What band released the songs "Black Friday" and "Deacon Blues"?

Steely Dan released the songs “Black Friday” and “Deacon Blues.”

“Black Friday” appeared on the duo’s 1975 album Katy Lied. Written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, it is a sharp, guitar-driven song whose title evokes the financial panic and shopping term associated with the day after Thanksgiving, while its lyrics imagine a destructive character heading toward disaster.

“Deacon Blues” came later, appearing on Aja in 1977. It was also written by Becker and Fagen, and its reflective narrator dreams of abandoning ordinary respectability to become a jazz musician. The song became a substantial radio hit, reaching No. 19 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1978.

The two tracks come from different periods of Steely Dan’s classic studio career. That distinction matters because the band was not a fixed touring lineup: Becker and Fagen increasingly used carefully selected session musicians to realize their intricate jazz-rock arrangements.