Walter Becker
Rock | 2008Musician, songwriter, and record producer Walter Becker was born in Queens, New York, in 1950, and part of his youth was spent growing up in Forest Hills. He is best known as the co-founder, guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter of Steely Dan. Becker met future songwriting partner Donald Fagen while studying at Bard College. After a brief period in New York, the two relocated to California in 1971 and formed the nucleus of Steely Dan, which enjoyed a critically and commercially successful 10-year career. Following the group’s dissolution, Becker moved to Hawaii, working mostly as a record producer and briefly as a member of the English group China Crisis. Becker and Fagen reformed Steely Dan in 1993, and their 2000 album Two Against Nature won four Grammy Awards. Becker also released two solo albums, 1994’s 11 Tracks of Whack and 2008’s Circus Money. He died in September 2017.