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" 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
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" When you're collaborating with somebody, there has to be a spirit of cooperation. There are a lot of times when you just can't persuade someone to write a certain type of song, either musically or lyrically. "
Walter Becker
Song
Spirit
Cooperation
" What gets people into trouble with records now is that they want to build something up without substantial musical ideas. Without that as a foundation, you can add all the layers of sound you want - it's still going to sound like a mess. "
Walter Becker
People
Ideas
Trouble
" '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
" It's a mystery to me why everybody doesn't love jazz. I've never been able to figure that out. "
Walter Becker
Never
Jazz
Love
" What about that Dave Brubeck live album, with a version of 'Like Someone in Love' on it, and long sax solos by Paul Desmond? That's what got me hooked on jazz. "
Walter Becker
Love
Someone
Me
" Some places you play in America, it's like 'On the Waterfront.' "
Walter Becker
Places
Like
America
" It wouldn't bother me at all not to play on my own album. "
Walter Becker
Bother
Play
Own
" In the '70s... there were rock players, and there were jazz players. "
Walter Becker
Jazz
Were
Rock
" I don't particularly like L.A. "
Walter Becker
Like
Particularly
" 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
" If any artist abuses his audience as a means to any end, noble or ignoble, he better have a damn good reason for it. "
Walter Becker
He
Good
Artist
" I think what television and video games do is reminiscent of drug addiction. There's a measure of reinforcement and a behavioural loop. "
Walter Becker
Addiction
Think
Video Games
" 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
" 'Gaucho' was a struggle for us for a lot of reasons, and in the end, we just sort of survived it. "
Walter Becker
End
Just
Struggle
" Going out and looking for managers is like going out and looking for rattlesnakes. "
Walter Becker
Looking
Like
Going
" Given a choice between Charlie Mingus and Eric Dolphy or Joe Strummer and Lou Reed, there was no choice. I like Reed and Strummer, but it's kiddie music. "
Walter Becker
Choice
Like
Music
" If there's a strange way to do something, I would certainly like to know about it. I feel that I owe that to my public. "
Walter Becker
Like
Strange
Way
" 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
" 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
" With 'Aja,' there was a sort of happy conjunction between our tastes and the backgrounds and styles of studio musicians at the time. "
Walter Becker
Time
Happy
Musicians
" 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
" ABC had all these schlocky, bubblegum acts, and we had to come up with suitable material for them. In which we were amazingly unsuccessful. "
Walter Becker
Up
Unsuccessful
Material
" 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
" It seemed like the more complex the music we were playing, the less able we were to guarantee its consistency. "
Walter Becker
Music
Playing
Consistency
" 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
" We opened for the Kinks, the Beach Boys, the Guess Who, Chuck Berry, Sha Na Na. We opened for Cheech and Chong - I opened for Cheech, and Don opened for Chong. "
Walter Becker
Beach
Guess
Who
" 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
" I love guys like Charlie Parker. "
Walter Becker
Charlie
Love
Like
" My primary influences were the best jazz players from the 50's and 60's and later some of the pop people from the same time period along with the better of the well known blues musicians. "
Walter Becker
People
Time
Musicians
" Singing, for me, means singing as loud as I can. "
Walter Becker
Means
I Can
Loud