Walter Becker: Bass guitarist, songwriter and one half of Steely Dan

The co-founder of the band, which he preferred to call a ‘concept’, had a ‘gap decade’ as a heroin user and Hawaiian avocado farmer

Double act: Becker and Fagen melded elements of rock, soul, jazz and R&B, being simultaneously sophisticated and singalong (Rex)

In the hierarchy of rock and pop double acts, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen represent arguably the most credible left-field challenge to the ascendancy of Lennon and McCartney, the Everly Brothers and Simon and Garfunkel – despite the absence of a comparable catalogue of best-selling songs –with their collaborations as Steely Dan.

A handful of tracks by the band – who became what Becker called a “concept” and then a duo – charted in the US and UK in the 1970s. “Do It Again”, “Reelin’ In the Years”, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” and “Haitian Divorce” melded elements of rock, soul, jazz and R&B, but also exemplified Becker and Fagen's trick of being simultaneously sophisticated and singalong.

Becker’s death, at the age of 67, ended a partnership which began 50 years ago as students of Bard College at Annandale, New York, where they bonded over shared passions for soul, jazz, Chicago blues, old movies and science fiction. He and Fagen alluded to their alma mater in the song “My Old School”. Their lyrics, however, tended to be cryptic and obscure, laced with verbal dexterity and humorous characters, rather than personal.

After they became touring members of US group Jay & the Americans, future Steely Dan producer Gary Katz recommended them to the ABC label as staff writers. Yet by 1970 they had founded their own six-piece band. Their acclaimed debut set, Can’t Buy A Thrill, was released in 1972.

Becker played bass guitar and co-wrote the songs with vocalist Fagen, reprising the dual role on the LPs Countdown To Ecstasy and Pretzel Logic. In 1974 he and Fagen disbanded the group and came off the road, using session musicians on the ensuing albums: Katy Lied, Royal Scam, the jazz-inflected Aja (their biggest seller) and Gaucho, the latter pair reaching the American top 10.

In 1981, when heroin had begun to impair Becker, the duo dissolved Steely Dan. While Fagen crafted his first solo set, The Nightfly, Becker’s credits over the next decade were as producer to American singers Michael Franks and Rickie Lee Jones, Norway’s Fra Lippo Lippi and Merseyside’s China Crisis.

The pair reunited as Steely Dan in 1993, and became, with typical contrariness, a touring outfit. Becker, who had moved to Hawaii with wife Elinor, son Kawai and daughter Sayan to be an avocado farmer, now shared lead-guitar duties. Two new albums, the Grammy-winning Two Against Nature (2000) and Everything Must Go (2003), continued the shift towards jazz chords and rhythms. He also released two solo efforts, 11 Tracks of Whack (1994) and Circus Money (2008).

This summer, health issues prevented Becker performing at shows in Los Angeles and New York. His death, from an unspecified cause, was announced barely two months before they were due to bring what he termed “rock 'n' roll with swing” to London.

Fagen remembered his friend and fellow studio perfectionist as “smart as a whip, an excellent guitarist and great songwriter”. Becker, he added, was also “hysterically funny, with a knack of reading people’s hidden psychology and transforming what he saw into bubbly, incisive art”.

Walter Carl Becker, musician, born 20 February 1950, died 3 September 2017