The Royal Scam

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The Royal Scam is the fifth studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released on May 31, 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).<ref name="BillboardAlbum"/>

The album was remastered and reissued on standard black vinyl, on UHQR vinyl by Acoustic Sounds, and digitally on June 6, 2025. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

"The Fez" is one of three Steely Dan songs with a credited writer other than Becker and Fagen, the others being "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" on Pretzel Logic (1974) and the title song from 1980's Gaucho. 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.<ref name = "Sweet">Template:Cite book</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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".<ref>Willman, Chris. "From the Archives: The 1993 interview when Walter Becker opened up about Steely Dan’s subversive intentions," Los Angeles Times, Sunday, September 3, 2017. Retrieved February 24, 2023.</ref>

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,<ref>Was there any kind of a feud going on between Steely Dan and the Eagles in the '70s? Rule Forty Two.com. Glenn Frey: "We just wanted to allude to Steely Dan rather than mentioning them outright, so 'Dan' got changed to 'knives'"</ref> and inspired by the group's lyrical style,<ref>Quotes: Here are quotes from Don and others about his career Feldermusic. "At the time we were also quite fond [of] Steely Dan and listening to a lot of their records. And one of the things that impressed us about Steely Dan was that they would say anything in their songs and it did not have to necessarily make sense you know"</ref> 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."Template:Efn 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.<ref name="TinyDancer">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.</ref> Timothy B. Schmit, who sang backing vocals on The Royal Scam, joined the Eagles in 1977, after being a featured vocalist and bassist with the band 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", artist Larry 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.<ref name="Sweet"/> 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

Template:Music ratings 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.Template:Citation needed The original Rolling Stone review was more positive, however,<ref name="RSreview">Template:Cite magazine</ref> and the magazine later gave the album five stars out of five in a Hall of Fame review.<ref name="RSreissue"/>

In 2000, the album was voted number 868 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums.<ref name="Larkin">Template:Cite book</ref>

Singles

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