The song is based on a actual bombing at the University of Wisconsin Back in 1970 as part of a anti-war protest. Four people were involved . The innocent bystander was actually a faculty member who was killed., Steely Dan took poetic license with the description of having a case of dynamite and I could hold out here all night period, and the last person. The bookkeepers son described in the song was actually tracked down and arrested peacefully in California

On guitar, the great Larry Carlton, who just killed it on this and Kid Charlemagne.

Once you tune your ear to Steely Dan it's all over- you'll be hooked because no one can duplicate their sound- their depth.

Steely Dan had some of the finest lead guitarists ever.

I’m envious of you; you’re hearing the talent, magic and lyrical wizardry of Steely Dan for the first time. I’d love to be able to do that, to go back in time and be that 16 year old kid that I was so many years ago, hearing this song again for the very first time... And, oh, by the way... the first time I heard it, it gave me goosebumps, too. 😉

The best opening rock guitar solo ever. And then it gets better as a song ...story ..composition.. emotive and sophisticated. Oh s^$# ..shivers!!

Babylon Sisters....shake it! And don't miss - FM...no static at all! Two more classics.

I got this album for Christmas in 1976 , it was on my turn table constantly , it's among my favourites.

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 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 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 Songwriters: Donald Jay Fagen / Walter Carl Becker

Bookkeeper's son... Crossed my old man back in Oregon... I think it's about a young mam from a typical sort of atomic family who's gone way astray and has the law after him and he's reminiscing about where he came from and how in the world he got to the dangerous place he is. Cheers 👍 Great song. Steely Dan never writes about typical things.

Glad you discovered Steely Dan. One of my all time favorite bands.

I have always loved this song ever since it was first released over forty years ago. Apart from being pure, unreconstructed ear candy it tells its story so vividly that every time I hear it I find myself in a cave, in the dark with a case of dynamite, under siege and no expectations of ever seeing the daylight again. Powerful stuff.

Goosebumps...EVERY TIME!!!

Steely Dan has helped me stay cool and confident through some very hard times in life.

What can I do to get me off this Steely Dan trip????? I love so many of their songs so much ! Love of my life!

Nice. Under reacted gem and one of my fav Steely tracks!

"The mechanized hum of another world" - is just a great line. So descriptive and tactile. You can almost feel and hear the hum.

Steely Dan....one of the most influential and smooth American bands of that generation. And way overlooked. I was fortunate to see them live. They were amazing!

Deep cuts from Steely Dan: Bad Sneakers Doctor Wu Western World Any Major Dude My Favs!!!!!!!

Anyone else do as I did for Steely Dan songs and turn the volume up as the songs faded out? I couldn't get enough.

One of my favorites of Steely Dan. I like Fire In The Hole on the Can’t Buy a Thrill album.

You r killin me this morning Bro. My joint. Yesss, Don't take me alive. So SUBLIMINAL....One of the best duos that has ever existed on this planet.

steely was always enigmatic.. spoke to the unhero but their production, high quality musicianship.. unequaled to this day

This group was soo underrated. Soo many great songs.

in my neck of the woods we called steely dan the thinking mans music

I'm ashamed to say (and I'm sure I'm not alone), I played all my Steely Dan vinyl virtually until it melted, and I almost got sick of them. In summer of '78 (if you recall), Christopher Cross, Jerry Rafferty, Chuck Mangione, and Jackson Browne's Running on Empty, sort of lured me away. Then Gaucho came out, and OMG, I discovered Steely Dan all over again! I realized then that I was also stupid to have not paid a lot more attention to Aja!

If you love Steely Dan you're love "Any World That I'm Welcome To".

Ok JAMfam, I need y'alls support on this one. "From the Beginning" from Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Comment if you love it too, and put some ELP suggestions.

They were great...lyrics, musicality, innovative,unique, excellence!!

forget the words... you can look it up. The music is so multi-layered and perfectly performed ... NOBODY does that anymore!

I am a 68-year-old guitar player… Steely Dan was my biggest influence for 20 years. It’s such a delight to see your generation discover the magic. Steely Dan is a character from a novel, “the naked lunch.” The “band” is really two guys Becker & Fagan who hired the best studio musicians that ever lived. God bless you my friend… “I got the news,” and, “Aja,” are my favorites. Check out Fagan’s, “Nightfly,” & “Kamekeriad.” Keep playing... in God's glory.

Leaving no mystery to the lyrics, "Don't Take Me Alive" is about a violent criminal holed up with "a case of dynamite" telling the cops to shoot him, in the tradition of playing "suicide by cop." He also appears to have committed patricide. That's our Steely Dan - the darkest lyrics sung to the most cheerful tunes in rock 'n' roll! Long before O. J. Simpson led police on a slow-speed chase through its streets, Los Angeles had been host to a number of unusual crimes and high-profile apprehensions - flipping on the TV in LA, you can often see a crime unfolding in real-time. Natives of the city are used to it, but Becker and Fagen were transplants from New York, so to them, it was really bizarre. In writing this song, they drew on some of these stories that inundated the city.

Fine tribute. I’ve never given a fig for anyone’s lyrics - it’s all about sounds for me - but I have no problems reciting Steely Dan’s. Having grown up with them, I feel strangely jealous of people hearing Steely Dan for the first time. I was very young when I first heard them(PEG), and it took three or four hearings for me to ‘get it’ (music wise) but I found my addiction to their notes and nuances was insatiable. Mid 50’s now - I miss that ‘musical hit’.

I love watching your reactions!! Steely Dan is the best!

That guitar intro has been my ringtone for the past 15 years. :)

One of the few songs ever that opened with a guitar solo.

This is one of my fave songs by Steely Dan. Every time there is a mass shooting or a stand-off somewhere, this is the song that pops into my head.

They used to say that 'Steely Dan is your favorite band's favorite band.' Yep.

JAMfamily strikes again ! Glad you liked it brother. 2 more for ya. "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and "Dirty Work". When you can of course. We haven't steered you wrong yet. Have a blessed day !

My God! I haven't heard this song for forever. Why is Steely Dan so important all at once?

Steely Dan....music for adults.

Uh-huh... that's right- that is a goosebump-producing guitar intro, one of the best you'll ever hear. You've been 'Steely-Done'!!!

Don’t Take Me Alive was ahead of its time, a hypnotic account of the sort of public violence that we could still call rare in the mid ‘70s. This was when the Dan was culturally cutting-edge; their songs have since become classics. Thanks to Larry Carlton Royal Scam is rightly considered the Dan’s best guitar album -- I wish it was a sound they could’ve returned to before Walter’s demise. Fagen’s voice was in its prime. So good to see new generations discovering Steely Dan.

"I'm a bookkeepers son, I don't wanna shoot no one, but I crossed my old man back in Oregon, don't take me alive." He is saying he's just an ordinary dude from a middle class family, and he doesn't really want to shoot any of the crowd, but he's gonna, and blow them up with that case of dynamite too. The protagonist is an insane rooftop sniper, who has decided he has to kill a bunch of people and go out in a blaze of glory. He apparently already killed his father back home in Oregon, and the cops are going to take him down if they can.

we all decide what it means, I simply want to thank you for sharing and being so open and honest, I love to see your expressions as you listen, makes it almost new again!

Trust me, even the most devout Dan fans get confused sometimes by some of their lyrics.

"The mechanized hum of another world." - D. Fagen .... #dropsmic

Quite possibly the greatest ever guitar intro

"bookkeeper's son". The accounting profession, and by extension, bookkeeping, is considered to be more of a conservative, safe, non-aggressive, solitary type of profession.

You can get very lost in lyrics. Sometimes they are meant not so much for a story as an emotion . I think people interpret songs differently. What a song means to me may not be what you make it out to be. Great reaction. Loved it. Steely Dan has a karge collection of songs. It's a great wormhole.! I'll be seeing you. Thanks again!Peace!!

I remember hearing this at like 11 or 12 years old and really focusing on it and the lyrics and having no clue who what band it was, it made me nuts.

Steely Dan lyrics are surealist. Its great you young 'uns are listening to them.

Sign in Stranger should follow. Steely will continue to knock your socks off in how diverse their songwriting is and how you’ll be taken away on a musical journey

We love you too. Music is universal and totally essential.

Top 3 bands. One of my fave songs.

As a guitarist you will LOVE Kid Charlemagne, Haitian Divorce, Green Earrings, and a bunch more from this phenomenal band

Finally! Someone finally reacted to this song. Thank you!!

One of the coldest Steely Dan cuts ever. It’s about a guy who is in a police standoff. “ I’m a bookkeepers som, I don’t want to shot no one. I crossed my old man back in Oregon. Don’t Take Me Alive !!!

SD never gets old. Massive love and respect.

This song always spoke to me of an old time bank robber, like back at the turn of the century. He's finally cornered by the 'agent of the law', but he doesn't want to surrender...

Just came across your channel. Wish I'd found you sooner. I enjoy smart, honest reactions from people who not only enjoy music, but LISTEN to it, analyze it, NEED it. It's a very important part of their lives. You are one such person. Thank you! I heard an interview with Seal where he talks about people asking him what the meaning of a song is. He doesn't cave, and answers with "Well, what does it mean to you?" When they tell him, he says, "Then that's what it means." What a great answer.

0:50 yes, that's how I felt the first time that intro hit me - and still is, every time!

He's holed up in a building, the cops are outside with the megaphone. A bookkeeper's son. Crossed my old man back in Oregon. The state of Oregon. So he comes from Oregon, where he fought with his father (a bookkeeper) and left home. Now he has committed a crime and someone was killed (the luckless pedestrian, someone just walking by). A preacher might have been there with the cops, trying to persuade him to come out. Steely Dan was composed of just two people, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker (now deceased), All the other musicians on their albums were studio musicians. This gave Donald and Walter a huge selection of the very best musicians. Some musicians played on more than one song, other songs had different guitar players, drummers, brass, back up singers to achieve the perfect sound Donald and Walter were striving for. They chose each musician for the exact style they wanted.

My favorite SD album and one of their best tracks.

Always loved Steely Dan

I was about 18 years old when I had the Aja album and instantly knew this was music for grownups. I immediately started smoking and drinking, whoring and brooding. They changed my life for ever. Sardonic poetry.

:)...Nice Reaction!...Larry Carlton is A MONSTER ax man...So much beautiful melody and structuring... Great album 40 plus years of listening to it and It gets greater each time...:)

I love the album cover on this one too. To me it depicts two polar opposite realities in one megalithic city (New York). The beasts depicted at the skyscraper tops are corporate raiders in deadly competition for power, and the chewed up dregs of humanity depicted by the street guy sleeping on a park bench with holes in the soles of his shoes. Lots to contemplate...

Lol! The first few seconds of your reaction to Larry's solo, was the exact same reaction I had over a decade ago when I first heard this gem!

An unbelievable profile of a man's thoughts on the edge of death succinctly captured in a three minute song. Only bob Dylan tells a better story so shortly.

Nice one FAMIly! Somebody else on youtube - a Queen fan - reacted to Steely Dan. Didn't like them. Said they reminded him of The Bee Gees....!!!!! He obviously has more cloth in his ears than Eor.

Lyrics sort of hypnotise you and you don’t even really understand what’s happening - they move you to some weird mood place - so strange and powerful!

So happy to have another Dan fan in the cut!! Love to you, Jam! Enjoy the perfection that is Steely Dan❤️

The protagonist in this song has taken hostages and is holed up in a stand-off with the authorities. He wants to go out in a blaze of imagined glory, hence the line, "Don't take me alive."

FM, another great hit by them. N°1 in USA at the time. You will love it too.

I always thought it was about a guy being hunted when he says I have dynamite I could hold out here all night, Fagan was and still is a genius.

Love the reaction. That is a great song. I love thought provoking lyrics.

“I’m a bookkeeper’s son/I don’t want to shoot no one/Yes I crossed my old man back in Oregon/Don’t take me alive” I didn’t realize it was “Oregon” until last year and I’ve been listening to Steely Dan forever. I thought it was Aragorn. 🤷🏼‍♀️

The great Larry Carleton on guitar. Such a great song. Love your video's!

I wish you were still putting content out, you have such a wonderful ear.

it's a great song and i never really tried to analyze the lyrics to their songs, a little abstract i guess but their music was just well, steely dan and awesome.

Glad you liked, the chord progressions are amazing.

Amazing how Steely Dan can sing about such a horrible event and make it sound cool 😎!!!

"How can I answer... a man of my mind can do anything.."

If your not bobbing your head to The Dan when they're putting it down, you have no soul at all.

That song is like a box of hooks.

I'm a bookkeeper's son, I don't want to shoot no one". The song is about someone who commited a crime; probably a murder, who is now cornered by the police. Look up the lyrics. It's actually a very dark song.

The lyric is about a stand off. Agents of the law. Luckless pedestrians. Bookkeepers son. Back in Oregon. Where are you getting your lyrics? The authorities are yelling at him through the megaphone to surrender.

Darkness as only Walter and Donald could write it - from the perspective of a deranged mass shooter targeting "luckless pedestrians" under assault by the police calling up to him to surrender with their megaphones. The juxtaposition of the calm normalcy of a bookkeeper's son and the twisted rage of the deranged shooter is poetry of the darkest kind. All of this with the blistering guitar by the great Larry Carlton. The absolute gut punch of the guitar intro rips straight into the soul of normalcy and sets this masterpiece of a song up as a sonic assault to the listener. Turn the clock back and try and put yourself into the minds of Becker and Fagen and ask yourself, where on God's earth did the idea for this song come from - who writes lyrics like this? I give you the great Steely Dan.

Don't Take Me Alive" off of "The Royal Scam" is about David Sylvan Fine, the youngest of the Sterling Hall bombers (at the University of Wisconsin- Madison) who was captured ins San Rafael, California in January of 1976. Despite the title of the song he WAS taken alive, spent three years in prison and eventually became a paralegal in Oregon.

You are very good!......So was Steely Dan!

Larry Carlton on a ES335 !It doesn't get much better than that!

Being a huge Steely Dan Fan I know the real meaning of the song. I hesitate to post it as maybe your interpretation should be left to your imagination. The song is about David Fine (also known as William Fewes) inner monologue as the 'agents of the law' (FBI or, as they are known, "federal agents") surround his room in San Rafael to arrest him for the Sterling Hall bombing in 1970. He was one of four men that bombed the building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus because it housed the Army Mathematics Research Center. (Three others were injured.) The 'luckless pedestrian' is the only casualty of the Sterling Hall bombing, researcher Robert Fassnacht. In the press, David Fine's father was listed as a bookkeeper or salesman in the Portland, Oregon area. Not a "bookie" or anything else nefarious - just an honest middle-class working professional of the time. All of the Sterling Hall bombers statements after the fact, specifically said that they did not plan for anyone to be injured by the bomb - which was retaliation for the infamous Kent State massacre. Fine was unarmed at the time of apprehension. ("I don't want to shoot no one.") (no standoff). Donald Fagen and Walter Becker take poetic license in writing the song. If you wish I would have left this to your imagination please let me know.

Has to be one of the top ten guitar intros of all time…

Down to Earth reactions, you stand out from the rest...my opinion. I overheard Steely Dan as a kid when my parents spun their records. Now I’m a guitarist who goes from Pantera riffs to Carlton leads.

"You probably never heard of me...But you heard my Guitar"--Larry Carlton..

I wish I was hearing this for the first time. I’ve been listening to this forever and it never gets old. A friend of mine did the cover art. I hope you’re checked out Deacon Blues.

If you are a guitarist you should know who Larry Carlton is! One of the best jazz/fusion session guitarists around. Still playing today. Check out Deacon Blues (one of my favs!) Black Cow, Peg, Josie .... the list goes on with the Dan.

now It's time for Steely Dan - Do it again

The song is loosely based on David Fine, who along with three others bombed Sterling Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1970. They thought there was no one in the building at 3:42 am, but it turned out there were several in the physics department which was housed there along with the intended target, the Army Mathematics Research Center. A PhD student was killed, and three others were injured. Fine was the "bookkeeper's son," and was on the run for six years before spending three years in prison. One of the four is still a fugitive after 50 years. Fagan and Becker take some poetic license with the song, particularly the chorus and the first verse. Fine was unarmed when arrested (the cops have the rage in their eyes and the megaphones), and certainly didn't have dynamite, but it does make for a hell of a great song. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Hall_bombing