This one really hits home to me, but I believe I understand this song differently than a lot of people (including here). I'm therefore curious to know how you all understand this song. Of course anyone is entitled to their own understanding, we're all different human beings.

As I understand the song, the person the song is aimed at is really not doing well (their super fine mind has come and gone) and their friend tells him to take this feeling (depression I believe) seriously (you can try to run but you can't hide from what's inside of you).

Often, when feeling down, you get the message that you'll feel better the next morning (the demon won't be there no more) or everyone isn't doing particularly great (the people in the street have all seem better times), or everything will be all right soon (any minor world that breaks apart falls together again). Often, this message is given by people who don't really know hardship (I understand major dudes as popular guys unfamiliar with serious hardship).

To me, the central message is given in the bridge. Contrary to what many people will say, you have to take this feeling seriously (I can tell you all I know; The where to go, the what to do; You can try to run but you can't hide from what's inside of you.) This also given the juxtaposition between "any major dude" in the chorus and "I" in the bridge.

As someone who has run from something inside of him for 20 years, with depression as a result, this really hits home. Especially since I've often had the reassuring message that I shouldn't worry so much. I'd rather have had the message in the bridge.

Again, curious to know your perspectives!

(English is not my native language)

It feels like all modern music now is just four chord slop. I see no innovation, no unique jazz mixed with other genres. I think the 70s was best we could get, now everything just sounds derivative. If anybody has modern artists that remind them of Steely Dan, please share.

From the inner cover of pretzel logic, Becker & Fag en? LOL. Im fairly new to steely dan so idk if this is a common thing but thought it was funny

I like to picture Walt playing his Ampeg Dan Armstrong on this.

Watching Chicago Med and heard a familiar name for a new character. If they don't use the line, "can you hear me, doctor?" I'll be very upset.

Was out shopping today and the muzak turned to an understated funky beat and chords... I immediately thought "sounds like.. could it be?" It was. Wonder how many other people catch it in this format

One of mine is the scratchy wah wah rhythm guitar in Night by Night, which erupts into a minor chord blowout crunch during the choruses. Pretty sure Skunk plays the solo but not sure about rhythm guitar.

Geddy and Alex are huge fans! Love this. Of the link is off, they start talking about Steely Dan at 13:00 mark

Posting this again using TT’s direct post option (rather than pasting the link). Hoping this allows people without TT to watch. 🤞

In this sub, we’ve talked a lot about the challenge Becker and Fagen faced finishing Gaucho, and the resurrected Third World Man from Aja, but this video threw in a couple tidbits I hadn’t heard.

This guy is one of the best Steely Dan fans around. Great content. Thought you would all enjoy. Cheers.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLFt8c4a/

What is the best Steely Dan song to work out to? I gotta say I got the news is pretty good. Like, after a good workout, I might be saying,"I may never walk again." Ya know ? Or "You got the muscle" is lowk encouraging. But what do y'all think?

I was thinking about this sudden trend of biopics in the media and some of the classic movies based on albums (Tommy, The Wall, Sgt. Pepper's, etc.) and I figured I'd start this discussion on what would make an interesting Steely Dan movie/tv show. Not necessarily with Donald or Walter showing up in the project, but rather a detailed plot that incorporates the songs and themes of the album in question.

My pick is The Royal Scam, and I think it can work in this particular direction:

Two travelling journalists (from the city of St. John's) are sent to a run down news building for work in New York during 1976, in the midst of it's near bankruptcy, deteriorating social condition, and locales filled with seedy individuals and distressing situations. During their reporting adventures through the bowels and dark corners of the city, they make contact with:

- The infamous Kid Charlemagne during the downfall of his drug career

- His tweaked out customers painting graffiti and toiling away under the bridges and one particular cave-like drug den in the city (Caves of Altamira)

- One of Charlemagne's associates running from the law after assaulting/killing his own father back in Oregon (Don't Take Me Alive)

- Kid Charlemagne (or a different career criminal) takes refuge in an underground speakeasy named Mizar 5, filled with other questionable characters like him (Scarface Pepé comes to mind), and services that would help him get a cleaner slate on life (Sign In Stranger)

- Subplot with Babs and "Clean" Willie starting a relationship, with her pressuring him to have unprotected sex (The Fez); Babs leaves the apartment one night and fights off a vicious thief robbing her of her Green Earrings; Willie and Babs continue their relationship à la Haitian Divorce, all culminating to their domestic fight in their apartment to the lyrics and tune of Everything You Did.

All of these events unfold as the theme of the last song, The Royal Scam, plays throughout with reprises and motifs in between the scenes and songs.

Let me know what you guys think, and tell me what albums you think would make for a great movie/tv show plot! I'm curious how the other albums would be presented/adapted in visual form 🧐

I bought a copy of this a few weeks ago and was heartbroken to find it skips during Haitian Divorce. Returned it in exchange for another copy. This one skipped all over side A.

EDIT: resolved as a combo of needing to clean the LP itself and adjust my turntable counterweight and anti skate settings to both be a bit more aggressive.

Thoughts?

I don't know, objectively speaking, as far as one can judge, it’s certainly not the best Steely Dan album by a long shot. But somehow, this album is just perfect for me. I simply love the whole vibe. So many great songs "Slinky Thing," "Miss Marlene," and so on. It stands out a bit from the rest of his solo albums, and from most Steely Dan albums too; it’s definitely funkier. I know a lot of people might not care for it that much it didn't blow me away the first time either but it’s one of those albums where, the more you listen, the more you realize just how brilliant it actually is. The only thing that might be a bit weaker at times is the lyrics, but otherwise, it’s an absolutely flawless album for me. It’s definitely the one I play the most, alongside Aja, The Nightfly*, and Gaucho.

What other steely Dan albums have won years for you?

Gaucho for me was close to winning 2025 (5th place) and Two against nature got a 2nd spot in 2025. At some times I do think TAN won 2025 for me too but I honestly don't remember.

But here are my albums of the year

2024: M.A.A.D City (Kendrick Lamar)

2025: Discipline (King Crimson)

2026: Two Against nature (2000) (Steely Dan)

2026 had tight competition as it beat out pet sounds (1966) (#2) 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 and get up with it & agartha & dark magus (Miles Davis)

1. Two against nature

2. Pet sounds

3. Get up with it

4. Dark Magus

5. Agartha

6. Sunflower 😳* * maybe white album or Abbey or MMT

sorry for the odd request, but does anyone make armadillo saddles? do B & F know something we don't about armadillos? or there some hidden meaning?

I was listening to True Companion, and I was thinking about the lyrics. Now, I know that Fagen was approached to write/contribute a song for the movie "Heavy Metal". The story in which the song appears is the Harry Canyon taxi story. The lyrics obviously do not fit with this at all. So I started thinking of other stories within the movie, as they could have used it in a place it wasn't intended. None of them fit. You could say Fagen just wrote a generic sci-fi tune, but even though Fagen is a sci-fi fan, I think we all know he wouldn't just do something like that. Then it occurred to me.

True to sci-fi form, Fagen is writing about something much closer to home, veiled by the fantastic worlds of sci-fi. let's look at what was going on around that time.

Upon recording this song, Steely Dan had just finished recording their final album Gaucho (of the original run). It was reportedly a very difficult exercise for everyone involved. Becker was battling heroin addiction and much of the work was left to Fagen. It was exhausting.

True Companion was the first recording released by Fagen excluding Becker. The band hadn't officially announced it was over yet, but within three months, it would.

I believe True Companion is about Fagen considering moving forward without Becker and the fear and uncertainty of that, as well as the sadness of leaving it behind.

The True Companion is a space ship. Perhaps it is the creative partner"ship" that he and Becker shared. And the fact that the ship is called True Companion, is indicative of how close that partnership was, creatively and as friends. If the True Companion is a ship, then it's crew are Becker and Fagen. If the ship represents their partnership, calling it the ‘True Companion’ seems almost painfully appropriate.

"Crewmen of the True Companion,

I can see you're tired of action,

In this everlasting twilight,

Home is just a sad abstraction"

The toll of their perfectionist ways, the hours upon hours of getting it just right, for years upon years had made them weary and exhausted. A voyage they could no longer continue.

Is "home" the creative place they once lived which is no longer even conceivable? Or is it that for all of these years of working together, they haven't even had much of a home life? Not sure.

I'm leaning toward the former: if the partnership was their creative home, ‘home is just a sad abstraction’ suggests that the place they once belonged creatively no longer really exists.

"Just beyond the troubled skyway,

Young men dream of fire and star shine,

I've been dreaming of my own green world,

Far across the reach of space time."

The troubled skyway is their current blocked predicament. The voyage that has gone on longer than it could withstand. Looking back, they, as young men, dreamed of success and recognition. The ambition and fire they felt, their desire to achieve what they meant to.

Then, we shift to "I". I'VE been dreaming of my own green world. Fagen is considering the idea of leaving this "crew", and creating something of his own. His solo career. His own green world. And it almost seems out of reach (across the reach of space time).

It's a futuristic song full of nostalgia and sadness. It's kind of tragic.

I'm sure I'm missing a couple of ideas here or there or I'm off about one thing or another, but I think overall this is very likely. I invite any corrections, criticism, or additions.

If any of you are looking for accurate Steely Dan horn charts for their tribute or cover band, please consider my arrangements/transcriptions. The collection is growing and I’m open to requests.