Sign in Stranger Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Illbay 

Cover art for Sign in Stranger lyrics by Steely Dan

Can't believe folks here don't pick up on the obvious.

This is talking about a "wild and wooly" PLANET. This is a future SF world being depicted here. "Mizar V" is, in this universe, a "boom planet" that has chosen to minimize legal authority, shall we say, which attracts the more nefarious types to the place, a world where you can go to sort of "disappear," make a new life for yourself.

The guy who mentioned Jack Vance is almost certainly spot-on.

"You zombies" is a probably a reference to the Robert Heinlein story "...All You Zombies..." from the 50s. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_You_Zombies%E2%80%94) The plot of the Heinlein story bears little in common with the story of the SD song, and is probably just a name-check kind of thing, just like the allusion to the Vance story.

Most of SD's stuff is autobiographical; this is likely a sort of acknowledgment of the role played by pulp SF in the youth of either Donald or Walter. Or maybe both.

@Illbay Heinlein's zombies referred to the fact that every one of the characters who had a part in molding the main character's life were actually time-traveling versions of himself; that he was both his own mother and father, and therefore that his very existence in the real world was ultimately inexplicable -- hence they were all unreal zombies. I suspect SD was just using "zombie" in the sense of a gang member, like "enforcer," "soldier," "collector," etc., as a guy whose identity has been wiped.