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

I always thought it was Becker who wrote most of the lyrics....but I don 't know why I thought so. Is it really Fagan who's the wordsmith?

 

I always thought it was “they call our grandma the crimson tide...” lol

 

Guess that really does make this somebody else’s favorite song.

 

You need to get two albums--11 Tracks of Whack, and Circus Money. By Walter Becker. Check the music. Check the lyrics.

 

"What do you think I'm yelling for?"

 

The kid will live and learn
As he watches his bridges burn
From the point of no return

 

"With a spastic's reeling perfection".

 

Oh. Wow!!!

 

very first page, posted here:
What's your favorite line from a Steely Dan song?

later
-1

 

I always found this interesting :

Asked by Uncut what he thought when he heard the line, Don Henley replied: "I know them pretty well, and it was like he was sort of saying, 'Everybody's in LA's playing this f--kin' record, and I'm sick of it.!' It was a little bit of an acknowledgment and a little bit taking the piss, because we had the same management – still do- but you know, they're very droll, Fagen in particular."​

From Songfacts: Everything You Did by Steely Dan - Songfacts

Also - the Eagles returned the favor:

A story with more veracity is how the Eagles returned the favor on "Hotel California" with the line, "They stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast." With the clear intention of getting a Steely Dan mention in the song, the line was written as "They stab it with their Steely Dan," but they decided to make it a little more vague. As Glenn Frey has pointed out, changing it to "steely knives" retains the phallic imagery.​

Again - from Songfacts: Everything You Did by Steely Dan - Songfacts

Cheers,
Paul

 

Yes, those are Walter Becker's lyrics. He's great. Check out the album
that this song is from, Circus Money, and you'll find much more.

 

I always liked My Rival:

"He's got a scar across his face
He wears a hearing aid"

and Everything Must Go:

"Frankly I could use a little face time
In the service elevator
And if Dave from Acquisitions
Wants to get in on the action
With his Handicam in tow
Well we're goin' out of business
Everything must go"

but man after reading this thread it just puts a big smile on my face to hear all these great lyric (and musical imagery) nuggets.

 

I don't really have a favorite, but this is great.

Can you hear the evil crowd
The lies and the laughter
I hear my inside
The mechanized hum of another world
Where no sun is shining
No red light flashing
Here in this darkness
I know what I've done
I know all at once who I am

 

Even Cathy Berberian knows there's one roulade she can't sing

 

Who is the gaucho amigo
Why is wearing that spangled leather poncho
With the studs that match your eyes?

 

First album , first song , first line :
" In the mornin' you go gunnin' for the man who stole your water...."

 

Oh - as for who wrote what - it's not quite that clear:

Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, the principals of Steely Dan, had an unusual songwriting relationship. They didn’t split up words and music, and they didn’t write songs individually either. They wrote everything together, and each man’s sensibilities and aesthetics were opaque. The pair entangled their work to the point that they both took each other’s ideas and finished them. “It’s impossible to say who was responsible for the final result,” Becker once said. ​

From Vulture: Steely Dan’s Walter Becker: A Perfectionist Who Always Sounded Human

(Also mentioned other places)

Cheers,
Paul

 

As for the lyrics that stick out in my mind:

Charlie Freak:

Newfound cash soon begs to smash a state of mind
Close inspection fast revealed his favorite kind
Poor kid, he overdid
Embraced the spreading haze
And while he sighed his body died
In fifteen ways
​

King of the World:

If you come around
No more pain and no regrets
Watch the sun go brown
Smoking cobalt cigarettes
There's no need to hide
Taking things the easy way
If I stay inside
I might live til Saturday
​

Top notch lyricism.

Cheers,
Paul

 

I’m usually the first one to say “Context is everything” but I think the original line can stand on it’s own. Particularly with Fagen’s delivery.

 

I'll probably think of 20 more, but as soon as I saw this posted on the "New Posts" the first thing that came to my mind was

Agents of the law
Luckless pedestrian
I know you're out there
With rage in your eyes and your megaphones

"Don't Take Me Alive"
which is also my favorite song (I also love "Kind Spirit", but it was never properly released)

 

I hear the SC relationship but I don't hear that SD trademark in:
1) chord voicings
2) chord progressions
3) turn of phrase
4) melodic sensibility
5) vocal phrasing/meter

IMO Becker relies more on a combo of clichés and freeform that requires less discipline, creativity and talent. I suspect he held Fagen back as much he helped him (perhaps more). But I may not be giving the relationship between them as much credit as it deserves.

 

Oops

 

Knock twice
Rap with your cane
Feels nice
You’re out of the rain

 

From "Glamour Profession" :

"Jack with his radar, stalking the dreaded moray eel,
At the wheel with his Eurasian bride".

 

7 pages in, and still nobody's posted this classic from Can't Buy A Thrill, Reelin' In The Years:


You been tellin' me you're a genius
Since you were seventeen
In all the time I've known you
I still don't know what you mean ...