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PRETZEL LOGIC Lyrics

Artist: Steely Dan
Album: Pretzel Logic

I would love to tour the Southland
In a travelling minstrel show
Yes I'd love to tour the Southland
In a traveling minstrel show
Yes I'm dying to be a star and make them laugh
Sound just like a record on the phonograph
Those days are gone forever
Over a long time ago, oh yeah
I have never met Napoleon
But I plan to find the time
I have never met Napoleon
But I plan to find the time
'Cause he looks so fine upon that hill
They tell me he was lonely, he's lonely still
Those days are gone forever
Over a long time ago, oh yeah

I stepped up on the platform
The man gave me the news
He said, You must be joking son
Where did you get those shoes?
Where did you get those shoes?

Well, I've seen 'em on the TV, the movie show
They say the times are changing but I just don't know
These things are gone forever
Over a long time ago, oh yeah

Comments/Interpretations

by Peter Rabbit on 3/20/2009 9:06pm
Such a jam

by the doc on 2/19/2010 5:19pm
time travel. fantastic.

by Dr. Reason on 5/22/2010 5:26pm
First, let me say, I am a HUGE Steely Dan and (more direct) Donald Fagen fan. However, I think that the brilliant title of this song was wasted. The "pretzel logic" is deciding to use this title with these lyrics. I don't see the connection. Maybe that's the brilliance after all. Who's to say?

by Tammi on 6/21/2010 7:30am
Well, pretzels are twisted. So is the logic in this song.

by cam on 10/20/2010 1:43am
I have to audition with this song tomorrow for a funk group. I hope they don't ask me what it's about.

by HDK on 2/3/2011 1:14am
what does this song mean anyway? can't get a word of it but love it still :D

by Susan on 4/6/2011 11:25am
What I think this song is about....time folding over itself like a pretzel, letting the singer visit different times in history. Everything, every time is connected and everyone can access it via 'pretzel logic'

by Eloy on 5/7/2011 5:42pm
Maybe he wonders if time can go back suddenly. Anyway, the great thing in SDan is the choruses and refrains. This song is gr8.

by throwbackgirl on 6/24/2011 8:09pm
I'm 13, but I LOVE Steely Dan! All of his songs are great! I love the nostalgia in this one. I wish I could go and see it back then too.

by Joey Kaye on 9/10/2011 5:06pm
My personal interpretation is according to several sayin' about travelling in time back and forth. The question is, everything though changes, goes back to start again. Have you seen how a pretzel is? it looks like a never-ending lasso. Is that time like that even though there's changes? We don't know.

by Jeff on 9/11/2011 8:38pm
Just saw Warren Haynes play Pretzel logic at an outdoor concert in Lowell Ma 9/9/2011 .Listening to it now free on line at mulearmy.net Great worth checking out.

by Steamdude on 9/13/2011 10:02am
Fagen is on record saying that it was about time travel, and if you want to blow your mind, think about traveling back in time to hear them play it, almost 40 years ago! That's pretzel logic!

by Cosmic Charly on 8/23/2012 7:48am
Hear Warren Haynes do his rendition on the Live from Austin and hear him rip it with Ron Holloway blowing that sax

by Steelyfan on 9/8/2012 12:33pm
I believe the song is about the rise of Hitler. He got his start in southern Germany (the Munich putsch). All the words fit my thesis.

For years i had no clue what the song was about until i became a Marxist, (still am, btw) and studied what happened in Germany in the twenties & thirties. Listening to the song one day, and it suddenly hit me what it's about. That's my theory.

Long time Dan fan here.

by Mindstatemusik on 4/12/2013 12:14am
Seriously one of the siccest Steely songs ever... Period
Can't get enuf of that 1st hook..
"yes im,dyin ta be a star
& make them laugh, sounds just like a record on,a phonograph
those days are gone foreva,over a long time ago"
...It's the sound itself, the multi over-dubbed voices are unreal... between that & Fagen's deep, expanded, dark mind, the "Logic" is untouchable...

by Mindstatemusik on 4/12/2013 12:16am
Seriously one of the siccest Steely songs ever... Period~>
Can't get enuf of that 1st hook..
"yes im,dyin ta be a star
& make them laugh, sounds just like a record on,a phonograph
those days are gone foreva,over a long time ago"
...It's the sound itself, the multi over-dubbed voices are unreal... between that & Fagen's deep, expanded, dark mind, the "Logic" is untouchable...

by Pam on 7/6/2013 9:49am
I think it's just about someone's lost dreams. Someone who wanted to be a star but didn't make it even though they perhaps tried for an audition ("I stepped up on the platform, the man gave me the news..."). The reference to Napoleon is because Napoleon wasn't successful in the end but he did have the courage to follow his dreams. Thus, the singer identiries with Napoleon.