When it comes to Steely Dan songs, I have trouble picking my favorites, because they’re all so well-made. But today’s classic song of the day, “Doctor Wu,” definitely has a place in my top five. It’s a helluva song.
“Doctor Wu” is from 1975’s Katy Lied, which may be my favorite Dan album. (Or maybe The Royal Scam is my favorite. Or maybe Aja. I change my mind often.) I really like the sound of Katy Lied, very piano-driven, inspired it seems by the beautiful sound of the studio’s Bosendorfer grand (played on “Doctor Wu” by Michael Omartian). It’s a jazzier album than the Dan’s previous three, the precursor to the even jazzier sounds coming on Royal Scam and (especially) Aja. Still a lot of shorter 3-minute pop tunes, like on Pretzel Logic, but with more of a glossy sheen.
There are lots of great tunes on this album, with “Bad Sneakers,” “Rose Darling,” “Black Friday,” and “Any World (That I’m Welcome To)” being particular favorites. But it’s “Doctor Wu” that stands above the rest. It’s a tale of a love triangle, with heroin being one of the three sides. As Donald Fagen explained, in a rare instance opening up about their typically cryptic lyrics:
“I think usually when we do songs of a romantic nature, one or more of the participants in the alliance will come under the influence of someone else or some other way of life, and that will usually end up in either some sort of compromise or a split. In this song the girl meets somebody who leads another kind of life, and she’s attracted to it. Then she comes under the domination of someone else, and that results in the ending of the relationship or some amending of the relationship. In ‘Doctor Wu’ that someone else is a dope habit. personified as Doctor Wu.”
The lyrics speak of hope and betrayal, supported by an achingly beautiful melody above a terrific chord progression filled with tons of extended jazz chords and lovely vocal harmonies.
About those chords. I love how each of the three lines of the verse become increasingly more harmonically complex. It starts out (in the key of G major) with an Em – D/E – C – D/E – Em7 – Am7 progression. The next line gets more sophisticated with each chord serving the same harmonic purpose, going G – Am7 – CMaj7 – Bm7 – Am7 – Em7 – D11. Then it gets even fancier with the third line going GMaj7 – Dm7 – CMaj7 – Bm7 – Am7 – Em7 – CMaj7. Again, each chord serves the same purpose but by using various substitutions and extensions, it helps to build up the sound and the tension.
The chorus is also a work of harmonic art in that the chords, all extended, wander outside the primary key, giving it a very jazzy feel. The chorus chords are GMaj7 – BbMaj7 – EbMaj7 – Gm7 – Cm7 – F13 – GMaj7 – Bm7 – CMaj7 – GMaj7, ending with a C/F to D/E pair on the “Are you with me, doctor?” phrase. The flatted third and flatted fifth chords (BbMaj7 and EbMaj7) are totally unexpected, making you think you’re possibly in the key of Bb instead of the original G. That’s reinforced by the following minor tonic, minor fourth, and flatted seventh chords (Gm7, Cm7, F13), with that F13 definitely serving as the dominant back to the supposed tonic of Bb—except it doesn’t go back to Bb, it goes back to the tonic of the original key, G. Tasty stuff.
And those lyrics. Yes, it’s a song about being strung out on drugs, but it’s couched in the words of a lost love song. There’s no more heartbreaking line in any Dan song than “I went searching for the song you used to sing to me.” Damn. It’s despair, hope, and surrender, all in one short line.
“Doctor Wu” is one of the few Dan songs that tugs at your heart and your gut, and you’re not really sure why in the end. “Are you with me, Doctor?” Or “has she finally got to you?” We know how it turns out, and it isn’t near as pretty as the song turns out to be. Phil Woods’ lonely, hurting sax solo closes things out.
And, yes, the lyrics to “Doctor Wu” inspired the title of the Katy Lied album and its cover art. It’s the line “Katy lies, you can see it in her eyes” which leads to Katy Lied, which then leads us to the photo of the insect named katydid on the cover. Clever, those Steely Dan chaps.
Still, it’s the song that’s the thing. As the lyrics say:
All night long
We would sing that stupid song
And every word we sang, I knew was true
