Steely Dan’s ‘Black Friday’ provides a perfectly nonsensical soundtrack for today

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Steely Dan’s “Black Friday” might feel a bit on the nose this morning, but who else comes to mind when the first day of the Christmas shopping season arrives? (I mean, other than “Free For All” by Ted Nugent?) Recorded during a time when Steely Dan was making the transition from rock to jazz-pop, “Black Friday” was one of their last bona-fide rockers — and a perfect soundtrack for furious bargain hunting this morning.

It’s got a chunky electric piano, a solid rock shuffle, and lots of guitars with the lead by Walter Becker. Becker, who prior to this left that chore up to the just-departed Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Denny Dias or some hired hand like Elliott Randall, lays down some nasty lines he coaxed from an old Fender Mustang. Meanwhile, Donald Fagen sings some nonsensical lyrics about what’s he’s going to do on this day, like standing “down by the door and catch the gray men when they dive from the fourteenth floor,” and “gonna do just what I please, gonna wear no socks and shoes — with nothing to do but feed all the kangaroos.”

Given how well read Becker and Fagen are, they could well be referring to some historically bleak event, like the Fisk-Gould Scandal of 1869, but I doubt it in this case. And that crash of ’29? That happened on a Monday. Nah, Steely Dan was probably just being silly.

I’m not standing in any lines in freezing weather for three hours this morning outside of a store, only to find out that my hoped-for discounted item is sold out. But I’ll dedicate Steely Dan’s “Black Friday” to all those brave souls who will.

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S. Victor Aaron