Taking Stock of the online record.
In the 19th(!) year since launching walterbecker.com and the first issue of the Walter Becker Newsletter, and in the 7th year of WBMedia, it’s a good time to take stock of the footprints Walter, his Estate, and his fans are leaving in the online sand — and in the historical record.
… Because biographies may be cobbled, articles written, interviews given, YT/TT Hot Takes dropped — but whatever mess these “content items” might make of the actual reality of Walter Becker’s time in this world, there will always be an extraordinary body of first-person and real-time material available — at least, available — to countervail the smudges of time and the compressions and de-pixilations of invested or disinterested voices. We can be proud of what we're leaving behind. On the record.
To start, there’s the impossible lunacy of classic sd.com’s 17-year run, overflowing with W’s writing in many forms, while also serving as D&W’s personal internet playpen — aka “...this stream-of-consciousness coloring book you call a website" . Topical threads, storied gags, press releases, touring info and pics, reader email (with responses) … all unfolding in real time, with just hours between each harebrained idea and its appearance online. The whole beautiful, searchable mess is preserved at sdarchive.com for future curiosos, and for your browsing enjoyment at any time.
Then there’s walterbecker.com, launched by Walter in 2006. Although his input was cut too short, his inimitable voice still fills several dozen pages of "contests, promotions, treasure hunts and etceteras”. Notably, the site also hosts Walter Becker University, a comprehensive compendium of Becker’s discography*, complete writing, playing, recording, guesting, and producing credits, plus an official bio — including footnotes from Walter’s previously unpublished writings and recollections. And slideshows!
* But isn’t WB’s discography easily found on any number of mega-database websites? Well, it depends: Since Water’s death, some of these databases — inexplicably, maddeningly, criminally — now credit him only with his two solo releases (along with a slagheap of pre-Dan Demos with “Becker” among the “artists” names!). In other words, the entire Steely Dan catalog, which was once -- obviously -- included in “Walter Becker’s discography”, no longer appears under his artist listing on some of these sites. That’s a big big hunk of a man's life’s work, folks — wiped from the spreadsheet...and from the record. So much for idiot keyword/AI tech. And all the more reason to take nothing for granted. To be mindful of the record we must take pains to leave in the spaces that we can control.
And our buttons fairly pop over the Estate’s Walter Becker Media site: honoring Walter’s wishes; launched under less-than-ideal conditions; requiring sustained — if not always regular — care and feeding; all while providing scads of background information and context for a significant volume of unreleased audio, written, photographic, and esoteric media — while also inviting comment and exchange on the first W-affiliated discussion board. The community dialogs have enriched the site and enlarged the record immeasurably.
Links to all these sites, and a few other “affiliated” online locations, can always be found at this WeBWorldDynasty directory
As we make plans to keep all of them online “in perpetuity” — whatever the hell “perpetuity" might mean in this medium and age — we hope you’ll visit often to bookmark, share, enjoy, and learn. That’s why they’re here.