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.
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.