Steely Dan song theories explained. This one is a doozy! The Dan take a subliminal shot at the Eagles in this track. Legend says that Walter Becker’s girlfriend at the time was listening to the Eagles a bit too often for Walter’s taste, so in the lyrics to this song, Steely compares them to “background music”. Interestingly enough, the Eagles rebounded by writing a significant piece called “Hotel California” (maybe you’ve heard of it) in which the Dan is paid homage (“stab it with their STEELY knives but they just can’t kill the beast”) igniting a friendly decades-long rivalry between the two bands. This ties directly to the film “The Big Lebowski”, who’s main character “The Dude” (his best friends in the film are named “DONNIE” (Fagen) and WALT (Becker) who famously hates the Eagles! Bet you never knew that. Well. I never knew YOU…you were a roller skater! You gonna show me later?! Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listenin’!….