Lyrics for Deacon Blues as interpreted by jachschmere

Deacon Blues Lyrics
This is the day
Of the expanding man
That shape is my shade
There where I used to stand
It seems like only yesterday
I gazed through the glass
At ramblers
Wild gamblers
That's all in the past

You call me a fool
You say it's a crazy scheme
This one's for real
I already bought the dream
So useless to ask me why
Throw a kiss and say goodbye
I'll make it this time
I'm ready to cross that fine line

CHORUS:
I'll learn to work the saxophone
I'll play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whisky all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues

My back to the wall
A victim of laughing chance
This is for me
The essence of true romance
Sharing the things we know and love
With those of my kind
Libations
Sensations
That stagger the mind

I crawl like a viper
Through these suburban streets
Make love to these women
Languid and bittersweet
I'll rise when the sun goes down
Cover every game in town
A world of my own
I'll make it my home sweet home

CHORUS

This is the night
Of the expanding the man
I take one last drag
As I approach the stand
I cried when I wrote this song
Sue me if I play too long
This brother is free
I'll be what I want to be

CHORUS

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poohbluesky
07-02-2003

Rated 0 
the best song steely dan did.

"They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose "

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mib3fan
11-02-2004

Rated 0 
This song obviously makes reference to the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. During the time this song was written, Bear Bryant was in his prime in Tuscaloosa, fielding national championship caliber teams on an annual basis. Apparently the writer of this song was particularly fond of watching Bryant's Alabama teams play, and thus explaining the inclusion of the University of Alabama in this song.

All in all though, a great song.

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montresor
12-25-2004

Rated 0 
This song is about the blues, and being a bluesman. And an individual.
This brother is free
I'll be what I want to be

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abc55555
01-13-2005

Rated 0 
Even though I haven't been around that long only the greatest songs can make you feel like you've known them for centuries and this is one. It's about a drive to the top, to share with the world his hardships and soul. It's an inspiration to me as a young person to do and share what I love at any cost before it's too late. Steely Dan lives forever.

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blackcow
03-05-2005

Rated 0 
I crawl like a viper
Through these suburban streets
Make love to these women
Languid and bittersweet

Donald Fagen is probably the coolest human being to ever exist.

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satellite
04-11-2005

Rated 0 
It's about a guy who's been climbing up the corporate ladder ("the expanding man"), only to realize that he doesn't respect this way of life. So he becomes a bluesman, and declares himself a "free" person, and tries to cope with his loneliness and misery by martyring himself (possibly explaining the word "deacon," a church reference). For the longest time I thought "They call Alabama the Crimson Tide" was the worst lyric I'd ever heard, until I discovered what it really meant. Of course it's over the top, that's the whole point: Modern society, with its ridiculous values, defines a winner as a football team. The protagonist in this song mocks these ideals, yet he is unhappy because he feels he has no place in the world.

This song means more to me every time I hear it. The sax solo ain't bad, either.

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hubofhip
07-11-2005

Rated 0 
The Alabama Crimson Tide were the top team in the nation in 1977, the year this song was released. At the same time, the Wake Forest "Demon Deacons" were 1 - 10, the worst team in the division. "They got a name for the winners in the world, I want a name when I lose. They call Alabama the Crimson Tide, Call me Deacon Blues"

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kfe2
02-03-2006

Rated 0 
Whenever I have a shitty day I put this osng on and I'm a whole new person, just something with the music calms me down.

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Rfeynman
04-15-2006

Rated 0 
The guy can't even play the saxaphone he's dreaming of the highest form of loserdom in his own mind.

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GreyBlueEyes
08-24-2006

Rated 0 
Who knew this would be an homage to middle-aged weight gain?
"This is the day
Of the expanding pants..."

:-P


Ok hubofhip, that is awesome. NOW I get the references to Alabama and Deacon--pure genius.

satellite, your interpretation is a pre-cursor to their latest CD and the title track on it, "Everything Must Go":

"I move to resolve the corporation
In a pool of margaritas."

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WritingIsMyReligion
08-31-2006

Rated 0 
To me, this is partly autobiographical for Fagen/Becker. It is literal in that I think it isabout a guy who wants to be a jazzman, and who has very naive standards about what his new, twisted, dangerous life will entail.

He becomes a kind of bohemian, a "loser," and because the University of Alabama was the premier football team at this time, he makes a sardonic reference to it in the context of it being a winner.

"Hey," he seems to be saying, "if UoA can have a nickname, and all, why can't I, Mr. Everyman, have a nickname, too?"

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The Dog That Ate...
09-30-2006

Rated +1 
That song is pure genius ! And the chorus is one of the most terrific I've ever heard !
About the lyrics, I agree that this song is certainly autobiographical. I would just mention what a journalist called Stewart Mason wrote about it on allmusic.com :
"Fagen has said that the narrator is a middle class suburban kid newly besotted by jazz and Beat culture, and indeed, listening carefully suggests just the sort of over-romantic naiveté and general cluelessness that one would expect from someone attracted to a lifestyle he does not yet understand. The great opening line of the chorus, "Learn to work the saxophone," suggests that he doesn't even have his verbs straight yet! And yet, even though there's certainly a level of mockery to the lyrics, Fagen's performance is so achingly sincere that one assumes that the middle-class kid in the song might be some combination of his and Becker's teenage selves."
He explains it much better than I could do with my broken English...

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The Dog That Ate...
09-30-2006

Rated 0 
and, thank you hubofhip for the Alabama and Deacon references ;)

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SteelyDanforever
10-17-2006

Rated 0 
The song is about a man who decided to say "screw it" and live his life how he wants to live it. "they got a name for the winners in the world, well I want a name when I lose".

So many times in life, we dont actually live life because we are all so pre-disposed of all the stuff that dont really matter, that doesnt really give us true happiness in this world. This may be through jobs, family , friends, etc.

The guy more than likely had a corporate job, and in the firstt verse he is probably talking to a girl friend or a wife. "that shape is my shame there where I used to stand", his job, and , "so useless to ask me why throw a kiss and say goodbye". His girl.

I allways felt this song to be genius for one because he uses the allegories (or whatever literal term you'd like to dub it) of day and night.

The first phase is of day "this is the day of the expanding man", which symbolizes the begining of of his transformation from what is typically seen as normal, to 'what he wants to be'.

The last phase starts with "the night of the expanding man", signifing symbolizm of his exodus from this realm to the next (his death), from what is seen to be a self destructive life.

At any rate Ill stop here because I could write a whole damn essay over this one song, but I will grant you the privelege of entertaining the fact that this song is about a man whom though may be seen as self destructive, took his fate in his own possession. Now Im not saying be a bum, or even drink and drive, and I dont believe Fagen is either. But ask yourself this question..........ARE YOU BEING WHAT, OR WHO YOU WANT TO BE????

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TheBowieFollies
02-20-2007

Rated +1 
This song is about John Coltrane, he dies because of alcoholism and dying behind the wheel i fear is metaphor for cancer, someone told me coltrane drove a car on a stage and crashed it, is this true??

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1 Reply
SteelyDanforever
02-22-2007

Rated 0 
Coltrane didn't die from alcoholisim! He didnt even drink at the time of his death. He died from liver complications from all of the heroin he used to shoot years before (wich I might add he also kicked cold turkey).

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SteelyDanforever
02-22-2007

Rated 0 
......and I never heard that story of him driving i his car on stage. It could be true, but considering all that I read over him, you would think I'd have heard a bizare story such as that.

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rainwalk
03-25-2007

Rated 0 
Wow, some good discussion over this, one of if not the best Dan tunes ever.

This tune's meaning is LARGE. Most of you I think are right, but there's more. Highly spiritual.

The 'expanding man' is a man who has had a realization and has resolved to expand himself - in all ways. Many paths in life teach asceticism - depriving yourself of luxuries or indulgences to reach enlightnment. The protagonist has the insight, as many nowadays are (we're approaching global enlightenment folks, try as Bush might to thwart it) that the very fact of being alive is a luxury and an indulgence. He used to look through the glass at 'gamblers, wild ramblers' but that's all in the past. He now understands that THEY are the ones who are ALIVE. Truly alive. It's not about sin, it's about worshipping life - with wine, women, and song. God wants you to get nekkid, get loaded, and get expanded.

The last verse shows us that this whole tune is the reflection of the man after the transformation. He's giving us a memoir to show us that the transformation seems painful, damaging, wrong, all that. But - the judgement of the 'court' (the rest of unenlightened humanity) means nothing to him. He cried when he wrote this song - meaning yes, there is tragedy even among those who live life to the fullest, but that is also part of the path and must be accepted. "Sue him if he plays too long" - go ahead and do what you will to people like him, it won't matter.

This brother is free - he'll be what he wants to be. The causality goes both ways between those two facts. Be what you want to be, and you will be free.

And when you find others who are free, you can share with them sensations which stagger the mind, but only with those of your kind - the enlightened. A whole new world opens up to those who open themselves. And it's indescribable to the rest.

Listen to the Dan, get your freak on, live forever.

Nuf said.

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Chawke
04-06-2007

Rated 0 
The narrator is dead. He is going to heaven. A shade is a ghost.

This is the day
Of the expanding man
That shape is my shade
There where I used to stand

He decides he is going to be a jazz saxaphonist. He buys into the lifestyle. He has a certain amount of success. But he gets drunk and dies in a car accident... then narrates the song as his spirit leaves his body, expanding into the universal conciousness. He is a "loser" because he died in a foolish accident.

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b4nt
04-16-2007

Rated 0 
As Becker himself says about this song: "The narrator himself is not actually a musician, he just images that it's a mythic form of loserdom to which he could despire."

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mandalex
05-11-2007

Rated 0 
from Wiki........

The song "Deacon Blues" is often played as a fight song by the marching band at University of Alabama football games. The song contains the lines:

They've got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues[1]
However, those lines were written more in contempt than praise.

According to urban legend, the song was written about the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons, but in a Rolling Stone interview, Donald Fagen said "Walter and I had been working on that song at a house in Malibu. I played him that line, and he said, "You mean it's like, 'They call these cracker assholes this grandiose name like the Crimson Tide, and I'm this loser, so they call me this other grandiose name, Deacon Blues?' " And I said, "Yeah!" He said, "Cool! Let's finish it!"

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veindoc1
06-10-2007

Rated 0 
Well, as was alluded to above, the song obviously is trying to make a great contrast in those won win and those who lose. Yes, the Alabama Crimson Tide was perenially known as the winningist football team at the writing of this song and they indeed were running another poll at the time for the worst team poll. And, because of its size and academics and not any emphasis on football, Wake Forest University was listed as number one in that poll for a period of time. It was a great comparison at the time to make the diametrical point Steely was doing. It was interesting too because no one had really heard of Wake Forest around the nation and in Division I (or in any division) were there are any "Demon Deacons".
Well, boy, have things changed. Wake Forest was the 2006 ACC champions in football, the first year it has had two divisions because of the number of new members, including the perenial powerhouses Miami, Virginia Tech, etc. (and if the refs had not had red and black stripes (Louisville's colors) instead of the tradtional black and white stripes, they (Wake) would have won the BCS bowl, the Orange Bowl. So, touche to Steely Dan for a memorable song and the comparisons have no pertinence now.......GO DEACS!!!
Vendoc1

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ClassikRokManGar101
06-27-2007

Rated 0 
well i had no idea of the meaning of this song. i like the football team references, winner vs loser thing and the drinking and driving idea. still wondering about the meaning... i dont know what to think of this song besides it rocks.

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cbmira01
07-08-2007

Rated 0 
I always took this to be a song about personal growth, in whatever form.

Sure, the singer wants to "learn to work the saxophone", but he also might be a guy in college working on a business degree, or or a retired woman learning a new language. It's a song about, and for, anyone trying to grow.

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Acornlev
10-03-2007

Rated 0 
surely with all the gambling references 'die behind the wheel' refers to losing at the roulette wheel?

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