By: Brad Gallagher
What number? What exactly was the number that Rikki was not supposed to loose? Maybe a social security number, or a locker combination number, or maybe even a street address? Some rumors say that the number was actually a slang word for a marijuana joint. And the line in the song, “send it off in a letter to yourself” was thought, at the time, to be a safe way to transport ones pot, back before the post office got rid of general delivery mail. And who in the world was Rikki anyway?
As The Story Goes:
Steely Dan’s two founding members, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, met in the late 1960’s at Bard College. Both were students there, and musicians who shared a similar love for Jazz and R&B music. After graduating, the two began a partnership as song writers and attracted the attention of several music producers. One of those producers was Gary Katz of ABC records. Katz liked their work so much, that he hired the duo as song writers for the his label. It was also Katz who suggested that Fagen and Becker start their own group, and with the addition of guitarist Denny Dias, guitarist Jeff Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder, and singer David Palmer, the group became Steely Dan.
Rikki was never a part of Steely Dan, however. In fact, Rikki was actually on the scene long before the group began. Rikki’s father was a college professor at Bard college in Annandale New York and Rikki grew up there on campus. So naturally when it was time for her to attend college, she chose Bard college. While at Bard, she met and married professor Guy Ducornet. A year after she graduated Donald Fagen enrolled and the two met while he was in one of professor Ducorents classes.
One night at a party that they had both been invited to, Fagen approached Rikki. He was attracted to her, and even though he knew that she was married and expecting her first child, he didn’t hesitate to flirt with her. As the night went on and Rikki decided to go home, Fagen gave her his phone number. He told her not to loose it, and to call him any time she wanted. It wasn’t, however, until a few years after the party that Fagen and Becker actually wrote the song about the encounter, “Rikki Don’t Loose That Number”.
Rumor has it that later in her life Rikki told an interviewer that she almost called the number, but in the end decided not to. She also said to the interviewer, “Philosophically it’s an interesting song; I mean I think his ‘number’ is a cipher for the self.”[1] But Fagen always maintained that it was nothing more than a simple love song.
“Rikki Don’t Loose That Number” went on to become Steely Dan’s biggest hit. It was featured on their 1974 album, “Pretzel Logic”, and as a single it hit #4 on the Billboard Top 100 charts that summer.
So cue up your turntable and listen to “Rikki Don’t Loose That Number” one more time. And while you are at it listen to “My Old School”, which is said to be about a drug bust at Bard college back in 1969 while both Fagen and Becker we still students there. And come back and see me real soon here on As The Story Goes.
[1] Steven Moore, “Reveries of Desire: An Interview with Rikki Ducornet,” Bloomsbury Review, January/February 1998, rpt. in The VIP Annual 2016 (Singapore: Verbivoracious Press, 2016), p. 89.
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Brought to you by: Brad Gallagher of Keller Williams Realty Portland Elite
AS THE STORY GOES 