My guess is that "Daddy" is--or, rather, was--a pimp, gangster, or assorted low-life of some sort (a fixation of the 'Dan--see "Sign In Stranger," "With A Gun," "Pearl of the Quarter," "Do It Again," and "Charlie Freak," among others). The lyrics talk about his various depravities: partying ("celebrating Sunday on a Saturday night"), keeping a gun stored in case of 'emergencies' ("the piece he stowed out on Avenue D"--aren't the letter-streets in a bad part of NYC?), showing off his wealth by cruising around town ("don't drive that El Dorado no more"), and getting drunk on cheap liquor ("drinkin' his dinner from a paper sack").

The last verse implies that the reason he "don't live in that New York City no more" is because he's dead and burning in hell--"Daddy can't get no fine cigar/But we know you're smoking, wherever you are".

I've wondered if this is a vignette of their creation, or based on a real person or fictional character.

1 Reply

Steely Dan songs create a series of mental images. Both the literal meaning of the words and the feeling of the music combine to create these images and impressions.

In a literal sense, the song comments on the general trend for immigrants, perhaps especially Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, to arrive in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City and then to move on to the suburbs. Steely Dan covered similar themes, but from a Puerto Rican perspective, on the title track from their next album, The Royal Scam.

More obviously, the song is about a pimp who is now passed on, either to another neighborhood, to the suburbs, or, perhaps (as suggested by ProfessorKnowItAll) to the next life.

The song's midtempo jazz swing sets the stage for the narrator who delivers the lyrics from the hip, insiderish, world-weary perspective we find so often in Steely Dan songs in general and on the album containing this song, Katy Lied, in particular. In fact, it's easy to imagine this song being recorded live during a performance in a smoky cellar bar somewhere in Loisaida (the Spanish slang name for the Lower East Side).

The line "he can't celebrate Sunday on a Saturday night no more" may allude to the Jewish sabbath day. As this is the only line that seems to specifically reference Jews, the case is not that strong to argue that the song's protagonist is a Jew. Many other lines seem to imply a Cuban or Puerto Rican "Daddy." But I have always gotten a strong sense of a reference to the Jewish sabbath from this line.

The lines "daddy don't need no lock and key, for the peace/piece he keeps out on Avenue D" is typical Steely Dan word play. Both meanings appear to refer to a pimp. Whether it's "piece," as in "piece of ass" (i.e., a prostitue in his employ) or "peace" as in, "keeping the peace" (i.e., keeping everything going on an even keel with the woman out working for him on the street), there is an overall sense of the songwriter having a good time with the multiple meanings of words and phrases.

More specifically, Avenue D is considered the most dangerous of all the Avenues of the New York City neighborhood known as Alphabet City (the other Avenues are A, B, and C), the most eastern part of either the Lower East Side or the East Village, depending on which name you use. This adds, very literally, to the edgy feel of the song (the only thing after Avenue D is the East River).

The next stanza gives a sense of a pimp who has moved on to tamer pastures: driving an Eldorado (do I have to say it?; Cadillac Eldorade, a fancy Cadillac and fancy Cadillacs are associated with pimping). It also has a sad nostalgia to it: daddy misses his neighborhood with its short walk to the liquor store; Lucy misses Daddy and their times spent together sipping rum and cokes. She sits alone waiting for him to return.

The mention of cigars and the cocktail also known as the Cuba Libra (a rum and coke, when served with a lime), specifically hints at our pimp being of Cuban descent. Neither New York City as a whole, nor the Lower East Side specifically, are known as Cuban neighborhoods. At the time Steely Dan wrote this song, the neighborhood's hispanic population was almost totally Puerto Rican. Well, this is Misters Becker and Fagen, not the United States Census. Fine cigars and Cuba Libres are way more evocative than pollo con arroz.

I have never heard the last line, "we know you're smoking wherever you are," as anything other than a fairly lame shout-out to the band's listeners. I like the interpretation that Daddy is in fact burning in hell but, to me, the last line has just come across as a salute to the many many Dan fans who enjoy lighting up the occasional doobie (or even Doobie).