Meaning of “Black Friday” by Steely Dan
“Black Friday” is a song recorded by the American rock band Steely Dan. The track’s lyrics were inspired by the 1869 American financial crisis dubbed Black Friday. The crisis in question financially crippled many investors and ruined their lives.
Here, Steely Dan doesn’t make it abundantly clear whether the song is an attack on corporate America’s greed. However, many believe this is exactly what it is about.
In the song, the narrator appears to have been one of the numerous unfortunate people destroyed by the crisis. Owing to this, he plans leaving America and settling in Muswellbrook. Muswellbrook is a small town located in New South Wales, Australia.
Facts about “Black Friday”
- Release Date: Steely Dan released “Black Friday” in the year 1975.
- Album/EP: It features on Steely Dan’s fourth studio album entitled Katy Lied.
- Writer(s): This song was composed by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who are members of Steely Dan.
- Length: It has a total run-time of 3:40. By virtue of this, it is the third longest track on the album Katy Lied.
How did “Black Friday” perform on the charts?
It managed to reach number 37 in the United States. However, it wasn’t very successful outside America.
Who played the track’s guitar solo?
The famous guitar solo on “Black Friday” was played by Becker. He reportedly played it using a Fender Mustang.
The real events that led to “Black Friday”
An economic tragedy occurred on 24th September, 1869 in the United States. Two businessmen, Jay Gould and his friend James Fisk planned to monopolize the gold market on the New York Stock Exchange in order to control its price. It was during the tenure of President Ulysses S. Grant who had a policy of selling treasury gold at weekly gaps to settle the national debt of the United States of America in order to strengthen the dollar and boost his economy.
The US needed to recover from losses incurred from the civil war. People took much interest in investment. The two investors; Jay and James took advantage of a marriage between Abel Corbin and Virginia Grant (President Grant’s younger sister) by convincing Corby to introduce them to the president. They believed that a friendship with President Grant would give them access to gold information so that they could manipulate the market. Unfortunately, their malicious plan worked successfully and resulted in a huge scandal which rocked and marred the reputation of President Grant’s administration. Jay and James made use of their good relationship with the president to gain influence over Wall Street.
They fooled the president into agreeing that gold sales would be harmful to western farmers. An embargo was therefore placed on government gold sales. This gave opportunity to Jay and James to buy more gold, thereby increasing its price. When president Grant finally realized their selfish plan, he released a sales order for $4 million gold on Friday 24th September. This dangerous move caused panic, dipped the price of gold and crushed the market.
I thought that the song was a reference to more current American economic disasters.
it was written in 1977 so nope
I thought it was about department store sales hence the “wear no socks or shoes” line😀
Great piece of history thank you! Seems to me like the narrator is one of the crooks though, catch a quick thrill watching investors dive out the window, then skip town to Australia to lay low and feed kangaroos (and be cleansed of his sins).
Regardless of the meaning, it’s Steely Dan at their rocker like and gritty cynicism best and surprised the song isn’t more revered and well-known
this song can get stuck in your head for days. love the dan.
I think Bill is right. The character is like the protagonist of Janey Runaway. He’s worried about getting caught but enjoying the good life in style in the meantime
Bemoaning corporate America, but these guys made more than most CEOs…typical no-nothing leftists
that would be “know-nothing”, but yes it’s hard to see reality clearly when you’re judging it from so far away.
F–king right wing idiots blaming everything on “leftists.” Look in the mirror and you’ll see the true “sheeple” you’re always bitching about, you cultist assholes.
I don’t know who you are but thank you.
Amen!
Reality bites, how do you actually know that they are leftists?
I feel like they were probably right leaning for a long time but probably more moderate / distaste both “sides” for different reasons now/later in in career.
That’s a great story behind the lyrics. Unfortunately, the hole in this story is the line, “I’ll fly down to Muswellbrook”. There were no planes in 1869, so the only way they could fly there would be on mushrooms. Otherwise, one would surmise that the song is in reference to the Wall Street Crash of 1929, when it was possible to fly to Muswellbrook.
yep
I don’t think it’s a reference to a specific incident. I always figured that the protagonist was one of the people that manipulated the market into crashing. He speaks about “catching the praying men as they dive from there 14th floor”.. almost like playing a game. Hence the reason that he is going to leave before all of his friends know and go to some Faraway obscure place to hide in leisure (wear no socks and shoes with nothing to do but feed the kangaroos).
He really doesn’t have any guilt, and he speaks sarcastically about the Archbishop sanctifying him.
My read anyway.
I thought the song was about the day after thanksgiving
Yes!!! I thought that was why he was “gonna wear no socks and shoes” because he was gonna buy some on Black Friday😀🤣
When Black Friday comes I want to hear these talented band members picking , beating and strumming! Got to have a light that shines through the dark times! Glass half full!!
Muswellbrook would have been a very small town in the Hunter valley district of the state of New South Wales Australia in 1869.
However, the lyrics give the impression of a later era than the original ‘Black Friday” crash and is possibly just a whimsical concept.
Muswellbrook does not actually have a commercial airport, other than some private landing strips that I know of.
The nearest commercial airport would be Newcastle airport in Williamstown a shared Commercial and Royal Australian Airforce base (RAAF Williamstown) the premiere Australian airforce pilot training base for F35A Joint Strike Fighters, E7A EWACS and Hawk 127 aircraft.
There are certainly plenty of Kangaroo in the area though and it is a pleasant small rural town of around 12000 inhabitants with racehorse breeding and high quality black coal mining industry as its mainstay.
The guitar work (Fender Telecaster if I remember correctly) by Becker is excellent and as usual superb studio production Becker and Fagin are so well known for.
Fagin stated that “they chose the location because it was about the farthest place from L.A. they could think of.”
And a great place to live it is too.
Incidentally Black Friday is better known in Australia as the day in January 1939 when 71 people died in horrific Victorian bushfires, the ash fallout travelled as far as New Zealand 1200 miles cross the Tasman sea with 1100 buildings / houses destroyed over the following week.
That and people didn’t fly to Australia in 1869