Product Description

It was the year of America's bicentennial celebration, but on 1976's THE ROYAL SCAM, Steely Dan masterminds Fagen and Becker did not share in the exultant spirit of the times. Thetitle track--a vision of fallen America from the point of view of immigrants--has a mock-celebratory chorus: "See the glory of the Royal Scam", which typifies SCAM's heartfelt cynicism. In their next two releases (their last), Steely Dan'ssound would smoothen and incorporate less rock. This is perhaps their darkest record, and for a band known for its archmixture of L.A. cool and ennui, that's saying something.
Guitar heroes were roundly worshipped in the '70s, and two of the record's standout tracks, "Kid Charlemagne" and "Don't Take Me Alive", feature incendiary axe work by Larry Carlton. Interestingly, both glorify outsiders: The former tells the story of legendary drug chemist Owsley Stanley, and the latter is a first-person account of a murderer on the lam. Other highlights: the crisp "Green Earrings" the lounge-chairfunk of "Haitian Divorce" and the inscrutable "Fez", whose principal lyric is "I'm never gonna do it without the fez on/don't make me do it without the fez on".

Track Listing

1. Kid Charlemagne
2. The Caves Of Altamira
3. Don't Take Me Alive
4. Sign In Stranger
5. The Fez
6. Green Earrings
7. Haitian Divorce
8. Everything You Did
9. The Royal Scam

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #565 in Music
• Released on: 2000-04-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 41 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Ever the primary conceit of mainstays Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, 1976's The Royal Scam marks the first time the Steely Dan duo actually owned up to the fact. Musically, it's their edgiest, most guitar-driven record (thanks to Becker and a murderer's row of session greats that includes Larry Carlton, Elliot Randall, Dean Parks, and Denny Dias). Lyrically, the songs cut an ever-sardonic, presciently discomforting slice of modern life that was a couple decades ahead of the game (who else was extolling the virtues of condom-couture, à la "The Fez", mid-Me Decade?). Though it didn't garner the radio attention of Aja, its more jazz-suffused, multi-platinum follow-up, Scam boasts a diverse, occasionally muscular musical rhetoric and some of the Dan's most telling portraits (the deranged, yet all-too-familiar killer of "Don't Take Me Alive", "Kid Charlemagne"'s drug-culture celebrity, the tropical convenience of a "Haitian Divorce"). Small wonder many Dan fans consider it their best. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Yet Another Classic
For some reason when I first heard this album (and I've been a Dan fan for a long long time) it didn't really grip me, but as these things tend to do once I bought a new copy on CD and played it again and again I found myself... playing it again and again. I'd got an impression of some sort of darkness and pretentiousness around the album first time round, but actually it's inventive, light, and probably their most playful album - very tongue in cheek in places.
I'd now say this is one of the "must buy" Dan cluster, along with Countdown to Ecstacy, Kay Lied, and Aja (and the first two tracks on Gaucho).
Oh yeah - seen the boys twice, Birmingham and Aintree, and at the latter gig they let Becker sing Hiaitian Divorce! Stick to the day job, Walter!

Never gonna do it without the fez on
That line from The Fez has always struck me as wonderfully cool. As a piece of music its pretty infectious too. 'The Royal Scam' is the fifth chapter in a line of impeccable albums from Steely Dan. I don't care how cynical Becker and Fagen were, how big their egos, or how much their 'bandmates' were pushed to the margins. They packed so much into forty minutes, from rock to funk to reggae influences, with jazz inflections and brass sections. The lyrics too are intriguing, often bizarre. I sometimes wonder if one day I'll get the joke.

Aside of 'The Fez,' the major highlights for me are 'Kid Charlemagne,' pretty obviously about someone who had it all, couched in the aura of a baseball star ('hit it long'), the disturbing, rock-oriented 'Don't Take Me Alive' and my favourite, 'Haitian Divorce,' a minor hit that ought to be considered in the front rank of great rock songs. It's all first rate stuff, however. No scam.

Worth it for "Kid Charlemagne" and "Haitian Divorce"....

Best tracks: "Haitian Divorce", "Kid Charlemagne", "Don't Take Me Alive", "Everything You Did".

Steely Dan's fifth album kicks off with the delightful "Kid Charlemagne", which is one of the band's very best songs, a great, smoothly funky beat, terrific playing from all...it's a treat all the way. Even better is the wonderful "Haitian Divorce", which is by far and away the best thing here; a sun-kissed rhythm, a wonderfully drifting feel, an arresting guitar hook and a blissful coda make it one of the band's very finest. However, these are the only two songs that really stand out; to be honest, there's nothing at all bad on this album, but you do get the feeling that Steely Dan are coasting a bit on this one; the playing is as immaculate as ever, with lots of impressive licks, fills, riffs, hooks, etc., and it all makes for a fun listen. It's impossible to fault or criticise really, but some of the stuff here, "The Caves of Altamira", the title track, "Green Earrings" or "Sign in Stranger", for example, drift along without leaving too much of an impression, despite all being good, solid tunes. "Don't Take Me Alive" and "The Fez" both have terrific choruses though; rubbish girl-group All Saints sampled the latter for one of their early singles back in 1997 by the way! Finally a mention for "Everything You Did", which has plenty of very nice guitar and piano. All in all, The Royal Scam is definitely worth buying, it's a good album, but only occasionally great.