The Royal Scam

''The Royal Scam'' is the fifth studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released in May 1976, by ABC Records; reissues have been released by MCA Records since ABC's acquisition by the former in 1979. Like all of the band's previous albums, it was produced by Gary Katz. In the United States, the album peaked at number 15 on the ''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tape chart, and it has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The album was remastered in UHQR (ultra high quality record) in 2025 by Acoustic Sounds and reissued on vinyl and digitally on June 6, 2025.

Music and lyrics

In common with other Steely Dan albums, ''The Royal Scam'' is littered with cryptic allusions to people and events, both real and fictional. In a BBC interview in 2000, songwriters Walter Becker and Donald Fagen revealed that " Kid Charlemagne" is loosely based on Owsley Stanley, the notorious drug "chef" who was famous for manufacturing hallucinogenic compounds, and that "The Caves of Altamira" is about the loss of innocence, the narrative about a visitor to the Cave of Altamira who registers his astonishment at the prehistoric drawings.

"The Fez" has the distinction of being, other than the instrumental " East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" on '' Pretzel Logic'' (1974) and the title song from 1980's Gaucho, the only Steely Dan song with a credited writer other than Becker and Fagen. Of keyboardist Paul Griffin's contribution to the song, Becker has said that "There is an instrumental melody that Paul started playing in the session, and when we decided to build that melody up to a greater position, since we had some suspicion that perhaps this melody wasn't entirely Paul's invention, we decided to give him composer credit in case later some sort of scandal developed and he would take the brunt of the impact", while Griffin has said that Fagen already had the keyboard riff, and he just took it in a different direction. Fagen later said of Griffin, "There are some musicians who are hacks, and then there are guys like Paul who can create something so different and unique they make the record." Chris Willman described the song in an August 22, 1993, article in ''Los Angeles Times'' as "a cheerful ode to the importance of always wearing a condom".

Reference to the Eagles

"Everything You Did" features the lyric: "Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening." About the origin of the reference, Glenn Frey of the Eagles said: "Apparently, Walter Becker's girlfriend loved the Eagles, and she played them all the time. I think it drove him nuts. So, the story goes that they were having a fight one day and that was the genesis of the line." Later in 1976, in a nod back to Steely Dan for the free publicity, and inspired by the group's lyrical style, the Eagles included the line: "They stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast", in their hit-song " Hotel California". Frey explained: "We just wanted to allude to Steely Dan rather than mentioning them outright, so 'Dan' got changed to 'knives', which is still, you know, a penile metaphor." Given that the two bands shared a manager (Irving Azoff) and the Eagles have proclaimed their admiration for Steely Dan, this was more likely part of a friendly rivalry than a feud.Excerpted from the 2006 book ''Is Tiny Dancer Really Elton's Little John?: Music's Most Enduring Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed'' byGavin Edwards, published by Three Rivers Press. Timothy B. Schmit, who sang backing vocals on ''The Royal Scam'', joined the Eagles in 1977, after being a featured vocalist and bassist with Poco.

Packaging

The album's cover features an image of a man in a suit sleeping on a bus stop bench in Boston and dreaming of skyscrapers with monstrous animal heads at the top. Meant as a satirical take on the "American Dream", Zox originally created the painting of the skyscraper/beast hybrids for an unreleased Van Morrison album, and designer Ed Caraeff suggested superimposing a photograph of a sleeping vagrant taken by Charlie Ganse to make the cover for ''The Royal Scam''. In the liner notes for the 1999 remastered reissue of the album, Fagen and Becker jokingly called it "the most hideous album cover of the seventies, bar none (excepting perhaps '' Can't Buy a Thrill'')."

Reception

Upon its release, the album was not met with as much critical acclaim as its predecessors, with many reviewers finding that it did not show any musical progress. The original ''Rolling Stone'' review was more positive, however, and the magazine later gave the album five stars out of five in a Hall of Fame review.

In 2000, the album was voted number 868 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's book '' All Time Top 1000 Albums''.

Singles

*"Kid Charlemagne" spent three weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, reaching a peak position of number 82 in July 1976.
*"The Fez" spent five weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking at number 59 in October 1976.
*"Haitian Divorce" spent nine weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 17 in January 1977.

Track listing

Personnel

;Steely Dan
* Donald Fagen – keyboards, lead vocals, background vocals
* Walter Becker – guitar, bass guitar

;Additional musicians

* Paul Griffin – keyboards
* Don Grolnick – keyboards
* Larry Carlton – guitar
* Denny Dias – guitar
* Dean Parks – guitar
* Elliott Randall – guitar
* Chuck Rainey – bass guitar
* Rick Marotta – drums (3,8)
* Bernard Purdie – drums (all except 3,8)
* Gary Coleman – percussion
* Victor Feldman – percussion, keyboards
* Chuck Findley – trumpet
* Bob Findley – trumpet
* Dick "Slyde" Hyde – trombone
* Jim Horn – saxophone
* Plas Johnson – saxophone
* John Klemmer – saxophone
* Venetta Fields – backing vocals
* Clydie King – backing vocals
* Sherlie Matthews – backing vocals
* Michael McDonald – backing vocals
* Timothy B. Schmit – backing vocals
* Gary Sherman – horn arrangements

;Production
* Gary Katz – producer
* Roger Nichols – engineer, mixing engineer
* Elliot Scheiner – engineer
* Barney Perkins – mixing engineer
* Brian Gardner – mastering engineer
* Stuart "Dinky" Dawson – sound consultant
* Karen Stanley – nurse
* Ed Caraeff – art direction and design
* Charlie Ganse – cover art
* Zox – cover art
* Tom Nikosey – typographic design

;Reissue
* Roger Nichols – remastering engineer
* Beth Stempel – coordinator
* Vartan – art direction
* Mike Diehl – design
* Daniel Levitin – consultant

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Notes

References

External links

Complete lyrics
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Scam
Steely Dan albums
1976 albums
ABC Records albums
Albums produced by Gary Katz