Jeff Baxter

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Jeff "Skunk" Baxter

Born December 13, 1948 in Washington, D.C.
Genre(s) Rock
Affiliation(s) The Doobie Brothers
Steely Dan
Years active 1968 - present

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (born December 13, 1948 in Washington, D.C.) is an American guitarist best known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s. More recently, he has been working as a defense consultant, and he chairs a Congressional Advisory Board on missile defense.

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[edit] Early career

While working at Manny's Music Shop in Manhattan in 1966, Baxter met guitarist Jimi Hendrix, who was just beginning his career as a frontman. For a short period during that year, Baxter was a member of a Hendrix-led band called Jimmy James and The Blue Flames, along with fellow Manny's employee Randy California.

Baxter first reached the larger rock audience in 1968 as a member of the psychedelic rock band Ultimate Spinach. Baxter joined that band for their third and final album, titled III.

[edit] With Steely Dan

After the breakup of Ultimate Spinach, Baxter relocated to Los Angeles, California, finding work as a session guitarist. In 1972 he became a founding member of the band Steely Dan, along with guitarist-bassist Walter Becker, keyboardist Donald Fagen, guitarist Denny Dias, drummer Jim Hodder and vocalist David Palmer. Becker and Fagen were employed at the time as staff songwriters for ABC Records, and they formed the band as a vehicle to promote their songs.

Baxter appeared with Steely Dan on their first three albums, Can't Buy a Thrill in 1972, Countdown to Ecstasy in 1973, and Pretzel Logic in 1974. Among his contributions was the guitar solo on the 1974 hit single "Rikki Don't Lose That Number".

[edit] With the Doobie Brothers

While finishing work on Pretzel Logic, Baxter became aware of Becker and Fagen's intentions to retire Steely Dan from touring, and to work almost exclusively with session players in the future. With that in mind, Baxter left the band in 1974 to join The Doobie Brothers, who at the time were touring in support of their fourth album What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits. As a session man, he had contributed pedal steel guitar to "Black Water" on Vices as well as "South City Midnight Lady" on its predecessor, The Captain and Me. Baxter's first album as a full member of the group was 1975's Stampede. Baxter contributed an acoustic interlude entitled "Precis," significant turns on slide and pedal steel guitar, and the guitar solo for the hit single "Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While)".

While preparing to tour in support of Stampede, Doobie Brothers founder Tom Johnston was hospitalised with a stomach ailment. To fill in for Johnston on vocals, Baxter suggested bringing in singer-keyboardist Michael McDonald, with whom Baxter had worked in Steely Dan. With Johnston still convalescing, McDonald soon was invited to join the band full-time. McDonald's vocal and songwriting contributions, as well as Baxter's jazzier guitar style, marked a new direction for the band. They went on to continued success with the 1976 album Takin' It to the Streets, 1977's Livin' on the Fault Line, and particularly 1978's Minute by Minute, which spent five weeks as the #1 album in the U.S. and spawned several hit singles.

In early 1979, Baxter and co-founding drummer John Hartman left the band.

[edit] Post-Doobie Brothers music career

Baxter has continued working as a session guitarist for a diverse group of artists which include Bryan Adams, Hoyt Axton, Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, Freddie Hubbard, Joni Mitchell, Rick Nelson, Dolly Parton, Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, and Donna Summer. He has worked as a touring musician with Elton John and Linda Ronstadt and Billy Vera and the Beaters. In 1990, Baxter joined John Entwistle, Joe Walsh, Keith Emerson and Simon Phillips in an abortive supergroup called "The Best". The group released a live performance video in Japan before disbanding. He also produced several albums for the hard rock band Nazareth and Livingston Taylor, The Ventures and Nils Lofgren. He also appeared in Blues Brothers 2000 and can be heard on the cast album.

[edit] Defense consulting career

Baxter fell into his second profession almost by accident. In the mid-1980s, Baxter's interest in music recording technology led him to wonder about hardware and software that was originally developed for military use, i.e. data-compression algorithms and large-capacity storage devices. As it happened, his next-door neighbor was a retired engineer who had worked on the Sidewinder missile program. This neighbor bought Baxter a subscription to an aviation magazine, provoking his interest in addtional military-oriented publications and missile defense systems in particular. He became self-taught in this area, and at one point he wrote a five-page paper that proposed converting the ship-based anti-aircraft Aegis missile into a rudimentary missile defense system. He gave the paper to California congressman Dana Rohrabacher, and his career as a defense consultant began.

Backed by several influential Capitol Hill lawmakers, Baxter received a series of classified security clearances. In 1995, Pennsylvania congressman Curt Weldon, then the chairman of the House Military Research and Development Subcommittee, nominated Baxter to chair the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense.

Baxter's work with that panel led to consulting contracts with the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He now consults to the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. intelligence community, as well as for defense-oriented manufacturers including Science Applications International Corporation ("SAIC"), Northrop Grumman Corp. and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. He has been quoted as saying his unconventional approach to thinking about terrorism, tied to his interest in technology, is a major reason he became sought after by the government.

"We thought turntables were for playing records until rappers began to use them as instruments, and we thought airplanes were for carrying passengers until terrorists realized they could be used as missiles," he has said. "My big thing is to look at existing technologies and try to see other ways they can be used, which happens in music all the time and happens to be what terrorists are incredibly good at."

Baxter has also appeared in public debates and as a guest on CNN and Fox News Channel advocating missile defense. He served as a national spokesman for Americans for Missile Defense, a coalition of conservative organizations devoted to the issue.

In April 2005, he joined the NASA Exploration Systems Advisory Committee (ESAC).

[edit] Still a musician

Despite his defense-related work, Baxter has not abandoned his music career. He continues accepting studio work; his most recent such work involved tribute albums to Pink Floyd and Aerosmith. He also occasionally plays in The Coalition of the Willing, a band comprising Andras Simonyi, Hungarian Ambassador to the United States; Alexander Vershbow, US Ambassador to South Korea; Daniel B. Poneman, formerly of the United States National Security Council and now of The Scowcroft Group; and Lincoln Bloomfield, former United States Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Notes

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    [edit] References

    [edit] External links

    Steely Dan
    Walter Becker - Donald Fagen
    Jeff "Skunk" Baxter - Denny Dias - Jim Hodder - Michael McDonald - David Palmer
    Discography
    Studio albums: Can't Buy a Thrill - Countdown to Ecstasy - Pretzel Logic - Katy Lied
    The Royal Scam - Aja - Gaucho - Two Against Nature - Everything Must Go
    Live Albums: Alive in America - Plush TV Jazz-Rock Party
    Compilations: Greatest Hits - Steely Dan - Gold - Gold (Expanded) - A Decade of Steely Dan
    Reelin' In The Years - Do It Again - Citizen Steely Dan
    Then and Now - Showbiz Kids - Definitive Collection
    Also featured on: Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz
    Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../j/e/f/Jeff_Baxter_0924.html"
    In other languages