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Author Topic: Squonk  (Read 1931 times)

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pmcd9

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Squonk
« on: October 14, 2006, 04:50:22 am »
Steely Dan have a song, Any Major Dude, where I always thought they said "Have you ever seen a squonks tears well look at mine." I've been listening to this song for years and I never really thought about it too much, but I just acquired their Pretzel Logic album recently (yesterday actually) from a friend and I heard this song for the first time in probably 10 years.  I got to wondering am I hearing this right?  If I am, what a squonk?  So I decided to find out.  First I looked up the lyrics to the song and yes, they do in fact say squonk, ok, what the fuck is a squonk?  Here's what wikipedia has to say.  I don't know why I posted all of this.  I guess just to say that it's fun to learn something new about a song you've been listening to since small times.  Any Major Dude was the B side to Rikki Don't Lose that Number which is one of the first 45 records I bought when I was about 11 years old.  Jough, have you ever seen a squonks tears?

~Paul
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jough

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Re: Squonk
« Reply #1 on: October 14, 2006, 01:06:01 pm »
Seen 'em?  Paul, I have caused a squonk to cry.
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Drygioni

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Re: Squonk
« Reply #2 on: October 14, 2006, 01:14:20 pm »
Whenever I can't decipher a lyric, I prefer to listen to the line over and over instead of taking the easy way out and actually checking the booklet. For this song I managed to convince myself it was 'squads'. It made no fuck*ng sense whatsoever, but I seriously doubted the existence of the word 'squonk'. How foolish of me that was!

Paul, thankyou for the correction. Education.

EDIT: I also considered 'squaws' at one point.
« Last Edit: October 14, 2006, 01:30:53 pm by JudyIsADickSlap »
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AugustWest

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Re: Squonk
« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2006, 02:09:07 pm »
Oddly enough that song came up on my random rotation just yesterday.

I always thought they were saying a shark's tears.

My guess would be that a squonk is akin to a geek.
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Drygioni

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Re: Squonk
« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2006, 03:08:46 pm »
Funnily enough, first listen left me certain it was 'a Scot's tears', which I thought must be it until I realised Becker and Fagen are extremely American. 'Course, everyone know Scottish tears are Laphroaig's secret ingredient.
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pmcd9

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Re: Squonk
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2006, 03:46:43 pm »
Judy I usually don't question lyrics, but I have heard this song probably more than a thousand times and it's pretty clearly squonk they are saying and I just got curious as to what a squonk is.  Sometimes I'll decipher a lyric that I had mistaken, maybe here it on a live album or a remastered version and it'll totally change the meaning of the song.  In this case, it only made the meaning of the song more clear.

~Paul
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Drygioni

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Re: Squonk
« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2006, 04:53:51 pm »
Quote from: pmcd9 on October 14, 2006, 03:46:43 pm
Judy I usually don't question lyrics, but I have heard this song probably more than a thousand times and it's pretty clearly squonk they are saying and I just got curious as to what a squonk is.  Sometimes I'll decipher a lyric that I had mistaken, maybe here it on a live album or a remastered version and it'll totally change the meaning of the song.  In this case, it only made the meaning of the song more clear.

~Paul

Don't worry Paul, I wasn't doubting you in any way! Pointing out my own misguided guesses was the only idea I was getting across.
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V-Adore

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Re: Squonk
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2006, 05:30:13 pm »
What I like best is the idea that this is also now a chemistry term. I love linguistic cross-pollination.
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pmcd9

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Re: Squonk
« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2006, 06:41:25 pm »
Quote from: jough on October 14, 2006, 01:06:01 pm
Seen 'em?  Paul, I have caused a squonk to cry.

I've no doubt this is true.

On the chemistry tip, squonk sounds like it would be a very powerful ingredient in a witches potion.  Eye of newt, tear of squonk, etc...

~Paul
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