Lyrics for Dr Wu as interpreted by AbFab

Dr Wu Lyrics
Katy tried
I was halfway crucified
I was on the other side
Of no tomorrow
You walked in
And my life began again
Just when I'd spent the last piaster
I could borrow
All night long
We would sing that stupid song
And every word we sang
I knew was true
Are you with me doctor wu ?
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew?
Are you crazy are you high
Or just an ordinary guy?
Have you done all you can do?
Are you with me Doctor?

Don't seem right
I've been strung out here all night
I've been waiting for the taste
You said you'd bring to me
Biscayne Bay
Where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day
I went searching for the song
You used to sing to me
Katy lies
You could see it in her eyes
But imagine my surprise
When I saw you

Are you with me Doctor Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
She is lovely yes she's sly
And you're an ordinary guy
Has she finally got to you
Can you hear me Doctor

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ksk1997
11-15-2009

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I mean the song that he and Dr Wu sang ....

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ksk1997
11-15-2009

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Maybe "Katy tried" were words in that song...."Katy lies..you can see it in her eyes"

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strmtrpr
10-16-2009

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This song is really about a comfortable pair of shoes. Katy lied and said thay weren't that comfortable. She just wanted the narrator to suffer with the old blister blasters. But the narrator spends his last piaster on some new shoes. Are you with me Doctor Wu? You're so comfortable I can't even feel you.

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MichaelKleinman
08-23-2009

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[Official Biography] Donald Fagen: " "Doctor Wu" is about a triangle, kind of a love-dope triangle. I think usually when we do write songs of a romantic nature, one or more of the participants in the alliance will come under the influence of someone else or some other way of life and that will usually end up in either some sort of compromise or a split. Okay, in this song a girl meets somebody who leads another kind of life and she's attracted to it. Then she comes under the domination of someone else and that results in the ending of the relationship or some amending of the relationship. When we start writing songs like that, that's the way it usually goes. In "Doctor Wu" the "someone else" is a dope habit personified as Doctor Wu. In "Haitian Divorce" it's a hotel gigolo. The details of "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and "Through With Buzz" are vaguer but the pattern is the same."

So, according to this Katy is a real girl, and the narrator is simply struggling to help her with HER addiction, not his. This struggling happens "all night long," and HE gets strung out because "Katy lies"; she is fighting the rehabilitation.

OK, so the only lyrics that confuse me are the chorus lyrics: "are you with me Dr. Wu, are you really just a shadow of the man that I once knew."

Ok, so what POSSIBLY happens is that when Dr. Wu helps Katy with the drugs, Katy and Wu fall in love! That explains why the narrator sees him as a shadow, as "crazy," possibly high on Katy's drugs after he has tried to help her!

This would make it a plausible love triangle, and all the lyrics would make sense that way. Ooh, that Katy!



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mackey
06-14-2009

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And, of course, I realize that Dr. Wu was a real doctor, in real life, who helped the band, but the reason and [pretzel] logic that my interpretation is based upon is the fact that the song was a lyrical TRIBUTE to the real Dr. Wu, but in the context of the story, could have been as imaginary as anything. So don't call me out on what I've already weighed critically.

And. The Sax solo. is so great. I lied above and said it was Wayne Shorter, of Weather Report, but he did the solo for Gaucho. 'Tis actually Phil Woods' solo. Both are brilliant solos by brilliant players, so sorry for the funk-up.

Really, bottom line, solid interpretations or none, this song is a masterpiece of Fagen and Becker's. Another example of their wizardly songcraft skills.

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mackey
06-13-2009

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I think it is clearly implied that Katy is the narrator's drug, or simply an embodiment of his addiction to a drug. Speculation, in my opinion, of this issue is cleared by the first line of the song:

"Katy tried/I was halfway crucified/I was on the other side of no tomorrow"
[Katy is the drug that tried to kill him]

I think Dr. Wu is a part of the narrator's consciousness of reality, like his will power, that wants to be free of the addiction, instead of an actual person helping the narrator. "shadow of the man that I once knew" suggests that this figment of the narrator's imagination is personified by a memory of a man he used to know, and admired.
"Are you with me doctor Wu?/Are you really just a shadow/Of the man that I once knew?"

In the second verse, the narrator has had a relapse, sliding back into his addiction to Katy, now that Dr. Wu has left (during the splendid Wayne Shorter sax solo), and has been waiting for his next fix. He knows, and tells himself, not to trust this drug, this Katy woman, because she tells him lies. But Dr. Wu, the narrator's only hope for victory, has been taken in by Katy, lovely and sly.

"Are you with me Doctor Wu /Are you really just a shadow/Of the man that I once knew /She is lovely yes she's sly/And you're an ordinary guy /Has she finally got to you?"

My interpretation, of course, could simply be flat-ass wrong, but I think that it makes the song so much darker if the Doc is an invention of his head, possibly the dementia of withdrawals, because it means that this poor guy's only hope of not being controlled by this addiction, the only recess of his consciousness with the willpower to kick bad habits, finally betrays our hero and is infiltrated, taken in, and conquered by Katy. The song fades out, hero desperate for his savior that isn't coming.

"Can you hear me Doctor?
Are you with me doctor?..."


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joeo78501
06-03-2009

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Dr Wu was real. Katy is the drug. Drugs lie to you and many times leave you like the shadow of who you were. He was strung out all night. "He was halfway crucified and on the other side of no tomorrow". Dr. Wu an Asian acupuncturist and herbalist based out of Wasahington DC helped Fagen (perhaps both Becker &Fagen) off heroin. During this terrible ordeal the only truth for him was his music. "They would sing their stupid songs all night long". At first users believe that they can handle & over use drugs, Katy lies till you see it in her eyes then at times it is too late. Katy is seductive "she is lovely and she's sly". Then they find out that they are "just ordinary guys" He was grateful for Dr. Wu. Anyone familiar with hard drugs will tell you that getting saved off drugs is getting your like back. Becker & Fagen do not play this song in their live sets (you have to respect them).DR Jing Nuang Wu (1933-2002)emmigrated early from China,acupuncturist, artist, graduated from Harvard, venture capitalist, set up Taoist clinic Re: www.steelydandictionary.com.

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joeo78501
06-03-2009

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DR. was real. he helped Fagen get off heroin.Katy is the drug. Drugs lie to you and many times leave you like the shadow of who you were. He was strung out all night. "He was halfway crucified and on the other side of no tomorrow". Dr. Wu an Asian acupuncturist and herbalist based out of Wasahington DC helped Fagen (perhaps both Becker &Fagen) off heroin. During this terrible ordeal the only truth for him was his music. "They would sing their stupid songs all night long". At first users believe that they can handle & over use drugs, Katy lies till you see it in her eyes then at times it is too late. Katy is seductive "she is lovely and she's sly". Then they find out that they are "just ordinary guys" He was grateful for Dr. Wu. Anyone familiar with hard drugs will tell you that getting saved off drugs is getting your like back. Becker & Fagen do not play this song in their live sets (you have to respect them).DR Jing Nuang Wu (1933-2002)emmigrated early from China,acupuncturist, artist, graduated from Harvard, venture capitalist, set up Taoist clinic Re: www.steelydandictionary.com.

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montresor
04-11-2009

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I love this song, it has so many lines with so many applications. "I was on the other side of no tomorrow". Don't put your faith in someone else, some drug, some woman, some pusher, some shrink, some stupid song. Even if you have just spent the last piaster you could borrow. Imagine my surprise, when I realized this was my life and I was responsible for it.


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mjmmm
11-14-2008

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I love this song. One of the most poetic. It sounds like it was truly written when going through a real drug withdrawal.

From the Steely Dan Dictionary: "Doctor Jing Nuan Wu (1933-2002), an acupuncturist and artist based in Washington DC. Emigrated from China to the US at a young age and graduated from Harvard to become a Wall Street venture capitalist, finally setting up a Taoist clinic in Washington in 1973. Apparently helped one of the band to overcome drug addiction in the mid-70s, hence the lyrical tribute."

The song makes a lot of sense within this context. I've read a quote attributed to Donald Fagen that describes Doctor Wu as a symbol for drug addiction, but I think it's a forgery as I've never heard of Steely Dan members ever talking about lyrics.

"You walked in
And my life began again
Just when I'd spent the last piaster
I could borrow"

If you've ever gone through withdrawal and rehab, it definitely feels like you get a second chance at life. And even musicians can run out of money with a serious drug addiction...ask Eric Clapton.

"Don't seem right
I've been strung out here all night
I've been waiting for the taste
You said you'd bring to me "

Addict waiting for a fix. Steely Dan always puts things in a way that really ring true and I'm sure any addict or former addict can relate.

"Biscayne Bay
Where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day "

A reference to Miami makes me think that he's talking about a cocaine addiction, which can be one of the most serious. Freebasing cocaine can permanently damage the brain, especially the part that derives excitement or pleasure and leave the addict with only one option to feel pleasure again.

"She is lovely yes she's sly
And you're an ordinary guy
Has she finally got to you
Can you hear me Doctor "

This quote makes me think that Katy is the drug. A drug addiction can be a lot like a deep infatuation, except that the drug will never reject you when you want to come back. "Has she finally got to you" may be the band member asking if his addiction is the worst that the Doctor has seen and wondering if it can be conquered.

"Can you hear me doctor?" is probably just a reference to the physical withdrawal symptoms which can totally throw off all the senses and ability to reason.

That's my take on it, but it's a song that is so beautiful, it really shouldn't be over-analyzed.

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DCEngineer
11-05-2008

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The above is wrong on all counts!
Check out http://www.granatino.com/sdresource/9lyics.htm. B&F describe how they write lyrics.

They described themselves as impressionists, not realists. Dr. Wu is about a love-dope triangle. "Dr. Wu" is a dope habit personified (whatever that means).

I better quietly scoot out of hear, before I ruin this webpage even any further.

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DCEngineer
11-05-2008

Rated 0 
(...Back again. I'm on a roll, and there's no stopping me.)

I think that Dr. Wu was a doctor, who was "an ordinary guy" who didn't take drugs. But he got involved with Katy, a friend/groupie of Fagen's, who was a drug dealer. Now this doctor has become a junky, a "shadow of the man that I once knew".

Fagen questions Katy, "Did you get this ordinary guy high?". "No way!", she lies (but you can see it in her eyes). Now things are really screwed things up. Jeez, the doctor was helping Donald get sober, but Donald screwed things up by introducing Dr. Wu to Katy (of all people) at that pool party. I mean, look at the Doc, he's stoned! Look what she's done to him!

No "love triangle". Just drugged-out music people and their groupies getting mixed-up with us ordinary types, screwing-up a person's life in the process. Just a theory.

I think this story is personnal experience of Donald Fagen's that only he can understand.



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DCEngineer
11-05-2008

Rated 0 
All very interesting perspectives on this song. Can't say that I've formed a definite and complete analysis of the meaning.

I think that composers are like painters, and B&F are "realists" not "impressionists". Their songs have definite meanings. In the case of "Kid Charlemagne", the lyrics describe the a story about the rise and fall of LSD chemist Owsley Stanley. Some composers use words like salt and pepper, simply to sound cool, or to create an effect. I don't think B&F work that way.

I believe that "Katy" and "Dr. Wu" must have a definite meaning in B&F's lives. I hope that "Katy" isn't a drug, because that would be too allegorical like Clapton's stupid song, "Cocaine".

Some simple observations:
Katy issues: At first "Katy tried." Then "Katy lied"
(Who the heck is this woman/drug? Why is she tryin then lyin? Is she a drug dealer?)

Dr. Wu issues:
This is somebody they once knew who has been transformed. Perhaps B-or-F knew this guy as a kid, and as an adult he has become a doctor or an acupuncturist.
If he's an acupuncturist, seems kind of "crazy" to some. What happened to this guy we knew as a kid? Is this guy high? Or is he really a normal/sane person - is he an ordinary guy. B&F conclude that he's an ordinary guy.
The big question: How did Katy finally "get" to Dr. Wu? Is Katy dealing drugs? Did she actually get the doctor high? Did Katy bring this good/normal/ordinary guy down?

Song issues:
"All night long
We would sing that stupid song
And every word we sang
I knew was true"
(What is this song? Is it "Ricky Don't Lose That Number?")
At Biscayne Bay, "I went searching for the song you used to sing to me".
(Is this a different song? This guy, who is now a doctor, did he use to sing a song when they were kids?)

I've got to work on this one. It's a puzzle. I've ordered a DVD of Steely Dan, and I'm reading a book "Reelin' In the Years" (which I really like). Perhaps I'll get something out of one of those.




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scrappydog
09-04-2008

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I think you're making it more complicated than it is. Here goes:

The narrator of the song is in love with a girl (Katy). However, he's a screw up; a broke junky; a waste case. Along the way, he decides to fall in with Dr. Wu. (The good doctor is probably a metaphor for dope, but they have personified the heroin or coke or whatever it might be.) His life begins again. He parties (all night long we would sing that stupid song). He abandons Katy for the Dr.

We then have the sax solo and fast forward a number of years. (Remember that Fagen once said that after the guitar solo in Chain Lightning, the singer is supposed to say, "50 years later....") Anyway, fast-forward a number of years and our narrator is once again down on his junkie luck. He's strung out, he can't find fine dope like in the good old days. He has reconnected with Katy and she is being somewhat duplicitous--probably our narrator has asked her if she knows what's happened to Dr. Wu. (She does--but she lies.)

Eventually our friend tracks Dr. Wu down and lo and behold, he is now "an ordinary guy"--no longer a dealer/user, he is straight; thus the surprise when the narrator "finds" him. (Has she finally got to you suggests that there might be a fourth person in the love triangle.) As Fagen fades out asking "Can you hear me Dr? Are you with me Dr?", you can't help but think that, no, he's not; the guy is on his own.

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mo_chitlins
08-12-2008

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This is a love triangle. Katie is the love interest and is heroin. Fagan is the weakling that caves into heroin every chance he gets. Dr Wu is the conciousness of Fagan that is the voice of reason. Fagan says over and over "are you with me Dr/Ca you hear me Dr/Are you with me Dr/Can you hear me Dr". Dr Wu is Fagan, understands the love for heroin and Fagan seems to be looking toward his consciousness(Dr Wu) for help. Very cool song.

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macquente
06-05-2008

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Actually I read in the german issue of the rolling stone mag that doctor wu is a historic person. I wonder who!?

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Danfan
02-19-2008

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Yup, Doctor Wu was indeed a real life doctor who helped the band with drug addictions and this is their tribute to him. I love it how theres a saxophone solo playing over the rest of the band playing stabs. Very jazz fusion-esque.

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aic22
12-05-2007

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Katy is indeed a woman.

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Aja
05-14-2007

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Just as a point of interest, the "grasshopper" on the front of the album is really not a grasshopper, but is called a Katydid.

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mandalex
05-11-2007

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Any correlation to this movie???

Dr. Wu (played by Peter Brocco) is a fictional mad scientist in the movie Our Man Flint. He, along with cohorts Dr. Schneider and Dr. Krupov, is the head of Galaxy a large criminal organization bent on world domination through mind and weather control.
Despite having a Russian/Caucasian appearance, his actions and demeanor are decidedly Chinese.

Doctor Wu is the subject of a Steely Dan song from their 1975 album Katy Lied.

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aviette
02-04-2007

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The singer and Katy are hanging out somewhere glamorous and sleazy (think: Jake, Lady Brett & co. in Hemingways' The Sun Also Rises) when Dr Wu (think: Gatsby) arrives where they are staying. The three of them hang out, get high, party (probably on dr wu's piasters) and all night long they would sing that stupid song. It's a nice arrangement -- until dr wu and katy start fooling around behind his back. The singer doesn't really mind so much but dr wu also happens to be his dealer. It's one thing to get dumped by Katy and quite another when you're stuck in the sticks and broke and hooked to get dumped by your dealer. Dr Wu leaves for long enough that the singer goes into serious withdrawl. Katy summons Dr Wu to his beside. The singer is happy to get his fix, and he warns Dr Wu about Katy . . . just as the good doctor administers a big fat lethal overdose to poor hapless singer, who calls out "are you with me doctor" "can you hear me doctor" "are you with me doctor" until the fadeout. Think: Double Indemnity.

My interp is similar to the "camelot theory' proffered at the link provided by shadowself, but it's not them specifically. It's just the classic love triangle addled by drugs.

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stoolhardy
12-12-2006

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It sounds to me like Steely Dan stole a few musical bits from this song and put them into their song "Aja" on the album by the same name two years later.

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SteelyDanforever
10-14-2006

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By the way, I thought the dan never discuss the meaning of their lyrics. Thats what I always read!

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SteelyDanforever
10-14-2006

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Pretty deep Writingismyreligion, but I see the direct opposite. It goes like this.

Katy is the drug, you know how being with a certain person can be. Women can easily be personified to us men as a type of drug.

In the begining he starts off saying "Katy Tries". Meaning that that drug will do anything to bring you down, no matter how much you try to controll her. And Faegan was "on the other side of no tommorow".

Faegan gives us direct notion that Dr. Wu is an actuall man, "are you really just a shadow of the man that I once knew".

Dr. Wu, helps him get on his feet, and they developed a very close friendship, singing songs together, hanging out, etc. But then Faegan finds out that he got addicted to dope as well, and it was really a shatter to his stability because he used to look up to the doc, his shrink.

Drugs and alcohol can be like a relationship. Or dependency on anything for that matter. In a relationship you try to keep control over your lover, but if your not careful, your lover can turn the tables on you and have you under her/ his thumb. It can very easily happen.

The same with your drug of choice. She does lie but, hell, Im about to go get on me some Katy right now! :)

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WritingIsMyReligion
08-31-2006

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Like HexKaster said, this song is about heroin abuse. Fagen has said in many interviews online, however, that while heroin abuse is a major part of this song, the FOCUS of the song is on the "love-triangle" between the narrator, "Katy," and "Doctor Wu."

I think that it is "Doctor Wu," not "Katy," who is heroin personified. This may seem weird, but stick it out with me.

I see this song as being about an addict, the narrator, who is really down on his luck, really poor, a big bum off his friends ("just when I'd spent the last piaster I could borrow") in order to finance his addiction. Then he meets Katy, whom he believes will help him through this time, maybe get him clean, whatever.

He hangs out with Katy, and they "sing that stupid song"--probably here that means telling themselves over and over again how everything is going to be okay. They're trying to use a little positive reinforcement, or brainwashing, however you see it. :>)

But even then things don't seem right, somehow, so he gets to talking to his dope, his heroin, who, as I said, is "Doctor Wu." The doctor is his old buddy, so the narrator is just checking in, making sure he's still there, still the same old "ordinary" cat as before.

Something happens to our narrator while he's talking to Doctor Wu. Sometime during that astounding alto sax solo, Katy has "left" him. It's obvious--he's looking for her everywhere, after all, all through the slums ("Biscayne Bay"), looking for that "song," that bit of reinforcement/brainwashing they gave one another.

When he finds her, he finds that she's been lying. She's been a two-timer. She's been betraying him. He finds "Doctor Wu" (dope) in Katy's eyes.

In her attempts to be our poor narrator's angel, his therapist, Katy has become an addict herself.

So it's all over from there, obviously. The 'Dan love miserable endings, and this is one of their rawest. Katy was just a two-timing little thing after all. She was going to help the narrator, but she got caught "cheating" on him with his own "lover." It really is a "love-dope triangle," as Fagen put it in an interview.

So the end, therefore, is just the narrator talking to his heroin once more, after he realizes what has happened to Katy. In the first chorus, he questions the heroin (and, through the heroin, himself), wondering whether things are as bad, as crazy as they seem. In the second chorus, he confirms that things ARE as bad as he thought, and that Katy has finally gotten to Doctor Wu, taken him in, become a fellow slave of addiction.

Just my *long* opinion, based on what I've read of what Fagen has said on the song. What makes this song so strange to deal with is the lack of a clear direction on who "you" is. Sometimes the narrator is talking to Katy, and sometimes he's talking to heroin and to his heroin-laden self.

He's just another 'Dan protagonist who's been tricked, is all.:>)

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