Album: The Royal Scam (1976)

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• I recall when I was small
  How I spent my days alone
  The busy world was not for me
  So I went and found my own
  I would climb the garden wall
  With a candle in my hand
  I'd hide inside a hall of rock and sand
  On the stone an ancient hand
  In a faded yellow-green
  Made alive a worldly wonder
  Often told but never seen
  Now and ever bound to labor
  On the sea and in the sky
  Every man and beast appeared
  A friend as real as I
  
  [Chorus]
  Before the fall when they wrote it on the wall
  When there wasn't even any Hollywood
  They heard the call
  And they wrote it on the wall
  For you and me we understood
  
  Can it be this sad design
  Could be the very same
  A wooly man without a face
  And a beast without a name
  Nothin' here but history
  Can you see what has been done
  Memory rush over me
  Now I step into the sun
  
  [Chorus] Writer/s: DONALD JAY FAGEN, WALTER CARL BECKER
  Publisher: Royalty Network, Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 6

• Pam from Topeka, KsThe Cave is timeless, so too Steely Dan's music
• Miguel from CantabriaYeah! It's probably that. I'm from the region that Altamira is in, I was very surprised when I discovered the song, as I'd been there multiple times. I think the beginning of the song in particular is a reference to the cave's discovery, which was done by a lad that worked for an amateur archeologist (it was by accident; his dog got lost and the guy was looking for him when he found the cave!). I've always thought that the "Can it be this sad design could be the very same?" part is a reference to the new cave. The original cave was closed to the public in the '70s, but they opened a facility that contains exact replicas for the public to see. I am not sure that they went that far into the cave's lore, but I've always felt that I was missing something when visiting it but not seeing the real thing. I'd like to go one day but it's very difficult to get into the real thing. Anyway, hope you all found this interesting!
• Semperfish from PhiladelphiaOP analysis (Jo- South Texas?) missed or ignored the entire first verse. Young loner finds a cave and discovers universal truths from long ago that are still relevant today...
• Tom from ChicagoJo - The early man is not the one who sings, "the busy world was not for me so I went and found my own." It's the narrator of the song who's a small boy who remembers how he used to "climb a garden wall with a candle in my hand" and "hide inside a hole of rock and sand." It was there that he discovered the thousands of years old primitive art that he sings about.
• Daniel from Arcata, CaSpence, I have a double disc of Android Where house and if dan fans want to hear raw steely dan they should try to find it. Well worth it
• Spence from Brooklyn, NyI think this song was previously named "Android Warehouse" before they put it on the Royal Scam album.

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