| Donald Fagen – Miss Marlene Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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Stumbled upon an interview with Donald Fagan on this song. I was 50% that Marlene survived and just moved on. But. Now we know. A beautiful young lady with exceptional skills has died tragically. DF: Well, because when someone dies young, they’re preserved for all time in their youthful state. She was a sensitive girl, she was unlucky in love, and she kind of lost it there and there was a terrible taxicab accident, and, you know, s**t happens, right? ML: Also was a good bowler. Everybody loves a good bowler. DF: Excellent bowler. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/emsunken-condosem-a-conve_b_1965856.html |
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| Donald Fagen – Miss Marlene Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I love this song, but am very conflicted about it. I think it’s clear that the narrator thinks quite fondly of the young Miss Marlene. He likes her legs and her earrings, and appears to genuinely miss her after she goes. From there, things get so murky for me. What does it mean to “Roll like a pro”? What is the reference to the “red ball” she drops to make “all the pins fall down?” Apparently, it doesn’t matter if she’s “straight or hammered.” 1. It’s a song about bowling. (Nah.) University Place in NY has a very upscale bowling alley. A pretty girl who bowls well, whom the narrator misses. www.bowlmor.com/union-square/ 2. It’s a metaphor for oral sex, i.e. the best blow jobs in the world were given to the narrator by a seventeen year old girl that he misses. She rolled like a pro. She was the best in town. The pins fall down. The red ball is her uvula. She hugs the inside line (sensitive part of the penis), when the stakes were sky high. Can’t you hear the balls rumble. After she goes, on a “league night” (how boring) her hand guides his hand as he catches her scent again and thinks about her. 3. It’s a metaphor for drugs. Speedball and powerballing is the intravenous use of cocaine and heroin in the same syringe. (Please see John Belushi, Chris Farley, etc.etc.) “Rolling” is getting high, and she rolled like a pro. Red ball = heroin. The ball would ride a moonbeam down the inside line. (I.V. Drug use). Can’t you see hear the balls rumble? We’re still bowling every Saturday night. 4. The Mystery. What happens to Miss Marlene? She’s drinking heavily due a broken heart. She runs into the street and a cab comes up fast. The narrator sees her laughing face. Is she struck by the cab and killed? “I catch her sent again…her hand guiding my hand”. Sounds ghostly. But, he also appears to be inviting her to return. Can’t you hear the balls rumble? We’re still bowling every Saturday night. |
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| Donald Fagen – Slinky Thing Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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A lament, I think, for an older man foolishly falling for a younger woman. She lights him up, make him feel alive, but all the while he knows she won't be staying. Relationships are an endless loop, a carousel. The cold blooded reptiles look on. The German poet Goethe supposedly said on his deathbed "More Light!" The last words of a dying old man. The phrase is used again in a poem by Anthony Hecht entitled "More Light! More Light!". http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179058 In that poem a martyr is burned to death slowly. Later, a polish man, near the memorial to Goethe, refuses a Nazi command to bury two Jews alive. The dying men in one way or another reference the calling out for light, i.e. mercy, only to die horribly anyway. I think, then, that the protagonist in "Slinky Think" is, in a way, calling out for mercy. He burns, she's his power supply, but he is anticipating the painful end. |
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| Steely Dan – Here At The Western World Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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"Lido" is Itialian for 'beach'. It also refers to a public pool. The pool on a cruise ship is the "lido deck". Klaus probably refers to Nazi Klaus Barbie, butcher of Lyon, who was recruited by the CIA to fight communists. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie The Rooster may be Indonisian President Sukarto, who was also a pawn in the CIA's manuevers in Southeast Asia in the 1960's. http://rompedas.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/djago-the-rooster/ The theme here is a bar/brothel/club resort called "The Western World" which is a metaphor for a decadent western culture that gets into bed with monsters to accomplish its goals. That decadence seems to be expressed in drug and sex references, skinny girl and silver key, $20 for sweetness. Silver key to ipen the red door could certainly be an IV drug metaphor. |
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| Steely Dan – Here At The Western World Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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"Lido" is a public pool or beach. On cruise ships the pool is the "Lido Deck". "Klaus", I think refers to Klaus Barbie, butcher of Lyon, recruited by the CIA to fight communists, and possibly involved in the death of Che Guevara. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie "The Rooster" would appear to refer to Indonisian President Sukarno, who was also a pawn of anti-communist CIA maneuvers is southeast Asia in the 1960's. http://rompedas.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/djago-the-rooster/ The idea here appears to be a hotel or club, the "Western World", a metaphor for decadent western culture, which gets into bed with some real monsters to accomplish its goals. Recurrent themes are drugs and sex. Skinny girls and silver key would appear to be clear drug references as is laying down a $20 for sweetness. |
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