Biography
Walter Becker served as a principal architect of Steely Dan, the ensemble whose refined studio aesthetic came to epitomize 1970s pop craftsmanship. Partnering with Donald Fagen, he developed an intricate mix of jazz, R&B, pop, and rock across the decade, a progression that reached its apex with the polished Gaucho in 1980. After the album appeared, the two went separate directions, Becker withdrawing to his residence in Hawaii and experimenting with production work until he and Fagen resumed their partnership in the early 1990s. Becker produced Fagen’s 1993 album Kamakiriad, Fagen produced Becker’s 1994 debut 11 Tracks of Whack, and the pair then resumed touring together for the first time in nearly two decades. From that moment forward Steely Dan functioned as a working band, issuing two albums—including the Grammy-winning return Two Against Nature—and remaining active on the road until Becker’s death in 2017.
Born in Forest Hills, Queens on February 20, 1950, Walter Becker endured an unsettled upbringing under the care of his father and grandmother. At Stuyvesant High School he took up saxophone before shifting focus to guitar, studying with the player later recognized as Randy California, a founding member of the psychedelic band Spirit. After high school he enrolled at Bard College, where Donald Fagen overheard him performing guitar at a neighborhood café. Impressed, Fagen initiated a friendship that quickly became a songwriting collaboration. The pair formed several groups, among them the Bad Rock Group, whose lineup included future Saturday Night Live star Chevy Chase on drums. Once Fagen completed his studies at Bard, Becker left college to join him in New York, where they aimed to establish themselves as Brill Building songwriters. They assembled demos, created the score for the low-budget film You’ve Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You’ll Lose That Beat, participated in a touring version of Jay & the Americans, and placed multiple compositions on I Mean to Shine, a Gary Katz-produced album for Linda Hoover.
Katz joined ABC Records as a staff producer and signed Becker and Fagen as songwriters for the label. Because their material proved too distinctive for outside performers, Katz urged the pair to assemble their own band. Adopting a name drawn from a dildo in William S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch, the duo launched Steely Dan with guitarists Denny Dias and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder, and vocalist David Palmer. Their initial single, “Dallas”—whose B-side “Sail the Waterway” featured Fagen—failed to chart upon release in June 1972, yet “Do It Again,” issued that November, reached Billboard’s Top Ten, while “Reelin’ in the Years” nearly repeated the feat in 1973. Both tracks appeared on Can’t Buy a Thrill, the debut album that positioned Steely Dan as an agile and witty rock outfit.
For a period Steely Dan operated as a conventional touring group, cutting the harder-edged Countdown to Ecstasy and mounting an extensive road trek in 1973 that strengthened their standing within the FM album-rock audience. Pretzel Logic further cemented their commercial standing when “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” reached number four in 1974, but the accompanying tour left Fagen and Becker weary of live work, prompting a full retreat to the studio for 1975’s Katy Lied. With that release the duo began relying heavily on session musicians, a practice they intensified on 1976’s The Royal Scam and on Aja, the 1977 album that became their biggest seller thanks to the singles “Peg” and “Deacon Blues.”
Gaucho found Fagen and Becker settling into a luxurious rhythmic pocket whose glossy exterior masked the difficulties of its creation. Following its 1980 release the two parted company, Becker retreating to Maui to address personal matters while Fagen began a solo career. Becker resurfaced in the mid-1980s, first producing China Crisis’s 1985 album Flaunt the Imperfection, then participating in a low-key reunion with Fagen on Zazu, Rosie Vela’s 1986 album produced by Gary Katz. He subsequently produced Rickie Lee Jones’s Flying Cowboys and portions of Michael Franks’s Blue Pacific, both issued in 1989.
Early in the 1990s Becker made occasional appearances with Fagen’s New York Rock & Soul Revue. Shortly afterward the two began tentative songwriting sessions that led to the decision that each would produce the other’s solo album. Becker helmed Fagen’s 1993 Kamakiriad, which received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, while Fagen co-produced Becker’s 1994 solo debut 11 Tracks of Whack. To promote these releases and the retrospective box set Citizen Steely Dan, they undertook their first tour in twenty years, captured on the 1995 album Alive in America.
The reunion culminated with the 2000 release of Two Against Nature, Steely Dan’s first album in two decades. The record earned four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, and restored Steely Dan to regular activity. Although they issued only one further album—Everything Must Go, released in 2003—Fagen and Becker each pursued individual projects: Becker delivered his second solo album, Circus Money, in 2008. Without new material to promote, Steely Dan evolved into a touring ensemble that continued performing until Becker died of esophageal cancer on September 3, 2017. After his death Fagen fulfilled previously scheduled Steely Dan dates. By year’s end he stated that he had intended to retire the Steely Dan name, yet promoters persuaded him that the band’s name still drew larger audiences, so he continued touring as Steely Dan into the 2020s, informally referring to the new lineup as “The Steely Dan Band.”
Born in Forest Hills, Queens on February 20, 1950, Walter Becker endured an unsettled upbringing under the care of his father and grandmother. At Stuyvesant High School he took up saxophone before shifting focus to guitar, studying with the player later recognized as Randy California, a founding member of the psychedelic band Spirit. After high school he enrolled at Bard College, where Donald Fagen overheard him performing guitar at a neighborhood café. Impressed, Fagen initiated a friendship that quickly became a songwriting collaboration. The pair formed several groups, among them the Bad Rock Group, whose lineup included future Saturday Night Live star Chevy Chase on drums. Once Fagen completed his studies at Bard, Becker left college to join him in New York, where they aimed to establish themselves as Brill Building songwriters. They assembled demos, created the score for the low-budget film You’ve Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You’ll Lose That Beat, participated in a touring version of Jay & the Americans, and placed multiple compositions on I Mean to Shine, a Gary Katz-produced album for Linda Hoover.
Katz joined ABC Records as a staff producer and signed Becker and Fagen as songwriters for the label. Because their material proved too distinctive for outside performers, Katz urged the pair to assemble their own band. Adopting a name drawn from a dildo in William S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch, the duo launched Steely Dan with guitarists Denny Dias and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder, and vocalist David Palmer. Their initial single, “Dallas”—whose B-side “Sail the Waterway” featured Fagen—failed to chart upon release in June 1972, yet “Do It Again,” issued that November, reached Billboard’s Top Ten, while “Reelin’ in the Years” nearly repeated the feat in 1973. Both tracks appeared on Can’t Buy a Thrill, the debut album that positioned Steely Dan as an agile and witty rock outfit.
For a period Steely Dan operated as a conventional touring group, cutting the harder-edged Countdown to Ecstasy and mounting an extensive road trek in 1973 that strengthened their standing within the FM album-rock audience. Pretzel Logic further cemented their commercial standing when “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” reached number four in 1974, but the accompanying tour left Fagen and Becker weary of live work, prompting a full retreat to the studio for 1975’s Katy Lied. With that release the duo began relying heavily on session musicians, a practice they intensified on 1976’s The Royal Scam and on Aja, the 1977 album that became their biggest seller thanks to the singles “Peg” and “Deacon Blues.”
Gaucho found Fagen and Becker settling into a luxurious rhythmic pocket whose glossy exterior masked the difficulties of its creation. Following its 1980 release the two parted company, Becker retreating to Maui to address personal matters while Fagen began a solo career. Becker resurfaced in the mid-1980s, first producing China Crisis’s 1985 album Flaunt the Imperfection, then participating in a low-key reunion with Fagen on Zazu, Rosie Vela’s 1986 album produced by Gary Katz. He subsequently produced Rickie Lee Jones’s Flying Cowboys and portions of Michael Franks’s Blue Pacific, both issued in 1989.
Early in the 1990s Becker made occasional appearances with Fagen’s New York Rock & Soul Revue. Shortly afterward the two began tentative songwriting sessions that led to the decision that each would produce the other’s solo album. Becker helmed Fagen’s 1993 Kamakiriad, which received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, while Fagen co-produced Becker’s 1994 solo debut 11 Tracks of Whack. To promote these releases and the retrospective box set Citizen Steely Dan, they undertook their first tour in twenty years, captured on the 1995 album Alive in America.
The reunion culminated with the 2000 release of Two Against Nature, Steely Dan’s first album in two decades. The record earned four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, and restored Steely Dan to regular activity. Although they issued only one further album—Everything Must Go, released in 2003—Fagen and Becker each pursued individual projects: Becker delivered his second solo album, Circus Money, in 2008. Without new material to promote, Steely Dan evolved into a touring ensemble that continued performing until Becker died of esophageal cancer on September 3, 2017. After his death Fagen fulfilled previously scheduled Steely Dan dates. By year’s end he stated that he had intended to retire the Steely Dan name, yet promoters persuaded him that the band’s name still drew larger audiences, so he continued touring as Steely Dan into the 2020s, informally referring to the new lineup as “The Steely Dan Band.”
Albums
