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" 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. "

Walter Becker

Hotel

Drive

Want

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" Rock music is being systematically merged with fashion. "

" Our career had a sort of funny shape. "

" If it feels like we're re-creating something rather than creating something, we don't do it. "

Walter Becker

Something

Rather

" 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

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

" We are constantly competing with the monsters from the id. "

Walter Becker

Constantly

Competing

" 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. "

" 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. "

" '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. "

" 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. "

" It's a mystery to me why everybody doesn't love jazz. I've never been able to figure that out. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I love guys like Charlie Parker. "

Walter Becker

Charlie

Love

" I can never believe how much time and energy and money and talent and everything else is being poured into horrible ideas. "

" 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. "

" The protagonist in 'Deacon Blues' is a triple-L loser - an L-L-L Loser. It's not so much about a guy who achieves his dream but about a broken dream of a broken man living a broken life. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" It wouldn't bother me at all not to play on my own album. "

" 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. "

" I'm not interested in a rock/jazz fusion. "

" 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. "

" 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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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

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

" 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. "