RIP Walter Becker of Steely Dan

[hvegasooner]

http://www.tmz.com/2017/09/03/walter-becker-dead-dies/

Sad. Steely Dan was a wonderful Jazz-Rock duo. going to play some of their music today.

[daflyboys]

Re: RIP Walter Becker of Steely Dan

I wouldn't really consider Steely Dan as being a jazz oriented "band", but certainly seemed to have elements of jazz infused in a good portion of their work. Steely Dan for me was a bit of an acquired taste...certainly a unique group, if you can really call them a group in light of how they contracted session musicians for their various works along the way.

In that article Fagen talkes of Becker's genius. You can certainly sense this when watching clips like this where they break down how they developed and composed certain songs and albums, like in this one:

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"Thinking Person's Music":

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[KingV2k3]

Re: RIP Walter Becker of Steely Dan

I didn't realize how subversive it was to have a band with super slick LA production values and breezy background singers that sound straight out of commercial jingle, have Top 40 records singing primarily about drugs, girls and the seedy underbelly of nightlife, until they were past their heyday...

Once I figured all that out?

They've become an indispensable cornerstone of my personal musical cannon...

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R.I.P. Walter Becker