The Game of Steely Dan

Having a tough time of it.  And when that happens, I lean back into music.

Some of y’all young dudes might not even know who these cats are.  They were before my time, but Steely Dan has been sampled a lot in hip hop. (and honestly that hip hop is probably before your time, lol)

This is a classic.

The Story behind it?

According to a 2006 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Rikki of the title is Rikki Ducornet, a New York writer and artist. Steely Dan co-front Donald Fagen met her while both were attending Bard College, a small liberal arts school located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Ducornet said they met at a college party, and even though she was both pregnant and married at the time, he gave her his number, although not in the same context as the song. Ducornet was intrigued by Fagen and tempted to call him, but she decided against it.
…Married and Pregnant meets a young gun on the come up and is tempted.
But let’s just home in on the lyrics.
You tell yourself you’re not my kind
But you don’t even know your mind
And you could have a change of heart
In terms of the grand sequence, something happened in Phase 3 and she went the other way.  So the line is sort of a last ditch effort to keep it going.
I don’t know if the line works, but she was tempted according to lore.
-Archie

2 thoughts on “The Game of Steely Dan”

  1. Keep gunning sir…..we have all been there. Great song…you have sent me down the rabbit hole now!

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