After producing six of the very best albums of the 70's with Steely Dan, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen took a break from songwriting for most of 1978 before starting work on their next project 'Gaucho'. The project did not go smoothly, with technical problems, when an assistant engineer accidentally erased most of one of their favourite songs 'The Second Arrangement', and legal issues with their record label meant that the band could not release an album for over a year, with 'Gaucho' eventually appearing in 1980. These problems, plus some personal setbacks for Becker, went some way towards Becker and Fagen's decision to suspend their partnership for over a decade, officially disbanding Steely Dan in 1981. Fagen didn't waste any time, though, and released his first solo album 'The Nightfly' in 1982, giving him a platinum record in both the U.S. and the U.K., and yielding the Top Twenty hit 'I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World)'. However, following this success, and writing the score for 'Bright Lights, Big City' in 1988, he recorded little in the following years. Becker, in the meantime, had moved to Maui, where he stopped using drugs, and became an avocado rancher and self-styled critic of the contemporary scene. Both men occasionally did production work for other artists, with Becker gaining some acclaim for his work with UK indie/pop band China Crisis, who were strongly influenced by Steely Dan. In 1986 Becker and Fagen performed on 'Zazu', an album by former model Rosie Vela, which led to a rekindling of their friendship, and they wrote some new material together between 1986 and 1987, but the results remained unfinished. In 1993/1994 the stars must have aligned, as both Becker and Fagen released solo albums at the same time, Fagen's second, and Becker's debut. Not only that, but Fagen co-produced and played keyboards on Becker's, and Becker produced and played guitar and bass on Fagen's, as well as co-writing one of the songs, 'Snowbound'. If only they'd got together a little earlier and considered reforming Steely Dan, they could have pooled their songs to produce an album that fans had been waiting over a dozen years to hear. As they didn't think of it, it's up to me to do it for them, taking what I think are the most Dan-like tracks from each of their solo albums, along with a couple of excellent out-takes from Becker, one from the Japanese edition of his album, and the other which was released by his estate following his passing in 2017. It will never be as good an album as if they had collaborated fully on the writing and arrangement of the songs, but it hangs together pretty well, and shows that neither artist had lost any of their songwriting skills following their decade-long semi-retirement in the 80's. I've named it after the one of the two co-writes on the album, and based the cover on that as well.
Track listing
01 Snowbound (Becker/Fagan)02 Book Of Liars (Becker)03 Junkie Girl (Becker)04 On The Dunes (Fagan)05 Love In The 4th (Becker)06 Teahouse On The Tracks (Fagan)07 Fall Of '92 (Becker/Fagan)08 Springtime (Fagan)
There was a slight update to this post, as neplicot suggested a couple of songs that I could have included, one of which I had completely missed. The Becker/Fagan co-write 'Fall Of '92', which was left off Becker's '11 Tracks Of Whack' album, is a great song, and would fit perfectly on here. I'm therefore replacing Becker's 'Medical Science', as while it's also a great track, I never really felt it fitted in with the others, whereas 'Fall Of '92' just slots right in.
'You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat' is a 1971 comedy-drama film directed by Peter Locke, involving a young hippie and his search for the meaning of life while in Central Park. Its soundtrack includes some of the earliest released music by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who later became the core duo behind Steely Dan, and the film also stars Richard Pryor in an early role playing his signature 'wino' character, as well as actor/director Robert Downey Sr, and it was edited by Wes Craven. Despite this plethora of future talent it wasn't a great film, and it's soundtrack is probably it's greatest legacy. Although strictly speaking this album does exist it's nigh-on impossible to track down, and so for Steely Dan fans who might not know of it, here's a tad over half an hour of Becker & Fagen playing together with Denny Dias in 1971.
Track listing
01 You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It02 Flotsam And Jetsam03 War And Peace04 Roll Back The Meaning05 Dog Eat Dog06 Red Giant - White Dwarf07 If It Rains08 You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It (Reprise)
Walter Becker and Donald Fagen met in 1967 at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. As Fagen passed by a café, The Red Balloon, he heard Becker practicing the electric guitar. He introduced himself to Becker and asked, "Do you want to be in a band?" Discovering that they enjoyed similar music, the two began writing songs together. After Fagen graduated in 1969, the two moved to Brooklyn and tried to peddle their tunes in the Brill Building in midtown Manhattan. Kenny Vance (of Jay and the Americans), who had a production office in the building, took an interest in their music, which led to work on the soundtrack of the low-budget Richard Pryor film 'You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat' (which I'll be posting later), which they later admitted that they did solely for the money. They also recorded a number of demos between 1968 and 1970 which have since leaked onto the internet in various forms. They are notable for their sparse arrangements (Fagen plays solo piano on many songs) and lo-fi production, in stark contrast with Steely Dan's later work, and although some of these songs ('Caves of Altamira', 'Brooklyn', 'Barrytown') were re-recorded for Steely Dan albums, most were never officially released. For this collection I've chosen the best of those unreleased songs, and so haven't included ones that later turned up on Dan albums. As previously mentioned, the quality isn't the best, but you can still hear the spark of what was to become one of the best song-writing partnerships in modern music.
Track listing
01 Don't Let Me In02 A Little With Sugar03 Sun Mountain04 Android Warehouse05 You Go Where I Go06 The Mock Turtle's Song07 Undecided08 Come Back, Baby09 Stone Piano10 The Yellow Peril11 I Can't Function12 This Seat's Been Taken13 The Braintap Shuffle
