Walter Becker R.I.P.
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Ah man, part of an awesome writing duo with Donald Fagen.
RIP
RIP
Neesy
#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
Used to listen to Steely Dan a lot - RIP
Heard they were great as a 'studio band' but never did see them live.
67 is awfully young to die
Never sought their music out but have heard of Steely Dan from way back. R.I.P. mal.
I think most people would consider Aja to be Steely Dan's finest album, but for me it's their second one, Countdown to Ecstasy. After that Two Against Nature is probably my favourite.
There was a documentary just on here about the making of Aja, and they refered to the type of music as Yacht Rock. I don't think I knew the term, it refers to late seventies/early eighties soft rock (that term I knew), like Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Doobie Brothers/Michael McDonald, Hall and Oates, Christopher Cross, Toto, 10 CC. Some of this is among my most favourite music, especially 10CC (they still tour here regularly and I went to see them, although only Graham Gouldman is left of the original line-up).
Basically it's this laidback, smooth music, with high quality of production, using soul, jazz, R&B, funk and disco.
Steely Dan is jazzy, but it's not quite jazz-rock like (the early) Chicago.
I recently rebought Steely Dan's Everything Must Go, which disappointed me at the time after Two Against Nature, but now I like it a lot. The stand out track is Godwhacker, which is about a squad assigned to enter Heaven and take out God. It was written after Fagen's mother died of Alzheimer's which felt like great injustice to him. I love the lyrics, like 'There's no escape from the Rajah's of erase'.
Steely Dan's lyrics are always very evocative anyway. They have common themes like love and relationships too, but in general are far more original and visual.
Everything Must Go also has the first lead vocal by Becker on a Steely Dan record, Slang of Ages, and the lyrics mention The Netherlands and Amsterdam.
However, I somehow like Fagen's solo stuff even more. It's not that far removed from Steely Dan, it just somehow feels more personal and perhaps 'intimate' to me. His four albums feel like absolute masterpieces to me. I really hope he will come up with more. I find his lyrics even more evocative, like the title song of Morph the Cat, which is about a mysterious, cat-like creature descending on Manhattan.
Both with Steely Dan and Fagen there are also a lot of songs about specific women or girls: Rikki, Katy, Josie, Peg, Aja (a Korean woman's name), Abbie, Janie (Runaway), Maxine, Ruby, Mona, (Security) Joan, Gina, Mary, Denise (from H gang), Rhonda, Marlene.
If you're expecting a baby girl, look no further than their back catalogue for inspiration for a name!
Right before Becker's death I read in an interview they were working on new material, so hopefully that will still happen without him.
There was a documentary just on here about the making of Aja, and they refered to the type of music as Yacht Rock. I don't think I knew the term, it refers to late seventies/early eighties soft rock (that term I knew), like Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Doobie Brothers/Michael McDonald, Hall and Oates, Christopher Cross, Toto, 10 CC. Some of this is among my most favourite music, especially 10CC (they still tour here regularly and I went to see them, although only Graham Gouldman is left of the original line-up).
Basically it's this laidback, smooth music, with high quality of production, using soul, jazz, R&B, funk and disco.
Steely Dan is jazzy, but it's not quite jazz-rock like (the early) Chicago.
I recently rebought Steely Dan's Everything Must Go, which disappointed me at the time after Two Against Nature, but now I like it a lot. The stand out track is Godwhacker, which is about a squad assigned to enter Heaven and take out God. It was written after Fagen's mother died of Alzheimer's which felt like great injustice to him. I love the lyrics, like 'There's no escape from the Rajah's of erase'.
Steely Dan's lyrics are always very evocative anyway. They have common themes like love and relationships too, but in general are far more original and visual.
Everything Must Go also has the first lead vocal by Becker on a Steely Dan record, Slang of Ages, and the lyrics mention The Netherlands and Amsterdam.
However, I somehow like Fagen's solo stuff even more. It's not that far removed from Steely Dan, it just somehow feels more personal and perhaps 'intimate' to me. His four albums feel like absolute masterpieces to me. I really hope he will come up with more. I find his lyrics even more evocative, like the title song of Morph the Cat, which is about a mysterious, cat-like creature descending on Manhattan.
Both with Steely Dan and Fagen there are also a lot of songs about specific women or girls: Rikki, Katy, Josie, Peg, Aja (a Korean woman's name), Abbie, Janie (Runaway), Maxine, Ruby, Mona, (Security) Joan, Gina, Mary, Denise (from H gang), Rhonda, Marlene.
If you're expecting a baby girl, look no further than their back catalogue for inspiration for a name!
Right before Becker's death I read in an interview they were working on new material, so hopefully that will still happen without him.
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..."there is a Sirius XM channel called "Yacht Rock" that utilizes a horrible impersonation of Jim Backus when he was playing Thurston Howell on Gilligan's Island...that said, the format is just another incarnation of what I would have played in my DJ days, and called "Soft Rock" or "Adult Contemporary....
I suppose Chris Rea falls in the genre too, On the Beach even fits the term Yacht Rock perfectly (Christopher Cross even has a song called Sailing). Although people who only know Rea's hits probably don't know he has a lot of blues-oriented songs too.
Everything Must Go being Steely Dan's last album, seems fitting. The first and last song (the title song) are all about quitting and going out of business. The first is about a mall closing and urges customers to do their last shopping.
I suppose it's just accidental. I don't think they ever broke up, it just happened to be their last album. Two Against Nature had been a very successful come-back so quitting would have been the last thing on their mind. Still strange how it now is their last album as well.
Everything Must Go being Steely Dan's last album, seems fitting. The first and last song (the title song) are all about quitting and going out of business. The first is about a mall closing and urges customers to do their last shopping.
I suppose it's just accidental. I don't think they ever broke up, it just happened to be their last album. Two Against Nature had been a very successful come-back so quitting would have been the last thing on their mind. Still strange how it now is their last album as well.