Steely Dan guitarist, co-founder Walter Becker dies at age 67

Steely Dan guitarist, bassist and co-founder Walter Becker died Sunday at age 67, according to an announcement on his official website.

No cause of death or other details were provided.

Becker missed Steely Dan’s Classic East and West concerts in July as he recovered from an unspecified ailment, Rolling Stone reports.

“Walter’s recovering from a procedure, and hopefully he’ll be fine very soon,” fellow co-founder Donald Fagen said. Becker’s doctor advised Becker not to leave his Maui home for the performances.

Named after a sex toy in William S. Burroughs’ novel “Naked Lunch,” Steely Dan debuted in 1972 with the album “Can’t Buy a Thrill.”

Steely Dan had little use for rock’s excesses, creating instead a sophisticated, jazz-inflected sound with tricky harmonies, The New York Times reports. Becker was the primary arranger.

Steely Dan released its masterpiece, “Aja” in 1977. The album, one of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, features classics such as “Peg,” “Deacon Blues” and “Aja,” and sold more than 5 million copies.

Becker was born Feb. 20, 1950, in Queens, N.Y., and was raised in the borough community, Variety reports. Initially a saxophonist, he took up the guitar as a teen.

He encountered his future partner Fagen as a student at Bard College in New York while playing a gig at local club the Red Balloon.

Personality clashes led to the band’s 1981 dissolution.

Becker retreated to Maui, where he grappled with drug abuse and laid low, according to Variety.

“I spent a couple of years not doing any music or anything, just here in Hawaii trying to get healthy and adjust to the new regimen I was setting up for myself,” he told England’s Mojo magazine in 1995.

He began touring again with Fagen in 1993, after which Steely Dan released two new albums.

Becker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Fagen in 2001.

This story was originally published September 3, 2017 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Steely Dan guitarist, co-founder Walter Becker dies at age 67."