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" That's sort of what we wanted to do: conquer from the margins, sort of find our place in the middle based on the fact that we were creatures of the margin and of alienation. "
Walter Becker
Place
Our
Middle
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" 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. "
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" There was a time in my life when one aspect of my lifestyle called for watching a lot of television. "
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" 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. "
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" It wouldn't bother me at all not to play on my own album. "
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" 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. "
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" 'Gaucho' was a struggle for us for a lot of reasons, and in the end, we just sort of survived it. "
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" It's a mystery to me why everybody doesn't love jazz. I've never been able to figure that out. "
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" 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. "
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" ABC had all these schlocky, bubblegum acts, and we had to come up with suitable material for them. In which we were amazingly unsuccessful. "
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" It's great fun to play with a really good band. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" I'm a self-taught musician aside from what I've been able to pick up from other players. "
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Been
Able
" When you start to work with someone, there's a negotiation that takes place involving what's going to happen when you have a difference of opinion. Most attempts at collaboration never survive the negotiation. Merely being agreeable is not enough. "
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" Singing, for me, means singing as loud as I can. "
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" 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. "
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" 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
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Think
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" I don't particularly like L.A. "
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Like
Particularly
" 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
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Musicians
" 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
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" 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
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" I learned a lot from the various artists I produced. Either you see them doing something that you do want to do it, or you see them doing something the way you don't want to do it. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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Doing
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Before
" If it feels like we're re-creating something rather than creating something, we don't do it. "
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" You have a kid, and it's like, 'He's gotta go to college! Gotta have some clothes!' "
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Clothes
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Like
" 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. "
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" 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. "
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