Don't seem right - the interpretations offered for this song - let me try another.
The narrator is beat up, strung out, broke, emotionally shot. Drugs are probably part of the problem. Lots of us find ourselves in that empty place, in one way or another. But there's this woman - Katy - a real woman - who enters his life, masquerading as a friend, pretending not to be romantically interested. In the state the narrator is in, the very last thing he wants or needs is love.
Dr Wu is a metaphor for that unexplainable part of the narrator (and indeed all of us) who causes us to fall in love, even we try so hard to separate from our "normal" selves. We want to be in control of our lives, our destinies, but Dr Wu - often to our great surprise - walks in without warning, utterly hiujacking everything we're about, all our plans, and our lives truly begin again. He does it at the strangest time and place, and so often with the person we least expect to fall in love with. Katy lies - you know she's just another pretty girl who's trying so hard not to let on how hopelessly she's in love with you. And no matter how hard you try to push away, there's the good doctor - laughing, smiling - he's done it to you again.
I first heard "Dr Wu" when I received "Steely Dan's Greatest Hits," one of the Columbia House (anybody old enough to remember them?) album of the month that I forgot to tell them I didn't want, back when I was 16 - 31 years ago. It became one of my favorite albums. I heard this song, and it taught me something I'll never forget about love. Dr Wu has shown up for me, about a dozen times. The last one was 24 years ago, just when I spent the last piaster I could borrow. He won, and she finally got to me - so I married her. And all night long, we sing that stupid song, and every word we know is true.
@rlshelley This interpretation is spot on. Thank you. This is my favorite Steely Dan song. I wasn't sure why, but now that I think about it, it's what you said here. It fits, for me anyway.
@rlshelley This interpretation is spot on. Thank you. This is my favorite Steely Dan song. I wasn't sure why, but now that I think about it, it's what you said here. It fits, for me anyway.
Don't seem right - the interpretations offered for this song - let me try another.
The narrator is beat up, strung out, broke, emotionally shot. Drugs are probably part of the problem. Lots of us find ourselves in that empty place, in one way or another. But there's this woman - Katy - a real woman - who enters his life, masquerading as a friend, pretending not to be romantically interested. In the state the narrator is in, the very last thing he wants or needs is love.
Dr Wu is a metaphor for that unexplainable part of the narrator (and indeed all of us) who causes us to fall in love, even we try so hard to separate from our "normal" selves. We want to be in control of our lives, our destinies, but Dr Wu - often to our great surprise - walks in without warning, utterly hiujacking everything we're about, all our plans, and our lives truly begin again. He does it at the strangest time and place, and so often with the person we least expect to fall in love with. Katy lies - you know she's just another pretty girl who's trying so hard not to let on how hopelessly she's in love with you. And no matter how hard you try to push away, there's the good doctor - laughing, smiling - he's done it to you again.
I first heard "Dr Wu" when I received "Steely Dan's Greatest Hits," one of the Columbia House (anybody old enough to remember them?) album of the month that I forgot to tell them I didn't want, back when I was 16 - 31 years ago. It became one of my favorite albums. I heard this song, and it taught me something I'll never forget about love. Dr Wu has shown up for me, about a dozen times. The last one was 24 years ago, just when I spent the last piaster I could borrow. He won, and she finally got to me - so I married her. And all night long, we sing that stupid song, and every word we know is true.
@rlshelley This interpretation is spot on. Thank you. This is my favorite Steely Dan song. I wasn't sure why, but now that I think about it, it's what you said here. It fits, for me anyway.
@rlshelley This interpretation is spot on. Thank you. This is my favorite Steely Dan song. I wasn't sure why, but now that I think about it, it's what you said here. It fits, for me anyway.