Well…just ran across a thread on facebook where people are commenting that since Walter died, it’s not Steely Dan anymore and they want their money back for the concert here in GR…now, these must be people who have never seen SD before…while I loved the way Walter played, there were many concerts this year where he was sick and wasn’t there and they had a fill in do his parts…to be honest, most of the time you really didn’t know he was there or not…and I’ve seen them 6 times….it was the same for me when John Entwhistle of the Who died a week before I was to see them here and it never occurred to me to want my money back…and Ox was more a part of the Who’s sound than Walter was to SD’s…and I’m a bass player fan that was looking so forward to seeing his unique style of playing. I wonder where this all comes from? Would you want your money back for Eagles tickets because Glen Frey died? Or not go to see them because he’s not there? All I know is I’m going to go see them and enjoy the night….I’m sure that Donald will be firing on all cylinders to make up for it…I know that it won’t be the same without Walter….but, we’ll still get to hear what Walter has left behind….and we can revel in the fact that he was here at all….
Tag Archives: Walter Becker
More on SD…
Well…just can’t get over the fact that Walter died….and I thought I needed to write more about it today…so, I will…Donald and Walter have been such a big part of my musical life since the 70′s that this is going to leave a hole there…I know the music will still be there but it’s like when John Entwhistle died the week before I was to see the Who here in GR…there’s just something less in the world knowing they’re gone…knowing that I’ll never again be surprised when I take the wrapper off a new SD disc and some new theme or lyric makes me smile….whenever I need to be soothed, whenever I need music to help quiet my brain when things aren’t going exactly right, I put on my SD playlists that I have heard a thousand times and I always feel better…Whenever I hear Doctor Wu and the emotions of loss and despair get replaced by elation by the end of the song, I am there waiting for Katy…that is the magic of Donald and Walter to me…that I can still be transported to other worlds with their story songs…and I grieve that there will not be any more of them…a sad, sad, day….
RIP Walter Becker…
Damn…this is one that I never wanted to do…Walter Becker, half of Steely Dan, died last night at the age of 67. I am still catching my breath about this…the Dan has been my favorite group for decades now and the plan was to see them for the 7th time in October here in GR. I knew there was something seriously wrong with him when he missed most of their concerts this year, and he didn’t look well at all in the youtube video of a concert from May….but his death still hit me like a ton of bricks, to use the old cliche….the Fagen/Becker partnership has given us some of the best, snarky and literate music that was really hard to describe…but the themes of old guys and young women, of outsiders that really liked being outsiders, and yearning for pasts that never were still resonate to me…and always will….RIP Walter…I’m going to miss you….