Another music video moment: The Royal Scam

Because I like to share with you the music that I love.

If you’ve hung around Turtle Life long enough you know that on occasion I will post a video featuring one of my favorite songs or something like that.  Here’s one of my favorite bands with one of my favorite songs by them.  Steely Dan with “The Royal Scam.”  Next to Aja I’d say it’s my favorite Steely Dan album.

Steely Dan¹ - “The Royal Scam”²

And they wandered in
From the city of St. John
Without a dime
Wearing coats that shined
Both red and green
Colors from their sunny island
From their boats of iron
They looked upon the promised land
Where surely life was sweet
On the rising tide
To New York City
Did they ride into the street

See the glory
Of the royal scam

They are hounded down
To the bottom of a bad town
Amid the ruins
Where they learn to fear
An angry race of fallen kings
Their dark companions
While the memory of
Their southern sky was clouded by
A savage winter
Every patron saint
Hung on the wall, shared the room
With twenty sinners

See the glory
Of the royal scam

By the blackened wall
He does it all
He thinks he’s died and gone to heaven
Now the tale is told
By the old man back home
He reads the letter
How they are paid in gold
Just to babble in the back room
All night and waste their time
And they wandered in
From the city of St. John without a dime

See the glory
Of the royal scam

1. Official Steely Dan website↩
2. Buy The Royal Scam CD from Amazon.com↩

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