Today’s classic song of the day is “Bad Sneakers” by Steely Dan, the second track on side one of Steely Dan’s 1975 album, Katy Lied. It was released as the second single from the album (the first was “Black Lightning,” which peaked at #37 on the charts), even though it only hit #103 on the Billboard Hot 100—which, if you passed all your math classes in high school, you might realize isn’t really in the top 100.
That poor chart performance aside, “Bad Sneakers” is one of my favorite Steely Dan tunes, on some days my very favorite. It’s just a nice clean slice of Dan, very piano-forward, very jazzy, with lots of cool extended chords. It’s one of the group’s first tracks with Michael McDonald on backup vocals, which adds a little extra something to the mix. That wonderful Bosendorfer grand piano is played by Michael Omartian, Walter Becker does the tasty lead guitar licks, studio vet Hugh McCracken handles the rhythm guitar, Victor Feldman plays vibes, Chuck Rainey is on bass, and then-20-year-old Jeff Porcaro is behind the drum kit.
The song itself is about… well, who ever knows what a Dan song is about? Maybe it’s about a guy in jail, looking at the ditch out in the valley that they’re digging just for him. Maybe it’s about living the superficial, pina colada life in LA and wanting to get back to the frozen rain in NYC. Maybe it’s about someone who really is going insane, laughing at the frozen rain. Who knows? It’s some great lyrics, in any case.
I love the sound on this cut, it’s almost translucent. In their own snarky way, the Dan described how it was recorded on the back cover of the original Katy Lied LP:
“This is a high fidelity recording. Steely Dan uses a specially constructed 24-channel tape recorder, a ‘State-of-the-Art’ 36-input computerized mixdown console, and some very expensive German microphones. Individual microphone equalization is frowned upon. The sound created by musicians and singers is reproduced as faithfully as possible, and special care is taken to preserve the band-width and transient response of each performance. Transfer from master tapes to master lacquers is done on a Neumann VMS 70 computerized lathe equipped with a variable pitch, variable depth helium cooled cutting head. The computerized logic circuits of the VMS 70 widen and narrow the grooves on the disc in accordance with its own bizarre electronic mentation for reasons known only to its designers; this accounts for the lovely light and dark patterns that can be seen on the surface of the pressing. Vinylite compound is used. For best results observe the R.I.A.A. curve.”
Ironically, the entire Katy Lied album suffered from severe audio problems—which is unfortunate, because it’s maybe the best-recorded of all of Dan’s albums. In the words of producer Gary Katz, referring to the original recording:
“It was better sounding than anything you’ve ever heard to this date. Even Aja. Unbelievable.”
Guitarist Denny Dias, who didn’t play on this track but was still deeply involved with the album sessions, takes up the story:
“We were using the new dbx noise reduction system, which was supposed to give us a better signal-to-noise ratio than Dolby, and for some reason the dbx units could no longer decode the mixes on tape. They sounded dull and lifeless and no one could explain why. After all, all of the equipment had been properly aligned for each session. This was especially puzzling since each mix was played back immediately upon completion. How could the sound deteriorate so quickly? Even if there had been some awful mistake it couldn’t have happened the same way twice and certainly not more than twice.”
The bottom line is that the dbx noise reduction system was not functioning properly. It ruined the master tapes. Katz and engineer Roger “The Immortal” Nichols took the tapes directly to the dbx folks and they fixed them as well as they could, but Becker and Fagen could still hear the difference and refused to listen to the completed album.
That’s a shame, because even with that issue the album sounds remarkable. I personally can’t hear the supposed flaws but then I never heard the original tapes. It’s just a bright and airy sounding album, typified on this track, that truly does mix jazz and rock and pop in a wonderful, shimmery confection. And can anyone beat (or hope to fully understand) these lyrics:
Yes I’m going insane
And I’m laughing at the frozen rain
Well I’m so alone
Honey when they gonna send me home
Bad sneakers and a Pina Colada my friend
Stompin’ on the avenue
By Radio City with a
Transistor and a large sum of money to spend
That’s classic Dan, man. The sparkling perfection of this song makes me very, very happy, even if I still don’t know what that fearsome excavation down on Magnolia Boulevard was.
