Show Biz Kids


"Show Biz Kids" is a song composed by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen and performed by Steely Dan with Rick Derringer on slide guitar. It was the first single from Steely Dan's 1973 album Countdown to Ecstasy, and reached number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was edited for the single release.
Cash Box said that the song has "an infectious chorus delivered a la Nilsson's "Coconut" hit."
The song satirizes contemporary Los Angeles lifestyles. Critic Tom Hull described the album lyrics as "a running paste together joke sufraintelligent, witty and slyly devious", citing as an example the following lyrics from "Show Biz Kids": "You blow your life's wages / Life's wages / You blow your life's wages / They got the booze they need / All that money can buy / They got the shapely bods / They got the Steely Dan T-shirt / And for the coup de grâce / They're outrageous."
A version of "Show Biz Kids" was recorded by Rickie [Lee Jones] on her album of cover versions It's Like This released in 2000.

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