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" 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

Work

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" All our wives are experimental psychologists. "

" 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

Strange

Way

" Some places you play in America, it's like 'On the Waterfront.' "

Walter Becker

Places

America

" 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

Music

" I learned music from a book on piano theory. I was only interested in knowing about chords. From that, and from the 'Harvard Dictionary of Music,' I learned everything I wanted to know. "

" 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. "

" 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

Onion

" Most of our songs are about relationships. "

" I love guys like Charlie Parker. "

Walter Becker

Charlie

Love

" I don't think that the Grammys are in any way a just way of grading music. "

" With 'Aja,' there was a sort of happy conjunction between our tastes and the backgrounds and styles of studio musicians at the time. "

" I think we're right up there with Herman's Hermits and the other greats. Maybe somewhere between Herman's Hermits and the Gershwins. "

Walter Becker

Somewhere

Think

" 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. "

" We fly to the town in the little private airplane, and then we have to get in cars and drive to the hotel and then drive to the gig. So, I want to do a tour where the performances will actually be at the small airports. "

" 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. "

" The more of what our music does violates the premise of its format that it's presented in, the better. So, hearing our music in the supermarket, a Muzak version, is great. "

Walter Becker

Music

Our

" In the '70s... there were rock players, and there were jazz players. "

" I think what television and video games do is reminiscent of drug addiction. There's a measure of reinforcement and a behavioural loop. "

" '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. "

" 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. "

" Most of the time when people say something sounds like Steely Dan, and I listen to it, it doesn't. And I'm not even sure what they're talking about. "

" There was a film called 'FM,' and we were asked to do the title song. And I said, 'Does it have to have any specific words?' And they said, 'No, it just has to be about FM radio.' It took a day or two to write. "

" 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. "

" 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

" We try to write things that work on a variety of levels at the same time: A sleek exterior with a turbulent lyric. "

" From a linguistic point of view, you can't really take much objection to the notion that a show is a show is a show. "

" You have a kid, and it's like, 'He's gotta go to college! Gotta have some clothes!' "

Walter Becker

Clothes

You

" 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. "

" It was the 'Gaucho' album that finished us off. We had pursued an idea beyond the point where it was practical. That album took about two years, and we were working on it all of that time - all these endless tracking sessions involving different musicians. It took forever, and it was a very painful process. "

" We've been allowed to operate unmolested on the fringes of the music scene, really. That's where we enjoy it most. "