Babylon Sisters by Steely Dan

Album: Gaucho (1980)

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Some lyric interpretation:

"Babylon Sisters" - Fallen women, fallen and degenerate lifestyles - he realizes he is getting too old for this shallow experiences.

"Cotton Candy" - Nose candy, a reference to cocaine.

"Tell me I'm the only One" - A delusional reference to relationships with prostitutes, as he wants to believe he's more than just a client.

Babylon is Biblical, about a fallen people. Steely Dan uses it as an analogy to indulgent lifestyles and self-destructive behavior, a theme that also shows up in their song "Kid Charlemagne." In this case, the narrator is indulging in prostitutes. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Jo - Southern Texas
This is the first track on Steely Dan's Gaucho album, their last until 2000 when they released Two Against Nature.

Steely Dan is a rare group that would sometimes record songs that none of the band members played on. That was the case with Babylon Sisters, which has lead vocals from Donald Fagen, but no instrumental contributions from him or Walter Becker. The group always chose the players that best suited the song, and in this case the lineup included drummer Bernard Purdie, who played his distinctive "Purdie Shuffle," and bass player Chuck Rainey. The other instruments were:

Bass Clarinet: George Marge, Walter Kane
Fender Rhodes Electric Piano, Clavinet: Don Grolnick
Guitar: Steve Khan
Percussion: Crusher Bennett
Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Clarinet: Tom Scott
Trumpet, Flugelhorn: Randy Brecker
The duo used six talented backup singers on this track: Diva Grey, Gordon Grody, Lani Groves, Leslie Miller, Patti Austin and Toni Wine. Austin would have a #1 hit the following year with "Baby, Come To Me," her duet with James Ingram.
Steely Dan are known for being perfectionists in the studio, a reputation they lived up to on this track. The song was recorded at Village Recorders in Los Angeles, which had a new Neve console, giving them lots of control of various sonic details. Donald Fagen made seemingly endless tweaks to this song, creating one mix after another. Someone in the studio must have been keeping count, because when he hit 250 mixes, the crew gave him a "platinum" disk they created just for him. Fagen kept going, and it was mix number 274 that finally won his approval. He took that mix home to New York, but heard a note in the bass line he didn't like, so he returned to Los Angeles a week later and reconvened the team to fix it.

The engineers won a Grammy for their efforts: Gaucho took the award for Best Engineered Recording - Non-Classical. (This story is told in Johnny Black's article "Vinyl Icon: Gaucho," published in Hi-Fi News & Record Review.)

Comments: 13

Rick from UkI don't think anybody actually knows what this song is about, least of all Walter and Donald as they were clearly off their tits at the time.
Mike from SydneyIt seems to me the band is doing corporate gigs at high end parties....at these paries are an assortment of very beautiful young girls so the cotton candy could be doubling for cocaine but also messing around with young girls...He is wiser and he knows blowing snot out is just a spasm...big deal...but the young boys can be f--ked over and the devils wind is referenced with Santa ana.
So in the morning these pretentious people are jogging on the beach after a sordid night......
Now watching bridges burn suggest the cotton candy is drug...and most people lose networks when they are found out and unreliable...
Myron H Scott from OhioI love to find about these songs
David From Alabama from TuscaloosaHeard an interview with Fagen where he said the inspiration for the song was that he used to have a beachfront place and he liked to take walks in the late afternoon towards the end of the beach to a house where two extraordinarily attractive girls (fetching was his term) lived. He described them as, in his words, "quite welcoming." He said he was in a relationship at the time, and so never went too far. However, he still described it as a "particularly treacherous" time for him. So, if he's being straight up, that's the actual origin story of Babylon Sisters.
Gofastgo from Denver, CoSorry, but your interpretation of 'Babylon Sisters' is really poor. Sounds more to me like he is going out of town with a 18 year old, 'so young, so fine', does not identify a prostitute, most are worn out, not 'so fine'. We all know what Cotton candy, or nose candy relates to, but the rest of your analogy is really not close.
Gefeylich from CaliforniaLast night something struck me about the last verse: it's made up almost entirely of clichés, something neither Becker nor Fagen ever use except jokingly or ironically. "My friends say no, don't go for that cotton candy/son, you're playing with fire/the kid will live and learn/as he watches his bridges burn/from the point of no return." In this case it's a signal that the protagonist has heard it all & is tired of everything. Despite the music and the beautiful depiction of the beaches of Los Angeles in the evening, this is a hopeless song - downbeat, detached and horribly cynical.
Mike from St. Thomas, ViThe song depicts the experience of a middle-aged man from New York, NY who has moved to Los Angeles, CA. The man is dissatisfied with his partner and home life; and is seeking excitement by spending time at clubs featuring erotic entertainment. He feels that he has connected with a dancer from the club who one, is from Babylon, Long Island; and two, shares similar ethnic and cultural heritage with him; and three, is much younger than he is. They form a relationship, where in order to impress his lover, leads him to feign a lifestyle that is foreign to him and is beyond his means.
Bennie from Georgia Actually the line about cotton candy is a reference to Walter Becker's being investigated in Hawaii for statutory rape. Apparently , he had a 14 year old "GF" but was never arrested.
Mike from Glen Ridge, NjDoesn't "jungle music" refer to black music? I thought the song had something to do with interracial relationships. "The kid will live and learn as he watches his bridges burn" sounds like a reference to love child born of an interacial relation ship.
Laurent from Manama, BahrainCheck out David Garfield's instrumental version of this song on "Tribute To Jeff" and his version with the great Alex Ligertwood (ex- Santana)on vocals on "Tribute To Jeff - Revisited". BOth available at www.creatchy.com
Lance from Wilkes Barre, PaRegarding Babylon Sisters being SD's answer to the Who...let me say I am a huge fan of both groups. Both powered by creative lyrics, concepts, musical composition and musicianship. However, I can say for certain that SD never wrote anything as an an answer to anyone elses song. Walter and Donald are two one of a kinds...they don't give a s___ about what others write. they just make incomparable music.
Steve from Chino Hills, CaThis song has a lot of refferences to California goegraphy. "Drive West Down Sunset to the Sea" is about Sunset Blvd that starts in Downtown Los Angeles and winds west through Hollywood (Sunset strip) all the way out to the PCH at the Pacific Palisades. "Jungle music" is an old person's reference to rock and roll. Sunset is a bit busy and hectic to drive on and annoying music makes it that much harder. The idea is that they are going to catch the sunset over the Pacific ocean. It's a total tourist thing to do.

"Like a Sunday in TJ, that is cheap but it's not free." Tiajuna Mexico is about three hours south of Los Angeles, and it's the mecca for deals, cheap food and cheap booze. San Francisco takes six hours to drive to.

The Santa Ana winds occur in the last quarter of the year on very warm days where the winds come out of the desert from the east to the west. They are strong, hot winds.

I think that the song is about touring California, with Babylon New York sisters. They are younger, he's older, and love is not a game for three. Not quite the wild rock star three way sex fueled vacation he was planning.
Jim from Long Beach, CaThis is Steely Dan's answer to The Who's"Trick Of The Light"...

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