Papa says a solid album by SD,

Another classic record from Steely Dan. The royal scam, as you would expect is full of excellent and quirky songs. The funky, kid Charlemagne, kicks the LP off, and there's no lack of strong cuts. Sign in stranger, Haitian divorce, and the title track are all great. One of the truly great seventies bands.

Essential track: "Kid Charlemagne."

"The Fez" is a lot off fun too when you get into the groove!

The production is a little strange and dated on this one, but after a few listens the genius still comes through. The reggae influences are fresh and inviting. It's definitely one of Steely Dan's darker albums.

I have to rank this one 5th in the Steely Dan catalog. My favorite is Gaucho, followed closely by Aja, Pretzel Logic and Katy Lied. Even after all these years, I don't find myself listening to this as much as the aforementioned four.

I read that there were problems with the master recordings of the songs that kept the album from being the usual perfection that Becker and Fagan usually produced.

I rank this as their 4th best album (aja, gaucho & katy lied being 1-3) it takes a few listens but it is worth it Kid Charlemagne, Don't Take Me alive & Haitian Divorce being the best here but all tracks are at least 80/100 except maybe Sign In & Caves.

A darker interlude between Katy Lied and Aja. This contains not a single one of their FM staples but don't let that dissuade you, there still plenty of stellar tracks, kicked off by "Kid Charlemagne", which plays out like a 5 minute musical version of a Scorcese film. In fact, much of this album has that gritty, funky, 70s feel that Scorcese used to pepper his soundtracks.

Solid album. My favorite track was "Green Earrings". All others were good besides "Haitian Divorce".

Don't take me alive is my favourite Steely Dan song & that is a big call
Their sense of melody is unsurpassed, especially with the choruses & Don't take me alive is a brilliant example
Guitar at the starts not bad either

The Royal Scam has a couple of the most catchy and commercial songs Steely Dan has ever recorded - "The Fez" and "Haitian Divorce" - both songs greatly influenced by reggae.

Like all Steely Dan the playing and production is sheer perfectionism. The songs are generally - apart from the two aforementioned - not as melodic as the ones one the previous album "Katy Lied", and through there are great bits and pieces on all songs - especially some great guitar-parts - it may the the Steely Dan album that I have most difficulties to get really into.

For me the standout song is "Haitian Divorce" - I know some find it light-weight - but it's a song that sticks with you - no surprise that it was among the few single-hits Steely Dan scored.

"The Fez", "Kid Charlemagne", "The Caves of Altamira", "Sign in Stranger" are all fine songs; in fact apart from "Green Earring", there are no songs I don't like.

I guess you could call it a transitional album, linking the early melodic Steely Dan with the later more sophisticated side of the group.

This album should be in the top 100, not outside 2000