Steely Dan Unites Us!

Katy Lied

It came to my attention that the colleague who rides with me to work had never listened to Steely Dan. Given that we ride together for twelve hours a week, we have a lot of time to talk.

“What’s your favorite album of theirs?” he asked.

I replied, “Katy Lied,” and he said that that’s an excellent album name. It really is.

I put on my Facebook: “If you were making a Steely Dan playlist for someone unfamiliar with Steely Dan, what would you put on it?” Excellent answers followed. It’s hard to say what song is emblematic of Steely Dan, as there are so many.

I listened to Steely Dan growing up in the 1974-1988 time period in North Carolina. My dad and I would listen to the radio constantly. He told me that Steely Dan was named after the artist, whose legal name was Dan Steele. I suppose he was trying to save my young mind from the information that it’s actually the name of a dildo.

Steely Dan invented Vaguebooking, that thing where you say things that make sense only to you and maybe a chosen few. The songs tell a story that is hard to understand without the backstory, and in the time when the songs came out, you could not simply Google the backstory. I miss those times. I still prefer to make up my own stories as to what the songs mean rather than to look them up.

Why not put my own meaning to the song, rather than accept either the artist’s or the internet’s? I think the band members wanted us to make our own truth out of their lyrics. But even if they didn’t… I do it anyway.

My first really powerful Steely Dan experience was listening to “Deacon Blues” in high school at Interlochen Arts Academy. There we were, in the middle of the woods of northern Michigan, far from any sort of jazz club or club at all. I had just bought a ripped up jeans skirt with safety pins holding the pockets on. It was incredibly cool. As I listened to “Deacon Blues,” I imagined a far away world of jazz, men, and clubs. I used to listen to the song on my Walkperson (inclusive language for Walkman! Yes, I said it ironically even back then) and dance.

I had grown up with “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” and “Reelin’ in the Years” and so on as I listened to the radio without ceasing, but “Deacon Blues” was the one that finally turned me into a zealous Steely Dan fan.

Now I am attempting to listen to their entire body of work. It’s one of my goals for the next period of time.

“Aja” is another huge favorite.

I love how Steely Dan characters seem to live outside of normal society. As such, they are always getting into some kind of trouble.

Clean this mess up else we’ll all end up in jail.

That’s from “Kid Charlemagne,” pretty transparently about making drugs.

California tumbles into the sea: that’ll be the day I go back to Annandale.

I did not think the girl could be so cruel.

And I am never going back to my old school.

Sounds like a guy’s girlfriend got into a bit of trouble that defied her class standing whilst she was visiting him. A problem, that.

.

And my favorite, from “Dr. Wu”:

Katy lies

You can see it in her eyes

But imagine my surprise when I saw you.

Are you with me, Dr. Wu?

Are you really just a shadow of the man that I once knew?

She is lovely as she sighs, and you’re an ordinary guy

Has she finally got to you?

People with whom I usually disagree on Facebook climbed out of the interwebs to comment productively on the topic of Steely Dan. Clearly this is the way forward for our nation.

Oh please don’t let me find out that the band members were antisemites!

[Post-publication update: Donald Fagen was Jewish. Here is an article about the Torah of Steely Dan. https://religionnews.com/2023/05/24/steely-dan/]