So, does anyone know what "Rikki, Don't Lose That Number" is about?

CHORUS

All though I can see the gay thing, too.

"You tell yourself you're not my kind" takes on a lot of irony.

"And here's Fagen's conception of "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," the single from "Pretzel Logic":

"That's a very simple love song to a young lady. I always thought it was a rather erotic, decadent sort of thing. Here you find a guy, a rather rich gentleman living in a resort, and he somehow manages to capture this young lady."And what about "Show Biz Kids" from "Countdown To Ecstasy." Exactly what is it that those girls chant incessantly?"You go to Lost Wages,” meaning Las Vegas. Like, it's a kind of joke in the United States to call Las Vegas 'Lost Wages' 'cause it's a gambling centre.

The key dynamic being: A-symmetrical relationships with sexual undertones. He is in a dominate position and can easily manipulate her. However, she has the thing he most wants, her sex. I'm talking out of my ass...

Most of them DO!

I particularly like it when I've been conscious of a song for a long time (in this case 25+ years) and have no idea what it's about and have never really worried too much about divining what it's about and am content to go on not knowing what it's really about, instead allowing my own perceptions to be ambiguously framed by Becker and Fagan.

I guess this is another way of saying lyrics can sometimes be irrelevant to my listening enjoyment.

I often hear a line or two in a song and form an impression of the general subject matter. I may like those lines a lot, and they may have meaning to me.

However, I generally don't really know 'what a song is about.'

Fagan seems like the type of guy who would totally bullshit an interviewer. Not that he did in this case, but seems like he would get great pleasure out of seeing it in print.

Maybe the song was about some varmint.

You mean Time Out of Mind? And do you mean that's not a smack song?

it's totally about picking up a transgendered hooker and getting a hand job in the back of his car

I was going to say as much, too, Dan, but then I remember Mr. Rachtman.

In any case, I absolutely love the song. Especially the intro and the delivery of the "stay inside and play games" line.

i don't think knowing that should changes one's interpretation of the song, though. and i'm not sure if i could find that interview, it might be in an actually paper document or something.

Wasn't that guy who used to host Headbanger's Ball on MTV named Rikki Rachman? I believe he spelled 'Rikki' that way.

From http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3204

"Judy from Arlington TX is right on, it use to be refered to as " a poor mans copyright ". Write a song, seal it in a letter, and send it to yourself. You will recieve a federal, dated postmarked song in a sealed envelope. The theory being if anyone ever challenged your intellectual claim to that song you would have the evidence. However, though a great and valid idea, in truth its an urban myth. No court has ever recognized one. why? because if they did thier useless copyright lawyers would be out of a great deal of money. Thier services would become academic. That is the reality of american justice people, follow the money and you'll learn the truth. Money talks BS walks in America baby, if you ever in front of a judge better put up or shut up. I digress the song was ridiculing another band."
- Don, Gladwin, MI

I guess its probably about that real person they went to college with, whutever.. its just the way the lyrics are written, and without any specific genders ever mentioned or implied I always interpreted it as a gay/coming out/drug scene stuff song.

Also, a work becomes copyrighted in the US the moment you sign your name to it. It didn't used to be that way though.

I guess its probably about that real person they went to college with, whutever.. its just the way the lyrics are written, and without any specific genders ever mentioned or implied I always interpreted it as a gay/coming out/drug scene stuff song.

Also, a work becomes copyrighted in the US the moment you sign your name to it. It didn't used to be that way though.

― Green Manalishi (Viceroy), Wednesday, September 15, 2010 12:26 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

I don't think the "poor man's copyright" method holds up in court.

why? because if they did thier useless copyright lawyers would be out of a great deal of money. Thier services would become academic. That is the reality of american justice people, follow the money and you'll learn the truth. Money talks BS walks in America baby, if you ever in front of a judge better put up or shut up.

I love this song but will forever associate it with John Mahoney singing it while driving during a scene in "Say Anything". Not that that is a bad thing.

that is a great movie moment

it is!

My theory, which I've proposed elsewhere: there's a connection, maybe subconscious, to Nixon.

"We hear you're leaving, that's OK
I thought our little wild time had just begun
I guess you kind of scared yourself, you turn and run
But if you have a change of heart..."

Rikki = Richard = Nixon. And it was on Billboard's Top 100 the week Nixon resigned.

I'm gay and like searching for gay subtexts in pop songs but never got that from this track at all. What guys are named Rikki?

I remember Tom Robinson doing a cover version, that was probably why.

For what it's worth, I assumed it was a guy being sung to, but the words are more from a female perspective.

A bit Magnetic Fields, but hey.

I'm gay and like searching for gay subtexts in pop songs but never got that from this track at all. What guys are named Rikki?

― skip, Wednesday, September 15, 2010 2:33 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I remember Tom Robinson doing a cover version, that was probably why.

For what it's worth, I assumed it was a guy being sung to, but the words are more from a female perspective.

A bit Magnetic Fields, but hey.

― Mark G, Wednesday, September 15, 2010 8:16 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Well, Tom Robinson spells out the 'gay subtext' nicely by interpolating the following lines (from 'Any Major Dude Will Tell You') into his cover version:

I can tell you all I know, the where to go, the what to do
You can try to run but you can't hide from what's inside of you'

If your gaydar is not flashing, beeping, or vibrating, you should probably have the nozzle checked.

It never, ever occurred to me that a man would spell his name "Rikki".
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, November 24, 2003 9:31 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Ex-49er linebacker Rikki Ellison.

http://img.hotmoviesale.com/dvds/LGE-D17066D/1/Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.jpg

p. sure he was a dude

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/03/29/rikki_rockett_narrowweb__300x401,0.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jQ7O2uD4L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

I can tell you all I know, the where to go, the what to do
You can try to run but you can't hide from what's inside of you'

If your gaydar is not flashing, beeping, or vibrating, you should probably have the nozzle checked.

Yeah, but it also sounds (as do many SD lyrics) like a rich older guy trying to talk a virgin into giving him head. Could be male or female.

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi! My favorite fictional mongoose.

What, this song isn't about Rickie Lee Jones?

https://i.imgur.com/dlW9UI3.jpg

lol

good work everyone

nice

Fagen told All About Jazz in 2011: “There was never a conscious thought about picking up Horace Silver’s intro… as for the piano line, I think I had heard it on an old Sergio Mendes album. Maybe that where Horace heard it, too (laughs).”

Quote spotted in this article btw.

I did find this:

In his 2006 autobiography, Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty, Silver recalled events leading up to the iconic 1964 recording following a visit to Brazil as a guest of pianist Sergio Mendes during the week-long Carnival festivities.

"Believe me, Carnival provided much excitement," he wrote. "After returning home to New York from my visit with Sergio and (drummer) Dom Um, I was haunted by the bossa nova rhythm I had heard in Brazil. So I said to myself, 'I'm going to try to write a song using that rhythmic concept.' I sat down at the piano for a few hours and came up with a new song using the bossa nova rhythm. However, the melody didn't sound Brazilian to me; it sounded more like some of the old Cape Verdean melodies my dad had played. Dad had always wanted me to take some of the old Cape Verdean songs and do jazz interpretations of them. This didn't appeal to me, but when I realized I had written a new song with a Brazilian rhythmic concept and a Cape Verdean melodic concept, I immediately thought about dedicating the song to Dad. So I titled it 'Song for My Father'."

https://www.wrti.org/arts-desk/2021-06-18/the-story-behind-horace-silvers-song-for-my-father

Thanks so much! Will paste yr post into RFI: Vocal jazz songform, where we've talked about origins of this song and the vocal version, with Silver's lyrics (esp. Dee Dee Bridgewater's ace recording)(Maybe she'll cover Steely Dan someday, or maybe she has? Could work, incl. "Rikki.")

The "Rikki" intro is vaguely similar to the intro of Sergio Mendes' version of "The Look of Love," but that postdates the Horace Silver tune which is a much closer match anyway

Knowing Fagen's tastes he was probably into the pre-Brasil '66 recordings of Sergio Mendes, so maybe that's where the source lies

it's another artist I think...

The piano figure sounds like it could have been inspired by the Brazil 66 song Look Around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n-4utYZ7hE

I thought of that one too, it's from the same album as "The Look of Love"

That Sergio Mendes song is from 1967, but "Song For My Father" is from 1964.

I guess Fagan could have heard either album first, but Rikki is just waaaay closer to the Horace Silver. I'm a little skeptical of his story, especially given the Keith Jarrett/Gaucho lift.

Agreed. But here's the other Sergio Mendes song just for comparison's sake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAFYlBg_1u0

is Phil Collins' terrible "Billy Don't You Lose My Number" an answer song to this?

I dunno, but “send it off in a letter to yourself” sounds like the way people used to ensure copyright on a song. I know they talk about “calling” but I wonder if “number” could mean a song in some early sketch of this.

In The Maltese Falcon Sam Spade mails a baggage claim check to himself when he hides the falcon in a bus station locker. The tactic is pretty common in noir fiction. The song's narrator is worried about Rikki losing his number and maybe also paranoid about someone else finding the number (her husband?).

i kind of miss the days when it felt like a key to a new future was in 7 digits written on a scrap of paper you know you put somewhere around here....

personally think the song is very straightforward - rikki is flighty but the narrator wants her and he's trying to get through to her, in theory at least, by selling himself and appealing to romance.