Show biz kids (Steely Dan) (LP 3954 - 3957)

Steely Dan  Katy Lied (CD, ABC Records, 1975) *****  

Steely Dan  Aja (CD, ABC Records, 1977) *****  

Steely Dan  Showbiz Kids: The Steely Dan Story 1972 - 1980 (2CD, MCA Records, 2000) *****  

Steely Dan  Everything Must Go (Vinyl, Giant Records, 2003)  **** 

Genre: Jazz-rock, pop 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records, Fives, Marbecks Records.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Show Biz Kids (Countdown to Ecstasy)

Gear costume: My Old School (Countdown to Ecstasy), Black Friday (Katy Lied), Deacon Blues (Aja)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: I have a spotty collection of Steely Dan records. For some reason I haven't been driven to collect them all. Curious.

I did buy the Do It Again single in 1972 when I was pretty choosy about the albums I bought. So my first album I own is their second - Countdown to Ecstasy, which has already featured in the collection countdown.

Katy Lied was actually the first Steely Dan album I heard, thanks to my cousin Christine in England. She sent me a cassette copy and I played it over and over. I know this album well, and yet it still reveals new stuff every time I listen to it. The jazz-rock music and its sophistication marked them out as unique. No one else was within coo-eee.

Aja was their sixth album. They had long ceased to be an actual band, but Aja went into session player overdrive with nearly 40 musicians being employed by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. AllMusic describes it as "a coolly textured and immaculately produced collection of sophisticated jazz-rock".

I've included the compilation that I have because it fills in the gaps nicely over two CDs. There are many Steely Dan compilations out there, but this one has all the chart and radio hits, plus a terrific sampling of classic album tracks.   

The final album in my list came after Becker and Fagen rebooted Steely Dan in 2000, after a twenty-year gap. It's the last album they made together (Walter Becker died in 2017). It may not be a classic Steely Dan album, but the usual jazz-rock moves are on display and this one has a more spontaneous and relaxed feel than their other albums.

Where do they all belong? I should really get a copy of Can't Buy a Thrill, Pretzel Logic, The Royal Scam, Gaucho, Two Against Nature. In the meantime, I'll stick with these seminal albums.