"Could that be murder you see in her eyes...."  Presages "Tomorrow's Girls" and "On The Dunes."
         I love the last verse--it evokes the epidemic of "heartquake" so beautifully.

Schwinn (1/17/99):  When Donald sings, "It's nasty weather for July", in the song, Countermoon, do you think he's alluding to the fact that his natal moon is in opposition, or 'counter' to the Sun every year from app.6/22 - 7/11?  (The opposition is at totality on, surprise, July 4th!!)  I mention this because the opposition is one of the most powerful aspects in Astrology.  Powerful in its insidiousness--almost an unconscious drive--like the tides.

Dunks (10/3/00):  Springtime
A nifty satire on the American obsession for drive-in service  -- drive into Springtime and relive (or retool) your romantic memories!
        *       "Here at Laughing Pines the party never ends" -- delightfully ironic inversion of a common usage. Do a web search - there are literally thousands of resorts, motels and B&Bs called "Whispering Pines" -- a cliché of rural tranquillity. In Greco-Roman belief pines are associated with sacred precincts, cemeteries, and with sorrow and mourning. The god Pan wore a garland of pine leaves (Bullfinch), and pines were sacred to Diana/Artemis, goddess of the hunt and the moon (Bullfinch). There's also the ironic tension between laughing and other meaning of   pine, 1 : to lose vigor, health, or flesh (as through grief). 2: to yearn intensely and persistently especially for something unattainable
        *       Get off at Funway West" - cf. WESTWORLD
        *       "Cape Sincere" - Lily St Cyr was a well-known stripper of the 1950s, who is also name-checked in one of the songs in "The Rocky Horror Show"
        *       "gospel candy" - any relation to jazz cigarettes?
        *       "With Coltrane on the K.L.H." - I forget where , but I recall reading an interview with Don & Walt about when they first went to the ABC offices in Hollywood. When they walked in they were horrified to find piles of master tapes, including some of Coltrane's legendary Impulse recordings, stacked up on the floor in the office and out in the corridor.  Apparently, they seriously considered removing them for safekeeping rather than leave them to be lost or damaged where they were.

Tom S (The Blue Book, 8/31/01):  Wimpmeister lyrics from Fagen? Howz about "Countermoon," eh? Pretty wussy if you ask me. How come no one's doing drugs and no one's pregnant with only-God-knows-who's baby in that ditty? Maybe an alien baby from Mizar 5? Mizar 5 is a Countermoon, get it ?  <wink> That's what C-moon needs, that's the difference between a Fagen song and a Steely Dan song.