Meaning of “Black Friday” by Steely Dan
Michael King by SMF· Published · Updated
“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.
');var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; })();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.
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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.
