The Royal Scam Totally Explained

Everything about The Royal Scam totally explained

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 features more prominent guitar than other Steely Dan albums. Guitarists on the recording include Walter Becker, Denny Dias, Larry Carlton, Elliott Randall and Dean Parks. With irony-laden 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 drawing and painting of the skyscrapers morphed with heads of snake, bear, wolf, alligator, etc. was considered dark, eerie, gothic, and way ahead of its time. The cover was designed by Larry Zox, and at least a portion was originally created for a Van Morrison album from 1974-75 that was never released. 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(External Link

), 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 (External Link

), the Grateful Dead, and The Beatles.

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

Donald Fagen - keyboards, vocals, background vocals

Walter Becker - bass, guitar, vocals

Chuck Rainey - bass

Timothy B. Schmit - bass, vocals, background vocals

Paul Griffin(External Link

) - 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 - saxophone

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

Production

Producer: Gary Katz

Engineer: Roger Nichols

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	US Albums	15
1976	UK Albums	11

Pop Singles

Year	Single	Label & number	Chart & position
1976	"Kid Charlemagne" (B-side: "Green Earrings")	ABC 12195	U.S. 82
1976	"The Fez" (B-side: "Sign In Stranger")	ABC 12222	U.S. 59
1976	"Haitian Divorce" (B-side: "Sign In Stranger")	ABC 4152 (UK release)	U.K. 17

Further Information

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