The Royal Scam
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| The Royal Scam | ||
 |
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| Studio album by Steely Dan | ||
| Released | May, 1976 | |
| Recorded | 1976 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 41:11 | |
| Label | ABC Records | |
| Producer(s) | Gary Katz | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Steely Dan chronology | ||
| Katy Lied (1975) |
The Royal Scam (1976) |
Aja (1977) |
The Royal Scam is an album by jazz rock group Steely Dan, originally released in 1976. The album went gold and peaked at #15 on the charts. The Royal Scam is the most guitar-friendly of Steely Dan's albums, featuring guitar work by Walter Becker and Denny Dias and studio musicians including Larry Carlton, Elliott Randall and Dean Parks.
With irony-leaden verses about drug dealers, safe sex, and hardships faced by immigrants, The Royal Scam is arguably Steely Dan at their most cynical. The mood of the album stands in contrast with the band's mellower and hugely successful follow-up, Aja.
The album cover, which shows a well-dressed, possibly homeless man sleeping underneath (or perhaps dreaming of) mutating skyscrapers, is a satirical take on the American Dream. The cover was designed by Zox, and at least a portion was originally created for a Van Morrison album from 1974-75 that was never released [1]. 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)."
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 [2], Becker revealed that Kid Charlemagne is loosely based on Augustus Owsley Stanley, the notorious drug "chef" who created hallucinogenic compounds for, among others, Jim Morrison of The Doors[3], and the Grateful Dead, and The Beatles.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
All songs by Becker and Fagen, except where noted
- "Kid Charlemagne" – 4:38
- "The Caves of Altamira" – 3:33
- "Don't Take Me Alive" – 4:16
- "Sign in Stranger" – 4:23
- "The Fez" (Becker, Fagen, Paul Griffin) – 4:01
- "Green Earrings" – 4:05
- "Haitian Divorce" – 5:51
- "Everything You Did" – 3:55
- "The Royal Scam" – 6:30
[edit] Personnel
- Walter Becker - bass, guitar, vocals
- Chuck Rainey - bass
- Timothy B. Schmit - bass, vocals, background vocals
- Donald Fagen - keyboards, vocals, background vocals
- Paul Griffin - keyboards, vocals
- Don Grolnick - keyboards
- Denny Dias - guitar
- Larry Carlton - guitar
- Hugh McCracken - guitar
- Dean Parks - guitar
- Elliott Randall - guitar
- Bob Findley - horn
- Chuck Findley - horn
- Dick Hyde - horn
- Slyde Hyde - horn
- Jim Horn - saxophone
- Richard Hyde - trombone
- Plas Johnson - saxophone
- John Klemmer - horn
- Rick Marotta - drums
- Bernard "Pretty" Purdie - drums
- Gary Coleman - percussion
- Victor Feldman - percussion, keyboards
- Venetta Fields - vocals, background vocals
- Clydie King - vocals, background vocals
- Shirley Matthews - vocals, background vocals
- Michael McDonald - vocals, background vocals
[edit] Production
- Producer: Gary Katz
- Engineer: Roger Nicholas
- Mixdown engineer: Barney Perkins
- Sound Consultant: Dinky Dawson
- Horn arrangements: Walter Becker, Donald Fagen, Chuck Findley
- Art direction: Ed Caraeff
- Cover art: Zox
- Typography: Tom Nikosey
[edit] Charts
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Pop Albums | 15 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | "Kid Charlemagne" | Pop Singles | 82 |
| 1976 | "The Fez" | Pop Singles | 59 |
[edit] External link
| Steely Dan |
|---|
| Walter Becker - Donald Fagen |
| Jeff "Skunk" Baxter - Denny Dias - Jim Hodder - Michael McDonald - David Palmer |
| Discography |
| Studio albums: Can't Buy a Thrill - Countdown to Ecstasy - Pretzel Logic - Katy Lied The Royal Scam - Aja - Gaucho - Two Against Nature - Everything Must Go Live Albums: Alive in America - Plush TV Jazz-Rock Party Compilations: Greatest Hits - Steely Dan - Gold - Gold (Expanded) - A Decade of Steely Dan Reelin' In The Years - Do It Again - Citizen Steely Dan Then and Now - Showbiz Kids - Definitive Collection Also featured on: Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz |
