music.wikisort.org - Composition

"My Old School" is a single drawn from Steely Dan's 1973 album Countdown to Ecstasy. It reached number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1]

"My Old School"
Single by Steely Dan
from the album Countdown to Ecstasy
B-side	"Pearl of the Quarter"
Released	October 1973
Genre	Rock, pop rock, jazz fusion
Songwriter(s)	Donald Fagen, Walter Becker
Producer(s)	Gary Katz
Steely Dan singles chronology
"Show Biz Kids" (1973) "My Old School" (1973) "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" (1974)
Music video
"My Old School" on YouTube

The song's lyrics tell the story of a May 1969 drug bust at Bard College, referred to in the lyrics by its location, Annandale. The incident happened while both Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were students there, and the song mentions how a female acquaintance had betrayed them to "Daddy Gee" (G. Gordon Liddy), then the local prosecutor. According to a 2014 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, 44 people were arrested, including Fagen, whose long hair was cut off at the Poughkeepsie jail.[2] The upshot in the song is that the singer vows he is "never going back" to the college until "California tumbles into the sea".[3]

Cash Box described the song as a "departure from the group’s usual fare, but definitely a track that’s going to have programmers and listeners buzzing."[4]

Personnel

• Donald Fagen – piano, lead vocals, backup vocals
• Walter Becker – bass
• Denny Dias – rhythm guitar
• Jeff Baxter – lead guitar
• Jim Hodder – drums, percussion
• Sherlie Matthews, Myrna Matthews, Patricia Hall, Royce Jones – backup vocals
• Ernie Watts – saxophone
• Johnny Rotella – saxophone
• Lanny Morgan – saxophone
• Bill Perkins – saxophone

Key signature and composition

The song was written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker[5] and is in the key of G major. The original studio track features a guitar solo by Jeff Baxter.

Legacy

Fagen went back on his "never going back" promise. He returned to Bard College when he received an honorary Doctor of the Arts degree in 1985.[6]

References

На других языках

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[de] My Old School

My Old School ist ein Song von Donald Fagen und Walter Becker, der von der Jazzrock-Band Steely Dan 1973 als zweite Single aus dem Album Countdown to Ecstasy veröffentlicht wurde. Er erreichte Platz 63 in den Billboard-Charts.[1]

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- [en] My Old School (song)

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