Remembering Walter Becker Of Steely Dan: ‘Hey Nineteen’ Banter
By Scott Bernstein Dec 27, 2017 • 10:21 am PST
On September 3, the musical world lost an icon when Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker succumbed to cancer. While Donald Fagen was the one with all the glory as the face and voice of Steely Dan, Walter Becker was crucial to the development of Steely Dan’s signature jazz-rock sound and the songwriting partnership that yielded such hits as “Do It Again,” “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” “Peg,” “FM” and “Josie.” Though Fagen provided lead vocals on nearly every song the famed band played since reuniting in 1993, there would usually be a spotlight song for Becker. On most occasions, it was during performances of the Gaucho gem “Hey Nineteen.”
Upon its release, “Hey Nineteen” shot all the way to #10 on the Billboard charts. “In this song, an older man is seducing a 19-year-old girl. He’s a bit conflicted, as her inexperience frustrates him when she doesn’t even remember Aretha Franklin. However, on this particular night and with the help of some Cuervo Gold tequila, everything is wonderful,” reads a description of “Hey Nineteen” on Songfacts.com. Becker and Fagen parted ways in 1981, leaving “Hey Nineteen” unplayed until their aforementioned 1993 reunion.
Steely Dan made up for lost “Hey Nineteen” time from 1993 through Walter’s death. “Hey Nineteen” was the third most played song of the band’s live career as per Setlist.FM. Live performances of the tune would usually include a portion in which Walter Becker bantered with fans about a variety of topics. Sometimes, Becker would tell a story involving the city where the Dan was playing. Other times he’d take aim at Ticketmaster and the high price of tickets. Most times he’d encourage the audience to imbibe tequila (the “Cuervo Gold”) or marijuana (the “Fine Colombian”). Regardless of the topic, Walt would always fit his incomparable wit and humor into the “rant.”
One of Walter Becker’s last performances took place at Humphrey’s By The Bay in San Diego on April 18. The evening featured a “Hey Nineteen” in which Walt cracked up the crowd throughout his speech. Becker seemed to know the end was coming and gave tons of props to his band, told a bit of the history of Steely Dan and praised the audience. At nearly five minutes, the San Diego “Hey Nineteen” speech displayed Walter Becker wasn’t just a world-class songwriter, composer and guitarist, he was also one hell of a human being.
Listen to one of Walter’s final “Hey Nineteen” rants, which took place on April 18:
“That’s right people of San Diego. You know better than most people, the incredible legend of the Steely Dan. How we rose up here out of the Southland, playing a whole new kind of bizarre concerto music. I mean, what the hell? Our first hit, nobody even know the name of that song. Hey, play that “flapjack” song. What’s that “flapjack” song about anyway, you know? I love that “Flapjack,” you know, that’s the one. But, in the fullness of time we came to realize we’re all in this together. The most wonderful fans in all of fandom, right here.
And as always, your sweet little Steely Dan, right here, doing the very very best contemporary disco/jazz/funk /space muzak with a reggae twist. And that’s the way we like it and that’s the way you like it too. We come down to this beautiful part of the country, because we like the good weather. We like all these boats, the ocean and all this, and we like the nuclear reactor and its columns of smoke…What else do we got down here? We like the Mexican food! We like it all baby every bit of it and I’m glad that you do too.
We’ve come here to play all the hits we got. We’re gonna play ’em, everyone of them. Bam, boom, with our brand new orchestra, which is by the way the best one we’ve ever had. And I ain’t lyin’ about that either. And uh, you’re gonna dig it I 100 percent guarantee you’re gonna dig it, and when the whole thing is finally finished, which is quite a while from now, you’re gonna know you’ve been rode hard and put up wet by the Steely Dan Orchestra in their prime.
And then, on your way home you look at the itty bitty pretty one, she looks up on you, she’s been here all these years for you guys through thin and thinner, I mean. Remember those couple of years when you couldn’t drive because of all those DUIs? She stuck with you. Remember all those bankruptcies? Those weird drugs you were addicted to? Probably stopped by the drug store, like Jesus where did that come from? And she’s still there and she looks up at you and says that was a pretty fucking good show wasn’t it? Baby, that was a pretty fucking good show, yes it was.
And then you think back to all the great shows you’ve seen, not just us but everybody in these wonderful lives that we’ve had in these times that are filled with music and [unintelligible] What the hell, it’s still here we can do it anytime we want, we can have that right now just like we are now. And when it’s over, just like in the old days, we might be a little uh…frisky you know. On the way back to the condo, we might want to stop off and pick up a jug or something. Now, I don’t do that anymore for various reasons [unintelligble] But I don’t remember the name. These girls know the name, tell them what it is?” [Singers: “The Cuervo Gold”]
