Steely Dan’s Walter Becker Dies At 67
Walter Becker, guitarist, bassist and co-founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Steely Dan, died Sunday, Sept. 3 at the age of 67. The news was initially posted on Becker’s official site, but no cause of death or other details were provided. Becker was notably absent from Steely Dan’s recent Classic West and Classic East concerts as he recovered from an unspecified ailment. Becker’s doctor had advised him not to leave his Maui home for the performances.
As Rolling Stone reports, Becker and Fagen first collaborated when they were both students at New York’s Bard College. After working as songwriters and members of Jay and the Americans’ backing band, the guys moved to California in the early ’70s to form Steely Dan (named after a sex toy in William S. Burroughs‘ novel Naked Lunch), alongside guitarists Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and Denny Dias, drummer Jim Hodder and singer David Palmer.
Steely Dan’s debut album, 1972’s Can’t Buy a Thrill produced the hits “Reelin’ in the Years,” “Dirty Work” and “Do It Again.” While the Steely Dan studio unit would routinely rotate musicians over the years, Becker and Fagen remained as the group’s core members. Countdown to Ecstasy, featuring “My Old School” followed in 1973 with Fagen now handling lead vocals. The following year, Pretzel Logic yielded the band’s biggest hit, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.” For 1975’s album Katy Lied, the now-duo — with Becker now playing guitar, the guys surrounded themselves with studio pros that included Toto’s Jeff Porcaro, guitarist Hugh McCracken and Michael McDonald. With that “supergroup” structure in place – the album also features Timothy B. Schmit, drummer Jim Keltner and legendary saxophonist Wayne Shorter – Steely Dan released their Grammy-nominated masterpiece, Aja in 1977. Named one of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Aja features the classics “Peg,” “Deacon Blues” and the title track, and sold over five million copies, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. The band’s 2000 release, Two Against Nature honored with the Album Of The Year Grammy, and in 2001, Steely Dan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In a moving tribute to his longtime friend and collaborator, Donald Fagen said of Becker, “He was smart as a whip, an excellent guitarist and a great songwriter. He was cynical about human nature, including his own, and hysterically funny.” In closing, Fagen vowed, “I intend to keep the music we created together alive as long as I can with the Steely Dan band.” We highly recommend the excellent Walter Becker remembrance penned by my friend Chris Morris of Variety.
• On October 29, 2015, the 50th anniversary of the installation of a Master FM antenna on the top of the Empire State Building, the global landmark created a special light show synchronized to Steely Dan’s affectionate 1978 ode to Frequency Modulation, “FM (No Static At All).” [Thanks to Dave Stewart]
