"Lunch With Gina"

Streaming (GB, 6/3/03):   The guy is probably stalking Gina. This lunch date is probably in his head. And as he get more frustrated, Gina is becoming more of a PT.

Beerberian (GB, 6/3/03): Gina; I reckon she's a lap dancer and the guy is the sort who'd spend his lunchtimes sneaking in there

Groovin'
(GB, 6/3/03):
Gina and her secret admirer live in the same apartment building. He listens to her phone ring and knows when she doesn't answer Do you think she tortures him on purpose? Or is it all in his mind?

observe le skii waxette (GB, 6/3/03):  it's all in his skeevy little mind

wormtom (GB, 6/3/03): sounds like our protagonist lives in an apartment complex, Gina is a common visitor of his close neighbor (who isn't home a lot - gender not specific). Perhaps she rang his door once by chance to get by the front door. our faithful narrator is fixated on her, overhears neighbors phone calls with her, soon learns her times of stopping in, the car she drives and starts following her out to her lunch haunts. his nerves are on edge as he waits and his fantasies run amuck
    a little more subtle than Cousin Dupre

DACW (GB, 6/3/03): Could be he's externailized his stalking to her...HE's actually rings her number, hangs up...watches her at the restaurant from afar...Wow, she does sound like an upgraded Sean Young model...

Howard (GB, 6/9/03):  "who's stalking who?" indeed. I've got quite a different idea of the story now. Sounds like our man in struggling to escape from Gina, not stalking her. She's ringing his bell, and he's hoping she'll go. He's the one with "the blinds down, the lights out" hoping she'll stop calling!

luckless pedestrian (GB, 6/10/03): if gina is a stalker as someone posted before, then doesn't he come around in the last stanza?

Steveedan (GB, 6/10/03): This is a classic example of literary irony. After trying to avoid the "cringemaker", the narrator discovers that his stalker is a beauty ... someone he might like to have relations (of some sort) with.

Howard (GB, 6/11/03): I agree, I think the narrator in Gina starts to have second thoughts right at the end of the song. Typical Dan, to leave the story hanging like that. Does he give her a chance? Does he live to regret it? Who knows.

The Audi TT (GB, 6/11/03):  In "Lunch with Gina", they are *both* stalkers. But then again the song is about drug addiction.

Bill (GB, 6/11/03):  "Lunch with Gina" is a fantastic song. It just rocks. It's also kind of funny when you think about it because in the begining of the song the guy is doing all he can do to avoid the girl;

"So I'm nailed to the floor in the no-option zone
There's about zero chance she'll give up and go home"

But during the second half of the song he finally realizes that she's quite a bit hotter than he first thought...

"I'm about to go postal when she waltzes in
I guess she's a knockout, Hey where have I been?"

Also is it possible that the following verse is a play on words?

"The waiter never comes
God knows the service could be better"

The waiter never comes? Who is doing the waiting? He is of course.  This might be a bit too riske' even for Steely Dan though but it crossed my mind considering who the songwriters are.

oleander (GB, 6/11/03): Yeah, "Lunch With Gina" is the latest chapter in the March of the Borderlines. This guy can't get enough of beautiful women with personality disorders. Negative girls, Pegs, Josies, almost Gothics, junkie girls... drive you bats, but like you say, craveworthy. Funny take on the waiter there.

Gina (GB, 6/12/03): ... from where i hear the lyrics and listen to them and or interpret, it's mainly about attraction and this game of back and forth, the fear of giving in, as we're all familiar with the gender chemistry depending on one's character and personality which can make for all kinds of actions-reactions etc etc.
this song's from a guy's point of view for sure LOL.
for it's still quite common for a man to wanna conquer a woman and use all means in order to get what he wants, but when a woman shows determination this usually arouses fear or something ...
and again, this CD's a picture book, human nature in a groovy mode.

Roy.Scam (GB, 6/12/03):  Subtitle: "Positive Girl". Donald, just find yourself a nice Jersey girl with positive values. This is your third helping of Black Cow and these oblivious schizo women are just gonna leave you staring into your coke. Nice instrumental break. The outro also reminds me of that negatively charged girl that repelled the poor guy in Two Against Nature.

Roy.Scam (GB, 6/16/03):  ... "Lunch with Gina" would make a killer Twilight Zone episode. I can see Rod Serling walking through a crowded restaurant just before the credits come on.  "A late lunch with the girl of his dreams. Or is she the girl of his nightmares? The waiter who never comes. Bad service? Or could it be that lunch with Gina is forever ... in the twilight zone."  Freeze frame on the patrons of the restaurant. The music stops. The lights grow dim, then dark, except for one small spotlight on a corner table where the two fate-crossed lovers sit frozen in mid gesture. Fade to black. dee-dee-dee-dee. dee-dee-dee-dee.

Man with no face (Blue Book, 6/26/03):       Does anybody else hear "I'm about to go postal when *G* waltzes in" instead of "when *she* waltzes in"? And I dunno,     Tanqueray is a premium gin, and the martini is very popular these days.... I don't know if its as decadent as kirschwasser from a shell though. Retsina emphasizes the connection to Homer's Odyssey, its Greek.

angel (Blue Book, 6/26/03):  I guess she's a knockout -- hey where have I been?
     Did he get drugged? Hmmmm.....

wormtom (GB, 7/5/03):  contemplate the line
             "lunch with Gina is forever"

             generally on a cyber initiated (or blind) date - best to do lunch
             the committment level is minimal if you don't hit it off

             seems our protagonist goes to set things up
             unfortunately he tells Gina a little too much about himself,
             like last name or where he lives
             and he's got the stalker at the door

             that minimal commitment lunch date that never materialized
             (at least till the last verse)
             is certainly "forever"

Deacon Jones (8/25/03):  The action is narrated in reverse order. The last verse tells of the first meeting with Gina. The second to last verse tells speaks of the result of the lunch,
our man is hiding in his apartment. In the second verse he finally goes outside again, he tries to hide, but she finds him. And finally in the first verse she has followed him to his apartment and is ringing the bell.

Patrick Cleasby (from his marvelous review on highfidelityreview.com 5/16/03): 
Lunch with Gina’ is about a fantasy stalker or a stalker fantasy, I’m not sure which, and its “the waiter never comes” line emphasises that this album’s theme is the New York equivalent of the Eagles ‘Hotel California’ disillusionment.

Wow!  Patrick's observation about Hotel California gives me a frisson:  You can check out, but you can never leave.
  And you can never leave the cozy booth.... The waiter never comes--because lunch with Gina is FOREVER--MWAHAHA--cue Twilight Zone theme...

Clean Willy (11/1103): 
Oleander, what you and Patrick say is even more interesting in light of the whole "Everything You Did" (turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening)
"Hotel California" (they stab it with their steely knives) debate from 1976.


"Pixeleen""Everything Must Go"