Steely Dan: My Old School

Another Saturday and as always we feature a bubbling under recording. While I have pretty broad definition of this category, it is typically for songs that are fairly well known but did not crack the top forty charts. Sometimes these songs were very popular album cuts. Today’s hit was released as a single from Steely Dan’s 1973 “Countdown to Ecstasy” LP, but “My Old School” only made it to 63 on the charts.

The story is that the song recalls a sheriff’s raid at Bard College located in Annandale on Hudson, New York where Steely Dan members Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were among fifty students who were arrested. Although the charges were dropped, Fagen and Becker held a grudge against the event and immortalized it in song.

The fantastic guitar leads were provided by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter who later joined The Doobie Brothers. These days Baxter chairs a congressional committee on missile defense. No kidding.