“Any World (That I’m Welcome To)”—fourth song, side two of Katy Lied (1975)

I was in a foul mood, but since I decided to write about a Steely Dan song (using, as usual, my random system to pick the song) I decided to listen to this whole record, Katy Lied, rather than just the song I picked (second to last on the album). It instantly put me in a good mood. Even this trashed copy, with a trashed needle, and my cheapo system—it sounds better than a digital version. A notable thing about this song (which I only know because I read it somewhere) is that it’s the only SD song that Hal Blaine played drums on. I would have never noticed, probably, but knowing that, I hear a difference, say, from the other songs on the record, all of which the drummer was Jeff Porcaro (he even has his picture on back). Not better, not worse, but different. Like every great band, the songs start with the drums, and on every SD song there are excellent drum performances. But now that I think of it—there is something else different about this song from the rest of the songs on the record—and from the rest of SD songs. I’ve never been able to put my finger on what exactly—though maybe that’s the reason I—now—like it so much.

I might have said before, somewhere, that this was a song that made no impression on me for the longest time (I bought this record when it came out, when I was 15). I probably mostly played Side One. But then I heard (in the last few years) something I liked in this song. The lyrics are weird—they’re a little too general, and they slither away when you try to pin them down. Taken at face value, it almost sounds like a Christian song—and the only reason you wouldn’t take it at face value is because it’s Steely Dan—so you’re expecting some deep irony somewhere, possibly hidden. I don’t know if anyone’s covered this one (maybe some obscure ones)—it would be an odd choice. I can almost imagine it as a Carpenters song written by Paul Williams—but not really, either—I don’t know, it’s confusing. I read somewhere else that it’s actually one of the very early songs Becker and Fagen wrote—perhaps they had first intended it for other artists—so I guess that kind of makes sense. It makes me think of a TV show, like the opening theme—maybe because of that bridge, and the last chorus with a key change. I can imagine one of those late-Sixties shows where a loner travels from town to town—on the run from something—but touching the lives of the people he meets, helping them, changing their destinies. Do they still make shows like that? Let’s hope not!

—Randy Russell 7.2.23