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07/26/2006: "Crazy Like a Fox - or Like Your Ex-Girlfriend"

I've been a big Steely Dan fan back to my college days, when their wryly intelligent lyrics helped me develop the snark you all benefit from now. I was thrilled when they released "Two Against Nature" a few years ago, and pleased when they were rewarded with a stack of Grammy Awards for their efforts.

Now, however, I fear time - and perhaps a little chemical assistance - may have taken its toll on the duo of Becker and Fagen. If a note posted on their website is to be believed, they're seriously torqued over the apparent similarities between their song "Cousin Dupree" and the lightweight summer flick "You, Me and Dupree".

What we suspect may have happened is this: some hack writer or producer or whatever they call themselves in Malibu or Loz Feliz apparently heard our Grammy winning song "Cousin Dupree" on the radio and thought, hey, man, this is a cool idea for a character in a movie or something. OK, the "cousin" idea was no doubt eliminated so as to not offend the Fundamentalist ticket buyers in the Flyovers. Nevertheless, they, like, took our character, this real dog sleeping on the couch and all and put him in the middle of some hokey "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" ripoff story and then, when it came time to change the character's name or whatever so people wouldn't know what a rip the whole thing was, THEY DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO THINK UP A NEW FUCKING NAME FOR THE GUY!

The letter, addressed to Luke Wilson - brother of the movie's lead Owen - goes on to suggest that the right thing to do would be for Luke to convince Owen to come to the Dan's show at Irvine and "apologize to our fans fans for this travesty." They even offer to load them up with Steely Dan tour swag and let them hang with the band.

Either this is the last dying gasp of a '70's throw-back group - or the smartest damned PR ploy I've ever seen. Lord knows it's getting a lot of play in the media ... and like they say - the only bad publicity is no publicity ...