Celebrity Death: Walter Becker
- Thread starter Teemu
- Start date
- Feb 3, 2009
- 18,789
- 5,177
GarbageGoal
Courage
Love The Dan and got to see them in concert a few years back at Foxwoods. Becker was a guy who could not only get along with a nut like Fagen, but be sympatico with him musically. He will be missed. RIP.
Chairman Maouth
Retired Staff
What the **** noooooo!
This is a hard one to take. I had no idea. Becker and Fagen brought me thousands of hours of music enjoyment. Maybe the most advanced and intelligent music and lyrics of all time.
DAMN!
R.I.P. Walter. Your fans are going to miss you.
This is a hard one to take. I had no idea. Becker and Fagen brought me thousands of hours of music enjoyment. Maybe the most advanced and intelligent music and lyrics of all time.
DAMN!
R.I.P. Walter. Your fans are going to miss you.
Chairman Maouth
Retired Staff
GarbageGoal
Courage
They have a fantastic backing band with a horn section and female backup singers. Their lead guitarist is Jon Herrington and he's really freaking good.
Doctor Wu is my all time favorite song by them, by the way.
Chairman Maouth
Retired Staff
I know the history of the session musicians they've used as well as the live musicians. They had their vision of what their songs should sound like and hired the guns to make that happen. No compromise.
Yeah Doctor Wu brings back so many memories for me. I'm still in shock.
Read Donald Fagen's Moving Tribute to Steely Dan Partner Walter Becker
Walter Becker was my friend, my writing partner and my bandmate since we met as students at Bard College in 1967. We started writing nutty little tunes on an upright piano in a small sitting room in the lobby of Ward Manor, a mouldering old mansion on the Hudson River that the college used as a dorm.
We liked a lot of the same things: jazz (from the twenties through the mid-sixties), W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, science fiction, Nabokov, Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Berger, and Robert Altman films come to mind. Also soul music and Chicago blues.
More: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...-tribute-to-steely-dans-walter-becker-w500968
One of those bands where a lot of people could have a different favourite song because they had so many tasty numbers. I'm partial to Bad Sneakers.
Musically, definitely one of the most advanced bands out there. The musicianship was flat out fantastic, which isn't surprising considering they used the best hired-guns out there. The songwriting was what amazed me. How do you come up with those weirdly beautiful chord changes and melodies? I played a few of their tunes with my bands over the years -- loads of fun.
Saw them in Montreal a few years ago. Becker played lead guitar. Did a creditable job. Strangely, they didn't play any of their biggest hits. No "Do it Again", "Rikki", or "Reelin". A concert of secondary hits and lesser known stuff.
Ralph Spoilsport
Registered User
- Jun 4, 2011
- 1,234
- 426
I could be wrong but I believe this was the only Dan song with Becker singing lead.
RIP, he was a major dude.
RIP, he was a major dude.
Chairman Maouth
Retired Staff
Rickie Lee Jones with a tribute to Becker. It's a great read.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...nes-poignant-tribute-to-walter-becker-w501078
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...nes-poignant-tribute-to-walter-becker-w501078
plank
Registered User
Theokritos
Global Moderator
- Apr 6, 2010
- 12,556
- 4,983
Certainly one of the best bands pop music has ever produced. A couple of years ago I introduced a friend of mine who is both a pop fan and a classically trained musician to Steely Dan. I put a "Best Of" CD on that started with "Reelin' in the Years". About 30 seconds into the instrumental intro he turned to me and said: "Okay, you're right, they're really good." 30 seconds was all it took. That's how good Steely Dan were.
GarbageGoal
Courage
They never play "Rikki" unless they are doing a Pretzel Logic album concert. Fagen dislikes that song now and claims it's overplayed.
When I saw them they played one of the other two you mentioned but I forgot which one honestly. I think it was "Reelin".
The really amazing thing was what a powerhouse lineup they had in the early 70's with Skunk Baxter and Denny Dias and were kind of a more straight forward pre-Michael McDonald Doobie Brothers bluesy rock band but Fagen and Becker ditched them all and became more jazz fusion pop rock that stayed in the studio and refused to tour.
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Chairman Maouth
Retired Staff
Becker and Fagan reflect on all the musicians they've pissed off over the years by not using them anymore. 
The making of Deacon Blues.
The making of Deacon Blues.
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Burnoutboi
Registered User
Mine, as well. I can admit I only started getting into SD late last year. They have a great catalogue.
That Deacon Blues discussion is amazing. So many touches that they think of and then the notion that after achieving perfection you want to go back and muss up the song's hair a little to make it sound more natural. To me, it's kind of a demonstration of why geniuses are geniuses and I'm not.Becker and Fagan reflect on all the musicians they've pissed off over the years by not using them anymore.
The making of Deacon Blues.
Jumptheshark
Rebooting myself
sounds like due to contractual responsibilities Fagan will need to do some gigs here in the UK under the Steely Dan name with his band
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