carlton

This is an absolutely legendary solo, and even though I discovered it was actually compiled from two separate takes, I still find it pretty darned impressive!

The key to it is that Carlton adds a lot of chord-based playing to the more familiar rock sounds. The phrases are a mixture of blues scale ideas that aren't necessarily chord based, eg bars 1-4, and (often triadic) ideas which clearly are, eg bar 7, and especially bar 5 - check out the way Larry deals with the 2/4 bar! Sometimes, as with the phrases between bars 7-10, the two approaches seem to exist alongside each other. Bar 9 is a great example - it starts out as an Emin pentatonic idea, but incorporates the notes of the D Major triad when that chord appears in the second half of the bar.

There are a couple a bursts of out-and-out jazz playing in the solo too. Over the Bb7 in bar 13, Carlton plays a cool, angular phrase, which could be seen as coming from the Bb Lydian Dominant scale (mode 4 of F melodic minor, R,2,3,#4,5,6,b7). The other good example is the phrase at bar 17. This basically travels through two pentatonic scales (Emin and Cmaj) but the addition of Bb and G# passing notes gives it a jazzy flavour.

Finally, the icing on the cake is Larry's impeccable string bending - every bend is perfectly in tune and he makes great use of pre-bends (eg bending up to the required pitch before picking, then releasing it after picking) - check out bars 7, 17, and 19 for examples of this. "

The above is a good example as to why most guitarists take in a sharp breath before attempting to learn a Dan lead line!!

Simon -

Being a drummer my eyes just glazed over when you're explaining the details of Larry's (not Denny's) solo.

john

Not wanting to turn this into a Steely Dan trivia thread (well why not)....Larry Carlton has done some fantastic stuff with the Dan but even he couldn't master the guitar solo on Peg (done by Jay Graydon). I'd have to agree though that The Royal Scam has some outstanding guitar work.

The Brian Sweet book on Steely Dan has some great facts! Any more trivia?

The first time Jeff Pocaro went in the studio to record with them, he was so nervous he had to excuse himself and go throw up. How's that for trivia?


john

John....that's what I call trivia. How about....

Walter Becker took guitar lessons from Randy California (Spirit) who was taught by his father Ed Cassidy.

Elliott Randall was recently selling some of his guitar equipment (as used on Steely Dan albums) on e-Bay!

Many years ago someone told me that 'Kid Charlemagne' was a nod to Augustus Owsley, who supplied Haight-Ashbury with acid throughout the mid 60's. I don't know if there is any basis to this.

quote:

Originally posted by Jack:
Not wanting to turn this into a Steely Dan trivia thread (well why not)....Larry Carlton has done some fantastic stuff with the Dan but even he couldn't master the guitar solo on Peg (done by Jay Graydon). I'd have to agree though that The Royal Scam has some outstanding guitar work.

The Brian Sweet book on Steely Dan has some great facts! Any more trivia?

I had a bit of a Steely Dan moment last week which lasted several days. After playing The Royal Scam for the second time successive days, I realised that this album has been knocking me out ever since I bought it on vinyl in 1978. "Don't Take Me Alive" is an absolute killer and I NEVER tire of hearing the guitar intro to this track.

During a visit to HMV yesterday I discovered that the Steely Dan remasters are just £5 each. Quality music for the price of a couple of pints.

Tremendous.