Walter Becker
was an essential part of ’70s-rock mainstay Steely Dan. The guitarist and co-writer for the band’s sophisticated songs is dead at 67.
Walter Becker, guitarist, bassist and co-writer for the sophisticated, dark-humored band Steely Dan, has died. He was 67.
The news was confirmed by a post on Becker’s personal website. No cause of death was announced.
The more retiring full-term member of the group, Becker was partnered with singer-keyboardist and co-writer Donald Fagen on a string of jazzy, sleekly produced singles and albums that ruled the charts during the 1970s. After a protracted hiatus, “the Dan” returned to popularity in the ’90s; their 2000 album “Two Against Nature” collected four Grammys, including one for album of the year.
The pair’s gimlet-eyed, covertly perverse music, garbed in gleaming pop melodies, bebop-derived harmonies and shimmering production, was variously performed with a core working band in the group’s initial heyday; those players were ultimately, and permanently, supplanted by a rotating cast of mostly jazz-schooled studio sidemen.
Becker was largely absent from the musical stage during Steely Dan’s extended separation from 198193. It was only after the group’s reunion that he undertook solo recording: His albums “11 Tracks of Whack” (produced by Fagen in 1994) and “Circus Money” (2008) failed to duplicate the band’s success.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Fagen in 2001; with typical dry humor, the pair tersely solicited questions from the starfilled audience during one of the shortest acceptance speeches on record.