What's your favorite line from a Steely Dan song?

For me, it's "Any Major Dude Will Tell You", hands-down.

Lots of other gems, but that one really shows what compassion underpins their cynical hipness.

 

And they wandered in
From the city of St. John
Without a dime

 

Show biz kids making movies
Of themselves you know they
Don't give a **** about anybody else

 

"You see it all in 3-D,
it's your favorite foreign movie
It will come back to you." - Peg

 

All night long
We would sing that stupid song
And every word we sang
I knew was true

That and...

Bodacious cowboys such as your friend
Will never be welcome here
High in the Custerdome.

 

Can I use a line from the live intro to Bodhisattva?

 

Certainly on my "short-list"

Stepped up on the platform
The man gave me the news
He said, You must be joking son
Where did you get those shoes?

 

Probably my favorite Steely Dan song. The whole chorus is just a wonderful piece of writing:

Learn to work the saxophone
I play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whiskey 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

 

Slow down, I'll tell you when
I may never walk again

 

The "Is there gas in the car" line needs the lines around it so it makes sense.

Clean this mess up or we'll all end up in jail, the test tubes and the scale
Just get it out of here
Is there gas in the car? Yes there's gas in the car.
I think the people down the hall know who you are.

 

Your everlasting summer and you can see it fading fast
So you grab a piece of something that you think is gonna last

 

Anybody on the street has murder in his eyes. You feel no pain, and you're younger than you realize.

 

Careful what you carry. Don't you realize, you are still an outlaw in their eyes.

 

In the land of milk and honey
You must put them on the table

 

Lots of clever lines in FM

Code:

Worry the bottle Mama
It's grapefruit wine

Kick off your high heel sneakers
It's party time

The girls don't seem to care what's on
As long as they play till dawn

Nothin' but blues and Elvis
And somebody elses' favorite song

Give her some funked up music
She treats you nice

Feed her some hungry reggae
She'll love you twice

The girls don't seem to care tonight
As long as the mood is right

No static at all
(no static, no static at all)
F.M.

later
-1

 

Will you still have a song to sing
When the razor boy comes and takes your fancy things away?
Will you still be singing it on that cold and windy day?

But my all time favorite is the opening lines of Haitian Divorce. Such a vivid and funny scene evoked in seventeen words:

Babs and Clean Willie were in love, they said
So in love the preacher’s face turned red

 

MR STEELY DAN and whatever

 

Rikki Don't Lose That Number...

 

On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene
But yours was kitchen-clean

 

Driving like a fool out to Hackensack
Drinking his dinner from a paper sack

 

Ha! "Tell 'em they missed it!"

 

The whole of time we gain or lose
And power enough to choose-- "Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me)"

 

I love this line:
I take one last drag
As I approach the stand

But I love the whole verse:

This is the night of the expanding 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

 

"Mr. Stevie Dan." That's what makes it so funny.

 

Babylon Sisters..... Shake It!

Here come those Santa Ana winds again

I don't have a clue what it all means but when they say shake it I believe it.