Steely Dan’s Walter Becker on his favourite musicians: “Bob Dylan was such a great singer”
The unique jazz-rock fusion created by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen has a certain Marmite quality to it. On one hand, the complex jazz-inspired rhythms and often sardonic lyrics of Steely Dan make them potentially one of the most stunningly original bands of the 20th century, whereas, on the other hand, their soft rock and pop sensibilities encapsulated all the complacency and banality of the 1970s rock scene. Regardless of your view on Steely Dan, their songwriting talents are difficult to dispute.
Formed in New York during the early part of the 1970s, just as the punk revolution was gearing up to change the music industry forever, Steely Dan amassed perhaps one of the most dedicated cult followings in all of American popular music. Their debut recording, Can’t Buy a Thrill, incorporated elements of jazz, blues, R&B as well as the influence of various styles of Latin music, endearing the group towards a wide range of music fans.
A hangover from the experimentation of the 1960s hippie scene, Steely Dan’s discography was largely influenced by dope, which can be plainly heard within their sound. Far from being the slacker, stoner rockers that would later popularise the music charts in the years to come, Becker and Fagen were genuinely gifted songwriters, producing tracks unlike anything that 1970s audiences had heard before – which is perhaps why some audiences are still so resistant to their sound.
Despite their eclectic and complex musical style, the songwriters who had the biggest impact on the pair were fairly predictable. In a 2017 interview with Time Out, Becker discussed the track ‘Bob Is Not Your Uncle Anymore’, and the undeniable influence of the great Bob Dylan on Steely Dan, “Bob Dylan at one point was such a great singer, and I’ve listened to his stuff over and over, so I’m sure that there’s some of that in there. You know, I got a lot of inflections and stuff from various blues singers that I listened to when I started listening to blues after I’d been a jazz fan for a couple years.”
Expanding upon his influences and songwriting inspiration, the Steely Dan guitarist and vocalist explained how vast a range of artists he draws from, saying, “They were all so different, but what they had in common was that they had a lot of little melismatic turns and little expressive things that they did, and scoops and things like that,” he continued, “So I’d say that blues people who were well known in the day—and even the more primitive guys like Robert Johnson or someone like that—you get rhythmic things from.”
As regular listeners of the masters of jazz-rock fusion will be all too aware, it is difficult to compare Steely Dan to anybody else. According to Becker, that sort of thing is largely by design, saying, “I don’t really have some particular person I think I can emulate; I’m just sort of trying to get away with what I can with the range that I have.”
Steely Dan have been active sporadically since their original reformation in 1993, with a revolving cast of session musicians always centred around the partnership of Becker and Fagen. After the sad loss of Becker in 2017, Fagen has continued to tour as Steely Dan, though he has been clear that he would prefer to retire the band name now that Becker is no longer there.
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