The song's lyrics tell the story of a May 1969 drug bust at Bard College in Dutchess County, New York, referred to in the lyrics by its location, Annandale. The singer vows he will never go back to the college until "California tumbles into the sea".[3] The song also makes a reference to the Wolverine rail service, which stopped at Rhinecliff, New York, near to Bard College, the alma mater of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.
The incident happened while both Fagen and Becker were students there, and the song recounts how a female acquaintance betrayed them to "Daddy Gee" (G. Gordon Liddy), then a local assistant district attorney. Contemporary news reports noted that 44 people were arrested,[4] approximately 10% of the school's enrollment.[5] According to a 2014 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, among those arrested was Fagen, whose long hair was cut off at the Poughkeepsie jail.[6] A contemporary newspaper article mentioned the arrest of Donald Fagan [sic] for "the sale of a dangerous drug" with bail set at $5,000.[7]
Cash Box described the song as a "departure from the group’s usual fare, but definitely a track that’s going to have programmers and listeners buzzing."[8]
Key signature and composition
The song was written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker[9] and is in the key of G major. The original studio track features a guitar solo by Jeff Baxter.
Legacy
Fagen reneged on his promise of never going back, when he returned to Bard College to receive an honorary Doctor of Arts degree in 1985.[10]
^Stewart Mason. "My Old School – Steely Dan – Song Info". AllMusic. Retrieved September 5, 2017. "My Old School" is the pair's most overt song about their alma mater, a sarcastically chipper-sounding remembrance of the time Becker and Fagen, along with several dozen other students, found themselves caught up in a trumped-up drug raid during an election cycle.
