Re: Steely Dan lyric

Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 14:07:11 -0400
Newsgroups: alt.drugs.psychedelics
Size: 1,540 bytes

spork wrote:
>
> On Sat, 31 May 2003 12:26:19 -0400, Frederick Burroughs
> <email-address-deleted> wrote:
>
> >spork wrote:
> >>
> >> Anybody here into Steely Dan? I was too young when they
> >> were first happening. Been discovering their music on
> >> CD.
> >>
> >> Song: Showbiz Kids.
> >>
> >> What are the Afro-American ladies singing or chanting
> >> in the background through the whole song? Could never
> >> quite make it out, almost doesn't sound like English.
> >> They just repeat and repeat a few words.
> >
> >They were a favorite years ago, partly based on their W.S. Burroughs
> >reference. Funny how stuff get's lost in the head for years. Then,
> >suddenly retrieved. I know this is repeated throughout the song:
> >"Las Wages, Las Wages, go to Las Wages..."
> >
> But then what is "Las Wages"? Is it another way of
> saying Las Vegas?
>
> I mean, what you wrote here is the way it sounds. But
> then does it make any sense? It seems like generally
> when Donald Fagin writes something, it makes some kind
> of sense.
I always took as a play on words "Las Vegas" = "Las Wages." In the
song, which makes contrast between the rich and poor, it makes lyrical
sense. Or, it may be the Spanish (Mexican) pronunciation of "Vegas,"
and still be a play on the words. Poetically, "Las Wages" flows
better than "Las Vegas" when repeated in a mantra to hedonistic
commercialism. But, who the fuck knows.
--
The lock upon my garden gate's a snail, that's what it is.
-Donovan's prescient response to homeland security.