Steely Dan are musical *actors*

[i***@gmail.com]

Why do so many people seem to not pick up on the idea that Steely Dan songs are about Fagen and Becker singing from the perspective of *other* people, fictional characters who they are inhabiting??? Many people seem to think that they are writing from theire own perspective... not all songs are autobiographical...

[The old geezer]

On Dec 11, 2:40 pm, ***@gmail.com wrote:
... not all songs are autobiographical............

.....But all SD tunes are about drugs!

TOG

[IanKR]

wrote in message news:4b11453b-3cbd-450a-9d71-***@googlegroups.com...

Why do so many people seem to not pick up on the idea that Steely Dan
songs are about Fagen and Becker singing from the perspective of *other*
people, fictional characters who they are inhabiting??? Many people seem to
think that they are writing from theire own perspective... not all songs are
autobiographical...

The mainstream press in the UK certainly have that view. I remember they
homed in on the lyric in Janie Runaway and in Cousin Dupree, and assumed
these songs as being autobiographical and, by extension, the writers being
complicit in their themes.

[The old geezer]

Post by i***@gmail.com
Why do so many people seem to not pick up on the idea that Steely Dan songs are about Fagen and Becker singing from the perspective of *other* people, fictional characters who they are inhabiting??? Many people seem to think that they are writing from theire own perspective... not all songs are autobiographical...

Exactly. ie: "The Royal Scam"...

TOG