Barrytown
by Steely Dan

Album: Pretzel Logic (1974)
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Songfacts®:

  • Barrytown is a town in upstate New York near Annandale, where Donald Fagen and Walter Becker went to school at Bard College. Strange things have happened there indeed. Barrytown was the headquarters for the Unification Church, a controversial religious organization led by Sun Myung Moon, with a campus there from 1974-2018. They were prominent in the '70s, with Moon giving speeches at Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Mike - Stratford, CT
  • Despite insisting in song that he would never go back to his old school, Donald Fagen did, receiving an honorary degree from Bard in 1985. When he was there the student newspaper The Bard Observer asked him about the song "Barrytown." He replied: "I used the name of the town because I like the sound of it. It's basically a fiction. Funny thing is that I came back to Bard during Thanksgiving this year for the first time since I left. Just drove up for the day. When we got there most of the students were gone. It was pretty amazing walking around campus because a lot of those sites are emotionally charged for me. it was a very bizarre experience for me."

Comments: 9

  • Paul Nolte from MichiganUnfortunately the song was written before the Moonies, so no.
  • Mark In Taos from Taos NmDigging the site!
  • Nemesis GuitarsIMO I believe it's about the moonies as well but with The Dan who knows for sure, At least thats what they want you to think
  • Rickard from ChicagoJess from Pelham NY - I think he's saying came out of the birth canal. not the closet.
  • Jess from Pelham, Ny“...it was there when you came out, it’s a special lack of grace — I can see it in your face...” I always assumed this song was about gay people. Certainly, the venom of the lyrics fits.
  • Jeffrey from Kingston, NyI grew up in Barrytown and we always believed the song was written about the "Christian Brothers," whose seminary was in existence just prior to the Moonies on the same estate. What the brothers carried was a small bible (perhaps concordance, or other books) and their hair was very short. They stood out in the 60s counter culture era.

    https://bit.ly/3Wsb8qW
    https://bit.ly/3zLAt5l
  • Nydanfan from New York, NyWell, I may have to stand corrected. I just heard from a friend that in a radio interview Donald Fagen did admit to writing the song about the Unification Church. Have to figure out the time line on this (anyone have DF's email address?).
  • Nydanfan from New York, NyA lot of references point to the song being about Rev. Moon's property in Barrytown. Problem is that the song was written before Rev. Moon purchased the property. I was at the Moon Barrytown property in Jan. 1975, it was purchased in 1974, but Pretzel Logic was recorded in 74 and the song written probably in 72 or 73. Fagen and Becker had left the area by then having graduated from Bard years before.
    Many of us enjoyed singing the song there, it certainly seemed to fit the moonies (err, Unificationists) at that time! Maybe a bit prophetic on Don Fagen's part.
    see: https://bit.ly/3T94jHQ
  • Cadanfan from Jackson, Ca"I can see by what you carry that you come from Barrytown" references the Moonies selling flowers as a means of making money.
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