My Rival: Petty Jealousy in High Fidelity
Why Steely Dan used a cheap Farfisa organ to anchor a million-dollar production, and how the song captures the essence of paranoid, petty obsession.
“My Rival” is a study in pettiness. It is a song about a man obsessed with another man—his rival—who seems to be outsmarting him at every turn. The narrator acts like a noir detective, tracking his enemy’s movements, noting his scars, his hearing aid, his “jolly roger.”
It is the most humorous track on the album, but the humor is black and bitter. The narrator’s obsession is pathetic, and the music underlines this with a stroke of genius instrumentation.
The Farfisa Irony
The lead instrument on “My Rival” is a Farfisa organ. In 1980, the Farfisa was a relic of 1960s garage rock, a “cheesy” sounding instrument associated with amateur bands and surf music.
Why would the most expensive, perfectionist band in the world choose this cheap, buzzing tone for a lead melody?
The contrast is the point. Surrounded by pristine guitars, deep bass, and complex horn arrangements, the Farfisa sounds absurd. It represents the narrator’s own smallness. It mocks the seriousness with which he takes this rivalry. He thinks he is in a high-stakes drama; the organ tells us he is in a cartoon.
Stalking with Wendel
The groove on “My Rival” is heavy and deliberate. Wendel is programmed to stomp. The kick drum lands with the weight of a footstep in an empty alley. It gives the song a plodding, stalking quality that matches the lyrics perfectly.
The narrator is “matching him try for try,” following him across town, obsessing over every detail. The unyielding, mechanical rhythm of Wendel emphasizes the relentlessness of this fixation. There is no swing here, only a straight-ahead march into madness.
The Whistle and the Wound
“I struck a match against the door of Anthony’s Bar and Grill.” The imagery is cinematic. The narrator is trying to look cool, trying to look dangerous. But we know the truth. He is jealous of a man with a hearing aid.
“My Rival” proves that you can spend months in the studio, hire the best session players in the world, and utilize cutting-edge digital technology, all to tell a story about two grown men acting like children. It is the ultimate joke of Gaucho: the higher the fidelity, the lower the stakes.