SACD Steely Dan – Katy Lied

A different group of players for each song

Katy Lied marks a change in Steely Dan’s working method in 1975. Regular touring had ended, and Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were drawing on changing combinations of studio musicians. That makes the album a useful place to follow individual contributors as well as the two writers. Who plays a particular part, and how does that contribution fit its song?

Gary Katz produces, with Roger Nichols handling recording engineering. The sessions took place at ABC Recording Studios in Los Angeles in late 1974 and early 1975. Michael McDonald makes his first appearance on a Steely Dan album here. His backing vocals would become a familiar presence around their work; this record lets you hear the beginning of that association.

A twenty-year-old drummer

Jeff Porcaro plays on almost the entire album, with Hal Blaine taking over for “Any World (That I'm Welcome To)”. Porcaro was twenty during the sessions. His presence places a young player within a working arrangement increasingly centred on the contribution a song needed rather than membership of a touring band.

“Your Gold Teeth II” provides a specific listening focus. Follow the drums through its changing rhythmic sections and notice how they connect the other parts. Denny Dias contributes the guitar solo. The interaction is more revealing than deciding which instrument is most conspicuous: a mobile solo depends on a musical path it can follow and depart from. Hearing those roles together gives the passage its context.

Doctor Wu and the insect on the sleeve

Phil Woods plays the alto saxophone solo on “Doctor Wu”. Guitarists elsewhere include Dean Parks, Rick Derringer, Elliott Randall and Larry Carlton. The credits describe a series of decisions made for particular songs. Heard that way, the album becomes a sequence of encounters held together by Becker and Fagen’s compositions.

The title Katy Lied refers to “Doctor Wu”, while the original cover features a katydid. Image and wordplay meet on the sleeve.. The recording also has a disputed technical history involving the noise-reduction system used at the time. That history does not support a blanket verdict on later editions. The specifications of the particular release remain a separate question.

This stereo SACD edition

For CAPP 137 SA, Analogue Productions credits Bernie Grundman with mastering and identifies the original master tape as the source. The Hybrid Stereo SACD contains the ten album tracks. Its CD layer works in ordinary CD players, while the high-resolution SACD layer needs compatible equipment. No multichannel mix is offered on this release. This disc is an individual edition within the Steely Dan reissue programme; the specifications of the UHQR vinyl release do not apply to it.

Michael 45 keeps the disc in Germany and dispatches it from Hilden, so customers can avoid organising a personal US import and waiting for customs processing.

Also on 45 RPM vinyl: Katy Lied

More by Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic · Two Against Nature

Artist page: All titles by Steely Dan

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.