Lyrics to
My Old School

This version of My Old School was released by Steely Dan in 1973.

Our Steely Dan Songs profile has My Old School lyrics from 1973 and most if not all of the lyrics by Steely Dan that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Steely Dan or about the 1970s in general.

I remember the thirty-five sweet goodbyes
When you put me on the Wolverine
Up to Annandale
It was still September
When your daddy was quite surprised
To find you with the working girls
In the county jail
I was smoking with the boys upstairs
When I heard about the whole affair
I said oh no
William and Mary won’t do

Well I did not think the girl
Could be so cruel
And I’m never going back
To my old school

Oleanders growing outside her door
Soon they’re gonna be in bloom
Up in Annandale
I can’t stand her
Doing what she did before
Living like a gypsy queen
In a fairy tale
Well I hear the whistle but I can’t go
I’m gonna take her down to Mexico
She said oh no
Guadalajara won’t do

California tumbles into the sea
That’ll be the day I go
Back to Annandale
Tried to warn you
About Chino and Daddy Gee
But I can’t seem to get to you
Through the U.S. Mail
Well I hear the whistle but I can’t go
I’m gonna take her down to Mexico
She said oh no
Guadalajara won’t do

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Steely Dan has released many songs over the years besides My Old School. Steely Dan released songs from 1972 to 2000 spanning across albums like Can't Buy A Thrill, Countdown To Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied, The Royal Scam, Aja, Gaucho, and Two Against Nature. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Steely Dan.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1973 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and My Old School by Steely Dan

When you decide to study the lyrics to My Old School, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1973 song by Steely Dan. Some of the lyrics to My Old School have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Steely Dan and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to My Old School if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to My Old School" means the words set to the music of My Old School, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Steely Dan. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to My Old School and the lyrics to My Old School are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Steely Dan who came here looking just for the lyrics to My Old School, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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