Steely Dan: "Steely Dan's name has been popping up as a hip musical crush. Remember, this glossy bop-pop was the indifferent aristocracy to punk rock's stone-throwing in the late 70's. People fought

I am a huge fan of the first four, but if I could only take one record with me, it would be Royal Scam...

Innaresting.

Don't get all tremulous, Alfred

I liked it better when I thought it had something to do with Barry Goldwater

Apparently it's about the Moonies:

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/staff_top_10/top-ten-obscure-steely-dan-lyrics.htm

Love this, where he shows how much thought goes into such a simple sounding song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP_2r9zbaIY

Only tangential, but this is the funniest thing ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOWdp1sOxvA

xxp: That article's a piece of poo. The Moonies didnt' set up shop in Barrytown until after pretzel logic came out. I've always thought it was a letter from a townie to the students of Bard.

Lol those are like the ten LEAST obscure Steely Dan lyrics, and he gets some of them wrong.

What I really want to know is what the Custerdome is.

yeah royal scam is the best

All right, fine. I convinced Bee OK to recount the votes:

http://i.imgur.com/qK92Lmv.jpg

I've recently started to think that Gaucho's title track is secretly the best SD song

i kind of agree. def top 5 for me. probably not new to anyone loitering in this thread, but check it from 1974

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QNK4Pc8W2A

Gaucho might be my favorite SD song. I have a half-baked theory (I forget if I said this upthread) that they were at their best when they let go of any need to make half-hearted gestures toward "rocking." I mean, maybe they actually liked rockin' out, but somehow I get the feeling they didn't really, and that a lot of the rock elements they used were concessions to the times and the audience.

Regardless, I feel like Gaucho (the song) is the apex of their entire aesthetic, compositional approach, lyrical approach, etc.

i totally agree re: the rocking, even though i love many of their early rocking guitar solos.

Sometimes I've thought about starting a separate Steely Dan lyrical analysis thread, does that seem worthwhile?

lol @ pplains

xpost I see no reason not to -- I spent a whole hour in the car recently listening to the second disc of the Showbiz Kids best-of with my mom & we had fun 'close-reading' favorite songs ("Haitian Divorce", "Your Gold Teeth"...)

forgot this thread:
http://ilxor.com/ILX/SiteNewAnswersControllerServlet

This is the thread were you explain Steely Dan lyrics to me

Ok fair enough "Pearl of the Quarter" is probably not the secret best Dan number, maybe I just have a soft spot for pedal steel (courtesy of The Skunk), but with all the Royal Scam love on this thread surely we can all agree that the actual secret best Steely Dan song is "Haitian Divorce"?

For real though, can we talk about Jeff Baxter for a minute?

What I really want to know is what the Custerdome is.

drug den

Think Custer's Last Stand

I think Becker has said that its a made-up name for a skyscraper

I don't believe anything they say about their own songs.

Drug Den fits my theory of the whole thing being about a botched drug deal

Ok fair enough "Pearl of the Quarter" is probably not the secret best Dan number, maybe I just have a soft spot for pedal steel (courtesy of The Skunk), but with all the Royal Scam love on this thread surely we can all agree that the actual secret best Steely Dan song is "Haitian Divorce"?

Not so secret in this house! My poor wife (who has come around the the 'Dan in recent years) once listened to me 'translate' each line of the song in real time, trying to mansplain the brilliance of it, lyric by lyric. I was younger and more arrogant / insufferable then, it is true; it's a wonder she didn't take the song's, err, advice to heart.

But yeah, I really, really love "Haitian Divorce."

Only thing keeping this song from being a perfect '10' is the dreadful talkbox effect on the guitar solo.

guy in my store yesterday:

"I like Steely Dan, too, he's sick..."

"Steely" Dan Kaplowitz

I think the sleaziness of the Haitian Divorce narrative justifies that guitar effect

Because you are the magnet, and I'm

http://i.imgur.com/Tec762V.jpg

One of the things that I love about "Gaucho" (the song) is now the odd rhythm of the lyric mimics the rhythm of a real argument, and the band follows that -- it almost sounds like one of those compositions written to match a piece of recorded speech.

But you...don't seem to understand

gaucho the song is abt an old rich guy who's young live-in boyfriend brings home someone he thinks is sketchy and/or uncouth

they said in some interview once that the Custerdome is a made up name of a high-rise building

cant believe it was about this time last year we were pollin'

gaucho the song is abt an old rich guy who's young live-in boyfriend brings home someone he thinks is sketchy and/or uncouth

they said in some interview once that the Custerdome is a made up name of a high-rise building

― gr8080, Monday, March 9, 2015 10:04 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think this is right but I think what happens is that the "old rich guy" is a drug dealer sketchy/uncouth guy gets in the way of a drug deal. "Just when I say 'Boy we can't miss, you are golden' then you do this" -- the boyfriend has gotten him some lucrative business previously but now is botching the current situation. "We got heavy rollers I think you should know" = we're dealing with people you don't fuck around with like this, stop embarrassing me (the "they" who are "laughing at me.")

Sometimes I think the chorus is actually in the voice of a different person, one of the 'guests' who is laughing at the speaker in the verses. The verses are an argument taking place somewhere off to the side while the guests are in the main room, the chorus is what the person (either a customer or a "connect" said -- I thought maybe the Spanish was supposed to imply a connect from south of the border).

i cant believe that there have been dozens of SD tribute bands and zero have used the name "Bodacious Cowboys"

Custerdome would also be a good DIY venue name.

lol yes

Sometimes I think the chorus is actually in the voice of a different person, one of the 'guests' who is laughing at the speaker in the verses.

that's what I think

one of the women in the bar

Sometimes I think of Gaucho the song as just an exaggeration of the social stigma of bringing an outsider into the realm of the "elites." The fact that the outsider in this situation is a bodacious cowboy who dresses strangely highlights the silliness of the social politics of people who have way too much money.

"It says "Bodacious Cowboys Will Never Be Welcome Here" right there on the front door! Can't you read?"

i cant believe that there have been dozens of SD tribute bands and zero have used the name "Bodacious Cowboys"

― gr8080, Monday, March 9, 2015 10:28 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Custerdome would also be a good DIY venue name.

― five six and (man alive), Monday, March 9, 2015 10:31 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Bodacious Cowboys/
Every Weekend...From Seven to 10PM/
Live at the Custerdome!

speaker in the chorus of "Gaucho" is actually the heavy honcho who the speaker in the verses is hoping to impress imo

yeah that's what I think

I almost feel like the verse speaker could be the same speaker as Glamour Profession when he's behind the scenes/not putting on his persona.

I hesistate to agree only because the female background vocalists dominate, so I imagine a group of attractive women laughing at the Gaucho behind his back.

btw this song has special resonance for me. One of my closest friends, a SD nut and singer-keyboardist in his own band, gets called "the Gaucho" by me cuz he's slightly ridiculous, snapping his fingers like a foooool.

I hesistate to agree only because the female background vocalists dominate, so I imagine a group of attractive women laughing at the Gaucho behind his back.

Nah, it's definitely a macho and homophobic man.

isn't Glamour Profession about Len Bias?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Bias

isn't Glamour Profession about Len Bias?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Bias

― Iago Galdston, Monday, March 9, 2015 2:33 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Seems unlikely, given that it was recorded when he was in high school.