Now Playing: Walter Becker
Walter Becker has a new album out. It's called Circus Money and is his first solo release since 1994. This can only be a good thing.
Have you ever bought an album on the basis of who produced it? If the answer's no, then I'm willing to bet you're not a Steely Dan fan. If you are, on the other hand, then you may well have bought Zazu, Rosie Vela's one and only album, purely on the basis that Fagen and Becker were on it, reunited for the first time since 1980's Gaucho. Or you may own albums by China Crisis or Fra Lippo Lippi that wouldn't otherwise form part of your collection, because Becker produced and played on them.
Since 1982, Fagen has maintained a blazingly productive output of approximately one solo album per decade. Becker, by contrast, has recorded a scorching two albums in the same time interval. Of course, there's the not insignificant matter of Steely Dan reforming in the mid nineties, but even allowing for their two new studio albums (or is it three? I can't remember) they can hardly be accused of flooding the market. Which makes Becker's new one all the more welcome, and I for one expect to be enjoying it for at least a decade.
Oh, and the title of this blog? A Fagen song, of course.
