Walter Becker, guitarist, bassist and co-writer for the sophisticated, dark-humored band Steely Dan, has died. He was 67.
The news was confirmed by a post on Becker’s personal website. No cause of death was announced.
The more retiring full-term member of the group, Becker was partnered with singer-keyboardist and co-writer Donald Fagen on a string of jazzy, sleekly produced singles and albums that ruled the charts during the ‘70s. After a protracted hiatus, “the Dan” returned to popularity in the ‘90s; their 2000 album “Two Against Nature” collected four Grammys, including one for album of the year.
The pair’s gimlet-eyed, covertly perverse music, garbed in gleaming pop melodies, bebop-derived harmonies and shimmering production, was variously performed with a core working band in the group’s initial heyday; those players were ultimately, and permanently, supplanted by a rotating cast of mostly jazz-schooled studio sidemen.
Becker was largely absent from the musical stage during Steely Dan’s extended separation from 1981-93. It was only after the group’s reunion that he undertook solo recording: His albums “11 Tracks of Whack” (produced by Fagen in 1994) and “Circus Money” (2008) failed to duplicate the band’s success.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Fagen in 2001; with typical dry humor, the pair tersely solicited questions from the star-filled audience during one of the shortest acceptance speeches on record.
Becker was born Feb. 20, 1950 in Queens, N.Y., and was raised in the borough community. Initially a saxophonist, he took up the guitar as a teen.
He encountered his future partner Fagen as a student at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, while playing a gig at the local club the Red Balloon. In his 2013 memoir “Eminent Hipsters,” Fagen – who studied music and English at the school — recalled, “His amp was tweaked to produce a fat, mellow sound, and turned up loud enough to generate a healthy Albert King-like sustain.”
The musicians bonded over their love of jazz and blues and the writing of such novelists as Vladimir Nabokov and humorists Bruce Jay Friedman and Terry Southern. They performed together in a number of campus bands, including one, the Leather Canary, which included classmate and future “Saturday Night Live” star Chevy Chase on drums.
Becker withdrew from Bard without a diploma; after Fagen graduated in 1969, the musicians moved to Brooklyn to find work in the professional music business. They served as studio members of the pop act Jay and the Americans. In 1971, the duo decamped to Los Angeles to serve as house songwriters for ABC/Dunhill, the publishing firm operated by the Americans’ record label.
Impressed by Fagen and Becker’s songwriting, label president Jay Lasker offered the pair a contract with the label. They organized a working group with New York guitarist Denny Dias, guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and drummer Jimmy Hodder; on early recordings with this lineup, Becker usually served as bassist.
Dubbed Steely Dan after a like-named sex toy in William S. Burroughs’ black-hearted novel “Naked Lunch,” the unit debuted in 1972 with the LP “Can’t Buy a Thrill.” Produced by Gary Katz (who shepherded all the act’s ‘70s releases), it spawned the massive radio hit “Do It Again,” which climbed to No. 6; the follow-up single “Reeling in the Years” peaked at No. 11.
The sophomore set “Countdown to Ecstasy” (1973) – which included “My Old School,” a backhanded tribute to Fagen and Becker’s alma mater Bard – was perhaps too bitter for most listeners and failed to produce any hits.
However, album rockers lofted the 1974 collection “Pretzel Logic” to No. 8. Driven mainly by the work of such jazz-bred sidemen as saxophonists Jerome Richardson and Ernie Watts and bassist Wilton Felder of the Crusaders, the album included the No. 4 single “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” which baldly lifted the keyboard hook of jazz keyboardist Horace Silver’s “Song For My Father.”
Growing tension within the band and Fagen and Becker’s antipathy for touring led to the dissolution of the touring Steely Dan configuration in 1974, and the duo would thereafter perform with a succession of studio musicians. Becker increasingly took on lead guitar chores, though such players as Lee Ritenour, Rick Derringer, Dean Parks, Elliott Randall, Larry Carlton and Mark Knopfler also contributed.
The albums “Katie Lied” (No. 13, 1975) and “The Royal Scam” (No. 15, 1976) bore no hit singles, but were lofted by FM radio play. The group’s biggest early hit came with “Aja,” a shimmering No. 3 set that included the top-20 singles “Peg” and “Deacon Blues.”
A confluence of difficulties led to the band’s 1981 dissolution. The prolonged making of “Gaucho,” which contained Steely Dan’s final top-10 hit “Hey Nineteen,” witnessed burgeoning antipathy between the two long-running partners.
“It was the ‘Gaucho’ album that finished us off,’ Becker said in a 1994 interview with England’s Independent. “We had pursued an idea beyond the point where it was practical. That album took about two years, and we were working on it all of that time – all these endless tracking sessions involving different musicians. It took forever and it was a very painful process.”
The personality clashes were exacerbated by a lawsuit engendered by the drug overdose death of Fagen’s girlfriend Karen Stanley and a serious injury sustained by Becker when he was struck by a New York cab.
Becker retreated to the Hawaiian island of Maui, where he grappled with drug abuse and laid low. “I spent a couple of years not doing any music or anything, just here in Hawaii trying to get healthy and adjust to the new regimen I was setting up for myself,” he told England’s Mojo magazine in 1995.
He crept back to work as a producer, helming albums by China Crisis (“Flaunt the Imperfection,” 1985), Rickie Lee Jones (“Flying Cowboys,” 1989) and Michael Franks (“Blue Pacific,” 1990).
His work on Rosie Vela’s 1986 collection “Zazu” marked his first work with Fagen since the breakup of Steely Dan; five years later, he gigged informally with Fagen’s group the New York Rock and Soul Revue, which harbingered the partnership’s touring reunion in 1993 in support of the comprehensive boxed set “Citizen Steely Dan.”
An extended period of studio work resulted in the self-produced “Two Against Nature,” which climbed to No. 6 and collected new kudos. The following year, Bard dropout Becker and partner Fagen received honorary music doctorates from the Berklee College of Music.
A second new Steely Dan release, the No. 9 set “Everything Must Go” (2003), included Becker’s first-ever lead vocal with the group, on the track “Slang of Ages.”
In later years, Becker also served as a writer for the jazzy vocalist Madeleine Peyroux’s “Half the Perfect World” (2006) and “Bare Bones” (2009).
So many great songs, great albums, and great musicians associated with the 'Dan. I think there was a recent thread here about being allowed only 3 albums on a desert island ... The Royal Scam would be one of mine.
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Jeudy is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Tillman is flanked out wide to the right. Judkins and Ford are split in the backfield as Flacco takes the snap ... Here we go."
Their music is so cool, different.... melancholy yet fun.... Reelin in the years is a great song. I think I posted this somewhere before, but Jimmy Page said the guitar solo on that song is his favourite. High praise from a guy like him.
Lots of great guitar work on SD songs. From the early days with Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and Denny Dias, to Rick Derringer playing slide on "Show Biz Kids", Dean Parks on "Haitian Divorce, then to Larry Carlton's epic solo on "Kid Charlemagne" and on the blistering intro to "Don't Take Me Alive". The sessions players came and went, and they were always top notch, but Fagen and Becker were the core of Steely Dan.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
Sorry to hear this. They were a very talented group.
I didn't like a lot of their stuff, such as Deacon Blues, Ricky Don't Lose that Number, FM, etc. But, I kinda dug the riff in Hey 19 and I think this one is an excellent song. Very jazzy, rhythmic, and soulful.
Nice, but for clarification purposes...............I believe that David Palmer sang lead vocals on Do It Again. I also believe that Becker put the pressure on to make Fagen the "voice" of the "Dan."
Just going by memory. I might be a bit off, but I doubt it. LOL
Steely Dan never toured much because Walt and Don had a hard time replicating their studio work with the amount of musicians the band had used over the years. They would invite and hire musicians for studio work and for the recording sessions but they didn't have them full time to create a great live touring band especially after "The Royal Scam" and "aja". So if you saw them live in the late 70's or early 80's you were very lucky to see them.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
One of the things I love most about Dan's music is the juxtaposition of bouncy arrangements with super dark and twisted lyrics. No boilerplate moon/june/spoon, babybaby pop fodder with these guys. Nope.
Janie Runaway
It must have been my lucky Thursday Your dad went on that spree Before the crew could put out the fires You hopped a bus for NYC Down in Tampa the future looked desperate and dark Now you're the wonderwaif of Gramercy Park
[Chorus:] Who makes the morning fabulous? Who says today's a fun day? Why do I feel like sailing again Honey it's you - Janie Runaway
Let's grab some takeout from Dean and Deluca A hearty gulping wine You be the showgirl and I'll be Sinatra Way back in '59 Sweetness in heels - look at you - in long black gloves Come to old blue eyes tell me - who do you love
[Chorus:] Who makes the traffic interesting? Rescues a dreary Sunday? Who makes me feel like painting again? Honey it's you - Janie Runaway
Let's plan a weekend alone together Drive out to Binky's place The sugar shack in Pennsylvania Or would that be a federal case? We'll take the Big Red - the Blazer - it's nice inside And guess who's coming along for the ride
[Chorus:] Who has a friend named Melanie? Who's not afraid to try new things? Who gets to spend her birthday in Spain? Possibly you - Janie Runaway
I saw them here in 2007. The "Heavy Rollers" tour. Absolutely fantastic band.
Donald Fagen - Keyboards and Vocals Walter Becker - Guitar Keith Carlock - Drums Jon Herington - Guitar Carolyn Leonhart - Backing Vocals Michael Leonhart - Trumpet Cindy Mizelle - Backing Vocals Jim Pugh - Trombone Roger Rosenberg - Baritone Sax Freddie Washington - Bass Walt Weiskopf - Sax Jeff Young - Keyboards and Backing Vocals
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