Jeff "Skunk" Baxter - stand out solos?

I've been a Steely Dan fan for ages and loves Jeff's guitar playing but recently I've been getting into the Doobie's 'Taking it to The Streets' album and it's put me right in the mood for more Skunk. I just love his tone and style.

So I checked Wiki and it seems that he did a lot of session work over the years. Thought I'd see if any Hoffmanites could clue me in to a few of his more stand out solos.

So, any Jeff fans here with recommendations?

 

Change Of The Guard
Kings
Fire In The Hole
Bodhisattva (closeout solo)
The Boston Rag
My Old School
Rikki Don't Lose That Number
South City Midnight Lady (Doobies)
Neals Fandango (Doobies)
Take Me In Your Arms (Doobies)
Rio (Doobies)
Chinatown (Doobies)
Livin' On The Fault Line (Doobies)
Steamer Lane Breakdown (Doobies...lead throughout the song)
How Do The Fools Survive (Doobies...close-out solo)

 

His solo in Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" is as tasty as his Steely Dan or Doobies work

 

My favourite is the one on the Dan's My Old School; he just kills me every time I hear it!!

 

In that cover story we did for Guitar Player in December 1980, Jeff told me he recorded that blistering "Hot Stuff" solo on a $20 Burns Bison guitar! He also added, "When I did that I was burning, just came off the road. I did four guitar solos, eight rhythm parts, and two synthesizer parts in four hours. I had never heard the stuff before we did it. I loved every minute of it."

Some of his finest work with early Steely Dan:

Can't Buy a Thrill: "Change of the Guard," "Only a Fool Would Say That," and "Midnight Cruiser" on Can't Buy a Thrill (he also played the LP's steel guitar).

Countdown to Ecstasy: ""My Old School," "Bodhisattva" (Jeff said he played the second solo and Denny Dias played the first), and "The Boston Rag"

With the Doobies, he struck gold early-on with "Take Me in Your Arms"

When I asked him if he'd ever surprised himself in the studio, Jeff pointed to the Brooklyn Dreams album called Joy Ride ("My solo was in a style that was like I was mumbling in tongues or speaking in dreams using languages that have been dead for thousands of years"!). He also mentioned "How Do the Fools Survive" by the Doobies because "it was a one-take job, where I smoked a joint and was alone by myself with the engineer working in another room. It was one of those lean-back and play things."

 

If "Night By Night" is him, then it's my choice! I met him once, UNBELIEVABLY nice man!

 

His solo on Donna Summer's Hot Stuff is one of my favorite guitar solos of all time.

 

I believe he played the solo on "In France They Kiss on Main Street" from Joni Mitchell's The Hissing of Summer Lawns.

 

Skunk and Ellington

All the tracks mentioned are great and I can listen over and over to them, but I really get off on the East St Louis Toodle-oo from Pretzel Logic. Pretty fine steel guitar there.

 

It's definitely up there!

 

With Buzzy Linhart

A 1972 album entitled "Buzzy" produced by Todd Rundgren and that also included lead guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of Steely Dan fame....while customizing guitars at Valley Sound in LA, Jeff met Buzzy Linhart, a singer from New York who was in town to record an album, and joined his group. "That was one of the best rock and roll bands I ever played with," he says. "I did a lot on that album Buzzy." Between flights from coast to coast to perform with Linhart, he kept up a busy session schedule.

http://badcatrecords.com/BadCat/LINHARTbuzzy.htm

 

good choices but he really cranked live. The 10-31-75 show from Memphis (really needs to be officially released) is a Skunk clinic.

 

I have always loved the tone of his guitar solo on Rikki Don't Lose that Number and have always assumed it's a Strat. Anyone know for sure?

 

Ahh yes, the 1975 King Biscuit broadcast...the December 28, 1978 (Oakland) and December 31, 1978 (Los Angeles) King Biscuit shows are top notch too.
Jeff and Pat Simmons really go at it on Road Angel.

Also, check out Jeff's work on the Burton Cummings albums "Dream Of A Child" and "Woman Love" (especially).

 

fantastic player, yet he seems underrated, or little known for some reason.

 

I'm a massive Steely Dan and Doobies fan - I guess my username probably gives that away a little! This is probably my favourite Skunk solo that I've heard, so far anyway..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUE0r3fsWdg

 

You have great taste...that's from the 1977 PBS Soundstage perofrmance...that entire broadcast is top notch. Jeff makes sitting down look cool.

 

Jeff sat down even lower on "Saturday Night Live" when the Doobies performed in early 1979; he was practically on a chaise chair there. I thought he was making some comment about Michael McDonald putting him to sleep, but now I sense he was just more comfortable playing from that position.

The only performer I ever saw get lower than Skunk on SNL was Harold Ramis when he was doing his Perry Como impersonation.

 

Couldnt of said it better... John M.

 

Jeff can sometimes be seen on CNN talking about missile defense. Pretty strange combo...guitarist/missile expert.

 

Bumping this up as Mr. Skunk hits Social Security age today! Happy birthday!

 

I was fortunate to attend the Grin reunion and tribute show a few years ago in Rockville, MD. JB, a Nils Lofgren producer, was in top form playing guitar and steel with Nils and his band. The two of them trading licks on several tunes was truly special. There is a DVD of the show available which I need to pick up. A great evening.

 

On Return to The Dark Side of the Moon (NOT your garden variety tribute disc), Skunk does some pedal steel work on "Breathe." It sort of evokes "Jesus is Just All Right," but it works!

Here's the lineup on the tune:

Malcolm McDowell: voices on "Speak to Me"
Adrian Belew: vocals
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter: guitars, pedal steel
Tony Kaye: organ, Rhodes
Alan White: drums
John Giblin: bass

 

• Rush himself selected the tracks for this CD. That says a lot for his objectivity, for Rush has written many songs yet only included six of them among the 17 on his Very Best. "No Regrets," the album’s (sub)title song, is a fine lost-love ballad from his 1974 Ladies Love Outlaws LP. "There’s no regrets, no tears to cry/Don’t want you back, we’d only cry again/Say goodbye again." The impressive list of credits suggests the track’s texture and the kind of orchestration that had become fashionable with folksingers/singer-songwriters less than two decades after the folk revival had begun putting an acoustic guitar in every ranch house. In addition to Rush on vocals and acoustic guitar, we have Rupert Holmes string arrangement, conductor; Jeff Baxter electric guitar and pedal steel; Elliott Randall electric guitars; Bob Babbit (Kreinar) bass; Andrew Smith drums; Leon Pendarvis piano, Fender Rhodes; George Devens percussion; and Carly Simon vocal.

 

That's the first one that always comes to mind.

Happy Birthday to a fantastic guitarist and one of the coolest cats in the business.

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