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.

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.

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.

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?..."

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.

[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!

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.

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

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