RIP
had tickets to see them at the O2; 
Walter Becker was my friend, my writing partner and my bandmate since we met as students at Bard College in 1967. 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.
We liked a lot of the same things: jazz (from the twenties through the mid-sixties), W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, science fiction, Nabokov, Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Berger, and Robert Altman films come to mind. Also soul music and Chicago blues.
Walter had a very rough childhood - Iâll spare you the details. Luckily, he was smart as a whip, an excellent guitarist and a great songwriter. He was cynical about human nature, including his own, and hysterically funny. Like a lot of kids from fractured families, he had the knack of creative mimicry, reading peopleâs hidden psychology and transforming what he saw into bubbly, incisive art. He used to write letters (never meant to be sent) in my wife Libbyâs singular voice that made the three of us collapse with laughter.
His habits got the best of him by the end of the seventies, and we lost touch for a while. In the eighties, when I was putting together the NY Rock and Soul Review with Libby, we hooked up again, revived the Steely Dan concept and developed another terrific band.
I intend to keep the music we created together alive as long as I can, both with the Steely Dan band. Weâll miss him forever.
Donald Fagen
September 3 2017
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The doctor, sadly, is out.
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What a crying shame and sad loss 
RIP
More sad newsâŠ
âInability is often the mother of restriction, and restriction is the great mother of inventive performance.â - Holgar Czukay
Horrible newsâŠ
âI am just an earâ HC.
Two of the 70s greats within days. 
I donât own any of his music but tracks like Gypsy Woman were part of the sound track of my very young life as my Dad was a big fan
I have a couple of his records and the were very enjoyable. RIP
Probably largely unknown in the South, but Mike Neville was a fixture in most North-East households for decades
RIP
Thanks pmac, would have missed this otherwise. He was so obviously competent, witty and suave, I wondered as a youth when he would be headed for London. He was a welcome part of everyday family life.
M. Neville - âI actually hated working in London,â he said. âUp here, it is like working with family.â
Another true great lost today. The mighty Grant Hart from the mighty Husker Du.
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Ah, FFS, I loved HĂŒsker DĂŒ
FuckâŠ
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Watched Paris Texas today. Thereâs a film that you can find online called Harry Dean Stanton Partly Fiction.Well worth watching.
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106 fights!
Bloody good innings.
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95, what a tough bastard LaMotta was.
My favourite quote of his - âMy nose was broken six times, my hands six times, a few fractured ribs. Fifty stitches over my eyes. But the only place I got hurt was out of the ring.â