As is the case with many of Steely Dan’s songs, one can listen to “Kid Charlemagne” and have enough to focus on without ever paying attention to the lyrics. A listener can zero in on Paul Griffin’s funky clavinet, Chuck Rainey’s percolating bass line, or legendary drummer Bernard Purdie’s groove and enjoy four and a half minutes of bliss. And the song may be best-known for Larry Carlton’s brilliant, jazzy guitar solo in the middle of the song, which by itself makes it worth putting “Kid Charlemagne” on repeat. (And Carlton’s outro solo isn’t too bad either.)
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However, there is more to this one than Steely Dan’s jazz-fusion genius. When one does listen to the lyrics, penned by Steely Dan’s core duo—Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker—they’re usually introduced to a cast of shady characters, and “Kid Charlemagne” is no different. But who, exactly, was the title character, and was he a real person? It took 24 years for Becker to reveal the answers, but he eventually did provide some insight as to the inspiration for the story that Fagen tells in the lead single from the 1976 album The Royal Scam.
The Story of “Kid Charlemagne”
With the song’s references to lacing, test tubes, and scales, it was always clear that “Kid Charlemagne” had something to do with the proprietor of a drug lab. After years of mystery and speculation over the protagonist’s exact identity, Becker revealed the inspiration for the song in a 2000 interview with the BBC. He said the character was loosely based on Owsley Stanley, who gained notoriety in the mid-to-late ‘60s as a main producer of LSD in the San Francisco Bay Area. He also provided LSD to ‘60s counterculture icons Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, as well as to The Beatles.
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But why did Steely Dan refer to this Stanley-inspired character as “Kid Charlemagne?” Comparing Stanley to the European emperor from the 800s gets across the scale of his dominance in his chosen profession. Through the lyrics of “Kid Charlemagne,” Becker and Fagen explain how their character (and in real life, Stanley) came to rule the Bay Area LSD market, with lines like, You were the best in town and On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene / But yours was kitchen-clean.
In the first two verses, Becker and Fagen establish Kid Charlemagne as a highly competent LSD chemist who also had a sense of bravado (You’d go to L.A. on a dare / And you’d go it alone), but by the second pre-chorus, they are already foreshadowing his downfall.
Could you live forever?
Could you see the day?
Could you feel your whole world fall apart and fade away?
In the third and fourth verses, the progression of Kid Charlemagne’s unraveling is spelled out. First, we learn about how the chemist’s market begins to dry up. His clients either perished (“your low-rent friends are dead”) or they decided to forsake the hippie lifestyle for a more conventional existence.
All those Day-Glo freaks who used to paint the face
They’ve joined the human race
Some things will never change
Then, in the final verse, Kid Charlemagne is facing possible arrest, as the song’s narrator implores him to Clean up this mess else we’ll all end up in jail. With the final lines of the final verse, paranoia (or maybe just reality) sets in, as Fagen sings, I think the people down the hall / Know who you are. In real life, Stanley was arrested in 1967 when his lab was raided; he was found guilty and sentenced to a three-year prison term.
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Stanley’s legacy went beyond his well-documented rise and fall as an LSD chemist. He was also the Grateful Dead’s sound engineer for their live shows. Stanley, along with several band members, were arrested for drug possession after a 1970 show in New Orleans, an event that was immortalized in the Grateful Dead’s song “Truckin’.”
The Impact of “Kid Charlemagne”
“Kid Charlemagne” became a staple of album-oriented rock playlists, and it also crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 82. The song has been streamed more than 25 million times on Spotify as of this writing, and Rolling Stone placed it as the 80th-best guitar song of all time in their Top 100 rankings. Airplay for “Kid Charlemagne” helped The Royal Scam reach No. 15 on the Billboard 200, and it became their fourth Platinum album in the U.S.
Kanye West sampled a line from the first pre-chorus of “Kid Charlemagne”: Did you realize that you were a champion in their eyes in his 2007 song “Champion.” The line serves as the chorus to “Champion,” and Fagen’s vocalization of “their eyes” is repeated throughout the song.
In following up The Royal Scam with Aja in 1977, Steely Dan reached a new level of popularity, with each of their last four albums peaking in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. As Becker’s and Fagen’s collective gained more fans throughout the years, “Kid Charlemagne” has only grown its reputation for being one of the Dan’s best songs. It’s always been a delight to get absorbed in “Kid Charlemagne”’s sophisticated musical interplay, but with the knowledge of the song’s inspiration, it also provides a fascinating snapshot of ‘60s LSD culture.
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