Steely Dan – Through With Buzz

Song MeaningThis song is about narcotics. Buzz = the narcotics themselves. He takes all my money- drugs take all his money, not very funny- not good for his life but he still does it, it ended his relationship, but he still can't stop, even though he want to.

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  @rumbleroar

General Commenthe's through with Buzz, what else to say?

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  @Flyersfan

Song MeaningFagen: ” ’Through With Buzz' was just about a more-or-less platonic relationship between two young people. There's nothing really sexual about it until one, of the young people in the relationship realizes he's being used and starts having paranoid fantasies and breaks off the relationship. There's no symbolism or anything. We never used puns.
"It's a very saccharine sounding track with a very cynical lyric. We often do that for an ironic purpose. That is to juxtapose a rather bitter against rather sweet music."
granatino.com/sdresource/…

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  @bunglero
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  @bunglero When Fagen is saying "We never used puns", it means that they do use puns. This phrase is the main pun.

  Flag cadencecascadeon February 26, 2016  

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  @cadencecascade Not sure why you think that, but really it's your prerogative. I just quoted Fagen directly. Here's another from the same article:
  
  "We don't necessarily try to communicate any specific thing to the listener. It's more or less we try to communicate an impression, and the listener has the freedom to interpret as he wants," says Fagen.
  
  web.archive.org/web/20130927005716/http://granatino.com/sdresource/…

  Flag bungleroon February 26, 2016  

General CommentThe Dan seem to hold this song in low regard. When asked about it, Becker responded, "The less said, the better." The song seems to be rather transparently about drugs, although I won't dismiss the possibility that Buzz is a tiresome roommate (remember, Becker and Fagen were in college together--not to mention at the end of their rope with their touring band--so they'd had their fill of close quarters). And the strings! Only other Dan song I can think of that has strings is "FM."

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  @Kartoum

General CommentThis song seems very Beatles-esque to me. I take Donald at face value in his explanation of the lyrics. The "Maybe he's a fairy" line seems to vindicate this and suggest it's not about drugs.

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  @jaymeister

General CommentThis seems to refer to the past alleged drug use of Becker. Also the death/overdose of his once girlfriend years ago in which he incurred a lawsuit. Buzz took his money and his girl..

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  @walterfan

General CommentI read somewhere that this song was about a college roomate....

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  @Udice