^^ That's his long-time nickname.
^^ That's his long-time nickname.
Ok I'm reading too much into it......Originally Posted by Guitarplyrjvb
I only saw him live once with The Doobie Brothers back in the day, but thought he was a very good guitar player.
NP: Black Friday......
I have seen him interviewed on counter-terrorism on CNN and elsewhere.
Snunk trivia fact for any who don't already know: Pre-SD, he was the guitarist in the Boston 60s psych band Ultimate Spinach, who had an FM radio hit with "Pamela".
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
ANd the band which morphed into Steely Dan, actually. Denny Dias' group brought Becker and Fagen in and the rest is history
And the code is a play, a play is a song, a song is a film, a film is a dance...
I watched The Skunk deliver an absolutely gorgeous guitar solo while he was playing with Billy Hinsche (Dino, Desi and Billy). They're playing some lightweight powerpop song and Skunk dropped the weirdest, bizarrely beautiful solo in it. I talked with him briefly and he was cool. He told me the code to access the nukes.
Skunk played Telecaster and Steel Guitar. A country boy at heart.
Jeff Baxter is a also a missile defense consultant. The description of this on Wiki is a pretty interesting read.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Baxter
67 - Walter Carl Becker (born February 20, 1950)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
"Henry Cow always wanted to push itself, so sometimes we would write music that we couldn't actually play – I found that very encouraging." - Lindsay Cooper, 1998
"I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip." - Roger Waters, 2014
"I'm a collector. And I've always just seemed to collect personalities." - David Bowie, 1973
Hey, whaddya expect from a dude whose nickname is Skunk and he allows it proudlyI kinda get the sense the the Steely guys parted company with Jeff on acrimonious terms. In the liner notes of the SD remasters the refer to him as "The Skunk" repeatedly. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
well he certainly skunked up Stampede
... Mind you Fault Line is not nearly as bad, probably because of the input of MMcD
Odd thing is that you didn't hear these country influence much in early SD albums.
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Twg_NpQmk
Jeff Baxter, a former rock n' roll guitarist, speaks about his current life as a defense expert. He then discusses his idea of "Asymmetrical Thinking: The Symphony Orchestra vs. The Jazz Quintet".
<groan>....... Im friends with Ian Bruce Douglas from Ultimate Spinach (at least, I used to be -- I have not seen him in years) who has some kind of issue with Skunk Baxter -- what I was told is that Skunk joined the band and pushed him out in pre Steely Dan days....I dunno, Im just relaying the drama that I heard almost every other time I had a beer or two with Ian........Incidentally, apparently Mr Baxter is into robotics and opened a private research facility here in my town
From what I understand, his value as a defense expert comes from an ability at lateral thinking: he tries to think out-of-the-box, think like a terrorist - something which the military men he consults for are trained not to do.
Big fan , I remember in music school one of the teachers used a tricky SD horn arrangement in harmony class. Their music is more complex then it appears to be and the lyrics are great. Royal scam is my favorite.
I have the pleasure of playing in a Steely tribute a few times a year and it's always a blast playing this music with a big ensemble (full horn section, two keyboardists, two guitars, etc). We did the whole Royal Scam album last Fall and will do Katy Lied next time.
People have asked me what is closest to Steely but not and I usually suggest Michael McDonald era Doobie Bros as the next stop, and then Silk Degrees from Boz Scaggs. Not many approach SD's quality but those come close.
In fact, I was part of a jam this past weekend- "Michael McDonald VS Kenny Loggins" which was a lot of fun. Tunes like Minute by Minute have as many chords as some of Steely's most complex (the intro alone) tunes. Here's vid of the whole night. We did a lot of MMD's solo works too and the best stuff Kenny did as well, along with collabs like This is It. There were some fine players on their solo stuff too. The guys from Toto are on MMDs debut.
People often write this stuff off as quick as they do Steely's because of the slickness, but under it is a lot of harmonic and rhythmic sophistication.
https://www.facebook.com/jim.ramsdel...0455210050010/
Last edited by Sean; 02-20-2017 at 01:17 PM.
PS Have any of you seen the Yacht Rock series on YouTube? It's a hoot. They even have an episode about Jethro Tull (which is totally an aside and has nothing to do with YR, but apparently someone there loved Tull too).
Chuck Rainey's bass work on most of Aja, and other albums as well.
"And this is the chorus.....or perhaps it's a bridge...."
Good band, I like their debut.
Two Against Nature is an album I hold in high regard, just below Aja. Love the album but was almost put off by the lead-off single. I enjoy the song now, but thought it to be low hanging fruit and beneath these guys when I first heard it. I eventually would end up buying the CD and fell in love with songs like Jack of Speed and West of Hollywood. And of course, it is a sonic gem for audio systems.
The outro on West of Hollywood is one of the best 90 seconds of SD instrumental yummyness in their catalogue.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
I think there was a thread a few years ago on all the great SD intros and outros
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
It was a lovely live first take from Potter, too. Which entertained the guys in the band and the studio audience to no end, according to Becker. They were stunned. It really is a thing of beauty.
And the code is a play, a play is a song, a song is a film, a film is a dance...
They were lucky to get Chris Potter. He's one of the best of the current crop of tenors. Besides his own albums, check out his appearances on some Dave Holland and Dave Binney albums.
He was still establishing himself at the time, and probably could use the work and the solid paycheck.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks