Hi everyone, I'm a bassist, even though not a professional one, and i'm a big Steely Dan and Walter Becker fan and i consider Walter really an original and unique bassist, a bit underrated.
I saw Steely Dan live 4 times: London 2000, Berlin and Lucca 2007, Rome 2009, and, as you certanly know, Walter played only guitars in those shows.
So i come to the point: i wish i was able to see Walter play bass ! but not in those old videos from the period 1972/1974 but in more recent situations.
I hope this (maybe strange ?!?) desire could be satisfied and i congratulate you for all your excellent work on Walter Becker Media
P.S. I read somewhere an article, soon after the release of Circus Money, in wich Larry Klein, himself a great bassist, said that he had to convince Walter to play bass in the album because Walter thought that Larry had to do it.
It was obvious that Larry really estimated Walter as a great bassist.
I agree that Walter is a really great bass player, and I think his instinct and musicality as a bass player heavily shapes his songs as well. The other day I went back and was listening to Walter's bass parts on Time Out of Mind and Gaucho. They are indicative of much of the SD/WB catalog in that you can feel how fundamental the bass part is to the song itself. Walter mentioned a few times having a song start with a bass part. I think he said he sung the part to Book of Liars to himself in the car all the way home after picking his kids up from school, just to make sure he didn't lose the idea before he could commit it to tape. And it makes perfect sense for Walter and Larry Klein to be drawn together, and for the album they made together to be one of the most "bass forward" albums in popular music. It owes something to reggae/dub, but as much in the way that the bass pushes forward the movement of the songs as to the more obvious musical influences. Go back and listen to "Bob Is Not Your Uncle Anymore" and note how the repeating bass pattern doesn't always match the length of the phrase. Sometimes a vocal line comes in at the start of the pattern, sometimes halfway through, and sometimes near the end. And yet the effect is done so well that you might not notice it until it is pointed out. And it's so very obvious that Walter just loved playing bass:
Thank you Matt! Hot fun in the summertime is one of my favourite songs from Sly and the Family Stone !
I thought that Walter played the bass with the pick but i always suspected that he played also with the thumb and this video confirms it.
I think Walter played in whichever way he thought benefited the song the most. One of the things I admire the most about Walter is just that...how he is always a song forward musician. If the song is best served by a pick, he uses one. If not he doesn't. If the song is best served with another guitarist or bass player, he calls one up. That can go to an extreme like Babylon Sisters, where neither of Steely Dan's principles are involved in the instrumentation of the song at all. But in every case, Walter seems to have possessed an ability to put his ego aside in service of the song. Now, maybe his ego was best served by the perfection of the final product...songwriter's ego as opposed to performer's ego...but the advantage to all of us is the astounding quality of output. I digress, but yeah, what a damn fine musician.
I totally agree with you !
May I add that Lunch With Gina presents a paradigm of perspicuous pocket-pushing pickwork, probably played on the Sadowsky, tone for days.
Phun aside, does anyone know what WB was playing on EMG?
Does anyone know what kind of software instrument or effect WB has on the bass tracks on songs such as War Baby (and others that have a similar bass sound as this)?
A synth...?
yes Patrick, that is a synth pad, as are some other demos. Although I recall a discussion about one or two that might have been a bass played through some heavy filtering, I believe the consensus is that for most if not all of the earliest demos, the bass part is played through the trusty Vision (Opcode). He's gotten some very satisfying bass sounds out of that, I think. Do you like? not like?
he played mainly this one for EMG....oh wait, he played this one for Circus Money for sure....I'm a little confused, casting my mind back that far...one reason it might be this one anyway is I did I quick search thru the auction catalog and no bass was identified as having been used on EMG...(a half a dozen amps are so identified) which suggests this bass was not in the auction ....which would make sense, if you get my meaning 😉... but next time I talk to Dave R I'll ask him if he remembers