submissions
| Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
|
A similar feeling and message can be found in a number of their songs...or as Neil Young replied when someone from the audience yelled, "all your songs sound the same" -......."Its all one song" |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
"These things are gone forever, over a long time ago"...what things? 1) wanting to be a star, 2) wanting to meet an lonely Napolean, and 3) being embarassed about the unfashionable shoes one happens to be wearing....
This is a song about the ego dying..the part of you that gives a shit about inconsequential things...that adolescent kid grows up....The Dan are cool...cuz they went through these deaths and are out on the other side...grown ups playing grown up music |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Time Out of Mind Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
|
Its easy to assume that its about opium but this song comes late in their career...I imagine they were talking more about meditation than drugs..."chase the dragon"...just as easy to be about the effort one expends to learn to get to subtle mental states without drugs..."time out of mind"? sounds like zen goal to me...the beauty of the Asia cover, the general vibe..a lot more sophisticated than druggy..I think the lads were envisioning greater highs than and with less side effects than opium by then |
submissions
| Steely Dan – What A Shame About Me Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
|
Great song...first heard it driving around Kauai in a rental car..the music the feeling in the air all matched well..can't agree with Wheelydan though..this guy has no self respect, no confidence...he's a ghost cuz there is almost nothing left of him...he went to battle and lost, a self professsed loser - at this point...I agree he might get himself back together...pity he can't take her up on her offer, but that is how far he has sunk... |
submissions
| Steely Dan – King of the World Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
Great song to end an album with. Still surprising to my ears to hear the fast background rhythm guitar kick in at about 30 sec.
OK, Sure, its a post apocalyptic vision, last man standing in the ruins of once beautiful land...but I think the reason it resounds for many is that captures a feeling of alienation, but of being happy with that...King of the World...after surviving the nuclearlike devastation of an acid trip, ....come on, this was the early 70s...their second studio album... |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
|
Hmmm...This song paints a picture of a low end criminal type who had to get out of town....is he somewhere else, in jail, or dead?...We can't be sure but the piece is a gun he didn't have time to get or didn't need....the potential key is in the vague reference .."we know you're smoking where ever you are"...but it won't be fine cigars...probably never was so this doesn't have to indicate jail or any major change...he's just gone and we left to wonder |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Everyone's Gone to the Movies Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
I don't think this is a Dan song that holds together as a coherent story. The main verses are about a local pervert Mr. Lapage who shows porno to kids in the neighborhood...probably boys, he shows the porn, probably straight porn and then offers some kind of stress reduction services...the image of "bobbing for apples" gives us some idea about what he offers "right down the hallway with open arms"..there is no indication there are drugs involved, but Michael Jackson liked to offer a bit of "Jesus Juice" - that's what he called wine, to his young friends to lower inhibitions...
but then there is the chorus...to me it seems unconnected to the verses...because if the kids are watching movies at Mr. Lapages place, then who's everybody?...2 theories: 1) Mom and Dad or the baby sitter and the boyfriend are happy all the kids are over at Mr. Lapages so they can have some time together? and they are singing the chorus, or 2)..my original theory when I started writing this - the Dan wrote the body of the song as funny perverted vignette....maybe one of the Dan had some experience like this or heard about someone's experience and then tacked on the more straightforward and romantic chorus that everyone can relate to, sing along with...about the relief and happiness you feel when your parents or whoever is hanging around cblocking you, heads off and leaves you alone with your loved one....they couldn't think of anything about LaPage that was choruslike so they tacked this on and we love it...interesting juxstoposition, not a linear story....ps...I listened a few times...its "cheaters" not "chinos"...take off your pants? the Dan are more subtle than that..."cheaters" is a slang or madeup slang for a kind of shoes or jacket kids would wear...or their made up brand just to get us to think a bit and imagine...great song with a sense of humor....8 versus 16...I agree with the 8 mm vs 16mm home projector ideas |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Black Cow Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
|
No...one of these will screen out the sorrow for the owner of the book of numbers and the remedies (drugs)...temporarily...that is what "but where are you tomorrow" refers to...its just a temporary fix, these problems, i.e. the sorrow..is deep and will continue...the singer is trying to convince himself to leave a person that is out of control and on a downward spiral |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Gaucho Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
|
I love this song for its vagueness and how you have to read between the lines to see what's going on here..like a lot of Dan songs...it paints a picture of a guy that is distraught with a situation and relationship that is out of control. I listened to it again a couple of times...this is definitely a song about three guys...the two guys are a couple in some kind of open relationship..." I don't care what you do at home"....he didn't say at "your home"...these guys live together...and the bodacious cowboy is in the boyfriend's "elevator shoes"...women don't wear elevator shoes...3 guys here though I do accept that there may be a professional, entertainment industry background here...the beauty of the song is how perhaps we have all tried to accept and be in some kind of open relationship because the partner wanted it, and we try but suffer through scenes like this because we are in love and not really cut out for it |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Black Cow Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
|
I feel this song is in a similar vein as the song Gaucho. I always thought it was a guy lamenting the wild life of his boyfriend. He is hopelessly attached to this guy who runs around down on Greene street either turning tricks or paying for it himself... The boyfriend uses drugs and in general is a wild and out of control party animal....The speaker is fed up and tells the guy to drink up and leave...its not clear that this is the end of the story and could be repeating problem..Sure, the Black cow is going to be an alcoholic drink containing Kahalua and Creme ...reading the notes here I see it also has coca cola....I accept that there is no real evidence that this is a song about two guys, but it always had that vibe for me... |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Gaucho Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
|
This is about a guy that has brought his outlandish boyfriend to an upscale gathering, and a third party, the speaker, is not happy about it. The relationship between this third party and the guy is what is interesting here. I had always thought they were lovers or guys in long term relationship where occasional indiscretions might be allowed as long as they were not kept private. But reading the other comments I am inclined to accept that their relationship is possibly that of agent and actor...something like that...I don't think there is any indication that a drug deal is the setting here... |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.
