| Steely Dan – Gaucho Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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@[SteelyDeb:42730] It's one thing to put forth an interpretation of a song's lyrics, but quite another to stridently insist that you have the only correct interpretation and that anyone who disagrees is ignorant or stupid. Do you have any concrete source for your factual claims about this song, e.g. that these lyrics are based in "Becker showing up high, sleeping on the floor, snapping his fingers like a fool, and having glassy eyes that matched the glass buttons on his Jean jacket for Gods sake while wearing his elevator shoes that Fagen poked fun about."? I doubt you do. And in that case, consider not being arrogant about it. |
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| Steely Dan – Gaucho Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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@[SteelyDeb:42731] It's one thing to put forth an interpretation of a song's lyrics, but quite another to stridently insist that you have the only correct interpretation and that anyone who disagrees is ignorant or stupid. Do you have any concrete source for your factual claims about this song, e.g. that these lyrics are based in "Becker showing up high, sleeping on the floor, snapping his fingers like a fool, and having glassy eyes that matched the glass buttons on his Jean jacket for Gods sake while wearing his elevator shoes that Fagen poked fun about."? I doubt you do. And in that case, consider not being arrogant about it. |
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| Steely Dan – Glamour Profession Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| "The song itself is probably the closest the Dan ever came to disco" -- Fagen has said (interview in Musician magazine in around 1980) that this song was musically influenced by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, which was more or less disco. | |
| Steely Dan – Aja Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| This entire website is a parlor game. If you think you're doing something "deeper" or getting at the one true meaning of any of these songs, think again. | |
| The Four Seasons – December 1963 (Oh What A Night) Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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"Oh my, as I recall it ended much too soon" So he's basically admitting to a case of premature ejaculation? |
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| The Velvet Underground – European Son Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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@[Renaissance:38822] Dan "The lyric is definitely 'now your blue collar's gone' " -- This is incorrect. Every available source has 'blue car' or 'blue cars.' Lou clearly sings "your blue cars are gone." The recent Iggy cover of it sounds more like "your blue car's gone." |
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| Don McLean – American Pie Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[mrmacphisto:37915] interesting theory, but I don't buy it. The return to the slow tempo doesn't prove anything. | |
| Don McLean – American Pie Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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@[tlspatriot:37914] "Jack Flash sat on a candlestick The Stones' Candlestick park concert." This can't be right, because the first time the Stones played Candlestick Park was in 1981. Also, the rest of the lyric makes it very clear the reference is to Altamont. "Candlestick" here is just because that's part of the traditional "Jack be nimble" rhyme. |
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| Steely Dan – I Got The News Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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"Spanish kissin' " is apparently slang for fellatio, which I didn't know before, so that line in the song is basically referring to someone's saliva-coated knob. Which, though I am a SD fan, I don't need a mental image of Donald's saliva-coated knob, thanks anyway. |
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| Steely Dan – Gaucho Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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The guy from whose POV the song is sung is addressing his client of some sort, maybe an agent/artist relationship, seems likely. He's saying "look, we have a good thing going here and we're making money, and you're screwing it up and making me look bad by dragging in this skanky-ass rough trade." Maybe the 'special friend' line means there's also a romantic or sexual things between the agent and the client, or there's been some such incident. That's plausible and adds complexity to the lyric, but we don't have to decide whether that's 'really what it means' or not. For me the most interesting and central line is "bodacious cowboys such as your friend will never be welcome here / high in the Custerdome." We know from interviews that the Custerdome basically means the world / halls of corporate power, probably in this case in the entertainment industry. So the line is saying that people "like that" are excluded from that world of power. In 1980, maybe that meant you couldn't be openly, flamboyantly gay and a louche partier like that without inflicting professional consequences on yourself and maybe your management. And I wonder to what extent that was/is true not only then, but especially now in 2021. Back then, I guess a lot of people felt they had to remain in the closet, but there must have been a lot of open secrets. Of course sordid hypocrisy is fertile lyric territory for Steely Dan. |
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| Donald Fagen – I.G.Y. (International Geophysical Year) Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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@[underbanyantrees:36519] "I wanted them to slip a copy of this CD in my coffin... I really need to know I can hear this CD in my afterlife" We regret to inform you that, as they say, you can't take it with you. |
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| R.E.M. – Wolves Lower Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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@[masonjar:36509] also "house in an order" Also, these lyrics don't mean anything |
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| R.E.M. – Wolves Lower Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| It should be "wolves at the door" | |
| Steely Dan – Deacon Blues Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| As Fagen once said in an interview, "I don't think the guy ever learns to play the saxophone." | |
| Steely Dan – Glamour Profession Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| I have no idea how anyone could think this song is about any drug other than cocaine. | |
| Steely Dan – Peg Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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For a long time I thought it was "when the shadow falls," not "then the shutter falls." I thought "when the shadow falls" was a reference to death, and "you see it all in 3D" referred to seeing your life pass before your eyes at the moment of your death. And "it's your favorite foreign movie" because in that moment you (or, in the song, Peg, I guess) realize that you feel completely detached from and alienated from your own life. That you've never understood who or what you are, and you're only realizing this now, as the shadow falls and you die. I still like this better than what the actual lyric apparently is. |
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| Steely Dan – Aja Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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since anything goes here, I'll say I always heard this as being about a rehab clinic, "up on the [unspecified] hill." Where people just don't care, i.e. aren't judgmental. The Aja/Asia stuff is a reference to the shallow pseudo-Eastern 'spirituality' that goes along with the rehab. When our protagonist is done 'dime dancing' [i.e. partying and doing too many drugs], he runs to the rehab. Maybe it's not his first time there. I will admit however that I also found the 'LSD' interpretation above interesting. Thinking that you have found the one true meaning of a song's lyrics is not the path of wisdom, grasshopper. |
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| Steely Dan – Glamour Profession Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| @[liveswithanevilb1:36460] underrated comment | |
| Steely Dan – Glamour Profession Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| @[Hoops:36459] McCann I don't usually go for detailed overinterpretations of song lyrics, but this is plausible and informative! | |
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