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" 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. "

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" 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

" '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. "

" 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

Good

Artist

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

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

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

" I think the audience for Limp Bizkit is probably not going to be particularly interested in what we're doing. I don't think they'll find much that satisfies them in what we do. "

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

Walter Becker

Places

America

" I'm a self-taught musician aside from what I've been able to pick up from other players. "

Walter Becker

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. "

" I love guys like Charlie Parker. "

Walter Becker

Charlie

Love

" 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. "

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

Walter Becker

Something

Rather

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

Walter Becker

Constantly

Competing

" There was a time in my life when one aspect of my lifestyle called for watching a lot of television. "

" 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

" 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. "

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

" 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'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. "

" Rock music is being systematically merged with fashion. "

" 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 think every time, before we do an album, we have a discussion where we sort of consider the idea of doing something radically different. "

" Our career had a sort of funny shape. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I think that there's the self-imposed pressure to come up with something that's good. For guys like us, that's much more important than any external pressure could really be. "

Walter Becker

Pressure

Important

" It seemed like the more complex the music we were playing, the less able we were to guarantee its consistency. "