You’re standing in a Best Buy parking lot at 4:00 AM. It’s freezing. You’re waiting for a discounted 70-inch TV that you probably don't need, and suddenly, that churning, propulsive piano riff from Steely Dan starts playing in your head. When Black Friday comes, I'll collect everything I'm owed. It feels like the perfect consumerist anthem, right?
Well, not exactly.
Honestly, if you told Donald Fagen and Walter Becker back in 1975 that their song would one day be associated with suburban moms fighting over air fryers, they’d probably give you that signature cynical smirk and walk away. Steely Dan When Black Friday Comes—officially just titled "Black Friday"—has basically nothing to do with holiday shopping. In fact, it’s a lot darker, weirder, and more apocalyptic than most people realize.
The 1869 Financial Massacre (Not the Mall)
Most people assume the song is about the 1929 stock market crash. Wrong. That was a Tuesday.
The real inspiration for the track is the original Black Friday of September 24, 1869. This wasn't a sale on linens; it was a ruthless attempt by two financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, to corner the gold market. They used their political connections to the Ulysses S. Grant administration to keep government gold off the market, driving prices sky-high while they hoarded the stuff.
When the bubble burst, it didn't just pop; it disintegrated. The government finally released $4 million in gold, and the market collapsed in minutes.
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Fagen’s lyrics capture the aftermath with a sort of detached, gallows humor. When he sings about catching "the grey men when they dive from the fourteenth floor," he’s painting a literal (if slightly anachronistic) picture of the suicidal desperation that follows a total economic wipeout. It’s about a man who sees the world ending and decides to take the money and run.
Muswellbrook and the Great Escape
One of the most specific and baffling lines in the song is: I'll fly down to Muswellbrook. Why there? Muswellbrook is a real town in New South Wales, Australia. It’s a coal-mining and horse-breeding hub. In the mid-70s, for two guys living in the high-pressure pressure cooker of Los Angeles, Muswellbrook was essentially the furthest place on Earth they could imagine.
The narrator in the song isn't just taking a vacation. He’s "striking all the big red words" from his little black book—basically erasing his debts and his sins—and fleeing to a place where he can "wear no socks and shoes" and feed the kangaroos. It’s the ultimate Steely Dan fantasy: escaping the filth of civilization for a simpler, albeit slightly nonsensical, existence in the outback.
Why the Song Sounds "Funny" (The DBX Disaster)
If you listen to the track on the album Katy Lied, you might notice it sounds a bit... flat? A bit squeezed?
You aren't imagining things.
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The recording of Steely Dan When Black Friday Comes was part of what became a technical nightmare for the band. They used a brand-new noise reduction system called dbx during the sessions. The idea was to get a cleaner, hiss-free sound. Instead, the system malfunctioned. It "squeezed" the high end of the recordings, making the cymbals sound like they were made of cardboard and the vocals feel oddly lisp-y.
Becker and Fagen, being the world-class perfectionists they were, were devastated. They supposedly couldn't even listen to the finished album for years. They even sent an apology note to fans on the back of some pressings.
Despite the technical "failure," the performance on "Black Friday" is incredible. You've got:
- Walter Becker playing the guitar solo himself (a rarity back then, as they usually hired session legends like Larry Carlton or Elliott Randall). He used a borrowed Fender Telecaster and absolutely ripped through a nasty, bluesy lead.
- Jeff Porcaro, the legendary drummer who later co-founded Toto, providing that relentless, driving shuffle.
- Michael Omartian on the piano, locking in with the rhythm section to create that sense of forward motion that feels like a train heading off a cliff.
The Irony of the 21st Century
There is a massive irony in how we use this song today. We’ve taken a track about a guy escaping a financial apocalypse to live in the woods and turned it into the background music for the peak of global capitalism.
The song's narrator is a "crooked speculator." He’s a guy who wins while everyone else loses. In a weird way, that does fit the modern Black Friday vibe—the frantic energy of trying to "stake your claim" before the other guy gets the last Xbox.
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But the song is actually a warning. It’s about the fragility of the system. It’s about how quickly "the grey men" can go from the top of the world to the pavement. When Fagen sings "Don't let it fall on me," he’s expressing the universal fear of being caught on the wrong side of the ledger when the music stops.
How to Truly Appreciate "Black Friday" Today
If you want to get the full experience of this song, stop listening to it as a "holiday jam."
First, look for the Analogue Productions UHQR or a high-quality remaster. Engineers have spent decades trying to fix the dbx errors from the original 1975 tapes, and recent versions finally bring back some of the "air" and "sparkle" that was lost.
Second, read the lyrics as a short story. It’s not a pop song; it’s a noir film condensed into three minutes and forty seconds. The narrator is a rat, the world is on fire, and Australia is the only hope.
Actionable Insights for the Dan-Curious:
- Compare the versions: Listen to the original vinyl vs. the 2020s remasters. You’ll finally hear the "hidden" detail in the percussion that Fagen thought was ruined forever.
- Contextualize the lyrics: Read up on the 1869 Fisk-Gould scandal. It makes the "grey men" and "fourteenth floor" lines hit much harder when you realize the scale of the corruption involved.
- Watch the live versions: Seek out the 2000s-era live recordings. The band finally had the technology and the "perfect" touring lineup to play the song with the hi-fi clarity they dreamed of in 1975.
Forget the sales. Forget the lines. The next time Steely Dan When Black Friday Comes hits your speakers, remember it’s a song about a guy changing his name, fleeing the country, and letting the world pass him by. Honestly, on a busy shopping day, that sounds like a much better plan anyway.