Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More

I think this from the perspective of a child. Criminals have children too. Daddy has gone out "to see a joker and I'll be right back" Daddy has disappeared. If they knew what happened to daddy they would have said so. Daddy is some sort of criminal and a heavy drinker. He has a piece (Gun) a girl friend called Lucy. I think the line "We know you are smoking wherever you are" is said in innocence by the child but means he is smoking in Hell.

The whole song about a man who ran guns, drank a lot, and died in a car crash while driving under the influence. I have several reasons that point to this conclusion.

Point 1: Look at the lines...

Driving like a fool out to Hackensack Drinkin' his dinner from a paper sack He says "I gotta see a joker and I'll be right back"

What was a routine run to a client, which he did while driving maniacally and drinking, turned out to be a fatal crash.

Point 2: Steely Dan often uses music to help emphasize a point. Right after singing this line, there's a heavier guitar riff that appears nowhere else in the song.

Point 3: Right after this line, the repeated lyric has an emphatic "no" added to it (No, my daddy don't live in that New York City no more").

Point 4: The whole song is mostly dealing with both his Eldorado (Cadillac) and his heavy use of alcohol.

My case rests.

OK, it’s cool that these songs evoke so many different stories and memories and stuff, I really love that. But I also think that this song is pretty much straightforward. A minor guy in the neighborhood who is a player… Not really a bad guy, but definitely doing different things Illegally And he has left the game and moved away. I personally see no references to Christianity or Judaism, the lower side was a Puerto Rican neighborhood by then most people were simply lapsed Catholics. There’s no reference to Any fatal car crashes or any of that and the four drum beats are just for drum beats. The reason he celebrates Sunday on Saturday night because the bars don’t close till 4 AM and usually didn’t close at all till 8 AM so it was literally Sunday morning by the time you left your Saturday night party. Lucy still drinks her Coke and rum… The neighborhood is still there and everything is still going on But without him. Gangsters Dr., Cadillacs and El Dorado’s because they are quite often very big men and would look ridiculous and a Celica… And be very uncomfortable. I don’t see any reference to pimping And having essentially grown up in that neighborhood never met a pimp on the lower east side. I knew pimps, but all the pimps I knew lived in motels or hotels. New York is very specific, Italians live in Little Italy and East Village had its own thing. Mostly drugs, and you have to travel in that line. You have to hustle… anyone driving out to Hackensack NJ would be called a fool. Even by themselves. Everyone put alcoholic beverages into a bag. It was called “giving the cops their respect“. When drinking outside, which everyone did it was believe that if you put it in a paper bag, so no one can see what you were drinking, it was called “giving the cups their respect” and so you would not get ticketed for public consumption. So it became a very common thing to do to drink Out of a paper bag. He was a local character and not really a bad guy and these were not deprave things. They were just the way it was back then… But as you get older, you can’t play those young men games anymore and if you’re smart you’ll get out while you’re head. But, “ We know that you’re smoking wherever you are” Simply means that you’re still cool wherever you are… Not Doobies or anything or fans… Him. We know where you are. You’re still the same cool guy even though you’ve retired… Respect. Anyway, that’s how I see it.

My guess is that "Daddy" is--or, rather, was--a pimp, gangster, or assorted low-life of some sort (a fixation of the 'Dan--see "Sign In Stranger," "With A Gun," "Pearl of the Quarter," "Do It Again," and "Charlie Freak," among others). The lyrics talk about his various depravities: partying ("celebrating Sunday on a Saturday night"), keeping a gun stored in case of 'emergencies' ("the piece he stowed out on Avenue D"--aren't the letter-streets in a bad part of NYC?), showing off his wealth by cruising around town ("don't drive that El Dorado no more"), and getting drunk on cheap liquor ("drinkin' his dinner from a paper sack").

The last verse implies that the reason he "don't live in that New York City no more" is because he's dead and burning in hell--"Daddy can't get no fine cigar/But we know you're smoking, wherever you are".

I've wondered if this is a vignette of their creation, or based on a real person or fictional character.

Steely Dan songs create a series of mental images. Both the literal meaning of the words and the feeling of the music combine to create these images and impressions.

In a literal sense, the song comments on the general trend for immigrants, perhaps especially Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, to arrive in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City and then to move on to the suburbs. Steely Dan covered similar themes, but from a Puerto Rican perspective, on the title track from their next album, The Royal Scam.

More obviously, the song is about a pimp who is now passed on, either to another neighborhood, to the suburbs, or, perhaps (as suggested by ProfessorKnowItAll) to the next life.

The song's midtempo jazz swing sets the stage for the narrator who delivers the lyrics from the hip, insiderish, world-weary perspective we find so often in Steely Dan songs in general and on the album containing this song, Katy Lied, in particular. In fact, it's easy to imagine this song being recorded live during a performance in a smoky cellar bar somewhere in Loisaida (the Spanish slang name for the Lower East Side).

The line "he can't celebrate Sunday on a Saturday night no more" may allude to the Jewish sabbath day. As this is the only line that seems to specifically reference Jews, the case is not that strong to argue that the song's protagonist is a Jew. Many other lines seem to imply a Cuban or Puerto Rican "Daddy." But I have always gotten a strong sense of a reference to the Jewish sabbath from this line.

The lines "daddy don't need no lock and key, for the peace/piece he keeps out on Avenue D" is typical Steely Dan word play. Both meanings appear to refer to a pimp. Whether it's "piece," as in "piece of ass" (i.e., a prostitue in his employ) or "peace" as in, "keeping the peace" (i.e., keeping everything going on an even keel with the woman out working for him on the street), there is an overall sense of the songwriter having a good time with the multiple meanings of words and phrases.

More specifically, Avenue D is considered the most dangerous of all the Avenues of the New York City neighborhood known as Alphabet City (the other Avenues are A, B, and C), the most eastern part of either the Lower East Side or the East Village, depending on which name you use. This adds, very literally, to the edgy feel of the song (the only thing after Avenue D is the East River).

The next stanza gives a sense of a pimp who has moved on to tamer pastures: driving an Eldorado (do I have to say it?; Cadillac Eldorade, a fancy Cadillac and fancy Cadillacs are associated with pimping). It also has a sad nostalgia to it: daddy misses his neighborhood with its short walk to the liquor store; Lucy misses Daddy and their times spent together sipping rum and cokes. She sits alone waiting for him to return.

The mention of cigars and the cocktail also known as the Cuba Libra (a rum and coke, when served with a lime), specifically hints at our pimp being of Cuban descent. Neither New York City as a whole, nor the Lower East Side specifically, are known as Cuban neighborhoods. At the time Steely Dan wrote this song, the neighborhood's hispanic population was almost totally Puerto Rican. Well, this is Misters Becker and Fagen, not the United States Census. Fine cigars and Cuba Libres are way more evocative than pollo con arroz.

I have never heard the last line, "we know you're smoking wherever you are," as anything other than a fairly lame shout-out to the band's listeners. I like the interpretation that Daddy is in fact burning in hell but, to me, the last line has just come across as a salute to the many many Dan fans who enjoy lighting up the occasional doobie (or even Doobie).

a very underrated song

This tune is prototypical Dan in their middle period - a bluesy form with heavy jazz reharmonization, plenty of crack instrumental performances, and a very heavy dose of the sardonic black humor we have come to associate with Walter Becker. Daddy lives a very jaded existence involving some number of shady dealings and characters. Others point out the setting's referenced, the "Alphabet" streets, Hackensack, and the liquor store and bars one might find therein. The Eldorado has long been associated with mafioso because the trunk was so huge you could fit 2-3 dead jokers in there no problem. So Daddy's gone missing, his kids left wondering what happened to him, Lucy drinking alone, and the nature of the interaction with the joker he went to go meet up with can only be guessed at - but the four stark instrumental hits at the end of that bridge before the final verse sound to me like four shots ringing out. I believe the joker was a loan shark or a mobster that Daddy owed a debt to or otherwise crossed and he overestimated his own ability to make the case for leniency or extra time. So, yeah, he's probably either swimmin' with the fishes or in the trunk of that Caddy he don't drive no more.

I believe "The piece he keeps out on Avenue D" to be a reference to a gun

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

This song always hit home because my pop was a raging alcoholic who at one point drove an Eldorado; and my mom's name was Lucille (wasn't a drinker of coke n rum or any other libations) but pops was an absentee husband/father who frequently neglected her/us.

Daddy can't get no fine cigar But we know you're smoking Wherever you are

yep, my dad's also burning in hell all right... enjoy, Smokey, I'll see you in due time.