Fagen met Becker at a college coffee house at Bard College in 1967. Responding to an ad in The Village Voice in the summer of 1970, Fagen and Becker met guitarist Denny Dias and started a musical partnership that formed the basis of what would eventually become Steely Dan. However, the original group's line-up would only be assembled in full around December 1971 in Los Angeles, California, to where Becker and Fagen had relocated, initially to work as staff song writers for ABC/Dunhill. Fagen and Becker formed the core of the band and co-wrote all the group's music; on tour and record, Becker played bass (and later lead guitar) and Fagen played keyboards, as well as performing almost all of the lead vocals on their recordings.
After releasing their third LP in 1974, the other members gradually left (or were fired from) the band, which gradually evolved into a studio project headed by Becker and Fagen. They scored their biggest success in 1977 with the platinum-selling album Aja.
After a lengthy period of inactivity as a band which began in the early 1980s, the duo of Becker and Fagen revived Steely Dan in the mid-1990s, and have since produced two more Steely Dan studio albums: 2000s Two Against Nature which won several Grammys, Everything Must Go (2003), as well as the live CD Alive in America (1995) and a live concert DVD entitled Two Against Nature, which included material spanning much of the band's history.
Fagen frequently uses aliases. He wrote the liner notes to Can't Buy a Thrill under the name Tristan Fabriani, which he would use on stage when he played keyboards for Jay and the Americans, (Becker would use Gus Mahler). On his solo albums, when he plays or programs a synthesizer part to replicate a real instrument (bass, vibraphone, horns, etc.) he will credit one of his aliases - Illinois Elohainu, Phonus Quaver, or Harlan Post.
No one could make discussion of religion as entertaining as Christopher Hitchens. . .
(from JON WIENER, TRUTHDIG, CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS at http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/1249)
". . . Wiener: Let's talk about the U.S. Polls show that 94 per cent of Americans believe in God, and 89 per cent believe in heaven; of those, three-fourths think they will go to heaven, but only 2 per cent think they will go to hell. This seems laughable, but what's the harm in people believing they will go to heaven after they die—and see their mothers there?
Hitchens: All you have to do is promise them 72 virgins, and they'll kill to get there. That's what's wrong with it, along with the fact that it's a solipsistic delusion. And the spreading of delusion in the end isn't a good thing, because credulous and deluded people are easy to exploit. People arise who are aware of that fact.
If belief in heaven was private, like the tooth fairy, I'd say fine. But tooth fairy supporters don't come around to your house and try to convert you. They don't try to teach your children stultifying pseudo-science in school. They don't try to prevent access to contraception. The religious won't leave us alone. These are not just private delusions, they're ones they want to inflict on other people.
If religion were true, there would be no need for politics; you'd only need to have faith.
Wiener: The final killer argument of your critics is that Hitler and Stalin were not religious. The worst crimes of the 20th century did not have a religious basis. They came from political ideology.
Hitchens: That's easy. Hitler never abandoned Christianity and recommends Catholicism quite highly in "Mein Kampf." Fascism, as distinct from National Socialism, was in effect a Catholic movement.
Wiener: What about Stalin? He wasn't religious.
Hitchens: Stalin—easier still. For hundreds of years, millions of Russians had been told the head of state should be a man close to God, the czar, who was head of the Russian Orthodox Church as well as absolute despot. If you're Stalin, you shouldn't be in the dictatorship business if you can't exploit the pool of servility and docility that's ready-made for you. The task of atheists is to raise people above that level of servility and credulity. No society has gone the way of gulags or concentration camps by following the path of Spinoza and Einstein and Jefferson and Thomas Paine. . . "
(from wikipedia.com)
". . . Following Steely Dan's breakup, Becker moved to the Hawaiian island of Maui and ceased using narcotics. Shortly thereafter, he began a career as a record producer, overseeing records by Rickie Lee Jones, Michael Franks, and Fra Lippo Lippi, including the latter's 1987 Norwegian single, "Angel".
Some of Becker's most involved activity from this period came with the group China Crisis. He is credited as one of five official members of the band on the sleeve of their 1985 album Flaunt the Imperfection, which he produced. He also produced tracks on their 1989 album Diary of a Hollow Horse, although he is not credited as a band member on that release.
Becker reunited with Fagen briefly to collaborate on the debut album of singer Rosie Vela, 1986's Zazu. This led to several low-key and non-professional collaborations, including several aborted songwriting sessions and Becker's stint in 1991 with Fagen's New York Rock and Soul Revue, that would ultimately lead to their proper reunion two years later.
Their partnership properly resumed in 1993 when they undertook a new tour as Steely Dan, their first in 19 years. Becker also produced Fagen's album Kamakiriad in 1993. In turn, Fagen co-produced Becker's belated solo debut album 11 Tracks of Whack in 1994.
Steely Dan continued touring, and their work on new material resulted in their first studio album in two decades, Two Against Nature, released in 2000. The album won four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. In 2001 the duo was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and also received Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from Berklee College of Music, which they accepted in person. The next Steely Dan record, Everything Must Go followed in 2003, featuring Becker's bass and electric guitar work, as well as the first studio Steely Dan track with a lead vocal by Becker, "Slang of Ages". The band spent the following years touring behind their back catalog.
In 2005, Becker co-produced and played bass on the Krishna Das album All One, and played solo guitar on the title track of Rebecca Pidgeon's album Tough on Crime from this same year. Madeleine Peyroux's 2006 album Half the Perfect World featured the single "I'm All Right", co-written by Becker, Peyroux and producer Larry Klein. Peyroux's 2009 album Bare Bones also contains two songs co-written by Becker, "You Can't do Me" and the title-track "Bare Bones". Becker was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
His second solo album, Circus Money, was released on June 10, 2008, fourteen years after its predecessor. The album prominently featured Becker's bass playing, performances by much of the Steely Dan backing band, and work by producer Larry Klein, who received co-composition credits on all but one song. The songs were heavily inspired by reggae and other Jamaican music. . . "
I'm glad you're down there working on your applique. . . fabric spread all over the floor, scissors in hand. We're both tired from a busy weekend and probably should go to bed early but if you don't make time for your handiwork, you may not get any done at all tonight and wind up feeling frustration later. Do it now while you can because once the Shirk Brothers (Yeah, I've met Mr. Shirk. Nice enough guy. Firm handshake. Sincere smile. Called me by name. But you wait. You'll see. He's gonna destroy the lower level of the house and make my life miserable for gawd knows how long.) get in here and tear up the basement, which they say will take "two weeks" to put back together, you won't have a place to do this. Yes, you thought I was extreme in my fear of having the house in a shambles for an interminable amount of time, but you just wait. We'll have to take down a plate of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut and cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, possibly several consecutive Thanksgivings. I can see it now. I'm feeling nauseous.
You may think I'm extreme, but. . . I'm just sayin'. . .
(from http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/new-nra-president-jim-porter-knocked-fake-president-obama/) about new NRA President Jim Porter. . .
". . . “Y’all might call it the Civil War, but we call it ‘the war of northern aggression’ down South,” Porter said. In that same speech, Porter also made it clear that there’s no love
lost between the NRA and President Obama, whom he called a “fake
president.” “His entire administration is anti-gun, anti-freedom anti-second amendment,” Porter said. And that was before Obama backed a new background checks bill and pushed for an assault weapons ban in Congress. . . "
(Source: Kurt Nimmo and Alex Jones, Infowars.com May 1, 2011)
Obama said he ordered the strike that allegedly killed Osama. The remainder of his speech followed the standard war on terror propaganda script. A small team of Americans killed bin Laden in a firefight at a compound in Pakistan, the president said in a dramatic late-night statement at the White House, the Associated Press reported following Obama’s address. Obama said the military took custody of his body. It remains to be seen if the government will attempt to provide evidence that the remains are indeed those of Osama bin Laden. Turns out that the U.S. 'respectfully' buried the terrorist mastermind at sea.
WHY? An explanation has never been forthcoming . . . at least not a logical explanation.
This farcical performance took place just as the Democrats kicked off their leader’s presidential reelection bid against a number of Republicans contenders were critical of not only his perceived handling of the economy, but also his management of the manufactured (mainly by their own party) war on terror.
(from: http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/21/us/bin-laden-burial)
". . . The burial at sea of Osama bin Laden after he was killed by Navy SEALs last year followed traditional Islamic procedures, according to newly released military e-mails, but less than a dozen "leadership" members aboard the Navy carrier where the service took place were informed of the burial. "Any sailors watch the burial?" a Navy commander asked the public affairs officer on the USS Carl Vinson in a May 3, 2011, e-mail. The Carl Vinson was the carrier where the SEALs took bin Laden's body by helicopter after he was killed during the May 2, 2011, raid at his compound in Pakistan. "Only a small group of the leadership was informed -- less than a dozen," the public affairs officer replied. Another e-mail stated, "Burial No Sailors Watched.". . . "
(from http://nation.foxnews.com/osama-bin-laden/2013/02/12/wikileaks-bin-ladens-body-not-buried-sea)
". . . The body of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was not buried at sea, according to leaked emails of intelligence firm Stratfor, as revealed by WikiLeaks.
Stratfor’s vice-president for intelligence, Fred Burton, believes the body was “bound for Dover, [Delaware] on [a] CIA plane” and then “onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda [Maryland],” an email says. The official version is that the body of Al-Qaeda’s top man, who was killed by a US raid in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, was buried at an undisclosed location at sea in a proper Muslim ceremony. . . "
