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 The Walter Becker WeBWorld Dynasty

                     New shit has come to light, man.-- Jeffrey Lebowski

 
 

This is Walter Becker's official website, launched by Becker in 2006. Material posted before Walter's death includes Becker's memos, letters, Newsletters and gags, news updates and events, exhaustive information and visuals on Circus Money (2008) — including several "audience participation" release projects — and The Official Newsletter sign-up and archive of past issues. Since Walter's death, the site has posted slideshow and video collections (still growing), amazing essays by W's pride and joy Sayan Becker, a contest, new Newsletter issues, and new front page photos. Most of the material can be reached from the site's news page listing. This website will remain active for all things Official Becker, updated with new material, and home for The Official WB Newsletter sign-ups and archive.

The site also houses a growing reference library and other materials in its Walter Becker University, chartered in 2021.

 
 

Walter Becker University (WBU)
walterbecker.com/wbu.html

Walter Becker University (WBU) houses WB content that belongs in the data-bank of any educated citizenry. Currently in WBU's Library are some key reference materials including: Becker's bio; discography; full producer credits; master list of recorded guitar solos, bass tracks and guest appearances; and a section for advanced projects and deep-dives — all sporting links to the associated discussion thread/study group running over on Walter Becker Media. Go to the WBU Page to access the collection.

 
 

Walter Becker Media
(walterbeckermedia.com)

Walter died in September of 2017. Early in 2018, The Walter Becker Estate launched Walter Becker Media, a site designed to house some of Becker's unreleased tracks, demos, live cuts, and other rarities, as well as an FAQ, discussion boards, photos, material related to Becker's officially released recordings, and free high-quality downloads of site material. The protean Matt Kerns came on board to do all the heavy lifting ... and brought along most of the fellowship, friendship, and fun as well.

Since its launch and to date, WBM has posted dozens of tracks in MP3 and FLAC/lossless audio formats, many with accompanying videos or slideshows, and virtually all with accompanying (con)text. The tracks range from simple sequencer and vocal demos — the earliest, most stripped-down version of a song in the process of being written — to songs that have been tracked by Becker's recording band but never completed. Several are "rehearsal tapes" of Becker's band practicing for recording or performance.

The main purpose of Walter Becker Media is to honor Becker's wish that some subset of his unreleased or WorkInProgress material be easily accessible after his death. Arguably, its effect has been to illustrate the surprising (to some) breadth of his talent and to reveal a relentlessly restless drive to innovate and create.

Another important component of the site is its discussion boards. Originally offered to give Beckerphiles an open, anonymous (if desired) troll-free space for discussion and interaction, they have developed into places where folks can share their musical enthusiasms and knowledge for the enjoyment of fellow posters, with much good-will interaction all-around. Walter would have been very proud.

 
 

Steelydan.com Website Archive
(sdarchive.com)

It was 1996 "when lo Walter begat steelydan.com" (M. Kerns). Becker spearheaded its content for most of its early life, rejecting a parade of "New Media" dolts offered up by the record companies — instead recruiting more simpatico help wherever he could find it. In time he convinced his tuneful partner in Art Crimes that this could be a cool little playpen in which they could have some fun and sling some shit around. And that's what they did, to fantastic effect, for quite some time.

Noted in its day by fans, reviewers, and the music press for its non-corporate feel, the participation of the principles, high quality satire, and extended gambits — such as trying to bribe the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame judges with a case of honey mustard, then putting their statuettes up for auction on SDEbay — Becker was frequently as proud of this site and the online SD community of which it became a part as he was a random guitar lick or a line of lyrics. To him, sd.com was a substantive, creative enterprise.

Upon Becker's death, the administration of the official SD website passed into other hands. But the entire original SD website from its launch in March of 1996 until Becker's death in 2017 has been archived at the "Steely Dan Internet Archive"

Virgin Newbie? You won't believe any site could have been so eclectic, ad-libbed, and nutz. Old-timer? All hail the Founding Mothers And Fathers of an utterly unique online aesthetic that could only have come from the creative melding of WB, DF, and their fans.

 
 

Hey 19 Digital Archive
(WB's 'Hey-19 Rap of the Week')


[see update below]

Fantastic fan-sourced collection of Becker's "infamous interludes" delivered at the mic during the vamp of Hey Nineteen in concert. The searchable, cross-categorized database contains every recording of Becker's "raps rants and raves" that could be found from 2007 up to his final show at Greenwich, CT in May of 2017... and new shows continue to be discovered and added to the collection even now. Hosted on space donated by the venerable Jim "Hoops" McKay, the content is collected, archived, and maintained by — who else — Matt Kerns. For years, fans have daydreamed about hearing a bunch of those deeply weird shards of lexical lunacy. Now thanks to Matt and all the fan material contributors, we have The Box Set!

The collection contains both video and audio files, all available for embedding or download.

UPDATE: 2019 - now

You may have noticed this site has gone dark. Here's what I know: A take-down demand came from Donald Fagen via his lawyer, declaring the audio and/or video of Walter’s raps "unauthorized", and demanding their immediate and permanent removal from online.

Any additional details must come from Matt Kerns, who alone lovingly created and maintained the tribute site (with generous clip contributions from many of you), and who was the target of the legal threat.

Editorial: Let's be clear about what has happened here. DF decided his new de facto authority can apply retroactively, declaring recordings of the stage patter of one half of Steely Dan (a few minutes speaking over a repetitive vamp — not the performance of a full song) to be "unauthorized"... despite Becker approving dissemination of these clips during his lifetime. Thereby erasing a significant chunk of pure unadulterated Walter from pubic view, perhaps forever. Why? Or, as an Austrian colleague liked to ask: "on vat theory?" I know some of you must be as saddened by this senseless loss as am I.

But mostly I am disturbed by the troubling implications of this action. It goes without saying that nearly 90% of Walter Becker's public musical production and performance — his life's work — occurred in the context of a “partnership". It's tragic, to say the least, to see any portion of this life's work muted, edited, or even silenced entirely; it's hard to accept that simply dying should expunge any part of the historical record of one's own public or professional life ... let alone due to the unilateral, post-mortem actions of a putative "partner" — regardless of any strict legalese "rights protection" argument evoked for such a selectively distructive and un-"partnerlike" stance.

We are compelled, then, to accept that some things are kept alive primarily inside of people — inside of us — not on any youtube clip or web page.

And to that, I will only observe the stubborn, irrepressible truth that's nonetheless emerged since September 2017:

WB Lives.

Apologies for any unplesantness here. And thanks, --DB


 
 
 

Walter Becker Media Instagram

Good Lord. Matt assures me this serves mainly to send more eyeballs over to Walter Becker Media and, largely, announces new posts and duplicates some of the photos also posted there. So why not go to the site itself? But hey, that's just me....

 
 

Walter Becker Media Twitter

Holy Mary Mother of God. Same thing, he promises me ... just posts and reposts reminding a tiny corner of the world that !WB Lives! on Walter Becker Media, the Official Walterbecker.com, and in the musical sensibilities of a hunk of thoughtful appreciators.

 
 

Walter Becker Media @ Facebook

OK Matt — this may well be the bridge too far ... [NB: misanthropic griping aside, I'm incredibly grateful — and so should we all be — for Matthew's herculean efforts on these and other social media sites in keeping awareness of WB's life and work in the pubic domain]

 
 

Walter Becker Media YouTube Channel

Launched along with Walter Becker Media, it simply mirrors material posted there. Note: The audio quality of posts both on YouTube and on our discussion threads on Walter Becker Media are frankly inferior to the high quality Downloads we've made available to you on the site. The YouTubes and posts are perfectly fine for computer or desktop listening, we believe. But if you're headed for the headphones or the big macker system, go for a Download in your choice of good MP3 or FLAC

 
 

Walter Becker Slideshow/Visual Index
(walterbeckermedia.com/)

Growing index of photos and videos collected from walterbecker.com , walterbeckermedia.com and other WB sites, plus selections from WB's private collection of stills and travel home movies.

 
 

Walter Becker Way
(walterbeckerway.com)

These are the web pages for The Street Naming event for Walter Becker Way in Queens, New York, on October 28, 2018. They contain Press Releases for the event, promotional photographs and graphics for press and promotion, long and short-form Becker biographies, and discographies. This web location also houses post-event materials such as transcripts of all the speechifyin' including Howard Rodman's phenomenal Keynote Address; "greeting" videos from friends and colleagues; follow-up giveaways — such as the Captions Contest — and will house any other post-event material as may present itself.

 
     
you are currently on walterbecker.com    
[ go to home @   w a l t e r b e c k e r m e d i a . c o m
   [ go to home @  w a l t e r b e c k e r . c o m