Walter Becker

Walter Becker was one of the two leaders of Steely Dan, the band that defined the smooth studio craft of the 1970s. Along with his partner Donald Fagen, Becker honed a sophisticated blend of jazz, R&B, pop, and rock over the course of the '70s, a journey that culminated with the release of the sleek Gaucho in 1980. The pair parted ways after its release, with Becker retreating to his Hawaiian home, dabbling in production before reviving his collaboration with Fagen in the early '90s. Becker produced Fagen's 1993 album Kamakiriad, Fagen produced Becker's 1994 debut 11 Tracks of Whack, then the pair returned to the road for the first time in nearly two decades. From that point on, Steely Dan was an active band, releasing two albums -- including the Grammy-winning comeback Two Against Nature -- and staying on the road until Becker's death in 2017. Born in Forest Hills, Queens on February 20, 1950, Walter Becker had a tumultuous childhood where he was raised by his father and grandmother. While attending Stuyvesant High School, Becker learned how to play saxophone, then gravitated toward guitar; he received lessons from the musician later known as Randy California, one of the founding members of the psychedelic group Spirit. After graduating high school, he attended Bard College, where a fellow student by the name of Donald Fagen happened to hear Walter Becker playing guitar at a local cafe. Impressed with what he heard, Fagen struck up a friendship with Becker that soon turned collaborative. They wrote songs together and launched bands, including the Bad Rock Group, which featured the future Saturday Night Live breakout star Chevy Chase on drums. Once Fagen graduated from Bard, Becker dropped out of college and accompanied his friend to New York with the intention of becoming Brill Building songwriters. They amassed demos, composed the soundtrack of the low-budget film You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat, were an integral part of a touring incarnation of Jay & the Americans, then had several of their songs cut on I Mean to Shine, an album produced by Gary Katz for Linda Hoover. Katz became a staff producer for ABC Records, signing Becker and Fagen as staff songwriters. Their songs proved too idiosyncratic for other artists, and Katz encouraged Fagen and Becker to form their own group. Taking their name from a dildo in William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch, the duo formed Steely Dan along with guitarists Denny Dias, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder, and singer David Palmer. Their first single, "Dallas" -- which featured Fagen singing its flipside "Sail the Waterway" -- didn't go anywhere in June 1972, but "Do It Again," which followed that November, climbed into Billboard's Top Ten, with "Reelin' in the Years" nearly matching that achievement in 1973. Both songs were pulled from Can't Buy a Thrill, the full-length debut that established Steely Dan as a dexterous, clever rock band. For a while, Steely Dan attempted to act as a normal rock band, recording the flinty Countdown to Ecstasy and supporting it with an extensive tour in 1973, moves that shored up their support in the FM-oriented album rock scene. Pretzel Logic consolidated their status as hitmakers once "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" went to number four in 1974 but during the album's supporting tour, Fagen and Becker found themselves exhausted with live performance, so they decided to retreat to the studio for 1975's Katy Lied. With that record, the duo began to rely on skilled session players, a trait they'd emphasize on 1976's The Royal Scam and Aja, the 1977 album that became their best-seller on the back of the singles "Peg" and "Deacon Blues." Gaucho found Fagen and Becker slide into a gilded groove but its smooth surface camouflaged its tumultuous creation. After its release in 1980, the pair separated, with Becker retreating to Maui to tend to personal problems, while Fagen launched a solo career of his own. Becker began to reemerge in the mid-'80s, first producing China Crisis' 1985 record Flaunt the Imperfection, then having a quiet reunion with Fagen on Zazu, a 1986 LP by Rosie Vela produced by Gary Katz. Becker then produced Rickie Lee Jones' Flying Cowboys and part of Michael Franks' Blue Pacific, two albums that came out in 1989. Early in the '90s, Becker began making the occasional appearance in Fagen's live outfit the New York Rock & Soul Revue. Shortly afterward, the two had a few tentative songwriting reunions before landing upon the idea of having their partner produce their own solo album. Becker helmed Fagen's 1993 Kamakiriad, which earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, while Fagen co-produced 11 Tracks of Whack, the 1994 solo debut by Becker. To support these two records, along with the comprehensive box set Citizen Steely Dan, they launched their first tour in 20 years, a jaunt documented on the 1995 album Alive in America. This reunion reached its fruition with the 2000 release of Two Against Nature, Steely Dan's first album in 20 years. Winning four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Two Against Nature helped turn Steely Dan into an active band again. Although they'd release only one additional album -- Everything Must Go, which appeared in 2003 -- Fagen and Becker would concurrently pursue solo projects: Becker released his second album, Circus Money, in 2008. With no new records to plug, Steely Dan instead turned into a touring outfit, staying on the road until Becker's death from esophageal cancer on September 3, 2017. Following Becker's passing, Fagen honored several previous Steely Dan concert commitments. By the end of the year, he claimed that he would've retired the Steely Dan name, but promoters convinced him that the group's name remained a bigger concert draw, so he continued to tour as Steely Dan into the 2020s, unofficially calling the new lineup "The Steely Dan Band."
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