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

You, safe in your disguise
Who lives behind those eyes?
I could swear there's no one there

- "Were You Blind That Day"

 

Katy Lies
You can see it in her eyes
But imagine my surprise
When I saw you.

Not sure why this line from Doctor Wu gets me every time. A beautiful tune and the lyrics give me chills every time on this refrain.
From my favorite Steely Dan LP.

I just love this song, so much.



Doctor Wu

 

"Oh no, William & Mary won't do" - My Old School ... because my wife and I both went to W&M!!

 

"Clean this mess up or we'll all end up in jail" from "Kid Charlemagne".

On the surface one may think Steely Dan is semi-easy listening jazz rock but the lyrics can be pretty badass.

 

Another one, From their first album

“A world become one
Of salads and suns
Only a fool would say that..”

 

And quite dark quite often. This ain't your grandmother's Top 40 pop music...from one who knows, signed: an old "grandfather".

They got the Steely Dan T-shirt
And for the coup-de-gras
They're outrageous

(from Showbiz Kids)

 

When the dawn patrol gotta tell you twice, they're gonna do it with a shotgun

 

Nice
Sure looks good
Mmm-mmm-mmm
Skate a little lower now

 

In terms of lines getting irreversibly stuck in your head, for me it was

We got your skinny girl
Here at the Western World

 

Mine too!

 

And who else could crib from Homer for a little hipster morality play about outworn self-restraint?

Well the danger on the rocks is surely past
Still I remain tied to the mast
Could it be that I have found my home at last
Home at last

 

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

 

The line in Doctor Wu where they take a nod to all the great silly rocknroll songs from Tutti Frutti to Surfin Bird etc...

"All night long, we would sing that stupid song & every word we sang I knew was true"

Quite simply one of the greatest lines to be found anywhere in rock

 

People tell me the shape of my face is changing

(From: “I’m Not The Same Without You” - Donald Fagen)

 

"my old school"- tried to warn you about Gino and Daddy G, but i cant seem to get to you through the u.s mail

 

Soon it will be too late
Bobbing for apples can wait
We know you're used to sixteen or more
Sorry we only have eight

- Everyone's Gone To The Movies -

 

Maybe not a single line or lines from a song but Do It Again always haunted me as a kid...still does.
The music is eerie and I love it.

 

In a traveling minstrel show
Yes I'd love to tour the Southland
In a traveling minstrel show
Yes I'm dying to be a star and make them laugh
Sound just like a record on the phonograph
Those days are gone forever
Over a long time ago, oh yeah
I have never met Napoleon
But I plan to find the time
I have never met Napoleon
But I plan to find the time
'Cause he looks so fine upon that hill
They tell me he was lonely, he's lonely still
Those days are gone forever
Over a long time ago, oh yeah

 

''On the counter
By your keys
Was a book of numbers
And your remedies
One of these
Surely will screen out the sorrow
But where are you tomorrow''

 

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

Deacon Blues

 

You tell yourself, you're not my kind
But you don't even know your mind

And you could have a change of heart

 

You wouldn't even know a diamond if you held it in your hand...

Says so much with just a simple statement which speaks volumes about their master of the craft.

 

Pants? You just brightened up my day!

I believe it should be past.

 

No, he can't sleep on the floor
What do you think I'm yelling for?
I'll drop him near the freeway
Doesn't he have a home?

 

I especially like what comes after:

"You'll be riding by, bareback on your armadillo
You'll be groovin' high or relaxin' at Camarillo
Suddenly the music hits you
It's a bird in flight that just can't quit you

You got to come on man
And take a piece of Mister Parker's band

We will spend a dizzy weekend smacked into a trance
Me and you will listen to
A little bit of what made the preacher dance"

Got to love a rock song that namechecks bebop classics, Bird's "worthy constituent", and his heroin habit.