{"id":401067,"date":"2025-09-05T22:20:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T22:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/401067\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T22:20:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T22:20:12","slug":"why-did-steely-dan-name-their-song-barrytown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/401067\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Steely Dan name their song ‘Barrytown’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Steely<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Spotify)<\/p>\n

Fri 5 September 2025 21:00, UK <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be or not to be, that is the question\u201d Donald Fagen and Walter Becker asked, when Steely Dan<\/a> recruited their 100th session guitarist, to play a small minute chord progression on one of their songs.<\/p>\n

The pair, notorious for being meticulous in the studio<\/a>, had what many would consider a chronic case of perfectionism. In fact, one could quite feasibly argue that it was a chronic case of indecision, stressing over the small details to an almost crippling effect.<\/p>\n

It is however, what made them one of the greatest recorded bands of our time. They saw the recorded format as a means of bathing songs in textures, not limited by the structural importance of a tight live show. Which is ultimately what has dampened their live legacy somewhat, for the dense arrangements of their songs simply struggled on stage for band members could only contribute so much. <\/p>\n

So it was in the walls of the studio where they felt most at home and had time to ponder over the minutia. Which is where their deliberation often came and their Hamlet inspired questioning arose. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure you are wondering just why I am funnelling my descriptions of Steely Dan\u2019s recording process<\/a> to the Shakespeare character and his most famous idiom. Well because like Steely Dan themselves, I simply couldn\u2019t help myself from indulging in an idea I had from the very outset of writing this article. Like a guitar lick that isn\u2019t needed, I desperately found a way to open my article about Steely Dan\u2019s ode to an American hamlet, by referencing Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet.<\/p>\n

Now that\u2019s out of the way and my session writers can go home, I\u2019ll move on to the issue at hand: the song \u2018Barrytown\u2019. This small hamlet in New York state of just 100 people, gave way to a Steely Dan song and much like some of their instrumental choices, the reasoning is completely unclear, besides the fact Fagen admitted he liked the name.<\/p>\n

Die hard Steely Dan fans have made a few references that might give us an idea as to why the band named a song after a 100 person hamlet. Barrytown once hosted a seminary of the Unification Church, founded by South Korean<\/a> religious leader Sun Myung Moon who was later accused of starting a cult.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the sort of interesting tale of human behaviour that could feasibly make it into a Steely Dan narrative, but the song was in fact written before the emergence of that church. Which makes the lyrics even more disconcerting, given their accuracy:<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t believe I\u2019m taken in by stories I have heard,\u201d Fagen sings, adding. \u201cI just read the Daily News and swear by every word.\u201d<\/p>\n

It speaks to the sort of herd-like mentality of humans that could well be associated with cult behaviour. But if you are to take a step back and view it more emotionally, it\u2019s likely a comment on the type of person who comes from what Americans would consider small, remote towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see by what you carry that you come from Barrytown\u201d he sings, indicating that the hamlet made some lasting impressions on Fagen, whenever it was he may have visited and thus inspired a vicious takedown of a particular American demographic. Maybe the impressionable nature of this person Fagen describes made its way to Sun Myung Moon\u2019s speakers and inspired the genesis of his cult. Who knows? Or should I go back and say, \u201cto be or not to be?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Spotify) Fri 5 September 2025 21:00, UK \u201cTo be or not to be, that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,8589,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-401067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-steely-dan","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115154021906890755","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}