The Royal Scam
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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.
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
Personnel
- Walter Becker - bass, guitar, vocals
- Donald Fagen - keyboards, vocals, background vocals
- Denny Dias - guitar
with
- Larry Carlton - guitar
- Gary Coleman - percussion
- Victor Feldman - percussion, keyboards
- Venetta Fields - vocals, background vocals
- Bob Findley - horn
- Chuck Findley - horn
- Paul Griffin - keyboards, vocals
- Don Grolnick - keyboards
- Jim Horn - saxophone
- Dick Hyde - horn
- Richard Hyde - trombone
- Slyde Hyde - horn
- Plas Johnson - saxophone
- Clydie King - vocals, background vocals
- John Klemmer - horn
- Rick Marotta - drums
- Shirley Matthews - vocals, background vocals
- Hugh McCracken - guitar
- Michael McDonald - vocals, background vocals
- Dean Parks - guitar
- Bernard "Pretty" Purdie - drums
- Chuck Rainey - bass
- Elliott Randall - guitar
- Timothy B. Schmit - bass, vocals, background vocals
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
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 |