--- title: Steely Dan's Walter Becker Dies at Age 67 description: Walter Becker, the co-founder of the influential rock duo Steely Dan, died Sunday at the age of 67. canonical: https://time.com/4926170/steely-dan-walter-becker-death/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-03T17:34:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:15:59.781Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Steely Dan Co-Founder Walter Becker Dies at 67 og:description: It is unclear what the cause of his death was og:url: https://time.com/4926170/steely-dan-walter-becker-death/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ed90058c5111ef8/6988dc4bfb4eac3d0489390f/walter-becker.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hollywood Bowl Opening Night 2016 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Steely Dan Co-Founder Walter Becker Dies at 67 twitter:description: It is unclear what the cause of his death was twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ed90058c5111ef8/6988dc4bfb4eac3d0489390f/walter-becker.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Steely Dan Co-Founder Walter Becker Dies at 67 > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Sep 3, 2017 5:34 PM UTC  Walter Becker of Steely Dan performs at the the Hollywood Bowl Opening Night at the Hollywood Bowl on June 18, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Mathew Imaging/WireImage) Walter Becker of Steely Dan performs at the the Hollywood Bowl Opening Night at the Hollywood Bowl on June 18, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Mathew Imaging/WireImage)Mathew Imaging—WireImage by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Sep 3, 2017 5:34 PM UTC Walter Becker, the co-founder and guitarist of the influential rock duo [Steely Dan](http://time.com/3935919/steely-dan-nhl-mp3-music-industry/), died on Sunday at the age of 67. His death was [announced](http://www.walterbecker.com/) on his website, alongside an image of him as a child next to one of him as an adult holding a guitar. With no other details mentioned, it is unclear what the cause of his death was. Becker had missed two recent Steely Dan performances, according to [_Billboard_](http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7882503/steely-dan-donald-fagen-interview). At the time, the group’s lead vocalist and keyboardist Donald Fagen told _Billboard_ Becker was “recovering from a procedure and hopefully he’ll be fine very soon.” The duo first began collaborating while students at Bard College in New York in the late 1960s. “We started writing nutty little tunes on an upright piano in a small sitting room in the lobby of Ward Manor, a mouldering old mansion on the Hudson River that the college used as a dorm,” Fagen [wrote in a statement in the _Rolling Stone_](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/read-donald-fagens-tribute-to-steely-dans-walter-becker-w500968). They eventually moved to Los Angeles when they scored a recording contract, and went on to release their first Steely Dan album, “Can’t Buy a Thrill,” in 1972\. Over the next decade, the duo released six albums that landed in the Top 20 and three singles in the Top 10, including “Do It Again,” “Reelin’ In the Years” and “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.” Becker was born in 1950 and grew up in Queens, New York, where he began as a saxophonist then switched to guitar while a teenager. On Sunday, Fagen wrote that Becker had “a very rough childhood” but grew up to be “smart as a whip, an excellent guitarist and a great songwriter.” “He was cynical about human nature, including his own, and hysterically funny,” Fagen wrote. “Like a lot of kids from fractured families, he had the knack of creative mimicry, reading people’s hidden psychology and transforming what he saw into bubbly, incisive art.” After success in the 1970s, the duo took a 20-year hiatus, during which Becker released a solo album called “11 Tracks of Whack” in 1994. Eventually Steely Dan reunited for another album called “Two Against Nature” in 2000\. That album then won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards. Their last album together was 2003’s “Everything Must Go,” and Becker’s last solo album was 2008’s “Circus Money.” Steely Dan's Walter Becker Dies at Age 67 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4926170/steely-dan-walter-becker-death/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4926170/steely-dan-walter-becker-death/"},"headline":"Steely Dan Co-Founder Walter Becker Dies at 67","datePublished":"2017-09-03T17:34:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:15:59.781Z","description":"It is unclear what the cause of his death was","url":"https://time.com/4926170/steely-dan-walter-becker-death/","keywords":["Music","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ed90058c5111ef8/6988dc4bfb4eac3d0489390f/walter-becker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ed90058c5111ef8/6988dc4bfb4eac3d0489390f/walter-becker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hollywood Bowl Opening Night 2016","caption":"Hollywood Bowl Opening Night 2016","creditText":"Mathew Imaging—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/music/","name":"Music"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4926170/steely-dan-walter-becker-death/","name":"Steely Dan Co-Founder Walter Becker Dies at 67"}}]}] ```