Editing Countdown to Ecstasy (section)

==Lyrics and themes==
''Countdown to Ecstasy'' has similar lyrical themes to ''Can't Buy a Thrill''.<ref name="Logan"/> It explores topics such as drug abuse, [[class envy]], and [[West Coast (US)|West Coast]] excess.<ref name="Jones"/> "Your Gold Teeth" follows a jaded female [[wikt:grifter|grifter]] who uses her attractiveness and cunning to take advantage of others,{{sfn|Dimery|Lydon|2010|p=301}} "My Old School" was inspired by a drug bust involving [[Walter Becker]] and [[Donald Fagen]] while they were students at [[Bard College]],<ref name="Blashill"/> "King of the World" explores a post-[[nuclear holocaust]] United States, and "Show Biz Kids" satirizes contemporary Los Angeles lifestyles.<ref name="SR"/> Critic Tom Hull described the lyrics as "a running paste together joke [...] sufraintelligent, witty and slyly devious", citing as an example the following lyrics from "Show Biz Kids": "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."<ref name="Hull"/>

According to [[Rob Sheffield]], Becker and Fagen's lyrics on the album portray America as "one big [[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas]], with gangsters and gurus hustling for souls to steal." He views it as the first in a trilogy of Steely Dan albums that, along with ''[[Pretzel Logic]]'' (1974) and ''[[Katy Lied]]'' (1975), showcase "a [[film noir]] tour of L.A.'s decadent losers, showbiz kids, and razor boys."{{sfn|Sheffield et al.|2004|p=789}} Erik Adams of ''[[The A.V. Club]]'' called the album a "dossier of literate [[lowlife]]s, the type of character studies that say, 'Why yes, the name Steely Dan is an allusion to a dildo described in ''[[Naked Lunch]]''.' These characters hang around the corners of the entire Steely Dan discography, but they come into their own on ''Countdown to Ecstasy''".<ref>{{cite news|last=Adams|first=Erik|date=March 8, 2012|url=https://www.avclub.com/steely-dan-1798230349|title=Gateways to Geekery – Steely Dan|newspaper=[[The A.V. Club]]|location=Chicago|access-date=April 7, 2013}}</ref>

Some songs on the album explore more spiritual concerns. The opening song, "Bodhisattva", is a parody of the idea that the [[Anti-consumerism|disposal of one's possessions]] is a prerequisite to [[Enlightenment in Buddhism|enlightenment]]. Its title refers to [[Bodhisattva]], or people who are of the belief that they have achieved spiritual perfection, but remain in the material world to help others. Fagen summarized the song's message as: "Lure of East. Hubris of hippies. Quick fix".{{sfn|Rubin|Melnick|2007|p=160}} "Razor Boy", meanwhile, is a bitter, ironic pop song with lyrics that subtly criticize complacency and materialism.<ref name="Kreilkamp"/> According to Ivan Kreilkamp of ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'', in the song "Steely Dan speaks to us from that 'cold and windy day' when the trappings of hipness and sexiness fall away to reveal a lonely figure waiting for a fix. 'Will you still have a song to sing when the razor boy comes and takes your fancy things away?' Fagen asks a generation stupefied by nostalgia and self-involvement".<ref name="Kreilkamp">{{cite journal|last=Kreilkamp|first=Ivan|date=February 1992|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yLVeu01ciK8C&pg=PT71|title=Steely Dan|journal=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]|location=New York|page=70|volume=7|issue=11|access-date=April 12, 2013}}</ref>