Today (Feb 20) is Walter Becker’s birthday but it’s us hopeless WB freaks who are getting the presents. Walter Becker Media decided to mark the occasion on the Steely Dan snarky sage’s 73rd birthday by dropping a couple of extra versions of “Cringemaker.”
This song, as you may recall, made its public debut on Becker’s 11 Tracks of Whack in 1994. In that official form, it has a delightful, tight Nashville groove and Becker bemoaning a marriage headed in the wrong direction in his wry kind of way, all the while the music behind him is made for partying.
In the YouTube above, a newly-unveiled “swamp” version gives this number the bar band treatment with the “master of space & time” John ‘Captain’ Beasley on keys, Fima Ephron on bass, Ben Perowsky on drums and the dual guitar attack of Dean Parks and Adam Rogers. Becker, of course, is singing it in his charming warble. Perowsky’s drums come alive here and the instrumental bridge with guitar and keyboard solos are different chord changes than what made it on the record. Folks well-acquainted with the lyrics will also notice a couple of unfamiliar stanzas. The song sounds complete but we know it still had some tweaking ahead of it.
The best part might be at the outro where a nasty, blues-rock aside on guitar pops up. No one’s credited for that solo, but it’s not Walt because he only does vox on for this rendition, so it’s gotta be one of the two listed guitarists, Parks and Rogers. Both are more than capable of it but I’m going to go with Parks, as he co-wrote the tune with WB.
Regardless, it’s a delight to hear another approach to one of my favorite tracks on Whack, and confirms to me that the song is intrinsically good (and fun) enough to sound great in several different treatments.
There’s also an instrumental version that debuted along with the Swamp Version, and you can get that here on the Walter Becker Media site.
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