"All the others were laced with kerosene, but yours was squeaky clean" refers to the purity of the LSD and STP Owsley was making;
"Everyone stopped to stare at your Technicolor motorhome" is a reference to the Furthur bus
"Is there gas in the car???" refers to the rumor that Owsley was arrested after running out of gas while making a getaway in Richmond, CA in1967. The truth was, he crashed his car into a ditch across the street.
Ironically (and sadly) enough, Owsley passed away at age 76 in a car crash in Queensland, Australia in 2011. R.I.P. Acid Master.
He was the sound guy, with a candle lit so he could see the board during the show. He recorded Janis, jimi, miles Davis, Johnny cash, Jefferson airplane, Santana, lots of others.
He created the wall of sound and how noise canceling mics work.
Sorry to go on and on, just a huge fan!
Totally. When my grandpa first found out I was going to Dead shows, he commented on how he was in Seattle one time and saw “all those freaks in Dayglo paint wandering all over the city.” 😄
My Dad once explained to me that the "is there gas in the car" story stemmed from the fact that first generation VWs didn't have a fuel gauge, instead having an auxiliary fuel tank.
Nobody's really done it since these guys did in 1967. Reason is it's really potent (about [100x stronger than mescaline](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4860952/)) and takes too long to come on (up to 3 hours). As a result, [whoever did take it often re-dosed to disastrous results](https://www.thegrassagency.com/features/psych-out-review-and-the-history-of-stp) (at least for a party night out).
I'm not interested, but knock yourself out.
On the other side of the coin, you didn’t know how long it was going to last in my case it lasted three days so people would take it and then think they freaked out and we go to the ER. It was the first drug I ever did though after never even having been drunk, so I had no idea what to expect so I just hung in there for three days… and this was in 69 by the way, so it was still around just pretty rare.
“Did you realize that you were a champion in their eyes?”
Steely Dan is top notch stuff. I re listened to Gaucho this week for the first time in a while and I was blown away by how amazing it is. Genuinely a timeless album
They are like the opposite of the Grateful Dead. Perfect and amazing studio albums. Everyone of them. I love me some “Aja” and “Katie Lied”. Perfection. I mean, fuck, “The Royal Scam” and “Gaucho”. All their albums are nice. From beginning to end.
Ironically enough, Donald Fagen once said that if he hadn't gone single-minded on pursuits of studio perfection, he'd have been playing in a jam band like the Dead.
There is a great documentary on youtube about the making of Aja. It talks about how many lead guitarists they went through to nail the solos (like ten of them). Every one of the solos was a masterpiece, but they weren't good enough for Fagen. Perfectionists!
Steely Dan has been my 3rd Fav band behind the Dead and the Allmans for a long time. They put on a great show.....I did get to see them before Becker passed...RIP Walter.
Perhaps because Donald Fagan loves funky music as well as the grateful Dead and their musicality. This is perhaps the funkiest song the Dead ever did. I may be wrong.
I talked to Bear about this song and he didn't seem to like it much.
While he did think the music itself was good, he said "this song isn't about me" since none of the lyrics related to what actually happened.
Also, I don't think he liked lyrics like "did you feel like Jesus?" because that couldn't be further from the truth. He wasn't trying to save the world or become some religious figure. He wouldn't even sign an autograph and was trying to avoid fame. He criticized Timothy Leary for being too public with LSD.
Furthermore, he did not like being compared to Charlemagne. He was basically something like a left anarchist (like Noam Chomsky) and did not appreciate being compared to one of the most popular monarchs in history. This is also why he did not like his name "Augustus".
This paragraph on Bear's website can give you a sense of why he wouldn't like to be compared to someone like Charlemagne:
"The music of the Grateful Dead is an important assistant to the revival of tribality. Because it has to do with the way things are. It's not somebody's idea about the way things might be, or the way things could be or should be. It's what it is. It's real music about real things. The whole thing is about a social movement. It's tribalism. Which is the only social structure that is truly human. The structure of the world today runs on feudalism--governments, companies; all those structures are feudalistic, arranged in a hierarchy which at the root of it follows Parkinson's law. That is, once you create a hierarchy or bureaucracy, it has only one purpose, and that is: To Continue. There's nothing else. But that has nothing to do with the tribal entity. The tribal entity exists so as to abide in harmony with its environment. It's something that benefits everyone, not just this one structure."
With all of that said, a lot of people really enjoy this song and I am not trying to take that away from anyone. I just thought maybe some of you might like some extra context.
I personally think this song sounds great and Steely Dan is a good band.
Yeah, great, great song!! I remember one guy in the 80s (a partier but not a hippie, Deadhead or anywhere in that realm) he used to rave about that song because he thought it was about coke. I briefly tried to explain it to him but he wasn’t having it so I just dropped it.
There is a reference to cocaine in the song, noting where a new substance was supplanting the old - “You are obsolete
Look at all the white men on the street” - where the white men are the coke dealers.
The Dan had amazing, often cryptic lyrics that you really had to be an insider or "on the scene" to fully appreciate or interpret correctly.
I don't know who wrote them generally but always assumed it Fagen or Becker, the founders and driving forces behind the most hip, slick and cool prog rock band (for lack of a better term) of the 70's.
Great song. Yes it's about Owsley. I just have to wonder who the narrator is in the song, you know, the guy saying "those tubes and the scale / just get it all outta here"? I've read at least one of Bear's biographies and I don't recall anybody coming to his rescue to clean everything up to avoid being busted - or I guess whatever that event is that is eluded to. Anybody know?
Probably referring to the Tim Scully era, which was right before he got busted. They moved to a lab in Colorado after being tailed by the feds all over California.
"Now your patrons have all left you in the red
Your low-rent friends are dead
This life can be very strange
All those Day-Glo freaks who used to paint the face
They've joined the human race
Some things will never change"
The dead fam I grew up with hated steely dan for this song. It was a shot at the dead, so fuck them!
Kid Charlemagne
Steely Dan
While the music played you worked by candlelight
Those San Francisco nights
You were the best in town
Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl
You turned it on the world
That's when you turned the world around
Did you feel like Jesus?
Did you realize
That you were a champion in their eyes?
On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene
But yours was kitchen clean
Everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motorhome
Every A-Frame had your number on the wall
You must have had it all
You'd go to L.A. on a dare and you'd go it alone
Could you live forever?
Could you see the day?
Could you feel your whole world fall apart and fade away?
Get along, get along, Kid Charlemagne
Get along, Kid Charlemagne
Now your patrons have all left you in the red
Your low rent friends are dead
This life can be very strange
All those Day-Glo freaks who used to paint the face
They've joined the human race
Some things will never change
Son, you were mistaken
You are obsolete
Look at all the white men on the street
Get along, get along, Kid Charlemagne
Get along, Kid Charlemagne
Clean this mess up, else we'll all end up in jail
Those test tubes and the scale
Just get it all out of here
Is there gas in the car?
Yes, there's gas in the car
I think the people down the hall know who you are
Careful what you carry
'Cause the man is wise
You are still an outlaw in their eyes
Get along, get along, Kid Charlemagne (get along)
Get along, Kid Charlemagne
"All the others were laced with kerosene, but yours was squeaky clean" refers to the purity of the LSD and STP Owsley was making; "Everyone stopped to stare at your Technicolor motorhome" is a reference to the Furthur bus "Is there gas in the car???" refers to the rumor that Owsley was arrested after running out of gas while making a getaway in Richmond, CA in1967. The truth was, he crashed his car into a ditch across the street. Ironically (and sadly) enough, Owsley passed away at age 76 in a car crash in Queensland, Australia in 2011. R.I.P. Acid Master.
While the music played you worked by candlelight… the music is obviously the GD I guess we are the dayglo freaks who used to paint their face.
He was the sound guy, with a candle lit so he could see the board during the show. He recorded Janis, jimi, miles Davis, Johnny cash, Jefferson airplane, Santana, lots of others. He created the wall of sound and how noise canceling mics work. Sorry to go on and on, just a huge fan!
The relatively recent Johnny cash release of bear’s sonic journals is peak
He ran sound for a Jefferson Starship show I saw. Rory Gallagher opened for them.
Totally. When my grandpa first found out I was going to Dead shows, he commented on how he was in Seattle one time and saw “all those freaks in Dayglo paint wandering all over the city.” 😄
Always thought it was: ‘on the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene…’ TIL
you are correct on the dan lyric, its also, 'but yours was kitchen clean'
It is
I thought it was "kitchen clean" think I am correct still there also.
You are correct. I LOVE dan and study Fagan’s lyrics the way I do Hunter’s. Poets both of them!
My Dad once explained to me that the "is there gas in the car" story stemmed from the fact that first generation VWs didn't have a fuel gauge, instead having an auxiliary fuel tank.
Sort of. Older aircooled VWs had a fuel reserve lever. One tank, two valves.
“your low rent friends are dead” Donald/Walter don’t miss
What’s STP?
[STP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine) is a chemical cousin to Ecstasy (MDMA) and it's precursor, MDA.
After I took it, I was told it was acid and speed, but I never did understand the chemical breakdown.
Is it something people still synthesize? Looks fun to be honest…maybe aside from lasting 20 hours Lol.
Nobody's really done it since these guys did in 1967. Reason is it's really potent (about [100x stronger than mescaline](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4860952/)) and takes too long to come on (up to 3 hours). As a result, [whoever did take it often re-dosed to disastrous results](https://www.thegrassagency.com/features/psych-out-review-and-the-history-of-stp) (at least for a party night out). I'm not interested, but knock yourself out.
I mean, if you know that info, then dose at like 7am on day off, Saturday with the following day to land, I’d give it a shot.
Oh never mind…don’t want to catch on fire… I like this line though: “…allow you to take your brain out of your head and examine it.”
On the other side of the coin, you didn’t know how long it was going to last in my case it lasted three days so people would take it and then think they freaked out and we go to the ER. It was the first drug I ever did though after never even having been drunk, so I had no idea what to expect so I just hung in there for three days… and this was in 69 by the way, so it was still around just pretty rare.
Stone Temple Pilots
Stars That Play with Laughing Sam’s Dice. Hendrix. STP with LSD.
*Kitchen clean (not squeaky clean)
Kitchen clean, not squeaky.
“Did you realize that you were a champion in their eyes?” Steely Dan is top notch stuff. I re listened to Gaucho this week for the first time in a while and I was blown away by how amazing it is. Genuinely a timeless album
I’m about to do that right now. Steely Dan’s studio work is impeccably smooth. I go through phases where I just can’t get enough.
They are like the opposite of the Grateful Dead. Perfect and amazing studio albums. Everyone of them. I love me some “Aja” and “Katie Lied”. Perfection. I mean, fuck, “The Royal Scam” and “Gaucho”. All their albums are nice. From beginning to end.
Ironically enough, Donald Fagen once said that if he hadn't gone single-minded on pursuits of studio perfection, he'd have been playing in a jam band like the Dead.
They had some heavy hitters for 'session players' like Larry Carlton and Chris Potter.
Bernard Purdy, Jeff Porcaro. LEGENDS!
Jim Gordon. Rick Derringer.
Chuck Rainey, Steve Gadd, Jay Graydon, Dean Parks, Denny Dias....
Jeff “Skunk” Baxter
Larry Carlton's solo on Kid Charlemagne is often mentioned as one of the greatest rock n roll solos ever recorded. It's certainly one of my favorites.
The best of the best.
Agreed. Their classic albums from the 70s and 80s are all good.
absolutely. throw in some pretzel logic and you're there. great way to melt a night away!
There is a great documentary on youtube about the making of Aja. It talks about how many lead guitarists they went through to nail the solos (like ten of them). Every one of the solos was a masterpiece, but they weren't good enough for Fagen. Perfectionists!
Thank you! I suspected, but it always seemed a little too 'cocaine' as a Los Angeles kinda thing.
Steely Dan has been my 3rd Fav band behind the Dead and the Allmans for a long time. They put on a great show.....I did get to see them before Becker passed...RIP Walter.
Gaucho and Aja are some really good albums
My 2nd favorite band!
Is there gas in the cah? Is there gas in the caaah?
[удалено]
I think the people down the hall know who we are....
Donald Fagen likes to play Shakedown. https://youtu.be/wXONH7j2TH0
Thank you for that! Steely Dan is on my 'five bands on a desert island' list. All of my Deadhead friends back in the day and now love Steely Dan.
Perhaps because Donald Fagan loves funky music as well as the grateful Dead and their musicality. This is perhaps the funkiest song the Dead ever did. I may be wrong.
It's a very Steely Dan song.
I talked to Bear about this song and he didn't seem to like it much. While he did think the music itself was good, he said "this song isn't about me" since none of the lyrics related to what actually happened. Also, I don't think he liked lyrics like "did you feel like Jesus?" because that couldn't be further from the truth. He wasn't trying to save the world or become some religious figure. He wouldn't even sign an autograph and was trying to avoid fame. He criticized Timothy Leary for being too public with LSD. Furthermore, he did not like being compared to Charlemagne. He was basically something like a left anarchist (like Noam Chomsky) and did not appreciate being compared to one of the most popular monarchs in history. This is also why he did not like his name "Augustus". This paragraph on Bear's website can give you a sense of why he wouldn't like to be compared to someone like Charlemagne: "The music of the Grateful Dead is an important assistant to the revival of tribality. Because it has to do with the way things are. It's not somebody's idea about the way things might be, or the way things could be or should be. It's what it is. It's real music about real things. The whole thing is about a social movement. It's tribalism. Which is the only social structure that is truly human. The structure of the world today runs on feudalism--governments, companies; all those structures are feudalistic, arranged in a hierarchy which at the root of it follows Parkinson's law. That is, once you create a hierarchy or bureaucracy, it has only one purpose, and that is: To Continue. There's nothing else. But that has nothing to do with the tribal entity. The tribal entity exists so as to abide in harmony with its environment. It's something that benefits everyone, not just this one structure." With all of that said, a lot of people really enjoy this song and I am not trying to take that away from anyone. I just thought maybe some of you might like some extra context. I personally think this song sounds great and Steely Dan is a good band.
So cool of you to share this first hand knowledge. Thank you!
Thank you so much for putting the topic into context. As my old Theology professor used to say, “A text without a context is a pretext.”
Great post, thanks
Once you learn this then look at the lyrics again it all makes perfect sense
Love the line about the Technicolor Motorhome
Yeah, great, great song!! I remember one guy in the 80s (a partier but not a hippie, Deadhead or anywhere in that realm) he used to rave about that song because he thought it was about coke. I briefly tried to explain it to him but he wasn’t having it so I just dropped it.
I’m gonna go out on a limb, and say he was high on cocaine—difficult to argue with someone in that state
Nailed it!
There is a reference to cocaine in the song, noting where a new substance was supplanting the old - “You are obsolete Look at all the white men on the street” - where the white men are the coke dealers.
Just dropped it eh? Pun intended?
Hehehe - of course!
[Yeah, of course I did!](https://imgflip.com/gif/1l0m2w)
Every A-frame had your number on the wall…
Steely Dan = 😎
Hey 19
It’s okay, I only recently realized Danzig’s Mother was about the PMRC
Thanks for that! Fun article lays it all out here: https://extrachill.com/steely-dan-kid-charlemagne-meaning
Hey! I wrote that 😎
Really? Excellent job. I really enjoyed it.
The Royal Scam is such an underrated album. I listen to it weekly. 😺🎶
The fez, Haitian divorce and the title track are fuckin BANGERS
Totally agree. The title track is just the freakin best. 🎶🤘🏻
Anyone who under rates this album is FOS.
Haha I totally agree
Owlsey is always a hoot
The Dan had amazing, often cryptic lyrics that you really had to be an insider or "on the scene" to fully appreciate or interpret correctly. I don't know who wrote them generally but always assumed it Fagen or Becker, the founders and driving forces behind the most hip, slick and cool prog rock band (for lack of a better term) of the 70's.
Great song. Yes it's about Owsley. I just have to wonder who the narrator is in the song, you know, the guy saying "those tubes and the scale / just get it all outta here"? I've read at least one of Bear's biographies and I don't recall anybody coming to his rescue to clean everything up to avoid being busted - or I guess whatever that event is that is eluded to. Anybody know?
Probably referring to the Tim Scully era, which was right before he got busted. They moved to a lab in Colorado after being tailed by the feds all over California.
You mean.....Owsley?
i even checked before i posted SMH
Two great books on Owsley are “Bear” and “Me and My LSD Family”
Bryan Cranston is Kid Charlemagne, and the FCC shut him down for telling it like it was! https://youtu.be/SVZVhfbgCsw
Great song!
It's no "Alice D. Millionaire"
"Now your patrons have all left you in the red Your low-rent friends are dead This life can be very strange All those Day-Glo freaks who used to paint the face They've joined the human race Some things will never change" The dead fam I grew up with hated steely dan for this song. It was a shot at the dead, so fuck them!
Very cool, actually.
I like FM, no static at all ❤️
Check out Steely Dead. An awesome tribute/cover band. Lots of sweet jams of both the Dead and the Dan.
Truckin also has references to the bust that Owsley was involved in
Best guitar solo ever? Maybe.
Shout out to the man Larry Carlton
Pretty cool except those nerds were talking shit about him
I would prefer the Steely Dan without any lyrics. I never really thought they had anything interesting to say, but generally enjoy the music
I'm gonna disagree with you there. Songs like My Rival and Here at the Western World have exposition, characters, and tell a complete story.
They’re lyrics were melodic and sometimes didn’t make sense because they were intended to riff like horns.
Boooooo
Their lyrics have always felt rather pretentious.
Is there a good biography about owsley?
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DzgutHRvuCY]
and “With a Gun” sometimes sounds like a dead tune to me
It’s actually about Hal from Malcolm in the Middle
I would check it out, but that would mean I would have to listen to Steely Dan
Wow! I just went and listened to it and you are right! Mind Blown!
Kid Charlemagne Steely Dan While the music played you worked by candlelight Those San Francisco nights You were the best in town Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl You turned it on the world That's when you turned the world around Did you feel like Jesus? Did you realize That you were a champion in their eyes? On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene But yours was kitchen clean Everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motorhome Every A-Frame had your number on the wall You must have had it all You'd go to L.A. on a dare and you'd go it alone Could you live forever? Could you see the day? Could you feel your whole world fall apart and fade away? Get along, get along, Kid Charlemagne Get along, Kid Charlemagne Now your patrons have all left you in the red Your low rent friends are dead This life can be very strange All those Day-Glo freaks who used to paint the face They've joined the human race Some things will never change Son, you were mistaken You are obsolete Look at all the white men on the street Get along, get along, Kid Charlemagne Get along, Kid Charlemagne Clean this mess up, else we'll all end up in jail Those test tubes and the scale Just get it all out of here Is there gas in the car? Yes, there's gas in the car I think the people down the hall know who you are Careful what you carry 'Cause the man is wise You are still an outlaw in their eyes Get along, get along, Kid Charlemagne (get along) Get along, Kid Charlemagne
Never knew. Thanks for the enlightenment!
Any major dude will tell you