Hippies, cocaine, and 'dog meat': the oral history of 'You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It'

To my subscribers—

This is the kind of story I started Expanding Dan to publish: reporting that dives deeply into a piece of Steely Dan history that otherwise might never get told in full. These pieces take a lot of time and effort. For this oral history of the lost film You’ve Got to Walk It Like You Talk It and its soundtrack by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, I spent months tracking down sources, digging through archives, conducting interviews, and assembling all of that research into a compelling, immersive narrative. If you enjoy this work and want to help me do more of it, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription today. You won’t want to miss what’s coming next: a significant reel of footage from You’ve Got to Walk It that hasn’t been seen since the film’s brief theatrical run in 1971.

Thanks, as always, for your support!

—Jake

Neither of them wanted to discuss it. They seemed embarrassed to even acknowledge its existence, as if it were a youthful indiscretion that should be expunged from the cultural record.

For Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, the sore subject was their first official album: the soundtrack to a low-budget counterculture satire bearing the comically protracted title You’ve Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You’ll Lose That Beat (also known as You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It or You’ll Lose That Beat). Made in New York City in 1969 and 1970, the film premiered in theaters in September 1971, 14 months before Steely Dan would release their debut, Can’t Buy a Thrill.