Lyrics to
The Royal Scam

Released by Steely Dan in 1976
From the Album: The Royal Scam |

This version of The Royal Scam was released by Steely Dan in 1976.

Our Decade Lyrics Steely Dan profile has all of the The Royal Scam lyrics from 1976 and many more songs from the Steely Dan discography that we have on file.

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

And they wandered in
From the city of St. John
Without a dime
Wearing coats that shined
Both red and green
Colors from their sunny island
From their boats of iron
They looked upon the promised land
Where surely life was sweet
On the rising tide
To New York City
Did they ride into the street
See the glory
Of the royal scam

They are hounded down
To the bottom of a bad town
Amid the ruins
Where they learn to fear
An angry race of fallen kings
Their dark companions
While the memory of
Their southern sky was clouded by
A savage winter
Every patron saint
Hung on the wall, shared the room
With twenty sinners

See the glory
Of the royal scam

By the blackened wall
He does it all
He thinks he’s died and gone to heaven
Now the tale is told
By the old man back home
He reads the letter
How they are paid in gold
Just to babble in the back room
All night and waste their time
And they wandered in
From the city of St. John without a dime

See the glory
Of the royal scam


Want more lyrics and songs by Steely Dan?

Steely Dan has released many songs over the years besides The Royal Scam. 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 the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1976 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and The Royal Scam by Steely Dan

The lyrics for The Royal Scam are defined as the words making up the song released by Steely Dan in 1976. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to The Royal Scam have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Steely Dan and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

See also  Paradox

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to The Royal Scam by Steely Dan if you think through it. 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 The Royal Scam" means the words set to the music of The Royal Scam, 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 The Royal Scam and the lyrics to The Royal Scam 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 The Royal Scam, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

More Songs & Lyrics by Steely Dan

Show More Lyrics

Visit our Steely Dan profile for more Steely Dan songs, lyrics & info!

See also  Save Me A Place

Show More

See also  Cut My Hair
)