I just looked him up and he and Larry Carlton (much more) played on Joni’s Hissing of Summer Lawns and I’ve often said - probably here and possibly to you - that if some of the passing chords on that were in a Dan song there’s be YouTube videos about the genius of it all!
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Meh, you been telling me you’re a genius ever since you were 17.
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Most likely!
Would have sworn I saw that somewhere, but wherever that was, must have been talking about Baxter!
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I lived through the 70s and no longer think naive flower power and cloying earnestness is an adequate solution for low-lifes, drunks, gamblers, addicts and losers. 
Coincidentally enough there’s an amusing dust up just yesterday where Steve Albini said “I will always be the kind of punk that shits on Steely Dan” and this is the perfect response:
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Their lyrics never really jelled and were purposely elliptical and obscure. But you didn’t listen to them for their lyrics anyway.
And Cousin Dupree was pretty skeevy.
But I do like this song as music.
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Was Cousin Dupree the one who dated 19 year olds?
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No. The guy sleeping on his relatives’ couch who realizes the girl is growing up and hits on her.
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Sheesh, hadn’t heard that one.
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Life’s rich tapestry is a little threadbare.
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Even though she’d just listened to it, my mother didn’t believe me when I told her that Donald Fagen’s “Green Flower Street” was about riots and racial unrest.
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It has occurred to me (or maybe I’ve absent-mindedly stolen this idea from someone else) that with the repetition of the title line “Only a fool would say that” they could be, on the second go round, repudiating everything they just said.
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I’m one of those people who can’t make out most lyrics when listening.
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I don’t think it was Hissing specifically, but IIRC, Joni herself has pointed this out.
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So the song takes the side of Margaret Thatcher: “There is no alternative.”
Noted.
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Funny you bring that up.
When I was a kid/teen in the late 70’s my mom was a fan of Steely Dan, probably starting around the time Aja or Gaucho came out. While at the same time she would give me grief about the rock music lyrics she could hear when I played my records or listened to the radio. I didn’t like Steely Dan at the time, but appreciated them more when I got older. I have to laugh that clearly she never really heard what they were actually singing about… LOL.
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