I’ll Miss You Walter Becker: RIP Steely Dan Man

I was incredibly saddened to wake up to the news that Steely Dan co-founder and guitarist, Walter Becker, has passed away at 67. He was the other half to one of my all time favorite bands and one of the bands I have grown up on.

Music has been a very influential part of my upbringing and a uniting force in my family and as far as I can remember, the sounds of Donald Fagen’s voice and Walter Becker’s jazzy instrumentals have been a part of my childhood soundtrack.

I only saw them in concert twice, and am so sad that I didn’t make the effort to see them again this year while they were touring. Steely Dan was one of the first concerts I went to when I was in 5th grade and I was so excited to see the guys I was used to hearing on my dad’s speakers. It was a family affair with my mom and two older brothers and I loved every minute of it. (Except for Michael McDonald touring with them that year because he’s not my favorite). The last time I saw them was four years later in September 2009. My brothers and I drove up to Los Angeles with my mom to see them play at the Gibson Ampitheatre. They played for hours and I heard all of my favorite tracks.

“Babylon Sisters” was my first favorite song. My dad says I was about 2 or 3 out on his boat in Lake Mojave and he was playing the whole Gaucho album a lot that summer. I was dancing all around and thought the lyrics were “have a lot of sisters, shake it!” instead of “babylon sisters, shake it!”  and thought that would be the coolest thing. Even though I love my two older brothers dearly I thought having a lot of sisters would be so much fun. I don’t think my parents ever corrected my misheard lyrics and to this day whenever I listen to that song nostalgia rushes back and I reword the lyrics in my head.

Then in 6th grade, I fell in love with “Deacon Blues” and their Aja album. It was around then that I started to study the music I had grown up listening to and learning about the artists that I loved. Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Robert Plant. I spent my middle school years immersing myself into learning about the music I had grown up listening to and gained such an appreciation for the artistic skill and various dynamics different artists undergo in their lives.

When I started my first blog in high school all about music, Fagen and Becker made regular appearances and I loved finding out ore about their musical genius. I thought it was so cool how the two of them met in college at Bard studying music and went all the way together. I learned more about their obscure albums like Katy Lied and ventured beyond the greatest hits. “Reelin’ In The Years”, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” and “Dirty Work” (with David Palmer singing the lead) will always be great songs, but so many people haven’t gotten into the rest of their impressive and extensive discography. I don’t understand the people that aren’t in awe of them and actually dislike their music. Lyrically, they are incredibly clever and their instrumentals are so tight and refined with their updated jazz rock sound. I don’t think there is a Steely Dan song that I couldn’t sing along to and one that I haven’t grown to love.

Thinking that I will never get to see them preform again actually made me tear up while writing this, but I am so thankful for all the memories I share centered around their music with my family and that the world has their collection of music to keep listening to.

RIP Walter Becker, you will truly be missed by the masses and especially the Frost family. (February 20th, 1950- September 3rd, 2017).

Below is a playlist of some of my favorite Steely Dan tracks.