<<< BACKWARD (“My Waterloo”) ||| ONWARD (“Hat Too Flat”) >>> *** STEELY DAN SUNDAY INDEX *** Back during the time that 11 Tracks Of Whack was new, I’d pop that CD out of the player after “Girlfriend” most of the time; I thought that most of this album’s filler wereRead More

<<< BACKWARD (“Girlfriend”) ||| ONWARD (“This Moody Bastard”) >>> *** STEELY DAN SUNDAY INDEX *** Somewhere in the distant future we’ll finally reach Walter Becker’s Circus Money in this series, but today brings us to a song that, looking back, is an advance taste to that 2008 release. You MayRead More

<<< BACKWARD (“Cringemaker”) ||| ONWARD (“My Waterloo”) >>> *** STEELY DAN SUNDAY INDEX *** There are some things I don’t like about “Girlfriend” and other things I just love. You May Also Like: Walter Becker, “Cringemaker [Swamp Version]” (circa 1994)

The real charm of 11 Tracks of Whack is not how much it sounds like classic Steely Dan, but how much it distances itself from it. You May Also Like: Walter Becker, “Cringemaker [Swamp Version]” (circa 1994) Walter Becker, “Medical Science [Demo]” (1994): Steely Dan Sunday Steely Dan, “Hey Nineteen”Read More

Throw together a funky, faux-reggae pulse, some dancehall horns, a delectably angular Becker guitar solo and his light-hearted humor about a relationship based on desperation, and you have a “Hard Up Case.” You May Also Like: Walter Becker, “Hard Up Case (Live at Slim’s 1995)” (2024): Steely Dan Sunday

I consider 11 Tracks of Whack an uneven record with several good moments and even a few brilliant ones. But it’s not until Track 5 where it takes its first real dip. You May Also Like: Walter Becker, “The Dopest Cut / Down In the Bottom” (1992): Steely Dan SundayRead More

A romantic, tear-jerking ballad is the last kind of song anyone would expect from Steely Dan’s Walter Becker.

A slight modification of the surfer’s variation on the “no guts no glory” credo, “Surf And/Or Die” is a eulogy of sorts to a real-life young friend or acquaintance in Becker’s home environs at Hawaii who perished in an accident. You May Also Like: Walter Becker, “Medical Science [Demo]” (1994):Read More

The co-architect of Aja comes out with a song fit for Tonight’s The Night. Well, OK, so maybe Neil Young didn’t use a drum machine or production that shimmered quite so much, but there’s that same desolation You May Also Like: Walter Becker, “She Was Good” (early 1990s): Steely DanRead More

Next to Lennon and McCartney, Becker and Fagen is, in my view, the highest quality songwriting partnership in rock. You May Also Like: Walter Becker, “The Dopest Cut / Down In the Bottom” (1992): Steely Dan Sunday Walter Becker, “Medical Science [Demo]” (1994): Steely Dan Sunday Walter Becker, “Three SistersRead More