'We Shared the Important Events of Our Lives': Michael McDonald Remembers His Friend & Collaborator Walter Becker of Steely Dan
Of the many musicians who have passed through Steely Dan's ranks and worked with the late Walter Becker, Michael McDonald is
among the most celebrated. He joined the Steely Dan touring group
during 1974 on keyboards and both lead and backing vocals, and he
recorded on the albums Katy Lied, The Royal Scam, Aja and Gaucho.
McDonald,
of course, went on to his own fame with the Doobie Brothers and then as
a solo artist, but his connection to Steely Dan continued, as part of
the Dukes of September with Donald Fagen, and also on tour with Steely
Dan in 2006, opening the shows and joining his old mates onstage during
their set.
Reached at his home in California, McDonald offered these memories about Becker, who passed away Sept. 3.
I was fairly shocked, 'cause although I knew that he was having
health issues, they were kind of ongoing for the last couple of years. I
really had no idea that he was as ill. I remember hearing that for some
reason he had left some of the dates on the Steely Dan tour, and that
worried me.
There's not enough I can say about the guys. The
greatest loss here is an amazingly talented man, but he was a kind and
honest man, and I don't know how many people that I can use that
description on that I know in this world. I never saw the guy not be
kind to someone, no matter how insignificant they might be in his life.
He was always a kind person, and for as intelligent as he was, and even
as cynical as he could be about the world -- and his sense of humor was
biting, to say the least, and it was hilarious, his take on things -- he
seemed to value every human being he ever met. And I think that says a
lot about a person.
His intellectual critique of the world around us which was, like I
say, so many times hilarious, and he just had that great gift of sense
of humor, that very intelligent sense of humor. You'd expect a person
like that to almost be snobby, but he wasn't. His take on things and
critique of the world around us could be very biting at times; he didn't
suffer fascists or bullshitters much. But in a one-on-one I never saw
him be aloof. He was one of those people that was always ready with a
smile and a kind word to whoever he was talking to. A very personable
guy, very down to earth in that respect. I always admired that about
him. When I think of Walter, that's probably the first thing I think of.
He
was my friend over the years, and we shared some adventures together
early on. We shared the important events of our lives, with kids. When
he moved to Maui, the few times we talked, I said I always fantasized
living over there. He said, "You should do it," and for him he found
some solace there. He found some kind of escape from his own personal
demons there, and wound up having a family, having children and all
those things I don't know I ever would've expected Walter to do -- being
he was such a Manhattan kind of guy, New York City kind of guy, and
such a career-oriented person.
I just never pictured Walter
getting married and having kids. And I don't think I pictured myself
that way most of my life. It was kind of incongruous to the two people
we knew before, and we shared that experience together. I remember we
took the kids horseback riding in Maui when we were over there and they
were little, and those are great memories because it was another side of
Walter, another part of Walter that I got to know that I hadn't really
known in all the years we'd known each other. It was something we got to
share.
Walter was the kind of guy too, that every record I ever
did, he was genuinely interested in hearing it. He was such a lover of
music, and if you had just recorded an album and he knew you, he was
that one person that would sit there and listen to that whole thing with
you, with great interest as to what you were up to. And that was always
a wonderful kind of experience for me, because he was someone who I
admired so much, his talent and everything. To think that we'd be
sitting in my living room in Maui or some place listening to a record,
and I was getting his opinion on the tracks and the production and
stuff.
The last time I saw Walter was at the New Orleans Jazz
Festival, should be two years ago now. It seems like yesterday... we
just kind of always picked it up right where we left off, and it was
always good to see him for me, and I always felt the same thing from
him. He'd always make a point to come over and say hi to me backstage,
and we'd kind of catch up.
I regretted that I didn't pick up the phone and call and see how he
was, 'cause Walter and I had been friends for all these years. Both of
those guys are kind of mentors to me over the years, although they're
both kind of private people, and so with this kind of thing, it's like
-- you always kind of wonder, do they want to get a bunch of phone
calls? Walter wouldn't be the guy who'd probably want to field a lot of
phone calls concerning his health, and so I just waited to hear
something forward. And the next thing I heard is he passed away.
His
life really meant something -- not just to friends and family who knew
him personally, but his farthest-flung fan out there has been touched by
this guy's thoughts and his talent. I think that's the one thing we all
hope for in this life is we leave something of a legacy, that's
meaningful to someone else, when we leave here. He was a great guy, and
we all miss him already.
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