Neha Patil (Editor)

The Royal Scam

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Released
  
May 1976

The Royal Scam(1976)
  
Aja(1977)

Release date
  
May 1976

Producer
  
Gary Katz

Length
  
41:11

Artist
  
Steely Dan

Label
  
ABC Records

The Royal Scam httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaeneecThe

Recorded
  
November 1975 -March 1976;ABC Studios inLos Angeles;A&R Studios in(Manhattan) New York

Genres
  
Rock music, Jazz fusion, Funk rock

Similar
  
Steely Dan albums, Jazz fusion albums

The Royal Scam is the fifth album by Steely Dan, originally released by ABC Records in 1976. The album went gold and peaked at #15 on the charts. The Royal Scam features more prominent guitar work than other Steely Dan albums since the departure of Jeff Baxter. Guitarists on the recording include Walter Becker, Denny Dias, Larry Carlton, Elliott Randall and Dean Parks.

Contents

In common with other Steely Dan albums, The Royal Scam is littered with cryptic allusions to people and events both real and fictional. In a BBC interview in 2000, Becker and Fagen revealed that "Kid Charlemagne" is loosely based on Augustus Owsley Stanley, the notorious drug "chef" who was famous for manufacturing hallucinogenic compounds, and that "Caves of Altamira", based on a book by Hans Baumann, is about the loss of innocence, the narrative about a visitor to the Cave of Altamira who registers his astonishment at the prehistoric drawings.

The album was re-issued by MCA Records in 1979 following the sale of the ABC Records label to MCA.

Dont take me alive steely dan


Cover

The album cover shows a man in a suit, sleeping on a radiator, and apparently dreaming of skyscraper-beast hybrids. The cover was created from a painting by Zox and a photograph by Charlie Ganse, and was originally created for Van Morrison's unreleased 1975 album, Mechanical Bliss, the concept being 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)."

Reception

The album was not as highly rated upon its release as its predecessors with most reviewers noting that it did not seem to represent any musical advancement. In contrast, the original Rolling Stone review was more positive, and ultimately the magazine gave it five stars in a later Hall of Fame review.

Track listing

All songs by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, except where noted.

Side one

  1. "Kid Charlemagne" – 4:38
  2. guitar solo by Larry Carlton
  3. "The Caves of Altamira" – 3:33
  4. tenor saxophone solo by John Klemmer
  5. "Don't Take Me Alive" – 4:16
  6. guitar solo by Larry Carlton
  7. "Sign in Stranger" – 4:23
  8. piano solo by Paul Griffin
  9. guitar solo by Elliott Randall
  10. "The Fez" (Becker, Fagen, Paul Griffin) – 4:01
  11. guitar solo by Walter Becker

Side two

  1. "Green Earrings" – 4:05
  2. guitar solos by Denny Dias (1st) and Elliott Randall (2nd)
  3. "Haitian Divorce" – 5:53
  4. talk box guitar solo by Dean Parks, altered by Walter Becker
  5. "Everything You Did" – 3:55
  6. guitar solo by Larry Carlton
  7. "The Royal Scam" – 6:30
  8. guitar solo by Larry Carlton

Personnel

Steely Dan

  • Donald Fagen – keyboards, vocals, background vocals
  • Walter Becker – bass, guitar

    • Additional musicians

    Production

  • Gary Katz - producer
  • Roger Nichols - engineer
  • Barney Perkins - mixdown engineer
  • Dinky Dawson - sound consultant
  • Walter Becker - horn arrangements
  • Donald Fagen - horn arrangements
  • Chuck Findley - horn arrangements
  • Ed Caraeff - art direction
  • Zox - cover art
  • Tom Nikosey - typography

    • Charts

    Album

    Pop Singles

    Songs

    1Kid Charlemagne4:39
    2The Caves of Altamira3:34
    3Don’t Take Me Alive4:16

    References

    The Royal Scam Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


    Similar Topics