the explanations of bad sneakers, daddy..., dr. wu, and your gold teeth II

[Berserk Kirk]

I came up with several explanations to a few songs form the Katy Lied
album. I'd be interested in some responses with these:

bad sneakers seems to be about a rookie drug dealer. The chorus seems
to explain that he used to be poor (he wears bad sneakers) but has
recently purchased a pina colada. He is naive and somehow got sucked
into the business. There he is standing in New York with a transistor
(possibly a drug term) and his pay from his new job. everything seems
to be going well, but after a while he becomes paranoid and feels alone.

daddy don't live... is a song about a father who is an alcoholic, drug
user. he goes out to Hackensack to meet a supplier and dissappears.
the couplet "Daddy ain't smokin no fine cigar/ but we know you're
smokin' wherever you are" seems to imply that he is either burning in
hell or doing something sexually deviant that he is forced into doing,
possibly under threat of death.

dr. wu is about a guy has a very beautiful wife (Katy) and a friend who
is a doctor (Wu). What he does not know is that his wife actually takes
a liking to his friend. She schemes to fake a terible illness in order
to have some time with the doctor. So, the narrator (husband) rushes
her to his friend, Dr. Wu, hoping that he can save this woman's life.
He stays at the hospital all night, very worried that his wife may die
and feeling "strung out". After waiting for many hours for some news,
he decides to go into the emergency room to see whats going on. What he
sees is his friend, Dr. Wu, humping his wife. The narrator concludes by
saying that he applauds his wife for her craftiness and realizes that
Dr. Wu is only an average guy who would, of course, jump at the
opportunity to bang her.

your gold teeth II seems to be about a gambler who is so far in debt
that he trembles every time his poker buddies ride to his house. The
only thing this poor man has in his possesion is his gold teeth.
Because he is obsessed with gambling, the man foolishly puts his gold
teeth up and realizes that he has lived a fool for gambling away his
whole life. He lets these scheming card sharks into his house and they
slowly take everything he owns, right down to his gold teeth.

[Keith Phares]

Hey, I can't say for sure what "Daddy..." refers to, but I like your
idea.

As far as "Bad Sneakers" is concerned. I read somewhere that it was a
semi-autobiographical song concerning Walter Becker's problems with
depression while living in L.A. He was almost suicidal from what I
remember or at least he thought he was slowly killing himself. "...do
you think that I don't see that ditch out in the valley that they're
digging just for me?" He also hated L.A. and really missed Manhattan:
"when (are) they gonna take me home?"

I read that Doctor Wu was a euphamism (sp?) for someone or thing that
comes in between two people, such as a mistress or drugs or something.

Does that make any sense?

[Keith Phares]

Have you ever listened to Your Gold Teeth I (off of "Countdown..." I
think)? It might shed some more light on YGTII. "Throwing out your gold
teeth" definitely sounds like it concerns gambling. YGT I tells more
of a story.

[john nicol]

>>bad sneakers seems to be about a rookie drug dealer. The chorus seems
>>to explain that he used to be poor (he wears bad sneakers) but has
>>recently purchased a pina colada. He is naive and somehow got sucked
>>into the business. There he is standing in New York with a transistor
>>(possibly a drug term) and his pay from his new job. everything seems
>>to be going well, but after a while he becomes paranoid and feels alone.

>As far as "Bad Sneakers" is concerned. I read somewhere that it was a

>semi-autobiographical song concerning Walter Becker's problems with
>depression while living in L.A. He was almost suicidal from what I
>remember or at least he thought he was slowly killing himself. "...do
>you think that I don't see that ditch out in the valley that they're
>digging just for me?" He also hated L.A. and really missed Manhattan:
>"when (are) they gonna take me home?"

Yes, I believe the "Reelin' in the Years" bio by Sweet says that.

And the "transistor" is not a drug term; it's simply a slang for a "transistor
radio", which I believe is simply a portable radio (mid-70s, that was probably
pretty exciting technology :-).

>>dr. wu is about a guy has a very beautiful wife (Katy) and a friend who
>>is a doctor (Wu). What he does not know is that his wife actually takes
>>a liking to his friend. She schemes to fake a terible illness in order
>>to have some time with the doctor. So, the narrator (husband) rushes
>>her to his friend, Dr. Wu, hoping that he can save this woman's life.
>>He stays at the hospital all night, very worried that his wife may die
>>and feeling "strung out". After waiting for many hours for some news,
>>he decides to go into the emergency room to see whats going on. What he
>>sees is his friend, Dr. Wu, humping his wife. The narrator concludes by
>>saying that he applauds his wife for her craftiness and realizes that
>>Dr. Wu is only an average guy who would, of course, jump at the
>>opportunity to bang her.

>I read that Doctor Wu was a euphamism (sp?) for someone or thing that
>comes in between two people, such as a mistress or drugs or something.

>Does that make any sense?

I had heard "Doctor Wu" referred to marijuana, and "Katy" referred to cocaine.
("Katy Lied" referring to the lie of the cocaine high, I guess).
I'd like to mention the "just when I spend the last piaster I could borrow" bit.
According to Merriam-Webster, piaster is a Spanish coin (fairly archaic; the boys
were getting literary again), so the dude's strung out in Spain or somewhere
nearby.

John

[Keith Phares]

What did you think of that bio (by Sweet)? A lot of the talk about
recording/mixing technique went over my head but I thought that on the
whole, it was pretty informative considering the fact that SD wouldn't
be interviewed for it.

[Michael Stevens]

it was the Vietnamese piaster to which they were referring.... trust me

Michael

Scott Andrew Borton wrote in message <6murjk$qmh$1...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>...

>john nicol <jni...@cs.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>
>> I'd like to mention the "just when I spend the last piaster I could
borrow" bit.
>> According to Merriam-Webster, piaster is a Spanish coin (fairly archaic;
the boys
>> were getting literary again), so the dude's strung out in Spain or
somewhere
>> nearby.
>

>Piasters were also the currency used in South Vietnam at least until the
>fall of Saigon, which occured *after* "Katy Lied" was written, so it was a
>contemporary currency at the time of KL. "Piaster" was also an British
slang
>term for Turkish coinage, and I've heard it being used in reference to
>modern-day Egyptian currency (Which is officially the Egyptian Pound).
>
>
>
>
>--scott
>
>--
>scott andrew borton
>http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/borton/steely-dan/

[Jigme Dorje]

Keith Phares wrote:

> I read that Doctor Wu was a euphamism (sp?) for someone or thing that
> comes in between two people, such as a mistress or drugs or something.
>
> Does that make any sense?

Keith,
I believe I've read that Dr. Wu was a philosophy professor of D.F.'s when
he attended college in Alabama. As I interpret the Wu song, it is a
simple pun on the word "woo". The lyrics strongly suggest that he's
starting to fall for a woman he's seeing and is no longer the "love
doctor" but just an ordinary guy losing control of his emotions.

[Dcymbals]

donald fagen never went to school in alabama.

[john nicol]

Wow, the Internet works in strange and mysterious ways.
This is gonna be like that fake Kurt Vonnegut posting!

I remember the post that talked about a Dr. Wu in Alabama... As I recall,
it was meant to be a joke, throwing in a reference to Alabama because of the
whole "Deacon Blues" thing. Whoever wrote that, please back me up, because
I can't locate it on dejanews!

D.F. didn't go to school in Alabama, nor did W.B. They both went
to Bard College in upstate New York.

John

[Keith Phares]

Donald Fagen went to Bard college in N.Y. He also spent a summer at
Berklee. I guess Dr. Wu could have been one of his professors. I read
the Dr. Wu thing in a bio of SD by Brian Sweet called "Reelin' in the
Years."

[Berserk Kirk]

Michael Stevens wrote:

> it was the Vietnamese piaster to which they were referring.... trust me

you could have a point there. Wu is probably a south eastern last name, perhaps vietnamese. But then there is the reference to
biscayne bay in miami. how does that fit in? What is your reason for believing that they are talking about the vietnamese
piaster?

[Michael Stevens]

"Biscayne Bay, where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day..."

South Viet Nam, Cuba....both communist countries...

The Piaster line was an intentional attempt to rhyme with the word "last" as in "..last piaster"....this from a Rolling Stone interview with Fagen and Becker in either 1976 or early 1977.

BTW, I had thought you were being humorous in your explanation, were you really serious?  If so, I'll tell ya what I know, if yer interested...sincerely!

 

Michael

 

Berserk Kirk wrote in message <3596AAFD...@digizen.net>...

[Berserk Kirk]

 

Michael Stevens wrote:

 "Biscayne Bay, where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day..."South Viet Nam, Cuba....both communist countries...The Piaster line was an intentional attempt to rhyme with the word "last" as in "..last piaster"....this from a Rolling Stone interview with Fagen and Becker in either 1976 or early 1977.BTW, I had thought you were being humorous in your explanation, were you really serious?  If so, I'll tell ya what I know, if yer interested...sincerely! Michael 

I was half-joking about my interpretation of Dr. Wu.  I knew it was a far cry from what Fagen intended (?) but it did seem to fit the lyrics quite well when I got down to thinking about it.  Go ahead and tell us what you know. 

[Marty]

Michael Stevens wrote:
>
> "Biscayne Bay, where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day..."
> South Viet Nam, Cuba....both communist countries...
> The Piaster line was an intentional attempt to rhyme with the word
> "last" as in "..last piaster"....this from a Rolling Stone interview
> with Fagen and Becker in either 1976 or early 1977.
> BTW, I had thought you were being humorous in your explanation, were
> you really serious? If so, I'll tell ya what I know, if yer
> interested...sincerely!
>
> Michael

Come now, do you expect "the boys" to explain themselves in an interview
with Rolling Stone. Surely you jest.

Marty

[Michael Stevens]

Ok, Marty and Berserk....

 

     It's funny that I nearly threw in the caveat that one can never be entirely certain when Mssrs. Fagen and Becker are being serious in any situation. So, no, I do not expect them to have been altogether truthful in the interview I cited from ~'76. Still, they were in an upheaval at the time, losing the 'band' and reconfiguring themselves as an entity around which studio musicians might play, an early incarnation of 'virtual musicianship', the type of which ultimately became disparaged by the likes of Milli Vanilli. With this in mind, I feel the info I cited was more probably accurate than not. Even were it to be disproved as being false, the fact that either Fagen or Becker promulgated the falsehood should count for something

     So let me go onward, having, I hope, covered myself for any falsehoods I might perpetuate...

     Bad Sneakers is an allusion to the state of schizophrenia. The story regards an inpatient who vacillates between a state of clarity regarding where he is (the Greater Los Angeles Metropolitan area identifiable via the reference to "..that ditch out in the valley that they're diggin just for me.", an earthwork project in the San Fernando Valley), even though he demonstrates his psychotic state by saying that it is being dug up for him; and a state of either recollection, or fantasy, wherein he is in Times Square, groovin' to the tunes on his transistor, wearing his 'bad' (as in 'cool') sneakers, and drinking Pina Colada, a popular, very popular, cocktail amongst the 'youthful set', a large sum of money to spend signifies 'freedom', but just as possibly is a reference to the fact that Radio City Music Hall, and its surrounding environs were a tenderloin (red light)district at the time.

      Daddy Don't Live in that New York City No More is about an NYC pimp who has been carted off to jail. Additional double entendres are probably applicable.

     Katy Lied (Dr. Wu) is an allegorical reference to heroin addiction, where 'Katy' is heroin. Very many Viet Nam era veterans were returning home addicted to the cheap and potent Asian heroin when this song was crafted. Once they got back stateside, it was no longer cheap, and less potent. Many went to doctors for treatment, and were placed on methadone. They were told the methadone was non-addictive and would help them break the addiction to heroin. Methadone was found to be as addictive, if not more addictive, than heroin. That is the "lie" as in '...Katy lies, you can see it in her eyes...'. Again, other double entendres are probably applicable in this song too.

     I spoke at length with Walter Becker, backstage at Shoreline Amphitheater near Palo Alto, in California, after the show on August 12, 1993. He confirmed most of what I have told you regarding these songs during that conversation. Unlike Fagen, Becker seemed to enjoy talking about the hidden meanings in the songs, but he was less than completely candid, either.  I suspect that nearly anything one hears from these guys, second hand or otherwise, should be taken with the appropriate sized grain of salt.

    I have omitted referring to any aspects of the 'meanings behind the music' which I cannot 'verify', so we each can retain some of the meanings we have come to attribute to them.  I think that 'the Boys' would like it that way.....

 

Michael

 

Berserk Kirk wrote in message <35970386...@digizen.net>...

[Iginio Fitzpatrick]