Walter Becker

When Steely Dan took a hiatus from 1981 through 1994, their work ethic went to hell. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker (who for all intents and purposes were the group) yielded a grand total of three solo albums over those 14 years. Sure, they produced some albums for other folks (Becker oversaw discs for Rickie Lee Jones, Michael Franks, China Crisis, John Beasley, Jeremy Steig, etc.), but one of the most prolific songwriting teams of the '70s released just 26 songs during that period.

Nonetheless, those solo albums revealed who contributed what to the Steely Dan partnership. Fagen's The Nightfly proved that he had the voice, the melodies, and the romanticism. Becker's 11 Tracks of Whack showed that he was the iconoclast, the one who gave the acerbic edge to the lyrics and the unpredictable shiftiness to the chord changes. Becker's thin, nasal, cramped voice is a real barrier to appreciating these songs, but if you can get past that handicap, the songs are quite good, unsettling portraits of a "Junkie Girl," "This Moody Bastard," and other self-destructive characters on society's margins. It was the first Fagen-Becker coproduction since 1980, and the tracks glistened. Oh, but that voice.

Becker is also credited as the cocreator of the children's album Mose the Fireman. Becker and John Beasley composed the ragtime and Dixieland music and led the quartet that played it behind Michael Keaton's narration about a mythical New York fireman. The music is then repeated without the narration. You will also see albums credited to Becker and Fagen; these are the duo's early songwriting demos before they finally landed their Steely Dan deal. Fewer than 30 songs are involved; some of them were later redone by Steely Dan, but most were not. The better-than-forgettable, less-than-compelling leftovers have been assembled into countless compilations too numerous and transitory to list. For completists only. (GEOFF HIMES)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide