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Blog - #guitar music

Walter Becker of "The Dan" is Gone

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Walter Becker of "The Dan" is Gone - Walter Becker passed away this past week, famed guitar player for Steely Dan since the early 1970s. I was a huge fan of "The Dan" in my youth, but they where a confusing band as I had no idea who played what etc. Becker was the guitar player but they had a who's who of guest guitar player's from Rick Derringer, Skunk Baxter, Mr 335 Larry Carlton, and on and on. So really I never know if Walter played this solo or this sold, but I can say his band was just a Ferrari of blues fusion jazz for a kid like me in the 70s. You always felt a bit more grown up when you listened to Steely Dan at home or in the car. They made you feel like you could wear a smoking jacket and be Hugh Hefner, these guy's just made killer music with chops. Besides that the fidelity was incredible they got me into recording magazines, and reading about all the techniques they used to make these incredible sounding albums. As my friend said the other day they where the quintessential stereo test albums of our youth. 

Walter had some demons, drugs like many hero's from the 70s got in his life, but he finally won the war against that. That war did really cost him 20 years of good music which kinda pissed me "the fan" off but he got it together and "the Dan" toured hard for the past 15 years showing the world once again their beauty. Walter was a thinking man's guitar player and musician pushing for perfection in his tone, his chops, his musicianship, and his band. He will be missed and hopefully someone young has listened to those albums and is inspired to create incredible music for the future or just become a lifelong fan like myself