I didn’t know this was Larry Carlton’s first appearance on a Steely Dan track.

“Katy Lied” is the least talked about Steely Dan album, except for maybe the two latter-day twenty first century LPs

I used to think that crown was held by “The Royal Scam,” but that album has fans, of the opening cut, “Kid Charlemagne,” which also features a Larry Carlton solo, and “Everything You Did,” ditto, and “Haitian Divorce,” with its reference to the Eagles.

But no one ever talks about “Katy Lied.” At least not to me.

It followed up “Pretzel Logic,” which sported the surprise hit “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.” Yes, a surprise. The first LP, which featured David Palmer on some vocals, even had AM radio play. The second, “Countdown to Ecstasy,” had none, even though the cognoscenti believe this is the best work the Dan ever did (I don’t agree). “Pretzel Logic” featured jazz elements and was short, only 33:45, in an era when length was a badge of honor and most LPs clocked in at forty minutes or more. As a result, I heard each track more and got into stuff that might never have resonated, especially in the over an hour CD era. And since “Pretzel Logic” resonated so much, I bought “Katy Lied” upon release, but there were no hits on that, it wasn’t until two albums later, with “Aja,” that Steely Dan reached mass consciousness once again, and that was not as a result of one specific cut, but the work as a whole, an uncompromised album that owned its direction, did not care about the hit parade, was sui generis and ultimately embraced by the public.

But “Katy Lied”…

At this point its most known track is probably the opener, “Black Friday,” and probably because it is the opener, because what comes next is even better:

“Bad sneakers and a piña colada, my friend
Stompin’ on the avenue by Radio City with a
Transistor and a large sum of money to spend”

The magic is in how Fagen squeezes all the words in so fast.

But I liked “Your Gold Teeth II” even more, even though people only reference its predecessor, “Your Gold Teeth” on “Countdown to Ecstasy,” which I can’t even sing in my head, but these words are indelibly printed in my brain, along with the melody:

“Throw out your gold teeth
And see how they roll
The answer they reveal
Life is unreal”

And it is.

“Your Gold Teeth II” is the antithesis of the era, it was smooth when bombast ruled, subtle when over the top dominated. Music made to set your mind adrift as opposed to bang you over the head into submission.

And the reason I know “Katy Lied” so well is that I transferred it to cassette, and drove back and forth across this great country of ours from 1974-76 with it and two dozen other tapes in the Blaupunkt of my 2002.

And if I’m being honest, “Daddy Don’t Live in that New York City No More” is not one of my favorite tracks on the album, but I do like it, and I know it by heart, which may be why I was lying in bed, unable to fall asleep at two a.m. last night, and it started playing in in my head.

“Daddy Don’t Live in that New York City No More” is anything but understated and subtle, its magic is evidenced by the guitar work of both Larry Carlton and Dean Parks, but even more, “Daddy Don’t Live in that New York City No More” just swings, in a way the music of the day did not. It gets in your head and infects you. Puts a bounce in your stride. Subtly energizes you. You can’t help but nod your head, even if so minorly it’s barely noticeable to observers. It delivers an inner confidence, you think you’re involved, part of an inside story, if not a joke. Steely Dan is not grabbing you by your throat but it’s not exactly separate, rather the listener is inside the bubble along with the band, not quite stompin’ down the avenue, but with a metaphorical piña colada in your hand.

Documentary filmmaker Alison Ellwood’s most recent project is “Boy George & Culture Club.” Prior to that she directed “History of the Eagles,” “The Go-Go’s,” “Laurel Canyon”…

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/alison-ellwood/id1316200737?i=1000780220185

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/ad996cc3-b639-465a-a15b-ceabb09aa515/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-alison-ellwood

Used to be if you wanted to know which way the wind blew, you’d listen to a record.

But we haven’t had that spirit here since 1969. Why?

It’s cracking me up watching Washington, D.C. and the Democratic establishment and long in the tooth commentators flip out about democratic socialism. It’s like parents reacting to Alice Cooper in the early seventies. Instead of seeing the lyrics and stage antics as a way to spark conversation, question precepts, they took the words literally. Dead babies can take care of themselves? Why are you singing about dead babies, do you want to kill children, do you want to eviscerate the next generation?

What a laugh. It’s like the establishment had never encountered Dadaism, any art movement of the twentieth century, which was about questioning the past as opposed to going blindly into the future. By declaring a urinal art, Duchamp raised the question what art was.

Assuming you know who Marcel Duchamp is to begin with.

Now it all comes down to the baby boomers, a bulge in the population that had not existed previously. First they embraced rock and roll, anathema to the fans of the big bands and crooners who came before. And then came the folk movement. Which was all about questioning and protest. And then came the Beatles, who were so different from what existed previously that they wiped all the old acts off the charts. And then the boys from Liverpool started questioning every precept in the book, both socially and politically. And this attitude burgeoned in the seventies until disco and corporate rock caused the music business to collapse under its own weight and then along came MTV to rescue it.

Now if you thought the rock stars of the sixties and seventies were rich… They couldn’t hold a candle to the MTV stars, who were exposed internationally. It wasn’t long before it became about the money more than the music and then…

Rap and Kurt Cobain came along to recenter the world. Hip-hop questioned conventions, yes, it was N.W.A. who sang “Fu*k tha Police” and Ice-T sang about being a “Cop Killer” and then the L.A. riots of 1992 showed that everything these guys were rapping about was true. And hip-hop became the voice of a nation. Funny how you could question the validity of the police thirty five years ago and it ruffled the feathers of the establishment but when you talk about abolishing the police today, the new oldsters truly believe that that is what those saying this want! Ice-T didn’t want to kill all the cops, but he did want to illuminate their bad behavior.

But now the boomers are the oldsters and they’ve lost their sense of humor. They don’t want to be eclipsed in power. Did you read “The New York Times” about the chapter that was left out of the DNC autopsy?

“The chapter raised pointed questions that were notably absent from the draft that the party put out, both about President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s ill-fated decision to run for re-election and the sway of an operative class that had become ‘generationally wealthy off politics’ while steering Democratic strategy.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/us/politics/democrats-autopsy-2024-election-dnc.html

The older generation is completely out of touch with the street, what youngsters truly think, and therefore they appear like Grandpa Simpson, berating the youth and telling them to get off their lawn. Never have the young been so disillusioned since the sixties. But this disillusionment is not addressed, the focus is on some of the out there statements by the democratic socialists and it’s funny to see the establishment squirm.

Now Kurt Cobain was ensconced in a musical genre that the Ramones brought to the forefront in the seventies, but was never commercial, certainly not in the United States, until “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Punk was a reaction to overblown rock, and were we really supposed to believe Joey was serious when he sang about beating the brat with a baseball bat?

Yes, democratic socialism is punk, a reaction. To take it all seriously is to miss the point.

Then again, it used to be that music was the bleeding edge, now it is mired in commerciality. Everybody wants to become a brand. And the record companies are complicit. Democratic socialists will take a stand against Trump, but the corporations of America are afraid of taking a hit to their bottom line, they’re playing it safe.

So if you want to know which way the wind blows…

Music is about money, pure and simple. All the talk of Taylor Swift, it’s about grosses more than message. As for her influence on women, she’s all about living the Cinderella fantasy, with marriage to a jock and a wedding at Madison Square Garden. She is the establishment, with her multiple private jets. She won the game of music, demonstrating how empty it is. She sang about the angst of life in country and then she went Top 40 for mass success and devolved into a cartoon, just the way the establishment likes it. Imagine if she harnessed her art and power to react… But that would threaten her bank account. In the sixties, young people rebelled against the football team, now it’s about marrying the captain. Frank Zappa sang about losing status at the high school, now it’s all about status, it’s vapid.

Then again, how would you expect the purveyors of this drivel to know any better? Swift made it as a teen. You learn about life, question authority in school, that’s what an education is for, to learn how to parse the issues, analyze the facts. But today we venerate child television stars. The big issue is Ariana Grande’s weight, not her viewpoint on the world.

In other words, the musicians don’t have the roots, the skills. As for the educated classes, they see music as déclassé, they’re all about selling out to the bank or making bank in tech. Art? It’s too risky. In a world of income inequality you don’t want to end up poor, and the scions of prep schools and liberal arts colleges that teach critical thinking know this better than anyone.

As for the great unwashed masses claiming that they’re speaking truth to power and not gaining the recognition they deserve, well… In the heyday, you had to be able to sing and play and you had to write a great song. When was the last time I encountered this trifecta amongst the plethora of underdogs? I can’t remember. Only a very few are skilled enough to gain attention and triumph. But somehow today everybody believes that since they have access, they should gain attention and power. And in truth, those employing the new tools in a new way are the ones who are front and center today. The innovators on TikTok, on YouTube… The most remarkable film of the summer was the product of an unknown who honed his skills online. Sure, “The Odyssey” is a visual and financial triumph, but Curry Barker’s “Obsession,” made for $750,000, has more cultural impact. It’s not like everybody’s going to go back and read Greek tragedies. “The Odyssey” is a spectacle, a $250 million spectacle, that is fun to watch but is not inspiring young people to test the limits themselves, “The Odyssey” is not that different from “Ben-Hur” and “The Ten Commandments” from prior eras. Neither of which changed the underlying culture.

So in order to solve a problem, first you have to acknowledge it exists. Something establishment Democrats have continued to refuse to do. They do use modern technology, i.e. texts, to ding us for money, but if you think youngsters want to give…you haven’t checked the numbers, which are anemic.

Younger Democrats have detached themselves completely from the DNC, and rather than acknowledge this and adjust, the DNC keeps throwing cash at dying candidates and it would be funny if not for the fact that the future of society hangs in the balance.

Assuming the system holds, which I’m not so sure will be the case. The young revolted against Modi in India last month and he blinked. Not that I’d expect the capitalist tools gracing the stages in America today to even know this. Change is like a volcano, it rumbles until it overflows. Is America ready for the volcano to erupt?

One thing is for sure, this story is not being tracked by either those now in political power or the media. The media is all about the horse race, they’re enraptured by access to politicians the way fans are enraptured by musical stars. It’s no different. Everybody wants to know somebody famous and hope that they can garner some perks as a result.

So the truth is the bleeding edge is where all the action is, in what is now called democratic socialism. And if you dive too deep into the issues, you’re missing the point. It’s about attitude, frustration with the status quo, being histrionic to gain attention, no different from the rock stars of half a century ago. Whereas today’s “rock stars”… They’re too busy putting out multiple iterations of vinyl albums to top the charts, that’s what they’re focused on.

In truth, it was only a brief moment when music had an insane amount of cultural capital. But those who were around back then still remember. As far as younger generations go, they want to be Mariah Carey, they want to compete on “American Idol,” those are their roots, why would you expect them to be leaders, especially when they don’t have the basic knowledge to do so?

And then there are the promoted teen phenoms… We don’t have these in politics, in tech, only in a backwater like music can we believe that a wet behind the ears kid has any wisdom to display at all. Usually, the offspring of someone wealthy to boot! With the combo of Chaotic Good and Stella Lefty if you ain’t got money and connections you’ve got to feel pretty defeated in the music game. Better to gain attention and spread your word elsewhere, online and in politics.

Isn’t it funny that what the democratic socialists embody is just what the D.C. establishment abhors? Questioning authority and doing it online? Mamdani triumphed by playing by the new, internet rules. Knowing that emotional contact pays far greater dividends than throwing endless capital at TV ads.

But that’s how they used to do it. Young people don’t vote. All the canards of the past are bedrock in D.C., nothing is questioned, change is anathema.

But change has happened.

And what kind of crazy f*cked up world do we live in where Zohran Mamdani is a bigger rock star than anybody making music, with more ink and more mindshare and more power…

If you think it’s about whether democratic socialists win in November you’re missing the point. This is a cultural schism, a movement, that cannot be contained via ancient thinking.

So will the system hold if youngsters continue to be denied?

I doubt it.

But if you want to know what is going to happen, you’re better off reading the newspaper than listening to anyone in the Spotify Top 50. Hell, “The New York Times” grossed $2.82 billion last year, with a net income of $344 million. There are individual musicians who do almost as well, but what the “Times” has that they’re lacking is power. The musicians are all concerned with money, but everybody knows the real wealth is in power, speaking truth, effecting change…

The priorities are all screwed up.

But to get your head screwed on straight you have to be educated, with the ability to parse the truth. And if you think that’s prevalent in the music business…

Then you’ve purchased too many t-shirts and perfume.

This was no “Simon Says.”

By 1967, album rock had arisen. After all, “Sgt. Pepper” came out in the spring. But it wasn’t only the Beatles, “Are You Experienced,” “The Doors” and even “Disraeli Gears” were also released in 1967. Even though album rock had no radio outlet in most markets, word was being spread amongst the cognoscenti, you only had to hear these records once to get them, they were building upon the foundation of what once was, they were testing limits. So when the Ohio Express released “Yummy Yummy Yummy” in the spring of 1968, it was universally derided, as simplistic trash.

But you had to hear it. Because it was featured in Top 40 playlists, and those dominated the AM radio that we were all addicted to, both in cars and on our transistors.

Now when “Yummy Yummy Yummy” peaked at #5 on WABC’s 5/18/68 chart, it was an outlier. You’d have to go all the way to #26 to find something equally light, a trifle, “Indian Lake,” the Cowsills track.

Also on the chart were “Mrs. Robinson” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “A Beautiful Morning” and “Stoned Soul Picnic” and one of my personal favorites, “Reach Out of the Darkness,” which was so groovy now, that when they hit the chorus you could only smile, with exuberance.

Then again, there was that bass driven groove of the intro and the endless changes, something absent from almost all hit music today. A lot of today’s successes are triumphs of image over music, then again, as hip as we were back in the day, today’s youngsters believe they’re hipper, they don’t know what they’re missing out on.

Now the Tommy James & the Shondells track “Mony Mony” was actually #4, one step ahead of “Yummy Yummy Yummy” on this chart, but despite some scuttlebutt on the internet, I never saw James and his crew as precursors of bubble gum rock, reading the lyrics you might think “Hanky Panky” simplistic, but the sneer with which it was delivered… And let’s not forget that “Hanky Panky” and “I Think We’re Alone Now” were hits in 1966, when the world of music was truly just spreading its wings. And you knew “I Think We’re Alone Now” was hip because it was covered by the Rubinoos. And, of course, Billy Idol covered “Mony Mony,” but no credible rocker ever covered “Simon Says.”

A simplistic song about a child’s game. Inferior to Red Rover if you ask me, but the song “Simon Says” was exploitive, you could see men coming up with a marketing hook on their way to success. And there was the cheesy intro and not a whole hell of a lot of melody.

But “Yummy Yummy Yummy”? That was an original! They had to start from scratch on that one, there was no playground game with that moniker.

Now if you check the Wikipedia page for “Yummy Yummy Yummy” you’ll find its intro cited as inspiration for the Beatles’ “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and the Cars’ “Just What I Needed.” And to tell you the truth, when I first read this I scratched my head, but listening I found out it was true, they were identical! Then again, Wikipedia is a compilation of hoi polloi beliefs, there’s no professional arbiter. However, both Paul McCartney and Ric Ocasek had to hear “Yummy Yummy Yummy,” it was ubiquitous, and even if they didn’t consciously lift the intro…remember George Harrision’s “My Sweet Lord” and “He’s So Fine”?

But another interesting point that research will reveal is that “Yummy Yummy Yummy” was co-written by Joey Levine, its singer, and Arthur Resnick, neither household names. But Resnick had roots, he co-wrote “Under the Boardwalk” and “Good Lovin’,” and if that latter track was good enough for the Grateful Dead, never mind the Young Rascals, why do we put down “Yummy Yummy Yummy”?

In truth, it’s the main concept, of having sweet love in your tummy, as if the track was directed to four year olds in nursery school, and Levine’s nasal delivery didn’t help. But Levine’s delivery changes twenty two seconds in, he drops the act, loses his self-consciousness and just vocalizes, consumed by the sweet change in the music.

And then we’re back to the chunky guitar intro, which if it was good enough for the Beatles and the Cars…

Then again, we’ve got the stupidity of the verse once again, the “yummy yummy yummy,” words that didn’t grace the lyrics of the aforementioned album rock acts.

And then at 1:20 we’ve got the “ba-da’s,” hearkening back to what came before, “Yummy Yummy Yummy” sits at the crossroads of what once was and what will be.

But then comes the secret sauce, at 1:28 the whole track modulates up, drawing the listener closer, elating their ears, doubling-down, a musical trick, but one that so often delivers. And this time the words are just a tad more sophisticated, resonating with both children and adults…er, teens…

“Love, you’re such a sweet thing, good enough to eat thing
And sweet thing, that ain’t no lie”

Leave out the “yummys” and you’ve got lyrics not that different from the rest of the hit parade.

Then:

“Ooh love, I won’t let you go”

But then the song does, let you go that is. And you’ve got no other option than to pick up the needle and drop it in the opening groove once again.

Assuming you owned it.

Which I did. And at this point, I never bought singles, I was an albums only guy, but I knew there would never be a credible Ohio Express LP and I needed to hear this record now, ad infinitum.

And I got sh*t for it. My parents laughed, older kids were snide, but I kept on playing ‘Yummy Yummy Yummy.”

And by the turn of the decade, the slate was wiped clean of this kind of stuff. FM dominated and what was left on AM radio was oftentimes lowest common denominator, which “Yummy Yummy Yummy” was not.

So if we pull the lens back, we’ve got a delectable intro, melody, changes, the complete package, the only potential negatives being the title and the nasal attitude expressed in the verses.

Which is counteracted by the exuberance of what comes after.

All in 2:20. Clear and concise. Album rock broke this mold, with extended solos and outros, and the progenitors were breaking new ground, but ever since “Toad,” every self-respecting band featured a drum solo, to this day. Most of these players are not Ginger Baker, and once bitten, twice shy. Radiohead did name your own price with “In Rainbows,” but it could never be done again. Yet today, if you’re a rocker, longer is still better, why is that?

As for so-called hits, oftentimes there’s no melody at all, just one chord.

As far as beat-driven stuff… It’s melody that endures, if for no other reason than you can sing along!

So sixty years later, when I mention “Yummy Yummy Yummy” everybody knows it. Both oldsters and those who grew up on Radio Disney.

And then there are the endless covers and movie and TV syncs… Why has “Yummy Yummy Yummy” lasted if it’s just tripe?

It’s not.