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And just like that, another great Walter tune leaves the proverbial nest, and flies straight into my well-sculpted receptors. Walter's metaphor as love game is always on point. The metaphor of a game of chance occurs in several places, notably in Hard Up Case ("They dealt us houses full with the queens and kings/And now they're calling out our bluff/'cause you and me girl we had everything/But it just wasn't quite enough"). Here, the metaphor is love—or at the very least ostensibly loving relationships—as war. Makes sense, the two situations in Lyly told us "all's fair." The French have a phrase (and wouldn't they just) c'est la guerre, that translates literally to "that's war," but means "That's just the way it is." It would be clever of me to make that observation, had Walter not already included it in his song here, because of course he's that clever and that kind of a lyricist, even in the tracks we aren't hearing until now. And HOW ABOUT THAT BASS LINE? -Matt War Baby Walter Becker © 1994/2019 Zeon Music LLC Can this really be all that we came together for Battling dawn to dusk and fighting door to door When we call a truce girl now I come to see Maybe this is the righteous struggle you believe your life should be And when I try to speak, talk to you like a friend There goes those dominos all tumbling down again Just tell me what to do, show me where to sign When do I get to be on your side of the firing line Now War Baby We’ve been fighting right along But soon you got to see I'm not the enemy No I'm not girl War Baby Now I'm not saying that it's wrong Just to be dissin' you But I keep missing you Why is that now? Well I guess you disagree with something I just said Judging by that suede cruise missile hurtling past my head So now you make your last stand on the soggy higher ground Wet with the blood of the martyrs or is that the tears of the clowns You wiped our little noses, sent us on our wicked ways Full bore for the killing floor which is where we are today Still you stand so tall big ideals and all And me just waiting for the other high heeled shoe to fall Now War Baby All your reasons and your rhymes Don't appeal to me They're not real to me No they're not now War Baby You know the life you've lived so far Is no great tragedy That's all history That's all that is I guess you got your reasons no matter what I might say All's fair c'est la guerre sometimes it just be that way I say viva la struggle I say viva el good fight But can't the revolución keep until tomorrow night now? War Baby Now can't you separate yourself From that party line It's no friend of mine Not at all girl War Baby We've been going low so long The things you say to me That's an atrocity Yes it is girl War Baby

Just a couple of fragments (thanks Matt) while we nail the brads into a brand new wing of the WB WebWorld Dynasty. Watch for your next Newsletter for the ribbon cutting Fragment #1: Love You Ax, all Axed up. A few toll-booths back I mentioned a song called Love You Ax, written round about 1996-7, that I’ve so far decided not to release. This is based in large part on Walter’s stated dislike of the song — a member of his “shoot this one every day at dawn” collection. He particularly disliked his singing on it. He was also dissatisfied with the lyrics as they were and said they left a “bad taste” in his mouth (!). In any case he was never able (or didn’t try) to get an improved version to his liking…and although this wasn’t one he explicitly asked me in his final weeks not to release, I’ve extrapolated from the known facts and decided — at least for now — that it not be publicly posted. Which is a bit of a shame — because it’s basically a sound, interesting song with good bones, and had a cool instrumental center section and outro that we both liked. In this clip we've stitched those instrumental sections together. It starts with the center section (which of course begins with a gorgeous modulation out of the chorus). The outro section starts at 0:39-40. The link should open a clip player in a new tab or window. Love You Ax instrumental clip Fragment # 2: Oceans and Thimbles The pipeline. You know what that is — it’s the very conceit behind WBMedia itself. Like most writers in any medium, he always had stuff in his pipeline that he flushed into later tunes and recorded songs. Matt and I have been gobsmacked at the lines, melodies, and ideas in his earlier audio and notes that were reincarnated — sometimes a generation later— into something striking that we all recognize now. This guy never let a good idea die. And it’s just so fucking fucked that so many of those ideas, now languishing unrealized and unheard, outlived him in the bitter end Anyhoo… what say you to this snippet of a “work tape” — just a beat and a low-volume bass — from the mid-90s? The link should open a clip player in a new tab or window. Oceans and Thimbles clip They give you thimbles full of daylight They give you oceans full of midnight Yeah yeah yea aaa / vunn vunn / you can never be that way I crossed the waters/oceans in a tugboat Wore bloody feathers on my gold coat You can say I’m not the man/ you say you know Yet here I am / what do you know As for more substantive meals from The Vaults, we’re working on an amusing tripartite sequence of an old favorite, and a deep-dive into yet another. Soon come, we hope. Carry On…

Previously floating around the web in an inferior version, here is a much better quality version of the demo for Love In The 4th, the source of the vocal used on the version over at https://www.walterbeckermedia.com/forum/rarities-unreleased/love-in-the-4th-aka-lies-i-can-believe Love in the 4th (Demo) (a.k.a. Lies I Can Believe) Walter Becker and Dean Parks Zeon Music: Runaway Inflation © 1992 Round and round - The words are spinning Why don't we take it - From the beginning I know it hurts but - Babe don't you worry Let's take our time honey - What's the hurry? Your eyes are moving - Yes I can see them The words are soothing - Why don't I believe them? Your eyes are beaming - But I can't receive them You say our love just - Needs some attention Maybe it's stuck in - The fourth dimension You say it wants more - Kissage and huggage Maybe it just got - Lost with our luggage Maybe our love just - Needs space to grow in A place to go to - A vector to grow in Maybe what I need's - A towel to throw in Don't you remember that rainy night? Riding the dog in the pale moonlight Making love up in the very last row Lord have mercy - Halfway to Jersey Spare me the details, the guts and glory The truth is just another story Why don't you give me Why don't you give me Lies I can believe? I never said I was a diplomat I guess I got no country to be true to Don't you tell me not to be like that Don't you blame me when I do like you do Life is a gamble - You're never ready The sands are shifting but - The winds are steady They never let up - So keep your head up Don't let 'em blow you away To every man goes - His share of passion But I'm way under - The legal ration I think you nailed it - Right down to the letter It's getting older - But it ain't getting better Maybe our love just - Needs a vacation The train is rolling - Out of the station Across the platform - Another train is pulling in Lovers sighing in exotic places Holding hands with all the aces Making love up on the captain's table All the way, all the way home I see my past stretched out before me The truth is just another story Why don't you give me Why don't you give me Lies I can believe?

Attendees in person or in spirit -- Our first follow-up page is at walterbeckerway.com Let's hear... Got a Dollar? Hello D. Writing to THANK YOU for the beautiful and greatly needed $1,000 gift you donated to the Jazz Foundation on 10/30/18. We are honored to be the recipients of your t-shirt sale during this important occasion - and the monies raised will directly impact the (more than) 1200 musicians and their families who we currently "serve" in the States, including Puerto Rico. Where would any of us be without music -- and without the extraordinary men and women who have devoted their lives, time and talent to enhancing ours. Obviously I'm speaking to the choir here and just want to send a "personal" note of great appreciation. Wishing you all very best - peace and music, always, bridget Bridget Sullivan Director of Development Jazz Foundation of America 322 West 48th Street New York, NY 10036 (o): 212.245.3999, ext 18 /(m): 917.716.6608 www.jazzfoundation.org

(Becker/Klein © Zeon LLC © Strange Cargo/Downtown Music 2008/2018) Historically, Donald and Walter used working titles for their songs right up until the final mix, at which point the tune would miraculously sprout it's full and final title. This one, written by Walter and Larry Klein during the Circus Money era, was known as “Couchies” and will remain known as such until that time when and if the fuller song is posted. This demo also nicely illustrates one way Walter managed to squeeze in more bass playing, which we all know he loved, and which many of us love right back; many of his demos had midi keyboards and beats, but live bass. This is one. And man, is that bass ever the bomb (imho ‘natch)

Camilla (1996) Another one of those unexpected CDs came my way in late winter of 1996; Camilla. An eerie, yearning  meditation on the ache of loving a stranger — or wanting to. Foolishness in the extreme? Wisdom deeper than knowing? Hard to tell. Until the astonishing final stanza, when the lover’s burning hope warps time itself. Is it possible, he wonders, that if we try hard we can see/the view from where we’ll someday be?  And indeed, tonight, I look back on 24 years of that someday-life saturated with the phantasms that were conjured by that hopeful, extraordinary poet one dark winter night so long ago.  …….. I asked him if this was something left over from the Whack days. No, he said, just something I’ve been working on. And there is another snippet from that same CD that I’ll post soon. But now, the evening of Nov 2, 2020, stomach churning, mind disquiet, I’m logging off for a while. My only thought is if our Republic can hold together in the days and months ahead.  Know Hope - D-Mod Camilla - Walter Becker ©1996/2019 Zeon Music LLC Camilla we just met You don't even know me yet Camilla distant star I see you for who you are True child of the night Restless Seeker for the light Burning all alone Girl I'd love to take you home Camilla do you see Camilla this is me Camilla Camilla night is dark It's cold out there in Pelham Park Camilla where you are Buses barely run that far So tell me if they do Who would I be talking to Someone who knows how To party for the Here and Now Camilla tell me true Camilla is this you Camilla Lost in darkness drowned in light Laid out cold in black and white Truly now the way we feel Is a temporary kind of deal We all go crazy now and then And here the bastard comes again Camilla close your eyes Maybe we can visualize If we try hard can we see The view from where we'll someday be To look back on this night Blinding flash of solar light Signal some great plan We may never understand Burnout none the less You and me did our best To soar high to be free In these dark days of History Camilla

Some of you may be familiar with the bootleg 11 Tracks of Outtakes, which purports to contain “demos” of various Whack-era tunes. (In actuality, these “demos” are often just whatever intermediate version of something the purloining party decided to slip into his pocket that day). This Outtakes boot includes a “Medical Science Demo” which is a near-final version of the cut that eventually ended up as a bonus track on the official Japanese release of 11TOW In honor of W’s B-day, we post an earlier but still “mid-level” demo of the tune, with no vocals. And thanks to Matt for the accompanying slideshow that won’t let us forget our current Medical Science nightmare :-) There is in fact an even earlier (earliest?) demo of this tune that’s not available to us right now; if and when I do “reacquire” it, we’ll add it to this page. But this version is a pretty good representation of the bones he settled on for the final CD version I’ve also included below some of his early brainstorming lyrics — where he’s working out rhymes and couplets, zeroing on wording choices, and working over segments that he’ll later stitch together into cohesive verses and choruses. Listening to Walter’s tapes as he’s writing a tune — a process also observed IRL — one thing you hear is while the basic track loops and he “free sings” his melody over it, he’s mainly scatting, but occasionally drops in a phrase or couplet. At some point he stops the loop, and you hear him writing in his notepad…and the next time the track loop starts, he’s now got a few more couplets…then another pause in the track, the sound of notebook rustling and writing, and then another looping track where larger segments of the lyrics have taken shape. And thus he fills and tweaks and constructs his way — updating and editing notebook pages as he goes — into one hell of a tale. It’s also always interesting for me to see his “asides” in his notebooks, or at the end of a computer file. These are often bits that he probably never means to turn into a lyric, necessarily, but are thoughts or images or expressions that set a mood, or especially, express an attitude. Watching him write (alone and with DF) you can see how these sometimes-extensive “emotional/attitudinal backstories” can play a very large part in the eventual construction of such psychologically deep, cohesive, and resonate narrative “voices”. (Teaser: We’ll see quite a bit more of this sort of thing in our next “Deep Dive”, now under construction) And speaking of the Medical Science lyrics: It’s occurred to us, as it may have to many of you, that we’ve heard songs of this general topic many times from Walter; Danger Zone, Darkling Down, and any number of other songs are narrated from within this particular maelstrom. But this time, he’s no longer in the morass himself, but has come out the other side. Now, he’s out of it, he’s past it … and observing pitiful others through the lens of experience. Thus, his commentary is soaked with knowledge of the all-too-certain outcome, the utter impotence of intervention…and, above all, with a sharp-edged anger and bitterness about what he’s watching as it all goes down. I’ve always found this lyrical stance particularly powerful and moving. Matt wisely observed it’s sort of like Couchriders In The Sky … but without any of the latter’s empathy and warmth. So when you queue up the final CD version, “Put your little snowshoes on. Then ask yourself: Is you or is you not The silly twit that time forgot? And prepare to hear One more sour disquisition (Put yourself in his position) [Click lyric pages to enlarge. Note: In some browsers, once you click the pic below and get it on a page, there are enlarge arrows on that page. SMH]

This is the title track from the Gaucho album, but with only bass, drums, vocals, lead guitar and the occasional synth stab. One of the things I think is so fundamental to understanding the music of Steely Dan / Walter Becker / Donald Fagen and their reputation for being exceptionally hard on drummers and exceptionally picky with bass players and bass parts, is the time and effort they spent getting the bass and drums right. I think of the drummer and the bass player like the pitcher and catcher on a baseball team. The battery. They aren't the whole team, but without the right player at each position, the rest of the team isn't going to fare very well. In this case, both the bass and lead guitar parts are Walter, and you can really get a sense of Walter's bass chops and compositional style around the Gaucho era. There are little touches, little flourishes, that no one else would have played in exactly that way. It goes without saying that much of this song's beauty is in the horn chart and the horn playing, but stripped bare of all of that, I think the composition still holds up. It's pretty astounding how bass / drums / melody gives you everything you need to frame the song.

(Words & Music: Walter Becker ­ ©Zeon LLC 1993/2018) This track, elsewhere part of the mythical Slim's gig in San Francisco, is heard here as an in studio rehearsal with the following musicians: Adam Rogers - Guitar Fima Ephron - Bass Ben Perowsky - Drums John Beasley - Keyboards Dave Russell - Engineer Roger Nichols - Engineer Ill wind bad intentions Blowing crazy off the fire escape Come on baby please shut the window Give your sweet man a break Now but you’re not even in my bed no Or in the kitchen or on the phone And thats how I come to find out My good thing is up and gone Say what am I to do Jump up and chasing after you Please remember if not now Some day some way somehow You're all I got Cinder Annie I'm no good on my own Ready or not Cinder Annie Annie please come home You know what I like Cinder Annie So throw a dog a bone Say you're coming back Cinder Annie My Annie please come home And who is that crying in the front room Dancing crazy by candlelight Oh yeah that's just my TV I like to let it play all night Sounded like your redheaded girlfriend You remember she loves me Maybe she could come over Keep a lonely soul company Looking good in that black knit dress Help me tidy up this mess Trying to hold the fortress down Until you come around In case you forgot Cinder Annie I'm no good on my own Ready or not Cinder Annie My Annie please come home You know what I like Cinder Annie So throw a dog a bone Say you're coming back Cinder Annie My Annie please come home Every night from dusk till dawn Cat is going plants are gone I don't know where we went wrong So come on don't wait too long In case you forgot got Cinder Annie I'm no good on my own Ready or not Cinder Annie My Annie please come home You know what I like Cinder Annie So throw a dog a bone Say you're coming back Cinder Annie My Annie please come home

For every SD/WB record release I was around for, the record company asked for a “bio”, and other promotional materials. These things are usually generated in-house at the record companies or by their publicity agents…but they may have been conditioned, through baleful experience, to ask W+D to provide the material themselves because of W+D’s early “feedback” on the dreck generated by the so-called publicity professionals. For instance, they started writing their own press releases starting with the ’03 EMG release, and had heavily edited those before then. Some of you may recall (or even own) the result of what might have been Walter and Donald's finest hour in producing the promotional material so lusted after by the suits: the bio produced for 2 Against Nature, in time-wheel form (below right; for the wheel content, see this page on the SDArchive site). We enjoyed each time an interviewer asked a question indicating they had taken the "bio" information seriously; this happened most frequently in Japan as I recall... Flash back to the 11 Tracks of Whack days. Walter wrote a few little confections that were never used (and probably never even submitted) — at least as far as I can tell. Here’s one he must have considered, for a minute anyway, as some liner notes for Whack. Most of us could probably read this text with identifiers stripped out and immediately recognize the author. Does our boy have a distinctive “voice”, or what? When, in the course of a checkered twenty five year career in and out of the music business, having blazed through the good years and persisted through the less-than-good, giving no quarter and taking none, but smiling, always smiling as you go; having reclaimed one’s dignity and fine-tuned one’s appreciation of the keen pleasures of life, and after all miraculously finding oneself in a mild and sunny clime, surrounded by peace and abundance; hunkered down in the midst of a delightful and loving family, would now, in the midst of his middle years, undertake the writing and recording of his first solo album - then God help him. Let him lean heavily on the sparkling talents of his loyal and generous colleagues, let him learn to grab the good things as they occur and be grateful for the result, whatsoever it may show itself to be at the end of the long and proverbial day. Let him complain noisily at every setback, and let him rejoice mightily when the damn thing is finally ruined beyond all repair. The typical product of just such a bold but misguided enterprise is contained herein. Walter Becker Maui HI

Electronic Press Kit, promotion for 11 Tracks of Whack