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" I can never believe how much time and energy and money and talent and everything else is being poured into horrible ideas. "
Walter Becker
Time
Talent
Money
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" I have a feeling there were many, many successful rock duos that just didn't get attention. That's the fault of the rock press. They are always playing up controversy, scandal, aggravation, and irritation. "
Walter Becker
Feeling
Rock
Successful
" We have been fortunate enough to do something that has always been out of the mainstream and yet have an audience for what we do. "
Walter Becker
Out
Audience
Enough
" In the '70s, my playing was completely untutored, but it sounded good to me, and I tried to find ways to make those very simple things work in more ambitious contexts. "
Walter Becker
Good
Me
Work
" If it feels like we're re-creating something rather than creating something, we don't do it. "
Walter Becker
Something
Rather
Like
" We try to write things that work on a variety of levels at the same time: A sleek exterior with a turbulent lyric. "
Walter Becker
Try
Write
Variety
" I spent a couple of years not doing any music or anything, just here in Hawaii trying to get healthy and adjust to the new regimen I was setting up for myself. "
Walter Becker
Healthy
Doing
Trying
" I don't particularly like L.A. "
Walter Becker
Like
Particularly
" 'Deacon Blues' was special for me. It's the only time I remember mixing a record all day and, when the mix was done, feeling like I wanted to hear it over and over again. It was the comprehensive sound of the thing: the song itself, its character, the way the instruments sounded, and the way Tom Scott's tight horn arrangement fit in. "
Walter Becker
Day
Remember
Song
" I always look for the weirdest note to land on. I felt that that was the least I could do for the great musical traditions which I've spawned. "
Walter Becker
Great
Always
Land
" Singing, for me, means singing as loud as I can. "
Walter Becker
Means
I Can
Loud
" Let's face it, us '60s folks had pretty high expectations. "
Walter Becker
High
Us
Expectations
" You can't always count on the devices, attitudes, and conceits that stood you in good stead in 1972 or 1973, or 1978-79, to still have the same impact all these years later. "
Walter Becker
You
Years
Same
" There's a great freedom in writing by yourself. You can write anything you want. "
Walter Becker
Writing
Freedom
Yourself
" I thought Twitter was a joke. I really thought it was a gag. I thought it was like National Lampoon or the Onion. "
Walter Becker
Gag
Like
Onion
" With any relationship that goes on and is productive over a long period, there have to be some sort of interlocking qualities in those personalities that make it possible to survive. "
Walter Becker
Survive
Relationship
Possible
" It's good - it's great when somebody who is 20 years younger than you comes up and says, 'Wow, we just got turned on to you guys, and you're really great,' or something like that. I like that. "
Walter Becker
Got
Good
Great
" Originally, we had a band known as Steely Dan. As we moved away from the band, we got whoever was appropriate for specific tunes. In a lot of cases, we gravitated toward jazz players who had more sophisticated harmonic concepts. "
Walter Becker
Jazz
Band
More
" When the first album came out and I heard 'Do It Again' on the radio, that was the greatest thing that had ever happened. After that, it was all downhill. "
Walter Becker
Ever
Out
Radio
" Our career had a sort of funny shape. "
Walter Becker
Sort
Funny
Career
" I guess actually playing on the records and touring is a great forced practice regimen for me. And you learn a lot playing with people. "
Walter Becker
You
People
Great
" It's interesting how some songs really lend themselves to performance in a big public venue and performance by a band and so on, and so they're even more successful in that context than they were on the record. "
Walter Becker
Successful
Interesting
Performance
" Cynicism, I contend, is the wailing of someone who believes that things are, or should be, or could be, much, much better than they are. "
Walter Becker
Cynicism
Better
Things
" There was a time in my life when one aspect of my lifestyle called for watching a lot of television. "
Walter Becker
Lot
Television
My Life
" We are constantly competing with the monsters from the id. "
Walter Becker
ID
Constantly
Competing
" I'm glad we turned into a big-time touring band later in life. In fact, it's almost like we planned it out that way. "
Walter Becker
Planned
Life
Fact
" The perfect day for me is waking up and having a cup of tea with my kids before I drive them to school; Then, I go into the studio and try and write some music for three or four hours and give up about noon. "
Walter Becker
Tea
Drive
Day
" We play rock & roll, but we swing when we play. We want that ongoing flow, that lightness, that forward rush of jazz. "
Walter Becker
Flow
Swing
Rock
" I'm a self-taught musician aside from what I've been able to pick up from other players. "
Walter Becker
Up
Been
Able
" I think every time, before we do an album, we have a discussion where we sort of consider the idea of doing something radically different. "
Walter Becker
Doing
Discussion
Before
" If you're playing in a room that holds 15,000 people, it's just a question of how bad the room acoustics are and in what way they're bad. "
Walter Becker
You
Bad
People