Steely Dan's Walter Becker is best known for his compositional skills. He has worked in tandem with Donald Fagen for over forty years in what would have to be considered one of the very greatest of songwriting teams. And just as Fagen has released sparkling solo albums (three, actually), so has Becker (with two). The first of the two albums has not received as much attention as it deserved, in my opinion, so I'll be writing about it today.

11 Tracks of Whack (1994), co-produced with Fagen, is one of my favourite records. The opening track (of twelve, despite the title), "Down in the Bottom", sets the mood and the subject matter for the rest of the record: the attempted suburban escape of drug addicts and others bearing emotional scars from earlier, faster lives. It features a powerful vocal performance by Becker, who is hugely under-rated as a vocalist. The strength of his singing comes from his deep musical experience rather than his timbre, so it requires thoughtful listening to fully appreciate - he's a bit like Wilco's Jeff Tweedy in that respect, in fact - and this song is a good place to do it: the melody is beautifully contoured and he lays it out perfectly. Becker's guitar skills are on display here as well, and they're prodigious; he's equally at home in jazz and blues, and he crosses from one to the other freely, often in the same line. The album is filled with great playing, singing, grooves, melodies and lyrics. You should hear it. Here's an interesting track ("Medical Science") that's available only on the Japanese release: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAhh2IKdd5I

Steely Dan's story is an amazing one. The band, essentially the songwriting duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, began working together after meeting in 1967 at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. They were English majors. The amazing part is that their musical career, which rivals the most important composers and/or recording artists in popular music history in terms of variety, depth and sophistication (their peers are people like Duke Ellington) was really a creation in large part of their literary backgrounds - or at least would not have been possible without their literary backgrounds.
First, to approach their songs properly, one must recognize that they are essentially short stories (or narrative poems, if you prefer). As a matter of fact, it could be argued that they are as accurate as anything in recent fiction in terms of describing modern sensibilities.
Second, over the course of the nine Steely Dan studio albums, and the five solo albums (three by Fagen, two by Becker), their lyrics have developed at the same rate as their musicianship and recording studio knowledge. In fact, the music may have developed partially as a result of the lyrical growth. (Try to imagine the story told in "Black Cow", for example, without its musical setting.)
Their first album, Can't Buy a Thrill (the title is a line from Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry") is the best place to begin, and we'll do that tomorrow. Listening: two tracks that didn't make it onto Can't Buy a Thrill - "Sail the Waterway" and "Dallas" - available on YouTube (cf. "Black Cow").