submissions
| Steely Dan – Bodhisattva Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
I think it’s poking fun at how easily Americans will pick up an eastern religion cuz on the surface it seems cool, and they claim the religion without even knowing very much about.
But to go one step further it may even be American consumerism as a whole that’s being mocked. Fad religions, fad diets, even fad music. There are a few parts to this song that are so UN Steely Dan it’s almost like them saying “if we put THIS in the song you will automatically like it cuz everyone does and you are a follower.” The clap-clap, clap in the intro….I can almost hear them laughing at that cuz to Fagen and Becker that almost seems like a joke. And the guitar riff at the end of the first verse that’s very rock-a-billy….which isn’t something you hear from them.
To me the whole sound of the song is very “American” in a pure rock n roll sound they didnt normally use, and probably for a reason. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – The Bear Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[taverner:51679] is it “caught my juggernaut at your game” or “parked my juggernaut at your gate” |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Green Earrings Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
@[mrsagfly:51071] if he takes what he wants, might he want the girl instead? And the earrings are simply what he remembered the most about her after the fact? (prolly never asked her name! 🤣)
“No flies on me” he is very high on himself |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Charlie Freak Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
@[The:51027] Dog That Ate... I almost think of this song more as a poem with music. The lyrics feel more poetic to me than musical. It’s some of their best writing for sure.
I think Charlie Freak and With A Gun back to back are the best 5 minutes of proof how good they were at writing and composing. CF sounds like a minny Dickens novel and WAG sounds like it was written for Johnny Cash. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Dr Wu Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
@[joeo78501:50946] Becker was the one with the known heroin addiction and that was at the end of the decade. This song was 1975 and the 4th straight year they came out with an album. With all the time they put into their recording, and the fact that they even toured for a year or two prior to that, there is zero chance Fagen was hooked on heroin during that time. It’s debilitating as they found out with Becker during production of Gaucho (and they both have openly talked about). People disappear with that addiction like Pete Townsend, they aren’t dependable, they don’t perform well.
No way between 72-75, as many hours they were in the studio doing high quality recording, that Fagen was a junkie.
There WAS a well known acupuncturist in DC by that name but likely they just heard the name and used it |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Aja Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[mgizmo2005:50945] “Chinese music” is what Louis Armstrong called bebop jazz when it first came out in the 40’s, and that’s Fagans favorite: Red Garland, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk. Monk also referred to his own music as angular. (Banjos) |
submissions
| Steely Dan – With A Gun Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
Is it possible these two guys had a drug lab? Seems like whenever they mention “on the hill” it’s drug related. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
@[LeatherCanary:50938] part of me feels like that may be his way of entertaining himself and maybe the song is really about nothing at all. Maybe they just wanted to write a song with this sound and just threw lyrics out with very little intention other than them seeming to grasp some concept the rest of us don’t. Maybe even spoofing themselves as NY Jews attempting to write this style blues song and this is all we could come up with.
I put nothing past them |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Aja Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
@[what123ever:50937] Pretty sure Thelonious Monk talked about angular music and may have even mentioned banjos.
And “Chinese “music” is what Louis Armstrong called bebop jazz cuz he didn’t like or understand it.
So both are simply jazz references |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Home At Last Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
My other thought is they miss NY but this song is them saying, in an unhappy way, that LA is where they may be stuck cuz of their record deal. So unfortunately this is home |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Home At Last Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
NY is the mast, issues they ran into in LA are the dangers on the rocks. His reservation is just going back to NY, and so long and thanks my friend is saying by to LA. We seem to over complicate everything and Fagen has said so many times they are never as complex as people want to make them.
I also think they throw stuff in to make it seem like something that needs to be figured out but it’s really nothing. Like retsina. Most people think it tastes like sewage, and one of them probably hates it, so “smooth retsina” (as if that’s possible, so sarcasm) is probably one of those random things they throw in their songs simply to entertain themselves and watch people struggle to find meaning for. Like battle apple in Josie. Saw one moron say it references Josie giving oral. 🙄 Fagen even said they just made it up as some street weapon. Or he’ll….maybe retains is just a silly way of saying NY has a lot more Greeks than Los Angeles! 🤷🏻♂️
Although I do wonder if one of them has some great love OR distaste for wine in general because they use retsina, cherry wine (time out of mind) grapefruit wine (FM) and one other I can’t think of…. |
submissions
| Donald Fagen – I.G.Y. (International Geophysical Year) Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
Best line:
“programmed by fellas with compassion and vision”.
Since it’s from the 1958 view, wonder if the fellas he was sarcastically referencing were Eisenhower and Kruschev….simce they were NOT men of compassion and vision but military guys who believed in everything by the numbers. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Dr Wu Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[Song:50860] boy Dr Wu must have been really good cuz his mom lived quite awhile. Read an article written in 2000 that described her as a “spunky 77 year old”. She died in 2003 almost 29 years after the song came out |
submissions
| Steely Dan – The Royal Scam Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
I think everyone is missing the MAIN royal scam: it’s New York City. They are riding the boat in from Puerto Rico, but it could apply to all who come in there. And he even mention the fallen kings (more royalty) who are also suffering there and have probably been scammed in more than one way. People think the Big Apple is so great but it turns out not to be.
And the music is clearly that of some NY blues with that sad and dangerous ghetto tone like something from an early 70’s movie. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Dont Take Me Alive Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[Hoops:50780] McCann his Wikipedia says he was born and grew up in Delaware before going to Wisconsin. His only Oregon connection was going to law school there after prison.You may want to start over |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Dont Take Me Alive Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[StillAwakening:50779] what would taking a hostage do to help him if his dad was after him? You take hostages to keep the authorities away, his dad wouldn’t give a shit if he had a hostage unless the hostage was his sister |
submissions
| Steely Dan – The Royal Scam Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
@[PLA0242:50772] Fagan said their last two albums of that decade were their best as far as achieving the sound and effect they wanted. Agreed that their lyrics lost some edginess, but to them their sound was as important (or more) than the lyrics.
So it’s very subjective. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – The Royal Scam Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[bnk87:50771] it’s hard to call it mediocre as well as they deliver that depressed ghetto sound with the guitar and muted trumpet like a movie of that era. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – King of the World Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[GlynRhodes:50710] I think the Oleandrs in my old school just meant a nickname for the weed plants they grew (outside her door….the chick who ratted on them) and got busted for |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Chain Lightning Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[heatherfer:50706] you’re forgetting that. Fagan and Becker were sick fucks too. Fagan was born to Jewish parents so I doubt there is any glorification. Just using the ills of the real world as song motivation, and even to remind people there we still plenty of those people left. This was only 3 years after the Munich olympics |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Sign in Stranger Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[nubbins:50699] I think “scurvy brother” could have a comma in between. Meaning he isn’t saying your are a “scurvy brother”, he is saying “you are another scurvy….my brother”. You are just another disease. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Aja Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
@[shanef:50602] what I find most confusing, is if LSD is the drug he keeps running back to….why is the song Aja (Asia) with all the Chinese references….if LSD was produced in the US and heroine came from Asia?
🤷🏻♂️🤷🏿♂️🤷♂️ |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Dont Take Me Alive Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[Hoops:50592] McCann while I agree they write about specifics in a lot of songs, those specifics can still be referencing another subject or another character….like some connection one of them has with the main subject of the song. Seems like we can always find a few small references that make us say “Hmmmm….MAYBE that part is really about this other person/thing” |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Aja Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[Dantex:50575] but wouldn’t they be running back to heroin if they are running back to Aja (Asia) since that’s where most of it comes from? |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Fire In The Hole Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
Seems pretty straight forward to me. Vietnam vet isn’t adjusting to life back here, and/or someone who seems an outcast from society for whatever other reason. You get to apply it to whichever you wish…..as with most of their songs.
There are only a handful of their songs that have obvious and specific meanings/references. Hey Nineteen, My Old School (which is simply a story), Dirty Work, Time Out Of Mind, Do It Again, Reelin In The Years…. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Fire In The Hole Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[toast0126:50565] given that they were in a liberal arts college together in the late 60’s it’s almost guaranteed that the song title has SOME Vietnam association. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Fire In The Hole Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[pconl:50564] I am sure there is SOME connection between that and the meaning of the song. But like always, figuring that connection out is difficult AND not an exact science. Amd I don’t think he and Becker wanted to help anyone in that regard, because if you figured out exactly what their song lyrics meant, it would help you figure THEM out and they didn’t want that. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Fire In The Hole Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
@[itwhatyouthink:50563] I think your interpretation has a general accuracy to almost everything Steely Dan wrote. Especially refusing the conformity on a hot platter. In all the photos I see of them from the 70’s (especially Fagan) I feel a vibe (in his eyes and his facial posture) of a guy who generally distrusts almost everyone except Becker. He embraced jazz at an early age when most people don’t “feel” music they just hear it, and I feel like he carried a certain disdain for “mainstream” society for not feeling what he felt for jazz. (the part you referenced about him being clued in thats it’s the rest of society with the problem not him) Even the way he would look at the camera in photos when he happened to not be wearing shades, it was an “I don’t trust you or your ignorance” vibe. So to me your interpretation goes beyond just this song and to him in general. Even in those videos where he is with that piano expert dude explaining how he came up with the cords for Peg and Josie, he is so uncomfortable talking on camera and seems only able to conduct the session BECAUSE he gets to lose himself in his music.
In an interview he talked about having a nervous breakdown sometime after Nightfly was recorded. He also talked about the music industry keeping people out of real life and not even knowing what a mortgage was until he was in his 40’s. I am guessing the “nervous breakdown” came from what’s stated above AND that he wanted his music to be his reality. And when he finally realized it couldn’t be his full reality, and that he needed to have a better acceptance of the rest of society AND maybe society wasn’t as uninformed as he wanted to think….he had to swallow how his life outlook needed to change. And since then if you hear his interviews he seemed less guarded and paranoid. He even pokes fun at himself a little, and there is a SMALL hint that he wishes he had done things just a little different in the 70’s w Steely Dan. He says his favorite SD albums are the most recent cuz they had improved their skills and uses the term “juvenile” in reference to their 70’s music.
He’s a very complicated dude who has probably simplified himself over the years as a way to better survive. I am guessing he has a SUPER high IQ, and a lot of people like that who are genius in their field end up suicidal (Robin Williams comes to mind) and Fagan “simplifying” his view of society some prolly helped him avoid that. If you watch that live in studio piece he does with Paul Shaffer….he has so much patience for Shaffer’s obnoxiousness that he never would have had in his younger days.
I enjoyed your interpretation of this song cuz I think it gave me a little more clarity on MY views of him. |
submissions
| Donald Fagen – I.G.Y. (International Geophysical Year) Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[JamesLove:50554] the line “programmed by fellas of compassion and vision” is the utmost sarcasm. May have even been speaking directly of Kruschev and Eisenhower since they were both military guys who probably lacked compassion and vision |
submissions
| Donald Fagen – I.G.Y. (International Geophysical Year) Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[marink:50553] it’s def 3rd person someone (or people) in the 50’s thinking the techno generation is going to be such a great life. Even the very last two lines he almost seems to purposely sound more nasally as if to invoke the most possible sarcasm and borderline contempt for that line of thinking |
submissions
| Donald Fagen – Tomorrow's Girls Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
@[Goatllama:50552] ahhhhhh…..very nice. Hadnt thought of shredding time. But the go tree and lantern time def means near the water. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Everyone's Gone to the Movies Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
Regardless of meaning, when I listen to the original demo from 71 and then this one, it’s clear they tried to make the music seem more innocent so that the lyrics could be come more open to broad interpretation. The hysterical thing is the album version chorus sounds strikingly like the Partridge Family…which was popular at that time. So it wouldn’t suprise me if they made it sound like them to make the whole thing somewhat of a parody and harder to ridicule as a song such a seedy meaning |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Your Gold Teeth II Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
@[coach87:50549] I was always under the impression that in Gold Teeth I the gold teeth meant dice and the some was about some sorta casino prostitute who possibly takes advantage (either alone or in combination…with a partner) and the character had been burned by one before.
So I still see the gold teeth here as dice, and he is simply suggesting you throw them out….as in take your chances at life. Take your risks. A couple gambling references are there , “cover your action” and “feeling lucky”. First verse is probably a slightly older person whose been “sitting on the bench” for awhile and is confused and slightly intimidated by the younger generation. So the beauty there, for me, is that scenario applies over and over as time goes by. |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.
