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BLACK FRIDAY Lyrics
Artist: Steely Dan
Album: Katy Lied
When Black Friday comes
I'll stand down by the door
And catch the grey men when they
Dive from the fourteenth floor
When Black Friday comes
I'll collect everything I'm owed
And before my friends find out
I'll be on the road
When Black Friday falls you know it's got to be
Don't let it fall on me
When Black Friday comes
I'll fly down to Muswellbrook
Gonna strike all the big red words
From my little black book
Gonna do just what I please
Gonna wear no socks and shoes
With nothing to do but feed
All the kangaroos
When Black Friday comes I'll be on that hill
You know I will
When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it 'til
I satisfy my soul
Gonna let the world pass by me
The Archbishop's gonna sanctify me
And if he don't come across
I'm gonna let it roll
When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna stake my claim
I'll guess I'll change my name
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Comments/Interpretations
It's about another stock market crash, like the one in 1929.
True, Mark, but also, a lot of people in jobs that change quickly like this song. I know a lot of people in radio broadcasting use the song when they have heard, behind the scenes, that their jobs are in jeopardy because of a format change, so the week before they get fired, they "always" play "Black Friday", lol.
Sunday Bloody Sunday
The Wall Street Shuffle
ralph DR RON cynthia
What have they done to the earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged & plundered & ripped her & bit her
Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn
& tied her with fences &
Dragged her down!
mike dennis jesse ross
I'm going to play this song over and over at cranked stereo volume when the $hit hits the fan.
Which will be any day now, thanks to Chimpynomics and the Repuke party.
Tom3
The fan has been hit!
I've got my eyes on the 14th floor.
We should have listened to Ron Paul.
This sounds like it was written for this week's stock market plunge! What a great song by the creative genius called Steely Dan!
Our band CAT4 has worked into our setlist for live performance at Looe Key TIKI Bar in Ramrod Key, Florida. Be there next 2 Friday nites, Oct 17th and 24th, 2008.
We dedicate to all- the overpaid executives and the rst of us losing our retirement savings that were foolishly invested in the stock market. God Bless the common man!
Today was almost the day for Black Friday.
1869 jewish gol hoarders fisk and gould people the jews
Happy Black Friday people. It's the day after Thanksgiving, the busiest shopping day of the year. :)
Mark: I don't think it's about the stock market crash; that was Black Tuesday. My mother suggested it was about the day after Thanksgiving, but I highly doubt it. :P I'd have to agree that it's just generally speaking about sh*t hitting the fan. Sh*t happens. Roll with it.
It's interesting to look at the religious imagery. The narrator seems to cast it aside indifferently. The "big red words from my little black book" could be referencing the Bible (most Bibles print words Jesus spoke in red.). In this part of the song, he dismisses religion, but later, mentioning the archbishop, he looks for pardoning. But if he "don't come across [he's] gonna let it roll." This suggests an apathetic view of religion. I don't think it's necessarily a strike against it. I think he's just suggesting that religion is more of an emotional crutch for some, and should be considered so instead of truth.
Whew...
On Long Island, when Black Friday comes you don't stand down by the door, especially in Wal-Mart.
Well the thing that twigged for me was the line "going down to Muswellbrook".little town close to where I grew up in the Hunter Valley of N.S.W., Australia. Hence the following line "Nothin to do but feed all the Kangaroos". Yeah not much happens there, beautiful place ..but, asd far away from politics and economics as you can get. Love "the DAN"
Well, Fagen the lyricist is Jewish so his allusions to the Christian religion are likely metaphorical or literary. The description above of striking the "red words" from the "black book" is interesting, it's debatable at best. Black Friday is traditionally the day the market crashed in '29 but there have been other similar disasterous crashes in U.S. history (1869, Black Tuesday in '87, and the Asian market crash more recently). I'd guess that Black Friday is simply a metaphor for the illusory and fallible nature, as well as all the B.S., surrounding the religion of the financial markets and it's string-pullers. This song offers one take on the insanity that follows. How does one cope? Insanity is one way. It's a great metaphor.
It is relating to Australia..Muswellbrook..Has an eeary relevancle to black saturday 2009 where many people perished!
Muswellbrook is in Australia, hence going to feed the kangaroos is not so outlandish.
Muswellbrook is in Australia, hence going to feed the kangaroos is not so outlandish. The question is what happened on a friday prior to 1996 that was cool enough to write a son about it.
When he says he is going collect everything is is owed, he may be a stock broker that sold the market short and his clients(friends) will loose, he will change his name, disappear, ask for forgiveness and if he doesnt get it ... wait for a better day...
is is about Friday, September 24, 1869. It is known as "Black Friday" in the US because of a failed ploy that left many wealthy investors broke. The investors tried to corner the market on gold, buying as much of it as they could and driving up the price, but when the government found out, they released $4 million worth of gold into the market, driving down the price and clobbering the investors.
While the song is about events in the US, it mentions a town in Australia: "Fly down to Musswellbrook." Musswellbrook is a rural town 2 hours North of Sydney that is full of kangaroos (thus the line, "Nothing to do but feed all the kangaroos"). It's possible that Walter Becker and Donald Fagen selected the name of Musswellbrook from an atlas, mainly because it worked well with the next line, "I'm going to strike out all the big red words from my little black book." They also wanted a place far away from Los Angeles. (thanks, Adrian - Sydney, Australia)
So what if it's both - religion and business. The religion of America is Business. Friday is the end of it all, The Apocalypse and The Crash. The genius of interweaving them togehter.
The song is about a stock market crash. It could just as easily be the story of the little people (the citizenry) who are at the whim of politicians that are only concerned with staying in power and taking as much from the office as possible. And for all you ideologues out there, that includes democrats and republicans. Wake up and stand against all incumbents!
I always figured the Australia line to be a reference to Howard Hughes.
Aren't Black Friday a Sabbath tribute band?
i've heard that a couple of the members of steely dan used to holiday and/or reside in a northern beaches suburb of sydney nsw. seems that they had been frequent visitors to australia for social reasons and the may well have gained their knowledge of musswellbrook then.
Revelation 18. These dudes are hip!
If he's feedin' kangaroos he's in the bush, which are always vulnerable to bushfires in Oz. Friday the 13th 1939 is known in Australia as Black Friday, which is when a firestorm swept across Victoria ( Australia )and killed 73 people. Maybe a merging of metaphors with the wall street reference.I always loved Becker's solo on this one.
Ru Paul 2012!
Wondering if the big red words in his little black book could be a reference to money he owes other people. He's going to collect what he's owed and then skip town before paying his own debts. I think the bible allusion is intentional but not necessarily literal reference to the words of Jesus.
September 1870 Black Friday Gold Panic scandal
Damn, I miss Jeff Porcaro! Beautiful shuffle!
12/21/2112 happens to fall on a Friday...
11/23/2012
West Virginia travels to Ames, Ia to challenge ISU at football. That will be West Virginia's "Black Friday"!
12/21/12 - some loon stuck on the Mayan calendar, eh? But the Maya didn't have leap years, therefore their 12/21/12 happened nearly three years ago. Don't swallow everything you "learn" from a John Cussack movie!
Dem da sweeat blues
If you are going to include the name of a town in a song, at least you should learn how to pronoun it.
I just started watching FUTURAMA - 'The Lesser of Two Evils' and saw the crash or 2000 reenactment I thought of this song and LOL'd big time.
The song refers to the great Black Friday fire in Victoria Australia on January 13, 1939. Two thosand hectares of land and forest were raised to the ground resulting in human death, entire towns destroyed, sawmills burnt, amd 3700 buildings destroyed. The cause? heatwave and intense human utilization.
For decades the negative environmental effects would continue as animal habitats were destroyed and water supplies contaminated prompting it's population to relocate and start over in other parts of Australia.