Before the fourth album, Katy Lied, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker had retained control of Steely Dan while the live band members were mostly replaced by session guys. One of the fresh hirings was a kid prodigy, Jeff Porcaro on drums. On the previous record, Pretzel Logic, they had outed themselves a major jazz fans, and so the new tunes had permission to experiment with wry chord changes, novel moods and Fagen’s twisted character studies.
He was at his best with Black Friday, the confessions of a white-collar felon, planning a financial heist and a hasty escape to Australia. There was a return to the landscapes of New York on Bad Sneakers, a moneyed freak on the streets of Manhattan, guessing that he’s set for a tragic end.
