The Caves of Altamira Lyrics

Lyric discussion by DanFan1625 

Cover art for The Caves of Altamira lyrics by Steely Dan

For a while I was confused about the seeming contradiction between "wasn't even any Hollywood", implying he thinks Hollywood is a good thing, and "before the fall" implying the opposite.

What I just now figured out is that he's contrasting art done for its own sake, before the fall, and art done for profit, Hollywood.

In the last verse he's pointing out that the quality of the Hollywood stuff is often better, at least from a craft point of view. But the tone of the rest of the song - even the fact the song exists at all - suggests that the shiny hollywood-quality art isn't all that matters.

I agree completely about your thoughts on the references of Hollywood in this song, and have had similar thoughts around it