Jeffrey Allen "Skunk" Baxter (born December 13, 1948) is an American guitarist, known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s and Spirit in the 1980s. More recently, he has worked as a defense consultant and advised U.S. members of Congress on missile defense. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Doobie Brothers in 2020.

Early life and education

Jeffrey Baxter was born in Washington, D.C., and spent some of his formative years in Mexico. He graduated from the Taft School in 1967 in Watertown, Connecticut, and was a self-described preppie. He enrolled at the School of Public Communication (now College of Communication) at Boston University in September 1967, where he studied journalism

Music career

Early years

Baxter was a classically trained pianist, studying from the age of 5 to 15. When he was 9 years old, his family moved to Mexico City, where he bought a cheap guitar and taught himself how to play. While still a high school student, he worked at Jimmy's Music Shop in Manhattan in 1966. At Jimmy's, Baxter met guitarist Jimi Hendrix, who was just beginning his career as a frontman. Later, Baxter claimed to have sat in with the Hendrix-led band Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, when the regular bassist could not make the show.

Baxter first reached a wide rock audience in 1968 as a member of the psychedelic rock band Ultimate Spinach. Baxter joined the band for Ultimate Spinach III, their third and final album. After leaving Ultimate Spinach, he learned how to play pedal steel guitar, He was using the moniker "Skunk" by this time; so far, Baxter has kept the origin of the nickname a secret.

Baxter found extensive work as a session guitarist, including playing on Carly Simon's first top 10 hit, "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be". There he became a founding member of the band Steely Dan. Baxter had played with the drummer, Jim Hodder, on a number of occasions, and was acquainted with Steely Dan's producer, Gary Katz, who was responsible for inviting Baxter to join the group.

While preparing to tour in support of Stampede, Doobie Brothers founder Tom Johnston was hospitalized 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 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; Baxter's work on the album includes an extended solo at the end of the closing track "How Do the Fools Survive?". As with Steely Dan, Baxter continued to do extensive session work while a member of The Doobie Brothers. McDonald had grown frustrated with the way Baxter altered the guitar lines in his songs and indicated that he could no longer work with him.

In 1984, Baxter played keyboards with Bobby and the Midnites' Bob Weir, Billy Cobham, Bobby Cochran, Kenny Gradney ("Tigger"), and Dave Garland at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey. That same year, he produced and played guitar and synthesizer on the band's album Where the Beat Meets the Street on Columbia Records.

In 1986, Baxter joined James Brown and Maceo Parker on guitar for several North American tour dates.

In 1990, Baxter joined John Entwistle, Joe Walsh, Keith Emerson, Simon Phillips and relatively unknown vocalist Rick Livingstone in a supergroup called The Best.

In 2007, Baxter jammed with former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow's band Beats Workin' at the National Press Club and the Congressional Picnic held on the White House South Lawn.

Baxter continues to do studio work, most recently on tribute albums to Pink Floyd and Aerosmith. In 2012, he appeared on keyboardist Brian Auger's Language of the Heart, and The Beach Boys' That's Why God Made the Radio.

In 2022, Baxter released his first solo album.

Defense consulting career

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Baxter fell into his second profession almost by accident. In the mid-1980s, his interest in music recording technology led him to wonder about hardware and software originally developed for military use, specifically data compression algorithms and large-capacity storage devices. Baxter has said. "Among other things, what I do is look at existing technologies and hypothesize how they might be applied in non-traditional ways, something that happens in music all the time and also happens to be something that terrorists are incredibly good at."

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

Baxter was a member of an independent study group that produced the Civil Applications Committee Blue Ribbon Study recommending an increased domestic role for US spy satellites in September 2005.

This study was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on August 15, 2007. He is listed as "Senior Thinker and Raconteur" at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, and is a Senior Fellow and Member of the Board of Regents at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

Discography

With Four On The Floor

  • Four On The Floor (Casablanca, 1979)

With Richie Havens

  • The End of the Beginning (A&M Records, 1976)
  • Connections (Elektra Records, 1980)

With Steve Cropper

  • Night After Night (MCA Records, 1982)

With Glen Campbell

  • Somethin' 'Bout You Baby I Like (Capitol Records, 1980)

With Dolly Parton

  • Heartbreaker (RCA Records, 1978)
  • 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs (RCA Records, 1980)
  • Heartbreak Express (RCA Records, 1982)

With Ringo Starr

  • Time Takes Time (Private Music, 1992)
  • Vertical Man (Mercury Records, 1998)

With Jackie DeShannon

  • Quick Touches (Amherst Records, 1978)

With Livingston Taylor

  • Man's Best Friend (Epic Records, 1980)

With Al Kooper

  • Championship Wrestling (Columbia Records, 1982)

With Steely Dan

  • Can't Buy a Thrill (ABC Records, 1972)
  • Countdown to Ecstasy (ABC Records, 1973)
  • Pretzel Logic (ABC Records, 1974)

With Rod Stewart

  • Tonight I'm Yours (Warner Bros. Records, 1981)
  • When We Were the New Boys (Warner Bros. Records, 1998)

With Dalbello

  • Drastic Measures (Capitol Records, 1981)

With Judy Collins

  • Hard Times for Lovers (Elektra Records, 1979)

With Carly Simon

  • Carly Simon (Elektra Records, 1971)
  • Playing Possum (Elektra Records, 1975)
  • Another Passenger (Elektra Records, 1976)

With Leo Sayer

  • Here (Warner Bros.Records, 1979)

With Joe Cocker

  • Heart & Soul (EMI, 2004)

With Elton John

  • Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy Deluxe Edition - Live Concert, Wembley, June 21, 1975 (Island reissue, 2005)

With Deniece Williams

  • I'm So Proud (Columbia Records, 1983)
  • Let's Hear It for the Boy (Columbia Records, 1984)

With John Mellencamp

  • Nothin' Matters and What If It Did (Riva Records, 1980)

With Albert King

  • Red House (Essential Records, 1991)

With Dusty Springfield

  • It Begins Again (Mercury Records, 1978)

With Barbra Streisand

  • Wet (Columbia Records, 1979)
  • Till I Loved You (Columbia Records, 1988)

With Tom Rush

  • Ladies Love Outlaws (Columbia Records, 1974)

With Donna Summer

  • Bad Girls (Casablanca Records, 1979)
  • The Wanderer (Geffen, 1980)

With Cher

  • Stars (Warner Bros. Records, 1975)

With Cerrone

  • V-Angelina (Because-Malligator, 1979)

With Carl Wilson

  • Youngblood (Caribou Records, 1983)

With Steve Goodman

  • Hot Spot (Asylum Records, 1980)
  • Unfinished Business (Red Pajamas, 1987)

With Joni Mitchell

  • The Hissing of Summer Lawns (Asylum Records, 1975)

With The Beach Boys

  • That's Why God Made the Radio (Capitol Records, 2012)

With Billy Vera

  • Billy & the Beaters (Alfa, 1981)

Solo albums

  • Speed of Heat (2022, BMG Records)

References

  • Editor & Publisher article referencing the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association dinner
  • Article and photos about the "Coalition of the Willing" band
  • NASA Establishes Exploration Systems Advisory Committee , NASA.gov
  • Interview on Today show (December 2005), MSNBC.com
  • Jeff "Skunk" Baxter Interview at NAMM Oral History Library (2001)