When I wrote last week about the great guitar solo in Steely Dan’s son “Kid Charlemagne, a solo played by studio magician Larry Carlton, I forgot that Walter Becker, a regular member of the Dan, played a great solo on the enigmatic song “Bad Sneakers“. The song is from the Dan’s 1975 “Katy Lied” album. (There’s a rare live version here.) I suppose I’ve read interpretations of the song’s lyrics (below), but it still doesn’t make any sense to me. I’m sure it made sense to Fagen when he wrote it, though. (You can hear one dubious interpretation here.)
The solo goes from 1:55 to 2:26; a 30-second work of genius. I love it when the keyboard and wailing guitar seem to go off on their own tempo with everything coming back together at the end.
And I’ll still argue against those who criticize Fagen’s voice; I think it’s perfect for the songs, even though he’s lost it in his dotage.
The opaque lyrics (I’d be delighted if anybody wanted to offer an interpretation!):
[Verse 1]
Five names that I can hardly stand to hear
Including yours and mine
And one more chimp who isn’t here
I can see the ladies talking
How the times are getting hard
And that fearsome excavation
On Magnolia Boulevard[Pre-Chorus]
Yes I’m going insane
And I’m laughing in the frozen rain
Well I’m so alone
Honey, when they gonna send me home?[Chorus]
Bad sneakers and a piña colada, my friend
Stompin’ on the avenue by Radio City with a
Transistor and a large sum of money to spend[Verse 2]
You fellah, you tearin’ up the street
You wear that white tuxedo
How you gonna beat the heat?
Do you take me for a fool?
Do you think that I don’t see
That ditch out in the valley
That they’re digging just for me?[Pre-Chorus]
Yes I’m going insane
You know I’m laughing at the frozen rain
Well I feel like I’m so alone
Honey, when they gonna send me home?[Chorus]
Bad sneakers and piña colada, my friend
Stompin’ on the avenue by Radio City with a
Transistor and a large sum of money to spend[Instrumental Break][Pre-Chorus]
You know, going insane
Yes I’m laughing at the frozen rain
And I’m so alone
Honey, when they gonna send me home?[Outro]
Bad sneakers and a piña colada, my friend
Stompin’ on the avenue by Radio City with a
Transistor and a large sum of money to spend
Here’s a site that crowdsources lyric interpretations. Just as in open source software, “to 10,000 eyes, every bug is shallow,” with crowd-sourced lyrics, there’s someone out there who knows every obscure drug slang. For Bad Sneakers, the commenters suggest that the song is about the band itself.
https://genius.com/Steely-dan-bad-sneakers-lyrics
Agreed again Jerry—of course Fagin’s voice is not in objective terms “good” but it’s perfect for Steely Dan. Who would pick Bob Dylan’s voice, even a young Dylan, on the basis of almost any aesthetic metric? I like my rock voices imperfect. That’s what makes them perfect.
“See rock shows near Chicago
Get tickets as low as $50
You might also like
Your Gold Teeth
Steely Dan
Push Ups
Drake
we can’t be friends (wait for your love)
Ariana Grande”
LOL!
But yeah, Steely Dan is a love ’em or hate ’em band – what gives?
It occurred to me I’d love to hear new SD tunes, if possible… Carlton, Gadd, McDonald are still sharp as tacks, and that band had a high level of musicianship…. ah, who’m I kiddin’…
… and now Bad Sneakers is on repeat in my head…
Looks like a copy and paste oops!
For anyone interested, Katy Lied is being issued on vinyl with a brand new mix. As any Dan fan knows the original vinyl mix using new DBX technology was a disappointment. I am looking forward to the new mix from the original masters ( which were digitalized by Roger Nichols in the early 80s). Katy Lied is my favorite SD album.
As far as interpreting lyrics, I have it on a very reliable source, that Walter and Donald would get a huge kick out of fans trying to interpret their lyrics. Even they were at a loss at what some of the words meant. Often, they just chose phrasing that fit the music. Given how cryptic most of their songs are, this seems pretty plausible.
This is welcome news, thanks. It’s always been my favorite Dan record too. (Highlights for me: Phil Woods on Dr. Wu and Denny Dias on Your Gold Teeth II.)
I have learned to distrust internet lyrics sites, as they just copy from each other and contain frequent errors and mondegreens. In this case, I have always heard the line as ‘that fearsome excavation on that Know-you boulevard’, which somehow makes sense to me.
“Bad Sneakers” is such an exceptional song, that I even like Michael McDonald’s vocals in it!
Many years ago I was drinking a pina colada at a beach bar somewhere, perhaps more than one, and I got to thinking about this song. So I wrote Kenny King and also a friend from high school named Scott Culpepper and asked each of them if they could explain the song. Both responded; Kenny wrote back a long explication which involved two voices speaking. I’ll see if I can find it on my computer email memory.
FIND IT PLEASE!!!!!
Turns out I do have it. If I can find your email address I’ll forward the string along. Also, his main response, dated Sept. 6, 2009, was cc’d to you at the time. So perhaps you have it in archives somewhere.
Email address is on this site: go to about the author on the right sidebar, and then click contact information after you click on that. Sadly, I do not have his old email.
So, now I’m looking forward to the weekly, or even daily, column on a Steely Dan song. Are you with me, Dr.?
Just a plug for Eliot Randall’s guitar solo (two of them really) on Reeling in the Years. Jimmy Page thought this was the best solo of all time. He contributed a few himself.
Although Larry Carlton WAS a studio magician, i’m not sure that’s what you wanted to say!
Oops. Thanks!
Steely Dan is one of those bands that immediately take me back to a time and place. During the summer of 1975 I worked the school summer holidays in a lab attached to a large sewage works (we tested the product rigorously as London would be drinking it the next day). The trainee chemist had Can’t Buy a Thrill and Countdown to Ecstasy on repeat at the biochemical oxygen demand bench next to my suspended solids bench. He was the guy I may have mentioned before who grew weed on the storm land and sold the entire crop at a local pop festival….having had me dry it in my suspended solids ovens. An innocent seventeen year old, I said no when he offered me a large plastic bag of the stuff in thanks!