Steely Dan – Katy Lied

Reissue Delayed again. We can't buy Katy Lied or Royal Scam, let alone a thrill this year.

Steely Dan's Katy Lied (1975) marks a transitional moment in the band's evolution. Following the departure of guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, the album sees Donald Fagen and Walter Becker further embracing their studio-centric approach, meticulously crafting intricate soundscapes with a revolving cast of top-tier session players. Despite being plagued by technical issues during its recording (a faulty noise reduction system imparted a subtle hiss to the master tapes), Katy Lied retains Steely Dan's signature blend of jazz harmony, pop sensibility, and lyrical cynicism.

The album's ten tracks are shorter and more concise than those on previous releases, showcasing a tighter songwriting approach. Fagen's vocals, smooth and expressive, deliver tales of bad luck, shady characters, and romantic disillusionment with a characteristic detachment. The instrumental work is impeccable, with notable contributions from guitarists Denny Dias and Rick Derringer, as well as Michael McDonald, who makes his first appearance as a backing vocalist for the band.

"Black Friday," with its driving rhythm and apocalyptic lyrics, is a standout track, capturing the anxieties of a society on the brink. "Bad Sneakers" is a melancholic ballad with a memorable chorus, while "Doctor Wu" is a haunting tune with a captivating melody and cryptic lyrics. "Chain Lightning" closes the album with a burst of energy, featuring a fiery guitar solo.

Katy Lied may not be as widely celebrated as some of Steely Dan's later work, but it remains a fascinating and rewarding listen. It captures the band in a state of flux, refining their sound and exploring new sonic territories. Despite the technical challenges faced during its production, the album's enduring appeal lies in its sophisticated songwriting, intricate arrangements, and the band's ability to create a unique sonic world that is both familiar and unsettling.

It’s really good but it sounds slightly compressed and has a very boosted high end/bass reduction. The MFSL sounds like it’s the way the album should sound.

Nice anecdote from Roger Nichols about how the cutting-edge DBX noise reduction system caused the original mix to be lost:
https://youtu.be/LPQ2oAZ0RnM

Got a 1st press and completely blows away the Citizen remaster, which is the only other version I've heard. Considering that this album is marred by a recording failure, it sounds incredible honestly.

I've got an ABC Records copy with the label matrix (ABCD-846-A SP) and that distinctive SRC stamp in the run out but can't seem to find a Specialty Records pressing on here. Anyone have any leads on that?

Some comments about 3 masters of the album, MFSL, Citizen Steely Dan and Steve Hoffman:
MFSL: This version had potential, I like the timbre here, I like the bass presence but the mids are sucked. They lack body sometimes and the songs sound too muffled due to this, vocals lack presence as well.

Citizen Steely Dan: this version tried to fix the flawed record quality and they kind of accomplish that. Mids are more present, the record feels more alive (but vocals can sound metallic sometimes also there's too much treble, there's sharpness and sibilance on some songs, for me cymbals are over the top)

Steve Hoffman: The mastering is a middle ground in a way, bringing more mids and bass while keeping good timbre and no distorting vocals too much also with no sibilance, but it's also not perfect, I would like more top end, some songs sound dull (not as bad as on MFSL).

In the end it's a shame what happened during the recordings, it's still an enjoyable album.

Five stars are for masterpieces only, right? This IS a ***** MASTERPIECE! Has there ever been a POP album with better songs? With better musicians? With better music? I don't think so. All DANs are very, very good. But KATY LIED has always been the stand out. To my ears only ;-)

Countdown To Ecstasy used to be my favorite. Then it was Aja. Right now it’s Katy Lied.

Now I want you to close your eyes, smoke a t if you’ve got one, step into the Wayback Machine and imagine it’s the year 1974. In the year 1974 there are no compact discs, there are only vinyl records and cassette tapes, both of which inherently have background noise; which more and more people are complaining about since the quality of home stereo equipment is only getting better and better by the day. Now ... imagine that there’s a make-believe band of quirky oddball perfectionists, well actually this band is really just two people posing as a band, and they’re on the verge of stepping through a futuristic door, behind which lies a brand new and nearly untested technology called DBX Noise Reduction. Of course there’s been a tried and true noise reduction technology called Dolby, and that’s successfully been around since the mid 60s, but DBX is newer, it’s the future, it’s bright and forward looking, relying on nothing from the past. So these two musical geniuses [or at least that’s what they’ve been told since they were 17] boldly step through this door that promises sonic perfection and decide to utilize the height of recording technology, and roll out their gold teeth, betting on DBX.

The process is straightforward enough, the DBX system compresses and encodes the recorded signal as this signal is committed to a master mixed analog tape, and then during playback, expands those compressed signals, thus reducing the dreaded background noise. The sessions are going wonderfully, the future is actually brighter than anyone could have imagined. The band recorded song after song, each better and more complex than the last, each laced with decisive nervous energy, each counterbalanced by the tracks that came before and after, with the album itself standing as a bridge between the highbrow conceptual rock of their past outings, and the jazzy blues infused concepts they envisioned for the future.

Sometime after the sessions were mixed and put to bed, with everyone sitting around rubbing their bellies filled with satisfaction, it was discovered that the DBX system had lost the ability to decode the mixes correctly, with absolutely no accuracy, and every single song sounded terrible. Folks were pulling their hair out, I mean literally pulling their hair out, as the DBX system could only be decoded by DBX equipment, and nothing was working as it should.

So what does this band do? With tapes under their arms they chart a course to Boston, a city made famous in one of their previous songs, where the mythological headquarters of DBX was located ... though before leaving, they make sure there’s gas in the car, they don’t wanna run out again, as Kid Charlemagne had done before. In Boston a team of professional technicians in white lab coats and gloves hover over the tapes trying to figure out how to save them, only to discover that they can’t, that all is lost.

Yeah ... I know, this all sounds like it could easily have been the pretext to one of Steely Dan’s songs. But it wasn’t, it was fact, leaving Fagen and Becker with the original tapes, which meant much too much time remixing and editing using Dolby Technology; and with mounting frustration, they actually considered shelving what was left and scrapping the entire project. Of course, in the end our two geniuses produced an acceptable mix, certainly not what they wanted or envisioned, and released the vinyl album. Though it would be a stoner’s delight to consider what would have happened had this album filled with transition refinement and texture never been released, and then the sheer delightful madness of pulling those tapes off the shelf some 40 years into the future, and filling the hole in the Steely Dan catalog … but that's just a vision we had while playing backgammon.

Now I thought the album was fine, perhaps a bit too shiny, with the drums and vocals just a bit off, other tracks were trebly in some aspects and dull in others. But the songs were enduring, and the concept of moving the band's sonic structure forward was in place ... an aspect which would have stood in stark contrast to their other outings had Katie Lied never seen the light of day; so I can only imagine how saddened Fagen and Becker were with the release, a release that should have shone like a brilliant star, yet instead is barely mentioned by the pair to this very day.

The thing about Katie Lied is that it all takes place center stage. The curtains open and every note is right in front of you, there's no stage left or right, just a saga that takes place in front of you at mere arm's length, and at times tumbles right into the audience. Yes, the entire process was utter madness, and in the same breath a testament to quality and endurance of Steely Dan material ... and all from an album that almost never was.

Review by Jenell Kesler