The Resume

(January 10, 1948- )
Born in Passaic, New Jersey
Keyboard player, singer and songwriter
Member of Steely Dan
Recorded the solo albums 'The Nightfly' (1982), 'Kamakiriad' (1993), 'Morph the Cat' (2006) and 'Sunken Condos' (2012)

Why he might be annoying:

He said that in his teens he was a 'jazz snob' and 'started developing an anti-social personality.'
He described his pre-Steely Dan college bands as sounding like 'the Kingsmen performing Frank Zappa material.'
He usually looks awkward onstage, noting 'I've never been comfortable as a lead performer and I never wanted to be a singer particularly.'
After 'The Nightfly,' he suffered nearly a decade of writer's block.
Slate described his memoirs, in which he ranted about modern music and the internet, as 'a portrait of the artist as a grumpy old man.'

Why he might not be annoying:

He was a self-taught pianist.
The Wall Street Journal wrote, 'When he lets his guard down, he reveals a dry, self-deprecating wit.'
He credited his wife, singer/songwriter Libby Titus, with convincing him to return to live performing in the 90s after a hiatus of over a decade and a half.
He said about returning to touring, 'The venues and the hotels and everything has gotten better, so now it's much more fun to play.'
He said about Steely Dan not following trends, 'Walter and I are our ideal fans, and we figure fans will like what we like. If they don't, that's really not our problem.'

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 50]
• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [January] (Ranked: 1101948)
• I Attended Bard College
• I Attended Berklee College of Music
• I Recorded a Concept Album
• Jewish Rockers
• Look at My Magazine Cover
• Metacritic's 30 Best Reviewed Albums [2006] (Ranked: 29)
• Musicians Featured in 'Heavy Metal' [1981]
• New Musical Express' Greatest Albums of the 1980's (Ranked: 30)
• New Musical Express' Top 100 Albums of All Time [1988] (Ranked: 99)
• New Musical Express' Top Albums [1982] (Ranked: 7)
• Profiles 34751-35000 (Ranked: 34914)
• Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters (Ranked: 71)
• Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2012 (Ranked: 25)
• Rolling Stone's Top 50 Singles of 2012 (Ranked: 21)
• Stage Fright - Topophobic
• Yacht Rockers

Year In Review:

For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 194 Votes: 58.76% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 5 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 16 Votes: 56.25% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 17 Votes: 52.94% Annoying