Steely Dan: My Rival Meaning
No tags, suggest one.
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Dad is coming to terms with sharing his affection for a child (holding your tiny hand in mine) with a stepdad, or perhaps that child's biological father. ("Milk truck easing into my space" is a play on the idea of a wife sleeping with the milkman.)
Begins with the cliche of a hardened criminal ("scar across his face"), which then becomes an image of an ineffectual person: "he wears a hearing aid" = he's just a guy.
The idea of 'rivalry' is melodramatic.
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A cuckold, aware that his wife is cheating on him, is determined to find out as much as he can about her lover. He lurks in his own neighborhood and watches the traffic on his street. He hires a detective to get pictures, which discloses that his wife's lover is not exactly Adonis. He remembers the love he and his wife originally had together, and feels betrayed. He plans to beat the fellow up real soon now.
I've always felt that the clever use of the lyric "I'll match him whim for whim now" Is a clever play on the stereotype threat one would expect at this point, "I'll tear him limb from limb now."
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Steely Dan Song Meanings
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Rikki Don't Lose That Number
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Do It Again
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Black Cow
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Kid Charlemagne
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Hey Nineteen
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Deacon Blues
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Time Out of Mind
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Caves Of Altamira
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The Last Mall
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The Royal Scam
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Throw Back The Little Ones
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FM (No Static at All)
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I'm a Fool To Do Your Dirty Work
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The Fez
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Cousin Dupree
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Babylon Sister
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Black Friday
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Peg
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Doctor Wu
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