(I got the) News | Issue 21
Walter Becker: The cayenne in the Steely Dan recipe
I have long been a fan of Rickie Lee Jones. Recently I have been spending more time with her catalog. Long story short: I never knew Walter Becker produced her Flying Cowboys album in 1989.
That was an exciting revelation. I love the album and had fun diving deeper into the production details, and Becker’s key part of the creative process.
— How Rickie Lee Jones Wrote ‘The Horses’ With Walter Becker of Steely Dan
“He was my producer of ‘Flying Cowboys’,” Rickie Lee Jones tells Noise11.com. “I had this song and I said to him ‘it feels like it’s just not going anywhere’. He listened and he said ‘what if you change the key in the chorus?’ I don’t know music but he said it was relative to the key and we could go here. So he changed the key and I didn’t like it very much but I wasn’t going to say no to him because I know he is a great writer so I said ‘okay lets do that’. And that’s what we did”.
— Rickie Lee Jones Fulfilled Her Steely Dan Dream on 'Flying Cowboys'
Becker frequently commented that his approach to Rickie Lee Jones was to listen to her demo and determine what if anything was needed to compliment her songs. On tracks like “Just My Baby,” “Rodeo Girl,” “Ghost Train” and the remake of “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying,” Walter Becker added a few additional colors but the original canvas Jones had from her demos was left intact. “Ghost Train” contained Jones’ demo vocals and guitar parts, with just the addition of Jim Keltner’s drum effect.
— Walter Becker And Rickie Lee Jones Made An Amazing Album Together
With Walter at the helm, the list of musicians on the record is a who's who of great studio players -- in fact, it reads a lot like the liner notes on a Steely Dan record. Greg Phillinganes on keys, Dean Parks on guitar, Randy Brecker on trumpet, and the list goes on.
* Here is the great Barney Hurley coming through with a nice photo of the duo:
The Eagles album Steely Dan called "cowboy dream crap"
Although Fagen would claim to have a professional relationship with the Eagles, he did make a few tongue-in-cheek jabs at them in song. Despite throwing in lines about hating the group in a handful of Steely Dan songs, Henley remembered a conversation with Fagen when he slagged off Desperado.
The Steely Dan song about their "loud mouth" neighbour
One song that has long been a source of puzzlement is ‘Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me) from their 1972 debut album, Can’t Buy A Thrill. Lyrics such as “A race of angels bound with one another / A dish of dollars laid out for all to see” and “His lady’s aching to bring a body down / She daily preaches on where she wants to be” are enigmatic but seem to point to real-life inspiration.
Steely Dan — What’s In A Word?
The band that came up with some of the most sophisticated songwriting in modern music.
Walter Becker, the Cayenne in the Steely Dan Recipe
Steely Dan was two sensibilities in tandem, very much the same but somehow not the same when apart. And there might have been more music to come. Losing one of them, and maybe the more mysterious one, means that you’ve lost it all even as the band lives on somehow, ghostly now, a tribute to itself but incapable of writing anything new that will really be Steely Dan.
— As usual… the truly awesome Barney Hurley X account continues to feature great Steely Dan content. There’s equally terrific non-Steely Dan content as well!
New issue is out of the must-read Expanding Dan newsletter.
Richard Lewis will not curb his enthusiasm for Steely Dan: “They approach music the way great comics approach their material," the comedian says.
Have a GREAT day! 😎
Photo: Danny Clinch