The Royal Scam Steely Dan

The Royal Scam Album: The Royal Scam (1976)
by Steely Dan

The Royal Scam is the fifth studio album by American rock band Steely Dan. It was produced by Gary Katz and was originally released by ABC Records in 1976. The Royal Scam features more prominent guitar work than the prior Steely Dan album, Katy Lied, which had been the first without founding guitarist Jeff Baxter. Guitarists on the recording include Walter Becker, Denny Dias, Larry Carlton, Elliott Randall and Dean Parks.

"The Fez" has the distinction of being the only Steely Dan song with an additional writer credited beyond Becker and Fagen, namely keyboard player Paul Griffin. As Becker said, "There is an instrumental melody that Paul started playing in the session, and when we decided to build that melody up to a greater position, since we had some suspicion that perhaps this melody wasn't entirely Paul's invention, we decided to give him composer credit in case later some sort of scandal developed and he would take the brunt of the impact." However, Griffin claimed that Fagen already had the keyboard riff, and that he took it in a different direction. Fagen later said of Griffin, "There are some musicians who are hacks, and then there are guys like Paul who can create something so different and unique they make the record.

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 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. It is also influenced by Plato's Cave Allegory and Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George Cross. The Order of the Garter is dedicated to the image and arms of Saint George, England's patron saint.

Appointments are at the sovereign's sole discretion and are usually in recognition of a national contribution, for public service, or for personal service to the sovereign. Membership of the order is limited to the sovereign, the Prince of Wales, and no more than 24 living members, or Companions. The order also includes supernumerary knights and ladies (e.g. members of the British royal family and foreign monarchs).

The order's emblem is a garter with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense (Middle French for 'Shame on him who thinks evil of it') in gold lettering. Members of the order wear it on ceremonial occasions.

And they wandered in
From the city of St. John
Without a dime

Wearing coats that shined
Both red and green colors
From their sunny island

From their boats of iron
They looked upon the promised land
Where surely life was sweet

On the rising tide
To New York City did they ride
Into the street

See the glory
(See the glory of)
Of the royal scam

They are hounded down
To the bottom of a bad town
Amid the ruins

Where they learn to fear
An angry race of fallen kings
Their dark companions

While the memory of
Their southern sky was clouded by
A savage winter

Every patron saint
Hung on the wall, shared the room
With twenty sinners

See the glory
(See the glory of)
Of the royal scam

By the blackened wall
He does it all
He thinks he's died and gone to heaven

Now the tale is told
By the old man back home
He reads the letter

How they are paid in gold
Just to babble in the back room
All night and waste their time

And they wandered in
From the city of St. John
Without a dime

See the glory
(See the glory of)
Of the royal scam

See the glory
(See the glory of)
Of the royal scam

See the glory
(See the glory of)
Of the royal scam