He certainly had a military framework but he saw outside of that because he had to, to be creative and be able to do things that appealed to the greatest number of people; you had to stretch out your templet, so to speak, about how you related to people. When youre composing or noodling around, do you ever hear words filtering in and out? Half this album is instrumental. No, Baxter really has had some kind of involvement in missile defense, which I assume is why he wont take off that beret. Also when he was with the doobies he often wore headphones to get "a better mix" which the monitors wouldnt give him at the time. Were you worried about maybe having to go over there or about what was happening here? Interested in combining your passions with your career pursuits? Sure, many times its not so much the words as it may be ideas that the melodies and structure suggest a mood or a place in time or something cinematic that gives rise to something descriptive, which would lead to lyrics, although Ladies From Hell I think is descriptive without lyrics. You are using an out of date browser. Between playing in superstar bands (he was inducted with the Doobie Brothers into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020), fielding recording session offers and working as a military defense analyst, Baxter squeezed in time to produce albums for Carl Wilson and Nils Lofgren, as well as for acts like Nazareth, the Ventures, the Stray Cats, and . Most Successful Signature Guitar Of All Time. It was great. There were three or four really top rock & roll bands there and they were huge stars in Mexico. Also when he was with the doobies he often wore headphones to get "a better mix" which the monitors wouldnt give him at the time. Inspired by a friend's work on an op-ed about NATO, Baxter sat down and punched out a five-page paper on the Aegis ship-based antiaircraft missile system, arguing it could be converted to a missile-defense system. Yepgot to get over the "guitar-to-high is not cool" syndrome. When you first started learning to play guitar, what was the hardest thing for you to get the hang of? I was actually out playing with the Doobie Brothers at the Knebworth Music Festival in England. He was the guitarist for two big rock 'n' roll bands -- Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers. The Gear Page is the leading online community and marketplace for guitars, amps, pedals, effects and associated gear. Jeff Skunk Baxter was born on the 13th of December, 1948. Etched in my memory forever! Why is Jeff Baxter always sitting down while playing guitar. So I guess he signed up and moved the family to Indiana and he then joined the 19th Indiana Volunteers, which became part of the 19th Indiana Regulars, which was known as the Iron Brigade, and they were the ones that held Culps Hill day one and day two in Gettysburg. Jimi Hendrix was in the 101st Airborne and Jimi and I were friends. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Doobie Brothers in 2020. He played the Star Spangled Banner because he WAS a patriot. Im telling you, when I first went to Scotland, my dad said, When you look out the window of the airplane, youre going to see a green in the land thats going to shake your DNA. And I said, yeah sure. Answer (1 of 3): As other answers here have stated, Baxter sensed the changing dynamics in Steely Dan. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". Maybe Im being overly conservative but thats what I do best. WTF is going on with this thing? It was on this day, August 3 rd, in 1974 that guitarist Jeff Baxter quit the band Steely Dan when the other founding members decided to stop touring. Id like to explore getting into law enforcement. And I said, Sure I can help you with that. I was LAPD for fifteen years so I hooked him up with a couple of friends of mine, US Marshals, and after that conversation, I had called him up about a month later and he said, So what are you doing? And I said, Well, Im working on a solo project. And he said, Wow, Id like to play on it. I said, In a heartbeat! (laughs). Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Ideally, your guitar position sitting should be the same as standing. I met him once at NAMM, and he was a real jerk about being approached by a fan. He pulled up a mic that still worked and proceeded to give us all a lecture and demo on Rhythm Guitar and its function in any piece of music. What a nutty setup. He was the head of creative, just like, I guess it was Don Draper. Imagine the world is. So Im glad we waited because it was just going to be an instrumental album and then these folks expressed interest and okay, lets think about that way. I had gotten to a point I wasnt quite sure where I was. I was never a big fan of doing a solo album right after you leave a successful band. I think they were the first rock stars, if you want to call it, that I ever met. Jeff Baxter. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Wed actually played together up at the Sundance Film Festival, wed actually met each other a few years before, but it was a lot of fun. Scotsmen tend to not be that small (laughs). While improvising solos, i often like to stand. Baxter found the technical aspects of music and of defense, particularly missile defense, coincided. " 'You skunk! I recently had a lengthy conversation with the Hall Of Famer about his stellar career, his new record, and the artists he has worked with. Maybe thats why Walter Becker, in his famous list of Phrases to Avoid During a Recording Session, included this one: Skunk called, hes on his way down.. Why did Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff Skunk Baxter often sit in a chair while performing? Jeff Skunk Baxter talks Doobies Steely Dan . . Tell us about your relationship with Jazz? Peter Humphries Sgt. I did the whole first verse just the steel cause I wanted to showcase the beauty of the voice of the instrument. Soltis last win was for Best Opera Recording for Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg for 1997. The drugs Negan is carrying came from a mobile medical clinic. I find that ultimately to be destructive and sometimes less than constructive. I do, I sing that and I do background vocals, obviously. By March 2012, five members of the Doobie Brothers family were deceased: percussionist/vocalist LaKind on December 24, 1992, of colon cancer; original bass guitarist / vocalist Shogren of unreported causes on December 14, 1999; saxophonist, keyboardist, vocalist, and flutist Bumpus of a heart attack on February 3, 2004 . Was all that there when you were conceiving that song or did that come later? What a fantastic read! The verses are kind of bluesy but then it goes into this just thermonuclear hardcore rock chorus and he pulls it off beautifully. The people that went and fought and died in WWII, somehow or other that has been branded as the good war and certainly Ive never heard any argument that holds any water as to why you would want Adolph Hitler or Hideki Tojo to be running the world. Location: Ohio. We were all amazed and listened intently! At the risk of sounding slightly disingenuous and maybe, you know, I dont mean to sound snarky but for the most part I think this solo project is as close to that as Ive been able to get, because number one, as a studio musician, youre doing it, the guys looking at the clock, so you use your skills and they expect you to play your best and you do. Why does Jeff Baxter sit while playing? As to why he sits, I don't know, he sat when I saw him with The Doobies. Its funny, Ill be on the phone talking to some of my colleagues at the Pentagon and maybe a couple of friends are around me and I have to answer the phone, and Ill say, Okay, I need you to get ahold of Balls, I need you to get ahold of Bam Bam and I need them to call me tonight on this project. And theyll look at me and say, What are you talking about? (laughs). Luckily, I got a chance to play and work with him. So as soon as I had the opportunity, obviously, I took advantage of it. I loved his work on early Steely Dan, but haven't heard much of him lately. With all the drug use in rock-and-roll how did he get security clearances. The 74-year-old guitarist was born in Washington D.C, United States. He then takes this knowledge and generously unlocks doors of opportunity for all willing to listen and take action. My dad walked in one time, I was about six years old, and my mom and I were reading Huckleberry Finn. (laughs). Baxter, who was born in Washington, D.C., returned to his old stomping grounds to host a charity concert Tuesday benefiting the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, an organization that aids the. It was on this day, August 3 rd, in 1974 that guitarist Jeff Baxter quit the band Steely Dan when the other founding members decided to stop touring. Or maybe 8 Platinum Records and two Grammys. Explosive rotten farts? This is Baxter's home territory, and he covers it with a unique liveliness, precision, and sense of humor. Even Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, called me Skunku. . When I was working at the White House, George Bush called me Skunkster. Edmundson ] , Ben Lennick Jeff Baxter ] John McFee, an accomplished session guitarist with lots of works you probably know, joined around after the departure of Jeff Baxter. Some years into it, I started to listen to more of my dads record collection. Not only is she an incredible musician and incredible artist but she is an angel. Just my own expectations/aesthetic. I listened to all that music. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. I love it and looking for in internet for a long time((. And from Wikipedia, Some things I didn't know. Why does Jeff Baxter sit while playing? Strat Talk is the leading online community and marketplace for Stratocaster guitars. Pillar said the bones in his nose take weeks to fully heal , which is why he'll wear a protective mask on the field when he does eventually return to play. When he was playing down in the Village with Jimmy James & The Blue Flames, where I got the opportunity to play a little bit with him, every once in a while wed sit down and either have a drink or maybe grab a bite at Materas, a little Italian restaurant on the corner of Bleecker and 3rd, and when people would start to talk about the Vietnam War oh its terrible, etc, etc he never said a word. I was eleven and playing in a surf band with Abraham Laboriel and sitting in sometimes with Los Hooligans, which was a very well-known Mexican rock & roll band. What are the physical state of oxygen at room temperature? Skunk is the worlds greatest. Jeffrey Baxter was born on December 13, 1948 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He was a huge fan of Dixieland King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Pete Fountain, Al Hirt that whole genre of music. Your email address will not be published. Jeffrey Allen Skunk. Answer (1 of 2): Denny was NEVER squeezed out of Steely Dan,and in fact,worked with them up until -at least- the "Aja" album. But the focus was pretty straight ahead. Baxter dropped out of college in Boston in 1969 to join a short-lived psychedelic-rock band. I wanted to do a kind of a musical tour of Scotland from Roman times all the way to the present, to right after WWII. The man who has been making music since he was a kid has definitely caused a sunflare with this long-awaited album. Did you ever get the sense that they would eventually want to primarily be a studio band? Any lower and it makes it harder to play. Who is Doobie signed with? And you see bright spots, mostly in terms of guitar playing, because guitar had kind of lost its position as the mirror for the vocalist. In a lot of ways they knew what they wanted and if they didnt know what they wanted, they thought they knew what they wanted. Incredible artist. So I pulled it down, tuned it up and realized, holy crap, I like this a lot! According to multiple credible sources, "The Agency Master Academy's products and services are not scams.". What a great interview! . It was the same thing: okay, you can read, now its time to dig in. Im a guitar player, a steel player, an acoustic player and thats what I do best. I am much a tone freak because I built guitars, I made a living customizing and repairing guitars for years with some of the best people on the planet and many of the pickups that I use on my guitars I wound on my moms sewing machine (laughs). Did it change the physical way or the mental way? Love the Skunk. At 61 years of age, I have seen and listened to a plethora of musicians. 3 When did Jeff Baxter leave the Doobie Brothers? Check out his military exploits here: Can't say for sure Found insideI was beaming at home seeing those guys do harmonies that Gene and I had come Location: Gypsy Caravan. Who knows? It's a journey that began with a mudslide, some magazine subscriptions, and an impromptu missile defense paper, leading to a life that Baxter describes as beyond his wildest dreams. Ive read some stories about Jeff Skunk Baxter of Steely Dan/Doobies notoriety and his Skunk Nickname and have never gotten a clear explanation as to how he acquired it. So for me, reading is habitual. JavaScript is disabled. Was it easy to work with them in the studio? This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Why does Jeff Baxter sit while playing? God, I miss that guy. I've played a total of about 15 minutes standing up in my entire life. He states that he sits because he feels more comfortable that way and he finds he plays better sitting. Much more comfortable once you do so on both. I was relieved because that was 1969 when I showed up for my draft physical; 1968, something like that. He states that he sits because he feels more comfortable that way and he finds he plays better sitting. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". He has also shared the first track off. The same is true of a lot of bluegrass players. We did an East Coast tour and were going to do a West Coast tour and then were going to head to Japan the middle of August. Thats easy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_"Skunk"_Baxter, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhJwfGRrY_M, The Mohawk Valley, where the birds warble sweet, Forum Policies, Rules, and Terms of Service. Are you more prone to fiction or nonfiction? When people began to object to it, there were people in that older generation that didnt understand that. Who was the lead guitarist for Steely Dan? When you think of some of the most well-respected musicians in the business, its a good bet that Jeff Baxter, better known as Skunk, ranks very high on that list. Skunks solo on How Do The Fools Survive is right up there with any guitar solo ever. Absolutely. Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (Steely Dan,The Doobie Brothers) plays Andy's Guitar to help bring awareness to the great things being done for the kids at St. Jude Chil. Then I remember in Mexico City we had just finished playing golf and I was waiting for him in the clubhouse and this guy came out of the locker room and he walked over and I said, Dad, is that you? He said, Yeah, I just decided to shave my mustache off. He was forty years old and he looked like he was about thirty. So it never really occurred to me, you know. Either he has bad B.O. ' the [wet] one kept repeating," according to the Creem piece. I think thats where its going. About Doobie Pretzel Logic is the third studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released on February 20, 1974, by ABC Records.It was written by principal band members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, and recorded at The Village Recorder in West Los Angeles with producer Gary Katz.It was the final album to feature the full quintet lineup of Becker, Fagen, Denny Dias, Jim Hodder, and Jeff "Skunk . Then when I heard this other stuff, especially the stuff from Howard Roberts and Kenny Burrell and Teddy Bunn and Wes Montgomery, these guys playing along with these wonderful Jazz singers, it started to peak my interest. And there was really a nice bond. So I thought, why not take it to the ultimate and see what happens and I asked Steve Tyler if hed sing it. Overview ; Biography ; Discography ; Songs Jeff "Skunk" Baxter has had the kind of music career that most kids jamming in their parents' garages could only dream of. The people at Woodstock thought it was an ode to anti-war, your grandpa thought it was an insult; neither of which was the truth. Anyone have his contact info? Reviving this thread after being stunned after watching this video. More recently, he has worked as a defense consultant and advised U.S. members of Congress on missile defense. The best ideas sometimes come from the most unexpected places. I know the record companies certainly want to capitalize on whatever momentum you have but I wanted to give it some thought. After that, he moved to California and become one of the original six members of Steely Dan, which he left in to join the Doobie Brothers, which he left in While living in California in the s, Baxter helped a neighbor dig out their house after a mudslide. It looks like he's got two bass drums set up as, essentially, floor toms. Why do they call Jeff Baxter skunk? She taught me to read when I was five, about the same time she got me piano lessons. What finally lit that fire under your butt to do this? And when I looked out the window when we were landing in Edinburgh, it was just incredible. I've played for so many years standing up, sitting feels uncomfortable. Michael Hossack of the Doobie Brothers performs in California. You listen to it and yeah, it reflects the Celtic heritage of that part of the world. Skunk, I know youve been asked this a million times already but people have been wanting you to do a solo album for years.
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