It’s obviously a coincidence but also deeply ironic that what I consider to be Steely Dan’s best album hit the marketplace at approximately the same time that the Ramones released their debut album.

Two more opposing stylistic profiles could hardly have been invented, and yet here they were, back-to-back and face to face. In 1976, showing respect to both sides of these very opposite musical styles would have seemed impossible, but I somehow straddled that fence. I suppose it is easy to make judgmental statements, and time (as well as haughty critical opinion) has been kinder to the punk era than to the studio-conscious cranial approach that Steely Dan represented, but then, and still as of now after we’ve moved a half-century on, I have no problem expressing my appreciation for both, despite their glaring differences.

Steely Dan is certainly guilty of composing technically ‘perfect’ albums, and “Royal Scam” may be the ‘most perfect’ of the batch. Unlike some others that focused heavily on the high-fidelity quotient (“Aja” and “Katy Lied” were two of the most technically advanced and brilliantly produced albums ever made), “The Royal Scam” relies primarily on content and diversity. Not to say that the production is lacking, but the songwriting and wordplay on this selection of songs reaches a peak that works on so many levels that it might even confuse the listener. Are they trying to be funny? Are they sincere? Are they bitter? Or maybe they’re just weird? The truth is that this is probably the closest that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker ever came to being honest to the point of vulnerability, allowing the listening audience to see many sides of their personalities without the guise of ‘clever/clever’ machinations.

Some songs are so vivid that they feel cinematic in their scope. “Kid Charlemagne” could have been (should be?) a movie about the tribulations of Owsley Stanley, the famous manufacturer of Lysergic acid. “Haitian Divorce” takes on a ‘colorful’ journey of a family falling apart while simultaneously (and accidentally?) growing, while “Everything You Did” takes you inside the private domain of a warring couple. The album’s title track says as much about the plight of the mid-century New York City Puerto-Rican as “West Side Story” implied. “The Fez” and “Green Earrings” are inscrutably weird but incredibly fun, with magnificent instrumental arrangements, but everything else is quite literate and literal in the lyrical presentation.

As time passed, most critics deemed “The Ramones” as a masterpiece of its time while “The Royal Scam” mostly gets overlooked, but to me it’s like comparing a cartoon to a classic film. Both are great in their own way, and one of them certainly changed the course of music, but the other should be rewarded and remembered for its substance.

Featured Tracks:

Kid Charlemagne

The Caves of Altamira

Don't Take Me Alive

Sign In Stranger

The Fez

Green Earrings

Haitian Divorce

Everything You Did

The Royal Scam

May 1976 - Billboard Charted #15