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Rating: It is Saturday morning. I am alone and in the mood for reflection. I “sip” from the classic glass that seems half empty, looking at what I’ve achieved so far as if through a reversed telescope. It happens sometimes, particularly when the daily routine is interrupted for some unforeseen reason: all the melancholies and negative thoughts seem to compete to come out, crowding towards the narrow hatch of the soul. It is the moment, with no family to embrace or any of the few real friends to share these "momentary lapses of mood" with, for "Doctor Wu," on whose effective, alternative, and unorthodox treatments I have already relied in similar circumstances.
Doctor Wu is not, as some cinephile might think, a colleague of Doctor Yang, the wizard-therapist who in Woody Allen’s film “Alice” plunges the protagonist into his dream world, but rather the mysterious character that gives the title to the most representative track from a '75 album by Steely Dan, “Katy Lied.”
Are you with me, Doctor Wu / Are you really just a shadow / Of the man that I once knew / She is lovely yes she's sly / And you're an ordinary guy / Has she finally got to you / Can you hear me Doctor..."as you may have guessed from these hints, it is a homeopathic treatment. Because this little musical marvel, a true summary of that inimitable blend of genres created by the Becker-Fagen duo in less than four minutes, exudes saudade from every pore; with Phil Wood’s alto sax sealing this twilight of emotions. Oh, yes. I have learned that the main mistake to avoid when you are at the mercy of the spleen is seeking impossible escapes in what Pascal calls “divertissement.” Thus, it’s better to rely on the sustained electric blues of “Black Friday,” an ironic song about the inexorability of “black days”; or on the uncertain steps of “bad sneakers” that don’t quite know where to take you, but which you end up following unhesitatingly ("Bad Sneakers and Piña Colada / My Friend / Stompin' on the avenue / By Radio City with a / transistor and a large / sum of money to spend..."), especially if they are guided by the guitar solo of the “pied piper” Walter Becker and the vocal blends of Fagen and Mike McDonald (who remembers The Doobie Brothers?).
In any case, wherever you cast your line within the mere 35 minutes of “Katy Lied,” so dense and inspired as to seem double, you fish well and comfort is assured. One can take an alternative route through the “Big Apple,” following the last “rounds” of a “loser” who has thrown in the towel ("Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More"), a classy R&B; or lose oneself in the mysterious and almost initiatory visions, which seem drawn from a Borges tale, of “Your Gold Teeth II” ("...Throw out your gold teeth / And see how they roll / the answer they reveal / Life is unreal), an airy West Coast music à la CSN made fascinating and exotic by Larry Carlton’s jazz guitar and the skillful piano inserts by the good Fagen. What amazes you every time you turn confidently to the therapeutic music of our duo is its timelessness, its “classic” nature due to being utterly alien to the fads of the historical moment it was composed in. A formula by Fagen/Becker and Katz, the phosphoric producer, that has as cardinal points the pursuit of a sort of Esperanto among the “languages” of American popular music (blues, jazz, R&B, folk...), the enviable technical expertise never without pathos, the rigor and a certain fussiness, a “freaks” view on the showbiz that allowed them to produce at their own pace, besides the abrasive irony that not infrequently spills into the “politically incorrect.” Among so many charlatans and improvised “therapists,” turning to Doctor Wu is really worth it, I believe. For those unfamiliar with him, I can give them the number. But mind you: don’t lose that number!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Black Friday (03:42)
When Black Friday comes
I'll stand down by the door
And catch the gray men when they
Dive from the fourteenth floor
When Black Friday comes
I'll collect everything I'm owed
And before my friends find out
I'll be on the road
When Black Friday falls
You know it's got to be
Don't let it fall on me
When Black Friday comes
I'll fly down to Muswellbrook
Gonna strike all the big red words
From my little black book
Gonna do just what I please
Gonna wear no socks and shoes
With nothing to do but feed
All the kangaroos
When Black Friday comes
I'll be on that hill
You know I will
When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it
'Til I satisfy my soul
Gonna let the world pass by me
The Archbishop's gonna sanctify me
And if he don't come across
I'm gonna let it roll
When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna stake my claim
I'll guess I'll change my name
02 Bad Sneakers (03:19)
Five names that I can
Hardly stand to hear
Including yours and mine
And one more chimp who isn't here
I can see the ladies talking
How the times are getting hard
And that fearsome excavation
On Magnolia Boulevard
Yes, I'm going insane
And I'm laughing at the frozen rain
And I'm so alone
Honey, when they gonna send me home
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
You fella, you tearin' up the street
You wear that white tuxedo
How you gonna beat the heat
Do you take me for a fool
Do you think that I don't see
That ditch out in the valley
That they're digging just for me
Yes, I'm going insane
You know I'm laughing
At the frozen rain
And I feel like I'm so alone
Honey, when they gonna send me home
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
You know I'm going insane
Yes, I'm laughing at the frozen rain
And I'm so alone
Honey, when they gonna send me home
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
04 Daddy Don't Live in That New York City No More (03:15)
Daddy don't live in that New York City
No more
He don't celebrate Sunday on a Saturday night
No more
Daddy don't need no lock and key
For the piece he stowed
Out on Avenue D
Daddy don't live in that New York City
No more
Daddy don't drive in that Eldorado
No more
He don't travel on down to the neighborhood
Liquor store
Lucy still loves her coke and rum
But she sits alone
'Cause her daddy can't come
Daddy don't drive in that Eldorado
No more
Driving like a fool out to Hackensack
Drinking his dinner from a paper sack
He says I gotta see a joker
And I'll be right back
Daddy don't live in that New York City
No more
He can't get tight every night
Pass out on the barroom floor
Daddy can't get no fine cigar
But we know you're smoking
Wherever you are
Daddy don't live in that New York City
No more
05 Doctor Wu (03:57)
Katy tried
I was halfway crucified
I was on the other side
Of no tomorrow
You walked in
And my life began again
Just when I'd spent the last piaster
I could borrow
All night long
We would sing that stupid song
And every word we sang
I knew was true
Are you with me Doctor Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
Are you crazy are you high
Or just an ordinary guy
Have you done all you can do
Are you with me, Doctor
Don't seem right
I've been strung out here all night
I've been waiting for the taste
You said you'd bring to me
Biscayne Bay
Where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day
I went searching for the song
You used to sing to me
Katy lies
You could see it in her eyes
But imagine my surprise
When I saw you
Are you with me Doctor Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
She is lovely yes she's sly
And you're an ordinary guy
Has she finally got to you
Can you hear me, Doctor
Are you with me, Doctor
Can you hear me, Doctor
Are you with me, Doctor
08 Chain Lightning (03:00)
Some turnout, a hundred grand
Get with it we'll shake his hand
Don't bother to understand
Don't question the little man
Be part of the brotherhood
Yes it's chain lightning
It feels so good
Hush brother, we cross the square
Act natural like you don't care
Turn slowly and comb your hair
Don't trouble the midnight air
We're standing just where he stood
It was chain lightning
It feels so good
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