I've been listening to this CD for the past week now. Walter Becker is a BAD ASS bass player. His tone on Gaslighting Abby is amazing. Anybody know what kind of bass he played? It sounds Music Man-ish.

Jon

This album and Steely Dan RULES!!! BTW, that's Tom Barney playing bass on "Gaslighting Abbey". He's playing either his black MM5, an ESP J 5.

Tower Records is selling Aja, Gaucho, and Pretzel Logic for $5.99 each on their website!!!

Hey Woodchuck,

Are you sure that's Tom Barney? The liner notes say its Becker. The tracks that list Tom Barney are amazing. There's one with him and Vinnie Colaiuta (sp?) on drums that just NUTS.
I've always liked the Steely Dan stuff I've heard but this is the first album I've owned. My wife got it as a promo copy when it came out. I saw it in our CD rack this past week and decided to pop it in. Time to pick up some more. Aja is next on the list.

Jon

The box set is a nice buy, has most of their great stuff. I have that, some live stuff, Fagen's two albums, and the Two Against Nature CD and DVD.

I'm a big SD fan. :)

That Two Against Nature DVD sounds real nice, great mic jobs when they recorded that. I don't agree with how it's mixed in some areas, but other than that, it was recorded really well.

Seamus: I have ALL of their stuff too. Even the DVD's!
JBlake: That's Tom. During an interview, he was explaining the approach he'd taken while recording "Gaslighting Abbey".

Aja & The Royal Scam are the must-haves(IMO). Gaucho is next...Katy Lied, etc & so on.
Two Against nature is "OK", though after a 20-year or so wait between (studio)albums...I dunno, I was just a little let down(no Chuck Rainey or Anthony Jackson!).

I saw the Steely Dan special on PBS--Tom Barney's pretty impressive, although on my TV's tiny speakers he didn't come through all that well.

Anyhow, in its review BP stated that Becker used a Sadowsky 5. Since WB is a Sadowsky guitar endorser, I wouldn't be surprised if he used a Sadowsky bass.

BTW, Becker's work on the early Dan albums is pretty high-quality, too. Obviously, Chuck Rainey steals the show on "Any Major Dude Will Tell You" on Pretzel Logic, but not many players can groove as hard as he can.

There is a total groove to the entire CD. It's great to play along with.
I drive my wife nuts with Jack of Speed over and over.

Originally posted by jblake
Hey Woodchuck,

Are you sure that's Tom Barney? The liner notes say its Becker. The tracks that list Tom Barney are amazing. There's one with him and Vinnie Colaiuta (sp?) on drums that just NUTS.


Well I just dug out my CD of this and on the first page for "Gaslighting Abbie" it says "BASS : Tom Barney GUITARS : Walter Becker" .

I think you can tell this is Tom Barney and not Becker - there is a feel to the sort of ghosted notes that make it funkier, that Becker just doesn't do - the improvised fills in between.

I read an interview where Tom Barney said that Becker gave him the main "riff" for bass, already written but then asked him to improvise a bit with it. I think Becker is obviously a great songwriter in conjunction with Fagen, but he's not so good on improvising on Bass - and he's been quick to hand the bass chair to others and better players - as Jim mentions.

I really liked the bass on this particular track and woul have liked to have heard more from Barney. Although my favourite was Rainey.

I must admit that I did just glance at the liner notes while driving to work. I could have sworn it said "guitar/bass: Walter Becker" but the caffeine might not have kicked in yet and I was travelling at about 75 mph so watching the road was first priority. :D My bad.
Tom Barney is definitely a tasty player though.

Yeah, Barney's tone on Abbie is wonderful, he's a great player too. I think he said he likes playing the custom ESP most of the time, and I believe he's all Aguilar on the amp side.

In all fairness, the Sadowsky guitars Becker plays have a great sound too!

I agree about Becker's bass playing, but I think he does an adequate job on his solo CD: "11 Tracks Of Whack".
How can you NOT like a band named after a steam powered dildo?!:D

...in all honesty, I'm more impressed with Becker's guitar playing(ala Denny Dias).
There is a decent Latin-ish tune in 6 on Two Against Nature...is that Becker on bass?

Fagen's The Nightfly is a must-have for any Dan fan(Jackson, Rainey, Will Lee, & Marcus Miller).

BTW, on the Aja DVD-
...anyone see an early version of SD jamming LIVE?
Becker is seen playing a Gibson Thunberbird bass w/ a pick! Funny(& cool) s***! ;)

I'd be proud to have done the bass work Walter did on "Two Against Nature". The three tunes Tom plays on are pretty sweet. Becker is playing his butt off on guitar.

My favorite SD bassist would be a toss-up between Chuck, who did some of his best work with them and Anthony Jackson. Check out "My Rival" from (I think) "Gaucho". Not a lot of notes, just the right ones in the right place;). Too cool.

Those LOW Ebs on "My Rival" had me going for awhile...way back, I was a-scratching my head.
What the Hell!!!???
That other AJ tune from Gaucho, "Glamour Profession", kills.


Rainey is my favorite.
"Kid Charlemagne", anybody?
...or "The Fez" or "Green Earrings" or "Josie" or "Peg" or "Aja"... ;)

2 of their best basslines: "Josie" and the live version of "Peg".

I think Becker has a good ear for a bass line and I wasn't criticising him really - Steely Dan are probably my all-time favourites and most-played CDs. I just think he's a rock player who likes Jazz and gets in better players for the Jazzier stuff.

I remember seeing a video of the making of Aja (On VH1?) where they interviewed Chuck Rainey and he showed you how he played some of the parts. He said that Becker and Fagen hated Slap bass and insisted that he didn't do any of this; but he showed you how he played one of the slapped fills on Aja "under the desk" so they couldn't see what he was actually doing and they never noticed that he slipped this in - he was very amused! :D

Maybe he didn't get the later gigs - like 2 against Nature - becuase they don't trust him to slip in some more slap bass!? ;)

That is funny, considering that Tom Barney slaps most of "Peg".

I was a bit saddened by the exclusion of Rainey on TAN, it does have that Steely Dan sound though!

Now I have to steal my boxset back from my father! I Can't get "Any Major Dude" out of my head! :D

Originally posted by Woodchuck
That is funny, considering that Tom Barney slaps most of "Peg".

...not really. ;)
Consider this-
Rainey was slapping the choruses to "Peg" back in the '70s. Fagen/Becker were not about 'gimmicks or fads'...at that time, I guess, slapping was depicted as such(in their view; plus slapping was really prevalent in "Disco"-type basslines).
I suppose Becker/Fagen have softened their view of the technique; Rainey proved 'it' can work! ;)

Bruce-
Rainey, IMHO, has been in 'semi-retirement' mode
since the mid-'80s(I know a lotta the albums I bought back then...ones that should have had Rainey, instead had Nathan East on bass).

Great points.

Originally posted by Woodchuck
2 of their best basslines: "Josie" and the live version of "Peg".

How about the live version of "Josie" with Dennis Chambers dioing the James Brown fills?

;)