This is the thread were you explain Steely Dan lyrics to me

This used to be one of my least favorite Dan songs, but I came around on it after the poll. For some reason, I've always taken it as a rebuke to Becker fucking up their career with his drug use. The bodacious cowboy lover being allegorical. Like, hey your addiction stands out so much it's like having a whole other person in the room soaking up all of the attention.

In re "dime-dancing" in Aja, reading The Quiet American now, and the Vietnamese hostesses who charge for a dance reminded me of that line, maybe something along those lines.

I want to go into My Rival too, been really digging that song lately

I've got detectives on his case
They filmed the whole charade
He's got a scar across his face
He wears a hearing aid

hilarious lyric, but not sure what it means -- I kind of get the impression that he's a boob who incorrectly thinks his wife or gf is having an affair with someone, but I feel like there are details I'm not getting

I've mentioned this on other threads, but I always imagine the rival to be Billy Joel

So does everyone accept the common explanation of "Peg" that it's about a woman about to (perhaps) star in her first adult film? Like is "foreign movie" sort of a euphemism for the kind of "classy" porno that would play in theaters in the 70s?

'dressed up in blueprint blue' certainly supports that reading

found this, kind of interesting:

Couldn't Peg be Peg Entwistle - the actress who thre herself off the Hollywood sign?
Bobb - La, Ca

Bobb in LA, I was thinking the same: the story of young starlet Peg Entwistle who threw herself off the Hollywood sign, after her big debut. The studio hated the film, and cut most of Peg's part. What is noteworthy is that -- at the time in 1932 when she commited suicide -- the sign was then not a symbol of movies, but rather of "Hollywoodland," promoting real-estate development in the hills. So the reference to "Blueprint Blue" makes sense. The pin-up shot he keeps with "your letter" is her suicide note, found in Peg's purse and published in the local newspapers. And "it will come back to you," both a reference to the karmic retribution for her sin, and the fame that would accompany her as a result of Peg's action. Of course, favorite foreign movies are known for their tragic endings -- unlike the happy "Hollywood" ones. Would WB & DF give us a clue?
Thom - L.a., Ca

that is awesome

nice. "blueprint blue" is a great turn of phrase