wow i lvoe this song i cant beleive no one has commented... of course not alot of people these days listen to steely dan. im just a weird sort of youngin! hehe

Agreed. I do like this, although sometimes I feel like the best part is the chorus, as the rest sometimes sounds quite odd...

They should have done this on this year's tour with Mike McD.

THAT is probably as close to sonic heaven as it gets.

I think it's a sign o' the times ditty. Kind of reminds me of Stevie Wonder's "Mistra KnowItAll" in that this dude thinks he's soooo bad when he's probably not so much.

I've never quite understood what the term, "bad sneakers" means, but this song, again, has many drug references in it. Like many Dan songs, I think this is being sung from a first-person perspective. The guy may or may not be in rehab, or something like that. Or, is he in some kind of psychiatric insitution? Frozen rain, in this song, is probably a cocaine reference. "Five names that I can hardly stand to hear...etc." Maybe a reference to the group of people he has to sit with during his rehab sessions, or something like that. Maybe it's the nurses who are talking about that "fearsome excavation." He's tired of the whole thing, of the people he's surrounded by, delving into his own problems, Maybe he feels like a chimp, being experimented on?

The guy "tearin up the street" is either the narrator who uses cocaine or his dealer. "You wear that white tuxedo" - a reference to cocaine on the face, by the nose, etc. "How you gonna beat the heat" - a reference to not being caught by the police. "That ditch out in the valley....etc." - a reference to the fact that if he keeps doing cocaine, he's gonna end up dead.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of that applies, just not sure how it all goes together...would love other insights.

I've always loved the intro to this song. Has anyone notices the slightly hyperactive piano comping during the guitar solo? Steely Dan arrangements are just so deep. Every time I hear them I pick out something new every time even if I think I've got the song sussed.

No offense, but I feel like Shanef's explanation of the song, some of it just seemed like it was a bit too much. While there is a big possibility of it being about drugs, I feel the reference to white tuxedos and beating the heat is just too much of a stretch to be attributed to cocaine in the nose and the police.

Now, while I can't really offer any better insight than he can, I sort of the get the image of Gatsby from The Great Gatsby when listening to this song for some reason, though I used to get an image of a soldier waiting to go back home, too, though the latter makes less sense (unless you listen to the "Honey, when they gonna send me home" part, I guess). It really gives me an impression of the writing of the authors of the Lost Generation.

I think it is basicaly about his (Fagen) life in LA that he bacame bitter about and fearsome of success that would change him. He is talking to Becker about going insane and wants to get back to Manhattan, probably because of to much work with the band and big pressure ('Five names that I can hardly stand to hear' being the inner band and Chimp being the producer) and unexpected success ('Fearsome excavation on Magnolia Boulevard' - big house he is building in elite neighbourhood). Even bad things about NYC look good now: frozen rain, bad sneakers (way too casual dresscode and behaving of New Yorkers - With a transistor and a large sum of money to spend).
Wearing white tuxedos probably means that his partner accustomed to this new life and he hasn't.

Something like that.

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To me this song is about some one living in NYC IN THE 70'S. Bad sneakers and a pina colada may have been a popular drink served by street vendors {no alcohol} also a transister radio.And "Radio City" being Radio City Music Hall.The man in the white tuxedo is probably a successful local street thug who kind of tries to recruit people to do his dirty business. Do you think im a fool and i dont see where this will lead? And he has a desire to be home with his kind of people and family.

Or maybe LA magnolia blvd ditch out in the valley but same idea