::School Week:: Steely Dan - My Old School

YACHT ROCK!!! Yes, I admit it. I LOVE Steely Dan. Perhaps I may be a little biased on this considering my dad and his 10 brothers and 3 sisters all basically raised me on this music, but they are an incredibly talented band. Family events seldom go by without either Pretzel Logic or Cant Buy a Thrill being played at least once.

Anyway, this song, "My Old School," is finally one of those positive songs I was talking about. Donald Fagen gets all nostalgic about his old school during the verses and then the chorus...wait. Crap. "Im never going back to my old school." So I guess this isn't a positive song about school. And it turns out the song is also about how a girl dumped him. Well, shucks. Next song will have to be a positive one then.

 I remember the thirty-five sweet goodbyes
When you put me on the Wolverine
Up to Annandale
It was still September
When your daddy was quite surprised
To find you with the working girls
In the county jail
I was smoking with the boys upstairs
When I heard about the whole affair
I said oh no
William and Mary won't do
CHORUS:
Well I did not think the girl
Could be so cruel
And I'm never going back
To my old school

Oleanders growing outside her door
Soon they're gonna be in bloom
Up in Annandale
I can't stand her
Doing what she did before
Living like a gypsy queen
In a fairy tale
Well I hear the whistle but I can't go
I'm gonna take her down to Mexico
She said oh no
Guadalajara won't do

CHORUS

California tumbles into the sea
That'll be the day I go
Back to Annandale
Tried to warn you
About Chino and Daddy Gee
But I can't seem to get to you
Through the U.S. Mail
Well I hear the whistle but I can't go
I'm gonna take her down to Mexico
She said oh no
Guadalajara won't do

CHORUS