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DON'T TAKE ME ALIVE Lyrics
Artist: Steely Dan
Album: Royal Scam
Agents of the law
Luckless pedestrian
I know you're out there
With rage in your eyes and your megaphones
Saying all is forgiven
Mad Dog surrender
How can I answer
A man of my mind can do anything
CHORUS:
I'm a bookkeeper's son
I don't want to shoot no one
Well I crossed my old man back in Oregon
Don't take me alive
Got a case of dynamite
I could hold out here all night
Yes I crossed my old man back in Oregon
Don't take me alive
Can you hear the evil crowd
The lies and the laughter
I hear my inside
The mechanized hum of another world
Where no sun is shining
No red light flashing
Here in this darkness
I know what I've done
I know all at once who I am
CHORUS
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Comments/Interpretations
the white man is crazy
but good crazy
damn good song.
what is this song about?
Oregon? It sounds like he threw an extra syllable in there.
Its a beautiful song about the inner privacy of a mans heart, and the audacity that anyone else outside of his heart has the right to judge him..... he's not crazy .... everyone else is .... he is holding fast to his position out of courage that will ultimately define us all. Cool
this song can be interpreted different ways
he's basically in a situation where he's being persecuted by the law. he's done something violent, in which the law is trying to apprehend him and make him surrender. imagine robbing a bank and having the police all around the building trying to negotiate with you. that's the type of situation the character of the song appears to be in.
the chorus is saying that he's an ordinary man who wants to die, and he doesnt want to shoot anyone - meaning he wont use the gun he weilds against anyone, just using it as suicide by cop.
that's basically what it can be interperted to be
I kind of assumed by the "crossed my old man back in Oregon" to mean the he killed his dad.
Katy Lies (You can see it in her eyes)
One of my favorite Steely Dan songs along with Deacon Blues, Bad Sneakers, and Everyone's Gone To the Movies.
The song's about a robot. Go listen to it again. Then read the interview with Donald and Walter.
It's a song about a sniper and his personal rationale to his actions.
This has gotta be based on a true story- if it's not, then the bookeeper and oregon things are random as hell. Anybody know.
At the Beacon show in NYC last week, Fagen tweaked the line to "...with rage in your eyes and your iphones".
Anyone ever heard of Ruby Ridge?
song is about that guy that went nuts with a rifle atop university tower in austin, texas in mid early sixties
Fagen wrote this song one night when he was pissy drunk. Like most Dan songs, it's catchy and means absolutely nothing.
I thought he was saying "I crossed my old man, and I reckon don't take me alive."
...yeah. Couldn't make sense of it.
the lies and the laughter
this one's for Joe Stack. this week, anyway.
I've got a boner !
This song throws we back twenty plus years...Just GREAT!
The old man is a "bookeeper", keeps books, makes book = he is a bookie. The singer "crossed his old man back in Oregon", probably stole some $$$, etc, which is why he doesn't want to be taken alive - if the old man catches him it will be a fate worse than death.
this one's loosely based on Owsley "bear" Stanley once you get that into perspective the lyrics will appear a lot clearer.
Correction: Owsley "bear" Stanley relates to the subject of the title track of The Royal Scam, "Kid Charlemagne"
This song, played back to back with 'Kid Charlemagne,' has me thinking of deeds with bad intentions. And it just kills me when I see more recent pictures of Becker. He looks like a math teacher at a middle school in Wisconsin.
This guy needs to learn how to pronounce Oregon, or just use another state which fits better.
The "White Man Still Remains Sane."
When I first heard the Royal Scam, this was my favorite song. I had a lot of anger in 1974 and this song helped me understand how some folks have to strike out and do violence just to get rid of those demons. If nothing else, it's a great insight into the mind of a suicidal person who's done great harm and can do more if he's not handled by very experienced negotiators. Every police department should play this song and discuss it among their new and experienced officers.
Outstanding guitar licks, Walter Becker can flat lay it down
My bad...that was Larry Carlton
I think his "old man back in Oregon" refers to the government, which is very strick in some ways in Oregon and very lax in others.
Steely Dan's memes are more often than not metaphoric rather than literal--why I love them so! Gotta be deep to get it!
@anfernee: What do you mean by "the white man is crazy", please elaborate.... Otherwise, it stands as the racist comment, from an apparent racist, that it is....
But maybe you have a deeper analysis to share.... Or do you 'hear' that in every song?
What is so cool about a great song is that the meaning of the lyrics more often than not are left up to the interpretation of the listener. Different people can get different things out of it. My take is that this is a man cornered by the law after committing some horrific act. The fact that he "crossed his old man back in Oregon" makes him particularly desperate and a man who has nothing to lose. So he doesn't care to be taken alive. This could be the story of many people who have committed similar horrendous acts like Charles Whitman,James Huberty,George Hennard,and Chris Dorner.
The fact that those of you who care how he pronounces OR-E-GON is why you are the listener of creativity and not the creator. Its' a great song played by some of the best musicians of their time and might not mean a thing but, if you like it then shut up, sing it and move if you feel it.
Either way, I'm almost positive that Fagan or Becker don't care either way.
I think he's saying Aragon, as in Spain. I like the robot theory. I instantly thought of Waco the first time I heard this song (last year). Skeeter's right; Steely Dan's lyrics are usually suggestive of multiple inference; and sometimes refer to inside stories altogether.
Like Terry C's post I love these SD songs like Take me Alive, Deacon Blues, Bad Sneakers, and Everyone's Gone To the Movies.
so many possibles with this song, it seems to point how lonely one can fell vs the outside world, possibly even more so if one had committed a murder or something.
... the last verse lyrics.....whoa
Lee
This song was used in the Ryan Gosling film, "All Good Things", he was a man who had killed his wife - OR HAD HE? They could never prove it as she was never found, just missing....The song suited the film well. Brilliant track by the every brilliant Donald Fagen.
Smugglers always like this song
Yes I think using the song in 'All good things' was fitting. The husband who nobody could prove killed his wife was a bookkeeper. Its a true story by the way and the missing person case on his wife is still open. He hated his father and his mother committed suicide by jumping off the family house roof.
The main character here may be an artist, musician or someone else who is trying to breakaway from societal conventions and apparently the will of his father to follow his vision. To "cross" someone simply means to defy them or to go against their will. He is now struggling, anxious and feeling the pressure to give up his dream and return to the luckless, pedestrian world that he came from.
I always heard this song as the desperation of a very sheltered youth, possibly someone in a strict religious community like Jehova's Witness or Amish even, and this person actually defied/ argued /with went against his own father. Probably the worst crime he can even concieve of and nothing could be worse than going back home and facing the consequences of the community after comitting this SIN. It would be better for him to be killed by the police rather than face the wrath wrought of his own actions.