R.I.P. TO STEELY DAN’S WALTER BECKER
Walter Becker and Donald Fagen founded the American jazz-rock band Steely Dan in 1972, taking their name from a sex toy in William S. Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch. When I heard the sad news that Walter Becker had passed away at the weekend aged 67, I was immediately transported back to the first time I was introduced to Steely Dan’s music. It is so true that all it takes is one song to bring back a thousand memories and feelings.
It was 1988 – good times. My head and my feet were turning from soul, funk and rare groove to acid house. I was 18 and had just started my first proper job; my work colleague Donna told me all about Steely Dan and gave me cassettes of their 1970s albums Can’t Buy A Thrill [pictured] and Pretzel Logic, which she had recored ’tape to tape’ on her hi-fi for me.
I had passed my driving test and bought my first car, a blue W reg Ford Escort Mark 3. Freedom was mine and there was no better time to listen to great music than driving around in my car. Steely Dan’s cassettes never left that Ford until it was taken off the road two years later. I still have the tapes.
As you would expect, Steely Dan’s music has been widely sampled. On De La Soul’s track Eye Know, from their debut album 3 Feet High And Rising, samples of the guitar, keyboard and vocals are taken from Peg, a favourite from 1977 Dan LP Aja. Later on, in 2011, German house producer and DJ Daniel Bortz released the EP Again on Circle Music. The title track is an obvious tribute, Bortz taking guitar and vocals from Do It Again, found on Steely Dan’s first album, Can’t Buy A Thrill.
Steely Dan have sold more than 40 million albums and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2001. As a vast range of artists pay tribute to Walter Becker, in a statement at the weekend his partner in the band Donald Fagen said he intended to continue to “keep the music we created together alive as long as I can with the Steely Dan band”.
Their music will live on.
words EMMA JAYNE