Showbiz Kids: The Steely Dan Story 1972-1980

Disc 1
1	Do It Again 5:56
2	Dirty Work 3:08
3	Reelin' In The Years 4:37
4	Only A Fool Would Say 2:57
5	Change Of The Guard 3:39
6	Bodhisattva 5:18
7	The Boston Rag 5:40
8	Show Biz Kids 5:26
9	My Old School 5:46
10	Rikki Don't Lose That Number 4:32
11	Night By Night 3:40
12	Pretzel Logic 4:32
13	Any Major Dude Will Tell You 3:08
14	Black Friday 3:41
15	Bad Sneakers 3:21
16	Doctor WU 3:55
17	Any World (That I'm Welcome To) 3:55
18	Chain Lightning 2:59
Disc 2
1	Kid Charlemagne 4:38
2	Don't Take Me Alive 4:16
3	Haitian Divorce 5:51
4	The Fez 4:02
5	Here At The Western World 4:01
6	Black Cow 5:10
7	Aja 8:00
8	Deacon Blues 7:36
9	Peg 4:00
10	Josie 4:35
11	FM 5:06
12	Babylon Sisters 5:49
13	Hey Nineteen 5:07
14	Time Out Of Mind 4:12
15	Third World Man 5:13

Barnes & Noble

Essentially a more sensibly scaled rendering of the excellent Citizen Steely Dan box set, his two-disc compilation culls 32 craftily crafted nuggets from the potentates of penetrating pop -- or, in their later years, the monarchs of enigmatic mellowness. Presented chronologically, the songs on Showbiz Kids offer plenty of follow-the-bouncing-ball cues to help you gauge the erratic evolution of Steely Dan. Beginning with the cynically sizzling rock tone of Can't Buy a Thrill tunes like "Do It Again" and "Reelin' in the Years," disc one dovetails nicely into increasingly offbeat constructions like the homicidal "Black Friday" and the Hunter Thompson-in-the-tropics yarn "Doctor Wu." The nicely annotated set's second disc picks up the thread at that frazzled end, teasing listeners with tales of glamour and distress like the patricide anthem "Don't Take Me Alive" and the prescient safe-sex ditty "The Fez" before offering a breather in the form of the burnished radio staples that dominated Aja -- notably "Deacon Blues." Steely Dan completists won't find anything new lurking under these covers, but those seeking an entry into the world of this dazzlingly complex band would be hard-pressed to do better than Showbiz Kids. David Sprague

All Music Guide

There is an audience for the double-disc set Showbiz Kids: The Steely Dan Story 1972-1980, although it may be a small one -- it's a set for listeners who want something a little more extensive than A Decade of Steely Dan or Gold yet don't want to invest in full albums. On that level, it works quite well, since it does have all the chart and radio hits, plus a terrific sampling of classic album tracks from "Only a Fool Would Say That" through "Any Major Dude Will Tell You" to "Time Out of Mind." So Showbiz Kids winds up being useful for neophytes -- although it's hard not to imagine anyone who gets this set, believing that this will be all the Steely Dan they'll ever need, eventually succumbing and buying all the studio albums. If that's the case, at least they'll already have "Here at the Western World" and "FM," and won't have to purchase one of the two multi-disc sets that contain these non-LP songs. Stephen Thomas Erlewine