Citizen Steely Dan


Citizen Steely Dan is a four-CD box set compilation album by Steely Dan, released in 1993. The set is a collection of all of Steely Dan's albums in chronological order, and also contains a non-album single, a non-album B-side, a rare compilation track recorded during the sessions for The Royal Scam but released only on the 1978 Greatest Hits, and a previously unreleased demo of "Everyone's Gone to the Movies".
The set is not a complete compilation of every track released by Steely Dan up to 1993. Missing are both sides of the band's 1972 debut single, neither of which has ever been re-issued on CD, because of band's dislike of the songs. The compilation was the first release of the remastered versions of Steely Dan's albums until the remastered studio albums were issued in 1998.
The first pressing features "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" using the single edit of the song. This version omits the percussive opening for the song. The second pressing of the box set features the version from the album although it was reissued without any information noting the change.
Glenn Meadows remastered the CD set from the digital masters archived by Donald Fagen, Gary Katz and Roger Nichols in 1982. The digital tapes were prepared because the original analog tapes were in very poor shape. The earliest CD mastering for all the Steely Dan albums in 1985 used these digital tapes but MCA used deteriorating analog masters for all later CD pressings until the 1998 remasters. This information was revealed by Nichols in 1991 when asked about his opinion of the Mobile Fidelity Gold reissues of Aja and Gaucho. Nichols remarked that the "Gaucho CD was even a different speed, about a quarter tone sharper" when compared to the original CD that he was involved in.

Track listing

Personnel