Walter Becker

Walter Carl Becker (February 20, 1950 – September 3, 2017) was an American musician, songwriter, and record producer.

He was the co-founder, guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter of the jazz rock band Steely Dan.

Becker met future songwriting partner Donald Fagen while they were students at Bard College.

Becker left the school in 1969 before completing his degree and moved with Fagen to Brooklyn, where the two began to build a career as a songwriting duo.

They were members of the touring band for Jay and the Americans but used the pseudonyms Gus Mahler (Becker) and Tristan Fabriani (Fagen).

After a brief period of activity in New York City, the two moved to Los Angeles in 1971 and formed the nucleus of Steely Dan, which enjoyed a critically and commercially successful ten-year career.

Following the group's dissolution, Becker moved to Hawaii and reduced his musical activity, working primarily as a record producer.

They composed music for the soundtrack to You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat, a 1971 film starring Richard Pryor.

In 1971, Becker and Fagen moved to Los Angeles and were hired by Gary Katz as staff songwriters at ABC Records, later forming Steely Dan with guitarists Denny Dias and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder, and vocalist David Palmer.

Fagen played keyboards and sang, while Becker played bass guitar.

Steely Dan spent the next three years touring and recording before swearing off touring in 1974, confining themselves to the studio with personnel that changed for every album.

In addition to co-writing all of the band's material, Becker played guitar and bass guitar and sang background vocals.

Pretzel Logic (1974) was the first Steely Dan album to feature Becker on guitar.

"Once I met [session musician] Chuck Rainey", he explained, "I felt there really was no need for me to be bringing my bass guitar to the studio anymore".

Despite the success of Aja in 1977, Becker suffered from setbacks during this period, including an addiction to narcotics.

After the duo returned to New York in 1978, Becker's girlfriend Karen Roberta Stanley, who was an employee of ABC Dunhill Records and personal manager for the band, died of a drug overdose in his apartment on January 30, 1980, resulting in a wrongful death lawsuit against him.

Soon after, he was hit by a cab in Manhattan while crossing the street and was forced to walk with crutches while recovering.

His exhaustion was made worse by commercial pressure and the complicated recording of the album Gaucho (1980).

Becker and Fagen suspended their partnership in June 1981.

Following Steely Dan's breakup, Becker and his family moved to Maui.

Becker ceased using drugs, stopped smoking and drinking, and became an "avocado rancher and self-styled critic of the contemporary scene."

In 1985, he briefly became a member of the English band China Crisis, producing and playing synthesizer on their album Flaunt the Imperfection.

He produced albums for the new wave bands Fra Lippo Lippi and China Crisis, and is credited on the latter's 1985 album Flaunt the Imperfection as a member of the band.

He also produced albums for Michael Franks and John Beasley.

Becker and Fagen reunited in 1986 to collaborate on Zazu, the debut album by Rosie Vela.

Becker and Fagen reformed Steely Dan in 1993 and remained active, recording Two Against Nature (2000), which won four Grammy Awards.

Becker released two solo albums, 11 Tracks of Whack (1994) and Circus Money (2008).

Becker produced Rickie Lee Jones's album Flying Cowboys (certified gold by the RIAA in 1997 ) and played bass on the title track.

In a 2007 interview Fagen said, "I hear this guy practicing, and it sounded very professional and contemporary. It sounded like, you know, like a black person, really."

They formed the band Leather Canary, which included fellow student Chevy Chase on drums.

At the time, Chase called the group "a bad jazz band."

Following a brief battle with esophageal cancer, he died on September 3, 2017.

He and Fagen are the only two members of Steely Dan who appeared on every studio album by the band.

Becker was born in Queens, New York City.

After Becker's parents separated when he was a boy, his British mother returned to England.

Becker was made to believe by his father and grandmother that his mother was deceased, but at some point between his childhood and late adolescence, he discovered that she was living, and he maintained a rocky relationship with her from then on.

He was raised in Queens and Scarsdale, New York by his father and his grandmother.

His father, Carl Becker, sold paper-cutting machinery in Manhattan where Walter graduated from Stuyvesant High School.

After starting out on saxophone, he switched to guitar and received instruction in blues technique from neighbor Randy California, who later formed the band Spirit.

Donald Fagen overheard Becker playing guitar at a campus coffee shop, the Red Balloon, when they were both students at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.