Thanks for this. I love this track. Was raised on Steely Dan by my mother and my uncle. Mom introduced me to Aja at age of 8. I listened to it incessantly. Then, my uncle introduced me to Katy Lied and I was completely hooked. Yacht rock my ass. Fagan and Becker were mad scientist who combined all kinds of musical elements to form something never heard before or since. I wouldn’t be into music as deeply as I have been my entire life had I not been introduced to Aja and Katie Lied at an early age which led me to consume all of the band’s music. To me, saying you don’t like Steely Dan is like telling me you don’t like The Beatles or Stones. Conversation ender for sure. Hope you are well. ?Peace,?Reg??Scott Register ?Think Indie Distribution/Coalition Of Independent Music Stores
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YES to “Katy Lied.” Always been my favorite Steely Dan album, and I too know it top to bottom, word for word (although “Aja” — specifically the title track — is what I’ve always used as the acid test whenever I set up a sound system).  “Bad Sneakers” never fails to bring me joy, and  “Any World (That I’m Welcome To)” should be required listening, especially given the world we’re living in now.   

True story: years ago, I had a gynecologist named “Dr. Wu.” I tried explaining it, but I don’t think she ever fully understood why i smiled every time I addressed her by name… 

Judy Tint
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Katy Lied has been my on and off favorite Steely Dan album. Two very overlooked tracks in my opinion are “Rose Darling” (it just encapsulates the Steely Dan sound) and “Chain Lightning.” That Rick Derringer guitar solo is killer!!

Rich Madow
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Despite what others say, including Donald & Walter who bemoaned technical malfunctions Katy Lied is one of Steely Dan’s best albums.?The lyrics on Daddy Don’t Live are like a little movie…the phrasing of Fagan’s vocals on Rose Darling are so special…it might be their most underrated song.?And Dr Wu is simply a masterpiece…musically, lyrically and vocally…quintessential Steely Dan.?The story told in Everyone’s Gone To The Movies… of a man and his porn movies is the kind of song their fans love about them. Who else writes a song like that??The same can be said about Any World That I’m Welcome To.?And as you said, Gold Teeth is remarkable.?And Black Friday, of course is one of their most brilliant and famous tracks…the lines you quoted beloved by all their fans…printed on tee shirts.?There are no weak cuts!?Public opinion be damned…the public is often unappreciative of greatness.?That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.?Alan Crane
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Katy Lied is my 2nd favorite Steely Dan album. But to me the best song is the one that gave the album its title, Doctor Wu. It’s like the setup for Deacon Blues. A great Noir story that you can see in your mind as it unfolds. 

Joel Mullis
Charlotte NC
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Katy Lied is my favorite Steely Dan album….It’s one of those “beginning to end” albums where you put it on and listen to it from “beginning to end”.

Fred Raimondi
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“Katy lies?You could see it in her eyes?But imagine my surprise?When I saw you” 

I must have listened to that line from Dr Wu a million times over the years. It wasn’t just the lyrics, but the whole tone and chord structure. It was so sad and beautiful at the  same time. Also, I never cared what the critics said, but Countdown has always been my favorite. It was their last rock and roll album I suppose. Having said that, everything they did in the 70s was great. 

bruce greenberg
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Katie Lied is definitely the Dan’s saddest album due to the disastrous technical problems that haunted it’s recording and the melancholic and beautiful musical epitaph to the disbanded touring band “Bad Sneakers” not to mention the epically sad “Doctor Wu”. The album should have been their best but the technical problems rob it of the glitter and high end it needed. It obviously hurt them and they kind of disowned it. It’s one of my favourites because it’s the last of the recorded in LA collections of songs about NYC before they somewhat predictably moved back to NYC and started writing songs about LA. Fabulous music still!??Jim Hall Wellington, New Zealand
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Pound for pound their best album, IMO.?There’s a great outtake version of Your Gold Teeth II where Fagen marvels at Denny Dias’ solo with some colorful language. And Throw Back The Little Ones might be my favorite deep cut, a typical oddball SD song that ends with album with a piano outro musical question mark.??Mitchell Brook
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You might be unaware of it, but MCA in the 80s put out some Dan albums as 2 for 1s on cassette for cheap. I had the Katy Lied w Royal Scam as the B side. And Can’t Buy a Thrill/Countdown to Ecstasy. Perfect introduction for broke/Dan curious college kid. Spun all those on many car trips. You know, back when you actually listened to albums and gave songs that didn’t grab you at first a chance to grow on you. 
Katy will always be my favorite. Thanks for inspiring me to crank up some Dan this weekend!

Cheers,
Pat Myers
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FYI The Royal Scam has been and will always be my favorite Steely Dan album.  And in conversations with friends, former coworkers and music artists over the years I’ve found many more with the same opinion, so your remark that it’s the least talked about album somewhat surprises me. Maybe it’s so good it doesn’t need to be talked about :)??Jaime Feldman
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Back in the day, “The Royal Scam” was my favorite album from Steely Dan. “Aja” got more attention, but I always leaned toward their earlier stuff; I prefer more of an edge in my music. But probably in the last 20 years (?) or so, “Katy Lied” became my fave.  It all comes down to the songs. I love the entire album — and the side one closing pair of “”Daddy Don’t Live in that New York City No More” into “Doctor Wu” is fantastic. Turn the platter over, and you get “Any World That I’m Welcome To,” IMO one of the greatest songs from the band.

Todd Ellenberg
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The last Steely Dan album that I really paid attention to was Katy Lied.?They seemed to get a bit pretentious ?Of course I did like bits from the other albums.?Bill (live from MN)
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My fave Steely Dan album and I love the first 6. It’s the perfect combo of the more conventionally based harmony of the first two and where they ended up, the complete absorption of jazz harmony. Their melodic adventurism really takes root on Bad Sneakers, Throw Back the Little Ones, etc. They always sang about crazy characters, but is Doctor Wu the most famous? It’s beyond great.

Adam Bernstein
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The Steely Dan album I go back to more than any other.

Peter Buffett
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I lit up the internet one night in 2022 when I posted to a Steely Dan Facebook group that I thought “Doctor Wu” was the precursor to, if not almost the same song as, “Aja.” Obviously, they are different songs, but the groove, the path, and the instrumentation are such that my mind drew a line between the two.

And as I understand it, they hated the recording of Katy Lied so much that they never listened to it once it was released. It seemed reasonable to me that they may have taken another shot at the “Doctor Wu” masterpiece and come up with an additional masterpiece in “Aja.”

My comment was heard round the world. I could see the reactions timed to the sun’s path: Britain, the East Coast, Middle America, and then the West Coast.

Well, let me tell you, people did not agree. And boy did they need to tell me. I woke up in the morning to about 500 venomous comments, and like a newbie, I answered them all.

Kind regards, 
Rob Whittaker
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Far and away my favorite Steely Dan album.  

Michael Becker
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I was given Katy Lied by my then 21 yr old wife for my 26th birthday in ’76, she knew I liked the Dan as our second date was listening to the first three albums on my parents old one piece stereo with the turntable in the middle of the console.  The album grabbed me from day one, the lyrics were even more obtuse and dark than ever, and I played it on heavy rotation until our separation and eventual divorce  a year or so later (Federal agents seemed to have a lot of workplace marriages at the time and almost all failed, maybe the work, the playtimes or just the 70’s (man!)).  I must admit though that my favourite is Dr Wu, which references the titular Katy’s lies, you can see it in her eyes, and various low level scenarios, and it appealed to my mindset back then and even now.

Tony Barnes
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Bob, thank you for talking about one of my favourite tracks by my all time favourite band. I got Can’t by a Thrill on an 8-track(!) when I was about 9 and have loved every album, plus both Becker and Fagen’s solo catalogues ever since. I managed to see them twice when Walter was still with us, and if you love Daddy Don’t Live, you gotta hear him singing it! https://youtu.be/usTlb6yhlDo

Patrick Charles
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Phil Woods on Dr Wu and Hal Blane on Any World That I’m Welcome To!  Katy Lied is a great record.  Pina Colada or not. Yes, one of the coolest lines ever.  

David Leonard
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It’s funny how depending on the bubble one is in, things you’ve always known or believed may or may not be true. In my crowd of very early Steely Dan fans (many of whom hung out and spoke to one another at Aaron’s Records (at one of the original locations on Melrose), Rhino Records (on Santa Monica, before Westwood) or Moby Disc (a “Whale of a Record Store” in Van Nuys), the cult-like belief was that the “even number” Steely Dan albums were better than the odd numbered ones. 

We all “knew” that Countdown To Ecstasy was better, by far, than the first album. Just as Katy Lied was so much better than Pretzel Logic. Or Aja outclassed the Royal Scam or Gaucho. My crowd of early Steely Dan fans thought then, and in some ways I still think, that Chain Lightning was about as good a recording as Steely Dan ever made. It may have been Rick Derringer’s finest moment. And you didn’t even mention it.

Over the years, though, my longtime friends and I have very much learned to appreciate Pretzel Logic and the Royal Scam, and even Gaucho (but not the first album). So maybe the “even albums are better” mantra was disproven over time. But that doesn’t mean we like Katy Lied any less. As you noted Black Friday, Bad Sneakers, Dr. Wu and Your Gold Teeth II, in addition to Chain Lightning, remain Dan classics. 

Jeffrey Wruble
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Steely Dan was my band from Countdown to Gaucho. Didn’t know it was yacht rock at the time. Still play it often at my old age.

Tom Elmer
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Royal Scam has always been my favorite SD record for many reasons but I loved Katy Lied too. Lots of acoustic piano – the tracks have more of a rootsy feel because of that. Also Jeff Porcaro’s playing on Bad Sneakers is the ultimate cool, spare groove. All around the tracks are more bare bones proving that the band never needed to up their game by using Steve Gadd or Wayne Shorter – which takes nothing away from their contributions but it was really just about the artistry of Donald and Walter.

Frank Canino
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And don’t forget “Royal Scam’s” “Don’t Take Me Alive” with Larry Carlton’s iconic blistering lead guitar intro!??Thanks,?Larry Bole
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Hi Bob. Beyond the 7 or so tunes that get overplayed on streaming services, so much of Steely Dan’s catalogue has either been forgotten or is underappreciated. I think their recording career went out with a whimper, but the totality of the gems left behind is outstanding. If you haven’t already, check out the series done on Steely Dan on Raised by Hippies
 https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=Awrij9icAHVqRQIAeBtXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Ny/RV=2/RE=1787262365/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.youtube.com%2fchannel%2fUCbyV0RGP7-RxAjCb922JyvA/RK=2/RS=Rt3q3_117Z5cbRppaNhvoQfar.g-
Thanks for spotlighting Katy Lied; a very fine piece of work!

Barry Wolfish
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Great that you wrote about Steely Dan.
 
As someone very deep into all 9 studio albums (and the first 2 Fagen solo albums), I’m disappointed that you wrote about Katy Lied and didn’t mention my personal favorite track, Doctor Wu.
 
Amazing track in every way, and the sax solo, especially the last part, just slays me.
 
Thanks Bob!
 
Eric D. Rapkin
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Bob, “Katy Lied” has always been my favorite SD album. “Doctor Wu” is one of my favorite tunes. “Are you with me, Doctor?”

Barry K. Herman, M.D., M.M.M.
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Katy Lied is the best SD album

Clarke Kelly
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“Katy Lied” is their best album – writing, playing, singing. Period.

David Frail
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My favorite Steely Dan album with Doctor Wu being my favorite Steely Dan track.??Any World is also great!??Best,??Lee Stein
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The first Steely Dan album I ever bought, as a cutout too.  Also my favorite.  I consider it their best.

Joel Goldman
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IMO, Katy Lied was Steely Dan’s Rubber Soul. A master class in songwriting and despite the fact that Becker and Fagen supposedly hated the recording (when didn’t they?) I felt it had a real organic feel to it as opposed to the slightly more brittle Pretzel Logic. Finding nits to pick on Steely Dan lps is the ultimate exercise in hair splitting.??William Nollman?Silvermine
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This letter was lyrical. In all sincerity.

Katy Lied was the record whose grooves I wore down. 

Keep on writing, fellow scribe.

All the best,
Claudia Hirsch

NYC