Forty-eight years ago, on July 10, 1976, Steely Dan's fifth studio album, The Royal Scam, peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Originally, the cover art for The Royal Scam was created as part of a Van Morrison project, but that album was never released. In the liner notes for the 1999 remaster, Steely Dan frontmen, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen said The Royal Scam's artwork led to " the most hideous album cover of the seventies, bar none."
Lesson: Don't judge an album by its cover.
The opening track of The Royal Scam, "Kid Charlemagne" — a fusion of funk beats, smooth jazz, rock 'n' roll instrumentation, and folksy lyrics — notably features Larry Carlton's exquisite guitar work.
"It's my claim to fame," Carlton, one of the era's most sought-after studio musicians, told Guitar World.
Rolling Stone ranked "Kid Charlemagne" No. 80 in the top 100 best guitar songs of all-time.
Carlton also later commented, "I can't think of anything else that I still like to listen to as strongly as that," calling it the high point of his career.
Deadheads may also appreciate the smooth jazz and funk rhythms of "Kid Charlemagne" on another level. Becker and Fagen both admit that the lyrics were inspired by the story of Grateful Dead's sound engineer (and part-time chemist) Owsley Stanley.
Getting back to Carlton, he shreds on a solo for nearly a minute, a performance which Rolling Stone called "so complex, it's a song in its own right."
"It's all about trying to get chill bumps when I'm playing," Carlton told Vintage Guitar.
The band consisted of several members from its founding until about 1974. However, after that year, Steely Dan, as a band, would consist of just Becker and Fagen.
The two frontmen continued making albums, however — ones that relied on studio musicians. They usually got the best around.
Rolling Stone noted that this rotating cast of session musicians "yielded endless jaw-dropping guitar solos." Carlton was a regular contributor, though, as with the others, never considered a "member" of the band.
Interesting side note: prior to forming Steely Dan and while at Bard College in New York, Fagen and Becker employed a schoolmate by the name of Cornelius Chase as the drummer in several of their early bands. Years later, that same fellow who thumped the skins on the weekends in Annandale-on-Hudson would become known as Chevy Chase, and a major star in his own right.
Today in Yacht Rock (@in_yacht on 𝕏-Twitter) calls "Kid Charlemagne" essential yacht rock. The Apple Music description for the album says,
as much as The Royal Scam informed the jazz-rock and adult contemporary sound of the 1970s and 1980s, the album's spirit and vivid sense of detail live on [in various later artists]. Much like Steely Dan's Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, those chroniclers of the downtrodden didn't redeem their cheats, addicts, and generally untrustworthy people that populated their songs, but they did give them a few minutes to exist free from the fate they know is coming whether they like it or not. Sure, life's a bitch, and then you die — but on The Royal Scam, Steely Dan proved that, before that happens you might as well get a song out of it.
Don't like yacht rock or Steely Dan? That's fine. To each his own.
However, liking Steely Dan is a totally reasonable position to take.
It's also perfectly fine to have your own opinions, just be able to defend them. Opinions don't all stink, contrary to how the old adage goes. But, granted, most do.
Beliefs on the other hand are backed by truth.
Find the truth. Defend your beliefs.
Those are principles we teach in our coaching program at O'Leary & Company.
As always,
Brian
P.S. — Imagine this multi-colored yard sign:
In this house, we believe in Steely Dan. We also believe:
• It is a good band. • Their musicianship is technically superb. • The music itself is usually fun and oftentimes quite clever. • The band launched & propelled several musicians into greater levels of success. • That although not an official member of Steely Dan, we nevertheless "stan" Larry Carlton — a genius with the guitar.
