Best Songs Ever

ø 4.5 at 4 votes
What’s your rating?

▸ Alternative video Spotify

The Royal Scam is the fifth album by Steely Dan, originally released by ABC Records in 1976. The album went gold and peaked at #15 on the charts. The Royal Scam features more prominent guitar work than other Steely Dan albums. Guitarists on the recording include Walter Becker, Denny Dias, Larry Carlton, Elliott Randall and Dean Parks. With irony-laden verses about drug dealers, safe sex, extramarital affairs and hardships faced by immigrants, The Royal Scam is arguably Steely Dan at its most cynical. The mood of the album stands in contrast with the band’s more mellow and hugely successful follow-up, Aja. The album cover, which shows a possibly homeless man sleeping underneath (or perhaps dreaming of) images of mutating skyscrapers, is a satirical take on the American Dream. The cover... Read on...