Background
Exceptional difficulties plagued the album's production. By 1978, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker had established themselves as the only two permanent members of Steely Dan, using a revolving cast of session musicians to record the songs they wrote together. However, the pair's working relationship began to strain, largely because of Becker's increasing drug use.
During the course of the Gaucho sessions, Becker was hit by a car while walking home late one Saturday night to his apartment on the Upper West Side. Becker managed to push the woman he was with out of harm's way, but sustained multiple fractures in one leg, a sprain in the other leg, as well as other injuries. During his six-month recovery, he suffered from secondary infections. While Becker was in the hospital, he and Fagen continued their musical collaborations via telephone.
Becker's personal problems continued to mount when his girlfriend, Karen Roberta Stanley, died of a drug overdose at his home on January 30, 1980. Her family attempted to sue him for $17.5 million in January 1981, claiming that he had introduced the woman to cocaine, morphine, barbiturates, and heroin. The court later sided in Becker's favor.
Also preceding Gaucho's release was a three-way dispute between the band, MCA Records, and Warner Bros. Records regarding ownership of the album.
Read more about this topic: Gaucho (album)
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