STEELY DAN "SIGN IN STRANGER" (reaction) 

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The piano playing in this is KILLER

A bit of history for you. The pianist, as others have alluded to, is Paul Griffin, who was also Bob Dylan's pianist on Highway 61 Revisited. He was also Don McLean's pianist on the iconic anthem, American Pie. Outside of SD's cover of Duke Ellington's East St. Louis Toodle-Oo, virtually every SD song credit is Fagen/Becker. Griffin co-authored The Fez, which you will soon enjoy on Royal Scam. Died too young at 62, over 20 years ago.

That was the late great Paul Griffin on piano and Elliot Randall on guitar (from reelin in the years)...it's so glorious when those horns come blastin' in at the end haha!

Listening to the quality of the musicians and engineering is so satisfying. The album cover is a classic work of art.

Don’t forget that slick horn-based outro.

This song as most Steely Dan is more an experience not just a song!

Actually, the cover art on The Royal Scam was created from a painting by Zox and a photograph by Charlie Ganse, and was originally created for a Van Morrison album recorded in 1975 that was to be called Mechanical Bliss, but it was never released. The concept was a satire of the American Dream. In the liner notes for the 1999 remaster of the album, Fagen and Becker claim it to be "the most hideous album cover of the seventies, bar none (excepting perhaps Can't Buy a Thrill)."

Ok, 2 years ago.... When they talk about "The rock steady beat" these days, THIS is what it means. Absolute perfection with the drums and bass in perfect sync and the piano weaving around it and the guiter providing the punctuation. The horns at the end are pure bliss.

Great piano, great guitar, great song.

One of my favorites from this album ❤️🔥

Let’s get ready “to do it without the Fez on!!!” Looking forward to getting our groove on tomorrow ;)

' Turkish union' is Becker and Fagen slang for the Cannabis dealers in this far off colony prison planet that is the theme of the lyrics (Mizah 5). That's why if you are an inmate who gets a 'gig' collecting 'Turkish union Dues' (past due outstanding balances of those buying weed 'on the tab'), 'they will call you 'Sir' and shine your shoes'. Because it means you work for the mob that runs dope in the joint. Piano solo by Soul Jazz legend Paul Griffin. Lead guitar by Elliot Randall (who also played the leads on 'Reelin in the Years' and 'Kings', from their debut album 'Can't Buy A Thrill').

@0:18 - Texan Rick Roderick, 1993: "I mean, there are little pathways, tracks. Look at… go to Atlanta and see the hotel that gleams like a glistening palace and all this. Well before I get too carried away with all these phenomena which you can see around you every day, you have got to remember that even in that hotel in Atlanta, in the winter, the poor still crawl into the postmodern cracks and sleep at night. So I mean it is not as though that turning the world, as it were, hyperreal has somehow done anything other than make our situation more extreme vis-a-vis those people who have fallen, as it were, out of the loop altogether. There is in this country now the most alarming lack of sympathy for those people who have fallen off the boat, if you know what I mean. People who have somehow slipped off the track."

It takes place in the future where we send all of our criminals to another planet (Mizar 5). Kinda like how Britain used to do with Australia. That’s what I always thought at least.

I took my screen name from this song!

You guys are spot on with what Donald and Walter we’re trying to present about the cover!

The boys (Becker and Fagen) reportedly hated the cover art, but by the time they saw it, it was too late to do anything about it, I liked it anyway, and this is another great song on what is, IMO, their greatest album

great stuff guys

Never heard a piano played quite like that

Cover art makes reference to the lyrics of the title track 'The Royal Scam' which closes the record. And you'er correct about the symbolism, mention the critique of capitalist exploitation of those disenfranchised, the big business skyscrapers like monsters inhabiting the nightmare of some poor man sleeping on bench of a Los Angeles Train station / bus terminal...

Best coda ever

You guys really need to do the title track

Cryptic lyrics intersecting musical precision . I'm at a loss to trot out a counter example from the Dan .

You guys seem cool as all get out.

the album cover is that monolithic giant reptilian overlords run our reality

PS, great Dark Night reference! I’m impressed...

I think Bose QC4 Headphones would drastically improve your sound quality over ear buds

Wait till you hear the title track “The Royal Scam” and you will see how close you guys are with your interpretations of the album artwork.

Walter and Donald are the Coen Bros of music, or vice versa

It's about the American Dream and how much a scam it is. Title track is about Jamaican and Haitian immigrants going from being poor to being poor and hungry here.

These days you don't have to erase your murky past. (especially if you're a politician). Just ignore it, throw a dead cat on the table (perhaps a 99 year old Prince) and sail on. It makes one sorry for all the old gangsters who had to make an effort. . You didn't mention reggae. There's definitely a skank in this.

Can you please react to the Crash test dummies song called The ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead Please

Once you do the title track then you'll understand the album cover

Fixer? Ever hear of Michael Cohen? They still exist, just a bunch of scurvy lawyers

number one candidate to get on my nerves annoyingly