I detect the El Supremo from the room at the top of the stairs

Thursday music corner: Walter Becker and Donald Fagen's eclectic, intellectually-charged band Steely Dan, founded in 1971 and still releasing material in the 2020s, retired from touring in 1974 and reached their peak of success with their 1977 album Aja, which hit number 3 in the US album charts and ultimately went double platinum in America. Steely Dan had a run of five consecutive US platinum albums from 1974's Pretzel Logic to 1980's Gaucho, and then after a lengthy hiatus from 1981 to 1993 the band followed up that streak with yet another platinum record, the 2000 comeback album Two Against Nature.

Show Biz Kids, co-written by Becker and Fagen as was the rest of the album, was the first single released from Steely Dan's second studio album Countdown to Ecstasy (1973). The album came out in July of that year, and this live performance from the Midnight Special was broadcast the following month. The album version features ace guitarist Rick Derringer on slide guitar, but this live performance boasts an equally impressive turn from Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, not to mention vivacious backing vocal performances from Gloria 'Porky' Granola and Jenny 'Bucky' Soule. The single reached number 61 on the US charts.

This episode of the Midnight Special was hosted by Billy Preston, and in addition to the closing performance by Steely Dan, featured appearances by Preston, Buddy Miles, Bo Diddley, Ned Doheny, Gladstone and Maureen McGovern.

Steely Dan - Show Biz Kids (live, 1973)

See also:

Music: Steely Dan - Dirty Work (1972)

Music: Donald Fagen - New Frontier (1982)

Music: Billy Preston - Will It Go Round In Circles (live, 1973)