RIP Walter Becker (Steely Dan)

Huge loss. Such an integral part of my musical life, I'm listening to all Steely Dan right now and it brings such strong memories and emotions. I feel very fortunate to have seen him play with Steely Dan three times since 2003. He had a funny interlude during "Hey Nineteen" where he would talk about drinking and getting high, usually weed and Jose Cuervo...and then they would bring into the verse "The Cuervo Gold...the fine Columbian...make tonight a wonderful thing...say it again". I'm going to miss him dearly.
 
This is a rough one , indeed....the last decade and a half of the wonderful touring re incarnation of the Dan brought me many joyous moments..it's a bittersweet plus that Fagen seems be committed to continuing the band
 
Lukather said it best..."You touched me deep," I couldn't agree more. Saw them a few years back and was amazed to find out that he was covering pretty much the whole catalog on guitar except for a few tunes.
 
Once had a front seat at a Steely Dan concert just a few years ago outside DC where the band played the entire Aja album start to finish. Was a near religious experience witnessing that perfection live on stage, never to be forgotten.

This is a shot of Walter from that night. Got to see them prior to that as well in 2000's and they killed it.

Saturday night here in Austin I saw Donald Fagen and his Nightlfyers play, then next day learn Walter Becker has died. While I started playing guitar at age 14 or so, one main reason I kept it up all these years was the mystery, challenge, and beauty of learning how to play great solos over various Steely Dan songs.

RIP Mr. Becker and thanks for the greatest music, which will be playing constantly in my life until I follow you one day to the great gig in the sky.
Walter Becker.jpg
 
As a child of the eighties, I grew up on Eddie and Yngwie, Lynch etc... and as consequence My undeveloped brain thought faster = better. I had heard the odd Steely Dan song here and there on the radio but never really listened and I never had any friends that were into them.
I basically learned how to play out of guitar magazines which at the time had just started printing tablature, and I was surprised at the number of steely dan songs that were published that I had never heard of...yes, I knew "reeling in the years".....but "my old school, Bohdisattva, Kid Charlemenge...I was unaware of.

Fast forward to last year and my drummer say's it's time to make a trip to Colorado so you can understand what you have been missing all these years. Never once had I tried what is legal in Colorado and not in my home state, But I figured the kids were grown and I have been responsible for the most part...so why not. We get there and once I get acclimated with the "higher" elevation, he says "now for what you've been missing... and in my elevated state I say " no , I get it, this is awesome" he say's no, not that, this! And hits play on his phone and we spend hours listening to the entire Steely Dan catalog...and suddenly, it all made sense, I got it. Then I thought about all those guitar magazines I had with Steely dan transcriptions (I still have every guitar magazine I ever got going back to the early 80's) As A kid I would look at all those notes and get intimidated by it and on top of that, I really didn't know what it was supposed to sound like. And unlike today where I have anything at my fingertips, back then no one I knew had any steely dan records and these songs were not played on the radio. I can't imagine how I went into my late 40's without listening to this.... Luckily, I' am making up for lost time and listen to them nearly daily... Absolutely phenomenal, on so many levels (performing , writing, recording, mixing, lyrically ), We then turned our bass player on to them and he is 25...but he got it right away. Now we have steely dan playing before we play and for whatever reason we seem to play off each other better.

As I started reading the backstory, I learned that Becker had been Ill recently, so it didn't come as complete shock. They are playing near here next month, but sadly my first Steely dan experience won't include a huge part of the band....I really wish I had been more open minded as a kid. Certainly sad he's gone so early ...but what a legacy to leave behind!
 
As an aside:

Steely Dan was one of those bands that I just couldn't play out of the box. It took WORK to get it right. They are one of those bands that the more you listen, the more you appreciate...and understand.

I'm starting to accept that these luminaries of my early musical education are moving on. It's hard, but they have left us such a rich palette of colors to enjoy that their time on this earth has touched so many people, created art that will live forever, and thus a life well spent.

God speed Walt. Thank you.

R
 
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