Comments on: Dear Walter Becker: Please Don’t Play a Guitar Solo

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:18:12 +0000

Michael,
What a great list, thanks! I had given Walter credit for the excellent Bad Sneakers solo, a favorite of mine. I’d never heard Denny play that bluesy, but I’ll take your word for it.

On their “Alive” album, Drew Zingg just tears up Green Earrings and Third World Man, if memory serves.

Dean Parks on Haitian Divorce has such beautiful feel and lyricism. Apart from being one of the best solos ever, it’s by far my fave talkbox solo.

Everything You Did – sounds very much like vintage Larry, all those bends, definitely humbucking pickups, but I could be wrong. btw, the rhythm playing, with the arpeggiated chords, is gorgeous and so clever. Maybe it’s Dean and Larry! Check out the trivia online relating to SD’s supposed mini-feud with the Eagles. “Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening”

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:15:54 +0000

Here is a bit of Steely Dan solo info:

Here At The Western World – Dean Parks
Bad Sneakers – Denny Dias
Aja – 1st -Denny Dias 2nd- Walter Becker 3rd -Denny Dias
Home At Last- Walter Becker
Josie – Walter Becker
Rose Darling – Denny Dias
The Fez – Jay Graydon
Green Earings – 1st-Jay Graydon 2nd(jazzlicks) Denny Dias 3rd-Elliott Randall
Don’t Take Me Alive – Larry Carlton
Gaucho – Walter Becker
FM – Walter Becker
True Companion – Steve Kahn
Haitian Divorce – Dean Parks
Your Gold Teeth 2 – Denny Dias
Hey Nineteen – 2nd- Walter Becker
Negative Girl- Dean Parks
Last Mall – Walter Becker
Things I Miss The Most – Walter Becker
Show Biz Kids – Rick Derringer
Blues Beach – Walter Becker
Reelin In The Years – Elliott Randall
Black Friday – Walter Becker
I Got The News – Walter Becker
Rikki Don’t Lose That Number – Jeff Baxter
Chain Lightning – Rick Derringer
Bodhisattva – Denny Dias
My Old School – Jeff Baxter
Everything You Did – ??????? Carlton????Dean Parks????

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 21 May 2010 13:36:51 +0000

Good points, Josh. Hiccups… that’s a good way to put it.

Not that I’m any luminary or anything, but when I was playing jazz and fusion all the time, I would sometimes think of a complex phrase, jump into it, and 2/3 of the way through I’d hit a snag and stop. This was generally due to either not having my chops in proper shape, or just having an idea that was beyond my current vocabulary. Maybe those phenomena are at work on those Walter solos. It is good to try to outdo yourself, but once in awhile you crash when you do that. To be sure, you crash less when your chops are in top shape.

Interesting that you brought up Home At Last, a great tune. On some songs it’s pretty obvious who is playing, but not sure on that one. I think that actually is Walter! You may have seen that elsewhere in this blog I’ve relented in my fairly snide comments about his stuff, and I’m really enjoying some of his solo album work.

By: Josh Reilly

Josh Reilly — Fri, 21 May 2010 05:52:21 +0000

Walter sounds to me like he is interrupting himself. He gets a phrase started, then just balks and drops out of the groove before he gets all the way into it. Cousin Dupree is a great example. It’s simple tune as SD tunes go; uptempo and just calls out for a punchy 16 bar solo especially with the modulation into another key, but Walter lays in a few phrases then just kind of hiccups, then gets back just in time for the modulation back to the home key and the last verse. You only have a few bars in a pop tune. Say what you want about Sting, he had it right when he said “you’ve got to burn from the moment you kick it off.

Are they mistakes? Is he determined to just not sound like anybody else? It’s like musical dyslexia. Odd, interesting, obviously not complete spazz work but still WTF? Unlike other posts I like the fills; but I don’t think you can make a solo by stringing fills together. I respect the hell out of the guy. And his tone is genius. I need the bleak, but amusing SD counterworld for those days when the milk truck eases into my space, but I think sometimes you have to say it, not just hint at it. I don’t know who played on Home at Last, for example, but it’s f**king brilliant; has structure, melodic direction, rhytmic tension and resolution. Where did we misplace all that?

By: My Apology to Walter Becker | Assonance

My Apology to Walter Becker | Assonance — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 01:26:05 +0000

[...] an earlier post, I had taken Walter Becker to task. I had chastised him for a whole variety of things, mostly having to do with guitar solos on [...]