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 love Walter's bass playing also. I mentioned once to the illustrious St. Al that I loved how you you could hear Walter's sense of humor in his bass playing. When asked to elaborate I was at a loss on how to explain what I meant, but in the 20+ years since that conversation I've had a chance to find the words. Turns out "humor" wasn't quite the appropriete word... "cleverness" is a bit closer. As a bass player myself, most of the time songs call for repeating a pattern for the verse, then another for the chorus. Good bass playing also involves constantly making quick little decisions on how to get from point A to point B in a song, and making it interesting. Walter had a knack of making subtle little pattern changes, and getting from point A to point B, in very clever, unexpected ways that sometimes made me chuckle. So that's what I meant St. Al. Whew.... only took 20+ years to get that off my chest...