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CHORUS:
While the poor people sleepin'
With the shade on the light
While the poor people sleepin'
All the stars come out at night
After closing time
At the Guernsey Fair
I detect the El Supremo
From the room at the top of the stairs
Well I've been around the world
And I've been in the Washington Zoo
And in all my travels
As the facts unravel
I've found this to be true
CHORUS
They got the house on the corner
With the rug inside
They got the booze they need
All that money can buy
They got the shapely bods
They got the Steely Dan T-shirt
And for the coup-de-gras
They're outrageous
CHORUS
Show biz kids making movies
Of themselves you know they
Don't give a fuck about anybody else
CHORUS
While the poor people sleepin'
With the shade on the light
While the poor people sleepin'
All the stars come out at night
After closing time
At the Guernsey Fair
I detect the El Supremo
From the room at the top of the stairs
Well I've been around the world
And I've been in the Washington Zoo
And in all my travels
As the facts unravel
I've found this to be true
CHORUS
They got the house on the corner
With the rug inside
They got the booze they need
All that money can buy
They got the shapely bods
They got the Steely Dan T-shirt
And for the coup-de-gras
They're outrageous
CHORUS
Show biz kids making movies
Of themselves you know they
Don't give a fuck about anybody else
CHORUS
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They are outrageous and they are outrageous in their ( inevitable ) narcissism , grandeur and overestimation.
I like the song, the melody and the slide guitar over the endless loop.I like the lyrics.
Youth , anti-establishment, rebellion......rock n roll´.
Great song.
They are outstanding and they are outstanding in their inevitable narcissism,
grandeur and overestimation.
Sorry I intended to say outstanding instead of outrageous.....sorry
El Supremo is a fictional character, possibly modeled on José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, the Paraguayan dictator who used the same sobriquet, in C.S. Forester's novels about Horatio Hornblower, appearing in The Happy Return. He is an insane and ambitious leader of a rebellion against the Spanish in the Pacific. He is aided and given a captured ship by Hornblower, until Hornblower discovers that the Spanish have switched sides. He is captured by the Spanish and eventually hanged.
******** He for example demanded a 23-gun salute, as a self-proclaimed superior being. ***********
Some characters in W. E. B. Griffin's The Corps series referred to General Douglas MacArthur as "El Supremo." The main character to do this, Fleming Pickering, is a shipping magnate turned US Marine general from San Francisco. As a seaman himself, he could have been familiar with Forester's works.
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Pretty interesting..self proclaimed superior being, kind of like how a 'show biz kid' who is really well off probably feels.
and showbiz types, are actually everyday hometown folks who work for living to support families. Once again SD is ahead of their time with this song. To this day we still hear Hollywood actors and actresses speak out on issues they know nothing about...while revealing a shallow naievety about how the rest of the country actually operates. The Dan even poke a little fun at themselves by indicating that the cool people will all be wearing Steely Dan T-Shirts. I'm not sure about the 'Washington Zoo' reference. I'm thinking it was a way to describe Washington Politics
in general.