submissions
| Jonathan Edwards – Sunshine Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[nrwilkinson:46493] I always saw the four lines at "how much does it cost" to be a commentary on the government/military's cavalier treatment of taxpayer money and soldier effort. Instead of rationally analyzing whether a course of action is worth pursuing, they just blindly pursue it to see what happens, After all, it isn't THEIR money or THEIR effort they're wasting -- it's yours, they just get to play with it. It reinforces how irresponsibly the government who wants to run your life runs its own. |
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| Jonathan Edwards – Sunshine Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[jingy23:46492] I always saw the four lines at "how much does it cost" to be a commentary on the government/military's cavalier treatment of taxpayer money and soldier effort. Instead of rationally analyzing whether a course of action is worth pursuing, they just blindly pursue it to see what happens, After all, it isn't THEIR money or THEIR effort they're wasting -- it's yours, they just get to play with it. It reinforces how irresponsibly the government who wants to run your life runs its own. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – The Last Mall Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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Nobody can write an end-of-the-world song as upbeat as Steely Dan! We don't know why the sky is blood orange, but who cares when there's a big sale on survival gear! Kiss your checkout girl!
"King of The World" was only not nearly this upbeat, but "Tomorrow's Girls" matches this song whim for whim. ("New Frontier" is merely about using the threat of the end of the world as an excuse to get into a girl's pants... doesn't count.) |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Things I Miss the Most Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I never considered this song in terms of marriage and divorce... probably because marriage isn't something you see a lot of (if at all) in Steely Dan songs.
I always saw the narrator as a ex boy toy of a rich professional woman. He never really loved her, he's shallow, and somewhat of a dick. (Who tells a woman, "You know what I miss the most about you? Your good copper pans.")
He was living the good life with her, three houses in three tony neighborhoods, a fancy car, lots of yuppie possessions. Then while she's not there, he takes home a one-night stand, and somehow she finds out about it and gives him his walking papers.
Now he's depressed, but still, he doesn't miss her as much as he misses the "good iife" she gave him access to. He may miss her conversation and the sex, but not a word about love. Finally, there's the irony that me misses "someone to trust" when he turned out to be the untrustworthy one. |
submissions
| Kate Bush – Coffee Homeground Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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The "torn wallpaper" line is another reference to arsenic, which was a component of wallpaper paste until around WWII. One could obtain the poison by scraping the paste off the wall. |
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| Rush – Red Barchetta Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[alex:45409] ray Not for speeding... for possessing a pre-regulations car. "The Motor Laws." |
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| Steely Dan – My Rival Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[ironmike:45398] It's the lover who has the scar and hearing aid. And "roger" is British slang for the F word, and they also use the phrase "jolly roger" in this sense as a joke. The rest is right on. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – My Rival Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I'm just amazed at the far-out interpretations of this song. Its meaning is pretty clear.
The narrator is being cuckolded. He hired detectives to get the goods on his wife. Either he's staying out of the way tonight to let the detective finish up without complicating things, or that job is complete and now he's waiting across the street from his place for his rival to come out so he can start "stomping time." The reference to the milk truck is to set the time -- pre-dawn.
He's humiliated because his rival for his woman isn't even a hunky Adonis -- he's a worn, older guy with a scar on his face and a hearing aid, yet his wife finds him to be a "jolly roger" (the British meaning of "roger").
The tiny hand is his wife's hand, not a baby. He's recalling their courtship. He seems to imply that she may also be a participant in "stomping time"
The cleverest line in this song has gone unremarked. "I'll tear him limb from limb" is a classic threat an angry man makes against another. Not The Dan -- instead, he'll "match him whim for whim." Delicious. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Gaslighting Abbie Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[dustbunny44:45397] It's a clever drug name they made up. If Dilaudid were psychoactive, it would have been even more clever... but it reduces anxiety, which makes it contraindicated for gaslighting. ???? |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Gaslighting Abbie Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[Minz:45396] Solitaire is a stereotypical way for the feeble to entertain themselves. It's all consistent with what they have planned for Abby. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Green Book Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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Knowing nothing about the blue/yellow book forums background (which if true sounds pretty definitive), I always heard this puzzling song as two creators of an online world (a game, a "Meta" universe, whatever) having a run-through of one of the early pre-release mockups of their creation. The Green Book is their design document -- the land layout, the characters, their appearances, attributes, locations, relationships. They discuss the sampled legs, tribute faces (Jill St. John, Marilyn 4.0), and "festive icons" of their creation (including a house on fire, at which nobody's panicked because it's all virtual). |
submissions
| Steely Dan – With A Gun Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[DanFan57:45077] I get the feeling (from songs like "Only A Fool Would Say That") that SD are not fans of firearms, and not particularly likely to have been aware that Lugers are relatively uncommon outside Europe and highly unlikely to figure in an American country/western tale. I strongly suspect they just liked the sound of the word as it fit into the lyric. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – I.G.Y. Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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This is a paean to the lost/stolen dream of the glorious science-fiction-style future lifestyle that the boomer generation was promised. Flying cars, atomic powered homes, bullet trains, everyday space travel, American hegemony, peace and democracy everywhere. Jetsons, Lost in Space, Star Trek, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, 2001. The perfect background music for thumbing through Corn & Horrigan's picture book, "Yesterday's Tomorrows." But you're going to need your Brooks Brothers handkerchief. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[roaddog73:45074] I always saw it as @[losttango:45075] does. This is why I've always seen Daddy as Italian Mafia. Around this time, the Catholic Church relaxed the Sunday Mass duty so that it could be satisfied on Saturdays or Sundays. "New generation" Catholics would do Saturday afternoon Mass, then party all night knowing they had all of Sunday to recover. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[ProfessorKnowItAll:45072] This. I've always heard this song as a requiem for a low-level Mafiosi who gets orders to break the occasional kneecap, enjoys his cigars and booze, and keeps a piece on Avenue D (which I really think is a mistress, not a gun, and possibly is Lucy). |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Haitian Divorce Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[loupgarous:45071] Rather than "Babs' Dad," I think "Papa" is a snide reference to "Papa Doc" Duvalier, the notorious dictator of Haiti at the time. To me, the chorus was always a satirical, imaginary travel ad, where Papa Doc promotes his country: "Come down to beautiful Haiti for your no-tears divorce!" |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Haitian Divorce Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[mark36:45070] She went to Haiti for an easy divorce.
Maybe people today simply don't realize what a time- and money-draining grind almost all US divorces were in that era. |
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| Steely Dan – Third World Man Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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From the very first time I heard this, I've always believed the song was about the horrors of bringing up kids in an age so destabilized that instead of just "being kids" they envision their future as becoming "little gang members" for "big gangs with flags." Child soldier atrocities were big third world news at the time of this song. The kid is self-training by playing soldier in an age when perhaps that is all the future he has. The parents want their bright-eyed child back, but in his third-world environment, his future as a soldier or thug is politically guaranteed. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Cousin Dupree Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[__midnightdreary:44765] I've wondered for quite some time if that phrase isn't a euphemism for... something else? (Though given she would have to be somewhere he could peep her, and she doesn't at all like him, probably not.) The problem, given that Dupree (as well as Aunt Faye and Janine) is a seriously Louisiana name, is that waxing literal skis is equally unlikely. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Sign in Stranger Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[nubbins:44763] "did either Fagen or Becker read much sci-fi?" My guess is yes. These guys do significantly more sci-fi songs than their contemporaries. This one, King of The World, Tomorrow's Girls, Trans-Island Skyway. Kamakiriad... (Some people claim Pretzel Logic is a time-travel song, I remain unconvinced.)
There's also the IGY/New Frontier arc, which to me honestly reflects the "science fiction future" we were all promised back in the '50s. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Sign in Stranger Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[reagan0:44762] By the way, I bumped you one for explaining "Turkish union dues." Although its meaning is somewhat evident from the context, I've looked for a source for that phrase for a long time and yours is the first I've ever found.
I've also never seen an official derivation of "Spanish kissin'," (I've Got The News) though again the context suggests its own answer. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Sign in Stranger Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[juni0rbarns145:44760] An interesting take. I always envision a lifelong criminal who is "wanted" practically everywhere, being told about (or traveling to, or arriving at) a pirate planet populated by a society of criminal scofflaws who offer (among other things) an identity laundry that can set him up with a new identity (for a price, of course). |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Sign in Stranger Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[nubbins:44759] I think this is just coincidence. Mizar is an actual star in the handle of the Dipper, prominent enough to have one of the old original Arab names. Science fiction authors love to use such stars as the sites of supposed planetary systems for their novels. The more exotic names get used more often, so you can almost always find some SF author who used it. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Sign in Stranger Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[reagan0:44758] I hear the "scurvy brother" line as a brag about their services: when you came here you were notorious, hot, and wanted; when we're done laundering your identity you'll be just another worthless face in a crowd. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Sign in Stranger Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[reagan0:44757] Both good takes. I always simply assumed that Pepe was the guy in charge of identity laundering, and the scar was his underworld cred (i.e., he's not the Witness Protection Program). |
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| Steely Dan – Sign in Stranger Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[Illbay:44756] 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. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Janie Runaway Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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This is perhaps one of the most straightforward songs Steely Dan has ever penned. (Except maybe for The Fez, and only once you understand that "the fez" is a condom.)
Pedophile guy somehow scores some runaway jailbait who "hopped a bus to NYC" to escape psycho parents. She becomes his "playmate" in return for food, shelter, and affection. In return, he gets a "daughter with benefits." He arranges age-appropriate amusements for her to keep her engaged. He giver her wine and couches his carnal desires in cutesie terms (road head = "make the traffic interesting"). The "federal case" line is just to reinforce what we suspect, that "immoral purposes" are involved in this crossing of state lines. And at the end, he begins fishing into her social circle of new friends in NY to recruit more willing jailbait. All very pimp-like, by the book, except this little harem is just for him.
Steely Dan's fondness for songs about taboo sex is legendary: Everyone's Gone to The Movies (both versions), Janie Runaway, Cousin Dupree, Babylon Sisters, possibly even Pixeleen. (In Fagen's Tomorrow's Girls, the fembot sex is actually quite good, but the girls slaughter you later.) |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[astronomydomine:44755] I rather suspect "Jack" is just an everyman expression, like buddy, pal, etc., that handily rhymes with "back." E.g., "I'm all right, Jack." |
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| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[Bullzeye:44754] You're almost there. Relieve yourself of the assumption that the guy in each verse is the same guy, and I think you'll get there. |
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| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[nagromnai:44753] You might expect this from websites dedicated to song LYRICS. Try one of Rick Beato's podcasts instead. |
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| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[hubofhip:44752] I think you flubbed this portion of the second verse: "then you find your only friend in a room with your two-timer." His only friend isn't her -- he finds his girl CHEATING WITH his (only) male friend. (Now he's down a girl AND a buddy.)
I think some of your confusion is assuming the main character in each of the verses is the same person. I'm pretty sure SD is telling three separate parables, and the cheating woman is a part of tonly he second one. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[JimRonski:44751] Good catch. I went back to my vinyl and CDs, but my "best of" albums of their older stuff are all lyric-less. Could you also check the first line of that verse? I'm positive I read the original lyrics as "you swear to Chick and Degas," and these are not names I am likely to have made up or imagined. I can't see The Dan writing anything as ungrammatical as "you beg us that you're not a gambling man." |
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| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[PlanetWavesFM:44750] I read the "land of milk and honey" in the Moses sense, as the Promised Land, which was not just Israel on earth but also represents an analogy of heaven -- a place where all strife is replaced by harmony, old sins are exposed, and everyone lives in peace and truth. The cheating gambler in the third verse lives by deceit and fraud, but when inevitably he must report to the promised land (or similarly chooses to repent into a new and virtuous life on earth) he will be called to account for all the cheating he committed. |
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| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[saintsfansam:44749] Thanks for the novelty of the suggestion that the "she" at the end of the second verse is the old girlfriend, and not the new bad (tart?) girlfriend. I had never considered this. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[thedurable1:44748] I think you're spot on. In brief, the concept that all vices are addictive, and despite their destructive results, you're always willing to engage in them once again. |
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| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[bazooka27:44747] Much closer to what I hear (though I still think each verse is about a different character). I think in the second verse he doesn't take up a new girlfriend, he picks up a "little wild" tart (perhaps to punish his old girlfriend -- "I'll show her i can cheat, too"). The tart takes him for money and possibly has blackmail on him for the future. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[foreverdrone:44745] The wheel isn't necessarily reincarnation. The Western cultural expression "another turn of the wheel" and "just turning the wheel another revolution" similar to "kicking the can down the road," refers to an action that is not curative but procrastinative -- it just ensures the same problem will turn up again later, still unsolved. I think this is closer to what we see in the lyrics -- the three main characters all take unrighteous actions that result in grief for them, but they will all do it again when another occasion arises. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[Nightvoice:44743] Well, that certainly applies to the first verse, for sure. But the other two concern vices, not crimes. I think a lot of people get thrown off by their assumption that the main character in all three verses is the same person. I envision the first as occurring in old West cowboy country, the second in a post-bellum town or city (no problem finding "little wild ones"), and the third (as admitted) in Vegas, after it became a mecca of legal gambling. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[ProfGlitch:44742] This verse is set in the old west (note that the gunman "runs for the border") in which stealing a man's water or horse was tantamount to murdering him by slow death. The gunman's chase was justified, but the resulting murder was presumably not.
The lead characters in the three verses are not all the same character. They are just three people caught in a loop of making bad life decisions; whether they go unpunished or self-punished via their consequences, either way they learn nothing from it and proceed to repeat them. |
submissions
| Donald Fagen – I.G.Y. (International Geophysical Year) Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[MarketDemon:44461] "The reference 'Well by 76 we'll be A-OK" is life expectancy, currently up to 87 years."
I'm pretty sure the reference is to 1976, the Bicentennial.
I remember the IGY. I lived these years. I lived this optimism. I saw all these promises broken. I love this song, but hearing it chokes me up every time. |
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