Katy Lied, You Could See It In Her Eyes...
An AI generated story about Steely Dan's fourth studio album
Steely Dan
Walter Becker (guitar, bass) and Donald Fagen (vocals, keyboards) were the founding duo of Steely Dan. Between 1972 and 1980 they made seven iconical albums. Steely Dan famously blended jazz, rock, R&B, and pop into a unique style that in my view will survive the ages - hell, it already has :-).
Steely Dan’s sound is sophisticated with catchy melodies, complex harmonies, locked-in background vocals and a maniacal attention to detail and well recorded sound. Over time, Becker, Fagen and their producer Gary Katz, moved Steely Dan from a performing band to a studio project, with a revolving door of ‘hired guns’ - session musicians - doing much of the playing.
Katy Lied was Steely Dan's fourth studio album, originally released in 1975 by ABC Records. It’s one of my favorite Steely Dan albums, together with The Royal Scam. Its songs explore betrayal, deception and disillusionment with a sophisticated and sometimes cynical edge. The album cover features a picture of a katydid, a "singing" cricket or grasshopper like insect. Some say it’s a pun on the album title as the ‘singing’ of a katydid sounds as a little like "Katy did, Katy didn't”.
The AI Story
I decided to do an experiment and see if I could use some of the LLM’s to analyze all the lyrics in order to create a storyline capturing the vibe of this album. I used Perplexity.ai and Venice.ai.
The intention was not to create an AI-generated ‘review’ but tell the backstory of the album as if one was reading a novel.
To get these models to come up with the story, it needed some creative ‘prompt engineering’ :-). I am not sure why, but Venice.ai kept mixing in aspects belonging to other Steely Dan albums, even though I repeatedly instructed it to keep the analysis limited to Katy Lied lyrics only. Using exactly the same prompt, Perplexity.ai did a better job and the story below is generated by it. For this purpose I wanted to use its first take so I did not tinker with the prompts, nor did I do any re-writes. I did remove one paragraph because it repeated a theme and I added a few words here and there to emphasize a theme.
Now I needed the appropriate imagery to support the album’s AI-generated story. I fed the relevant paragraphs into Venice.ai to see what type of character visualizations it would come up with. Again here I used its first take. Say hello to Rose, Katy, Jack, Mr LaPage and Dr. Wu.
You can read Katy Lied’s story below. Did it capture the mood… sorta, kinda, no? … in any case, it’s quite fascinating.
When Black Friday Comes Jack Dug Himself a Hole
In the bustling heart of Muswellbrook, a city that never slept, a man named Jack found himself staring out of his apartment window, watching the world below. The neon lights flickered like distant stars, illuminating the streets where dreams were both born and shattered. It was a Black Friday, the kind that left echoes of despair in its wake. Jack had lost everything in the stock market crash, well, everything except the black Eldorado, a victim of his own ambitions. As he sipped his whisky, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was just another ghost haunting these concrete corridors.
Across town, Rose wandered the dimly lit streets, her heels clicking against the pavement. She was a woman of many faces, a chameleon in a world that demanded conformity. Yet, beneath her polished exterior lay a heart heavy with secrets. The whispers of the night spoke of her past—of choices made and paths taken. Was she a siren luring men into her web, or simply a lost soul searching for connection? The truth was as elusive as the shadows that danced around her.
Meanwhile, in a rundown movie theater, a sinister figure lurked in the darkness. Doctor Wu, a name that sent shivers down spines, was a dealer of dreams and nightmares alike. He had a way of making people feel alive, even as he led them down a treacherous path. The children giggled, unaware of the danger that loomed just beyond the flickering screen. Jack had once been one of those children, filled with innocence and wonder, but the years had stripped that away, leaving behind a hollow shell.
As the city pulsed with life, Jack felt an overwhelming sense of alienation. He wandered through the streets, searching for something—anything—to fill the void. He passed the theater, where the laughter of children rang out like a cruel reminder of what he had lost. Remember what Mr. LaPage said; “Everyone’s gone to the movies,” he thought bitterly, as he recalled the days when he, too, had laughed without a care. Now, he was just a spectator in a world that had moved on without him.
In a small café, he met a woman named Katy. She had tact, poise and reason and it drew him in, a flicker of hope in his otherwise bleak existence. They talked about their dreams, their regrets and the paths they had taken. Katy spoke of a time when she believed in love and adventure, but life had a way of wearing down even the brightest spirits. “Any world that I’m welcome to,” she mused. But Katy lied, you could see it in her eyes.
In the end, they parted ways, two souls adrift in a sea of uncertainty. Jack returned to his apartment, the city still alive outside his window. He realized that life was a tapestry woven with threads of joy and sorrow, dreams and disillusionment. As he gazed into the distance, he understood that even in the darkest corners of existence, there was beauty to be found—a fleeting glimpse of hope in a world that often felt unforgiving. And with that thought, he embraced the echoes of Katy Lied, wondering if this story would have an epilogue ….