Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

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Larry Mal
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Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

Post by Larry Mal » Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:01 am

https://pitchfork.com/news/steely-dans- ... l_facebook" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know that the RIP threads are inexplicably controversial on a music forum, regardless, I know there are a lot of Steely Dan fans here and Walter was always a good guy even if you aren't.

Sad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XLcejLgvaU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

Post by Larry Mal » Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:04 am

Edit: I meant that to say that Walter was a good guy even if you aren't a fan of Steely Dan, not that he was a good guy even if you aren't a good guy.

Now I can see how they get controversial.

"I wish Walter Becker was alive- and you weren't!"
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Re: Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

Post by Telliot » Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:08 am

Awwwwdammit. :(
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Re: Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

Post by dc » Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:15 am

:( been listening to these guys for at least 40 years now and their records always reveal something new. he was one-half of one of the consummate pop craft teams of the age.
in the coldest night / huddled 'round the dying embers

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Re: Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

Post by scottT » Sun Sep 03, 2017 10:42 am

Though I'm sure there were other studio entities before them, Steely Dan was the first time I became aware of the concept "auteurs" and studio musicians as hired guns. Certainly Water Becker and Donald Fagan honed it to a fine art. Most of the talent and their particular performances are legendary (think Larry Carlton on Kid Charlemagne, or Steve Gadd nailing the drum part on the 8 minute Aja, complete with improvised sections, in two takes).

Yet even surrounded by such stalwarts, Becker was no slouch himself. My favorite moment of his is the song "Black Friday" where he provided both the bass part and the searing guitar:

Black Friday solo and outro

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Re: Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

Post by rank » Sun Sep 03, 2017 3:57 pm

I always dug Steely Dan. The were always considered uncool but they did it so well, they were cool.
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Re: Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

Post by StevenO » Sun Sep 03, 2017 5:08 pm

Can't Buy a Thrill is one of my favourite albums ever, and it's been a huge impact on my playing and my thinking of and about music. I was actually planning on seeing Steely Dan in October.

Unfortunate that he has passed.

I've long had fun slowing down (sorry Shadow play) my Steely Dan records and getting lovely slow jams. Here's a fav: https://soundcloud.com/steven-o-4/only-a-fool

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Re: Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

Post by Fenderguy » Mon Sep 04, 2017 2:48 am

Huge Steely Dan fan here. So sad to hear about this.

SD is basically the reason why I got hooked on jazz, I knew I just had to learn to play over chord changes when I first heard the Kid Charlemagne solo. After that I spent countless hours transcribing Josie, Deacon Blues etc... What a brilliant band!

RIP

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Re: Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

Post by Jaguar018 » Tue Sep 05, 2017 5:05 am

I really like Steely Dan. There are some strongly-held beliefs about them that lead to a lot of music-dork arguments.

Many an article will point out just how deep and literate their music was, with obscure and not so obscure references. It's pretty interesting what they were able to 'get away with' underneath that glossy sheen of ultra-slick studio wizardry. 95% of that stuff went over most people's heads-- including mine. :-[

Somewhere in the late 80s before my junior year of high school I was vacation in Normandy, France for two weeks I was starved for American culture. My teacher gave me a Steely Dan Gold cassette and it saved me.

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Re: Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Sep 05, 2017 5:12 pm

This is pretty cool here, live Steely Dan back in the day is very good.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/ ... st-ev.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Check out the "Do It Again" on this one, it's fun to hear Walter Becker's bass turned up so high. He was very good at that instrument.
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Re: Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

Post by scottT » Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:39 pm

Listening now and blown away. You wouldn't necessarily expect the quintessential studio band to be this tight and rockin' live. A great testament to Becker and Steely Dan at peak performance.

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Re: Ah, shit, Walter Becker has died.

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:41 pm

Yeah, you always hear they were a studio band, but that's not quite true. They were tight live.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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