Morning Commute Soundtrack: Steely Dan

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this blog, my surroundings typically influence my music selections, and these morning commute soundtracks have been no different. Yesterday, Sara Watkins’ eponymous debut solo album was the inspiration; this morning, it was both Steely Dan’s Countdown To Ecstasy and parts of the Rolling Stones’ Black And Blue. I think it had something to do with the combination of driving through west Philly and the intense, overwhelming heatwave the northeast is experiencing this week, so for some reason these albums both scream summer and tenements.

Today’s song is ‘Showbiz Kids’ by Steely Dan, and my introduction to this band is convoluted and, quite frankly, boring. My dad loves Steely Dan, and would play their albums incessantly in the car; but I couldn’t get into their cool, smooth jazz-fusion until I saw Elvis Costello and the Imposters play a snippet of this on the show Spectacle: Elvis Costello with… He transformed it into a snarling rock song, delivering the line, “Show business kids making movies of themselves / You know they don’t give a fuck about anybody else” with his trademark sneer. It was enough to make me give the original another listen, and I was reintroduced to the glory that is Countdown To Ecstasy. On an album already filled with great songs, ‘Showbiz Kids’ is an absolute highlight, with some great self-referential lyrics and a killer guitar solo.