Steely Dan : Gaucho

You probably know who Steely Dan is. They're all over the FM dial, from the oldies stations to classic rock.  They've had a string of radio friendly hits like "Black Friday", "Peg", "Deacon Blues", "Hey Nineteen" and the awesome "Kid Charlemagne"

One thing I really like about Don and Walter is that they sculpt this production-perfect music, somewhere between 70's schlock and smooth jazz, which should by all rights be just terrible. But it's amazing stuff. Not all of it, not all of it. Some of it bombs, but more often than not, it's great listening. And then, once you're grooving along to their sound, stop a minute and listen to their lyrics. It's all about pop-culture references, drinking, drugs and sex. Seriously. I mean, they named the band after a giant metal dildo. They take these semi-taboo subjects and dress them up in FM-ready baubles, where the execs and the sheep ate 'em up and Walt and Don laughed all the way to the bank.

So, the danger about putting up a song by Steely Dan is that everybody has an opinion on them already. You already probably 'know' whether you like Steely Dan or not.  If so, yay.  If not, I don't think this song will change your mind.

I had a couple of tunes I could have gone with. There's "Kid Charlemagne," about a guy who sells drugs, which is probably my favorite Steely Dan song and is easily up in the top 100 songs of all time. There's "Don't Take Me Alive" about a guy on a tower with a rifle. There's "The Fez" which is about wearing a condom when you have sex. ("Ain't never gonna do it without my fez on.") All of these come from The Royal Scam which I actually discovered first on vinyl back when I worked at a record store. I thought about going with something from Two Against Nature, a newer album from 2000, which is actually pretty good. But instead I dug deep and went with "Gaucho" from the album of the same name.

"Gaucho" is about a confrontation between a guy in a club and another person who brought along a friend who is a total poser. Writing a song about something like that is enough for me to like it. The lyrics are dripping with smarmy cynicism, culminating in the chorus: "Who is the gaucho, amigo? Why is he standing in your spangled leather poncho and your elevator shoes?" You get a vivid picture of two guys out in the lobby arguing about this completely oblivious interloper standing next to them who's "snapping his fingers like a fool."

It took me a while to get into this song. The instrumentation is pretty standard soft rock, but the melody in both the verse and chorus is very abstruse. It's complicated, jagged, a little off.  For Steely Dan, it's actually somewhat difficult listening. You might call it progressive or even jazzy, I suppose, but it definitely doesn't swing. Still, I really like the chorus. It's fun to sing along with both for the melody and the lyrics.

Anyway, give this one a couple of listens to sink in and see if it doesn't grow on you. "Gaucho" comes from their 1980 LP, Gaucho which was their last effort before they 'broke up' for twenty years. I have this one on vinyl too, but the version you're hearing comes from their excellent box set, Citizen Steely Dan. I picked it up for like $30 used, I think. Definitely a worthwhile investment.

[You can listen to Steely Dan's "Gaucho" by navigating to the post "Song070" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

---