The cover of the "Kid Charlemagne" single features Fagen (top) and Becker (bottom)

"Kid Charlemagne" is a song by the rock group Steely Dan, which was released as a single from their 1976 album The Royal Scam. It is notable as a fusion of a disco rhythm and jazz harmonies with rock and roll instrumentals and lyrical style. Image File history File links Kid_charlemagne_cover. ... Rock band (or rock group) is a generic name to describe a group of musicians specializing in a particular form of electronically amplified music. ... Steely Dan is an American rock band centered around the core members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. ... A collection of various CD singles In music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. ... Originally released in May 1976, The Royal Scam was an album by rock group Steely Dan. ... This article is becoming very long. ... Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans at around the start of the 20th century. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ...

Although the lyrics are, at first glance, typically oblique and allusive, writers Walter Becker and Donald Fagen have stated that it was loosely inspired by the exploits of the infamous 1960s San Francisco-based LSD chemist Owsley Stanley^[1] — although it conflates the core story with numerous other images of the Sixties. This is evident in the following lines: Walter Carl Becker (born February 20, 1950 in New York, New York) is the guitarist (and sometimes electric bassist) half of the duo at the core of the jazz-rock group Steely Dan. ... Donald Jay Fagen (born January 10, 1948 in Passaic, New Jersey) is an American musician and songwriter, best known as co-writer, co-founder, singer, and pianist with the jazz-rock band Steely Dan. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... For other uses, see LSD (disambiguation). ... Owsley Stanley (b. ...

On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene
But yours was kitchen clean
Everyone stopped to stare at your Technicolor motor home

The first two lines draw on the fact that Owsley's acid was famed for its purity, although the last line is clearly a reference to the famous psychedelic bus named Furthur, which was used by the Merry Pranksters. Inside the bus, psychedelic and trippy paintings Furthur was a 1939 International Harvester school bus purchased by author Ken Kesey in 1964, for $1,250 from Andre Hobson in Atherton, California. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The final verse foreshadows the main reason for Owsley's eventual bust:

Clean this mess up else we'll all end up in jail
Those test tubes and the scale
Just get them all out of here
Is there gas in the car?
Yes, there's gas in the car
I think the people down the hall know who you are

Owsley and another person were arrested after their car ran out of gas.

The song features a famous guitar solo by guitarist Larry Carlton. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For the past three decades, Larry Carlton has been one of the nations most sought-after jazz guitarists, dividing his recording time between solo recordings and session appearances with more popular bands. ...

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