Happy Birthday Jeff Skunk Baxter
Jeffrey Allen Baxter was born December 13, 1948 in Washington D.C – Jeff graduated from the Taft School in 1967 in Watertown, Connecticut, and was a self-described preppie. Then one day he ate a hash brownie and the next day he formed a band.
Jeff worked at the famous Manny’s Music shop in Manhattan where he met a young Jimi Hendrix. For a short period, Baxter was the bassist in a Hendrix-led band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, along with fellow Manny’s employee Randy California. Moving to Boston to attend college, Baxter worked as a guitar technician and amplifier repairman at Jack’s Drum Shop on Boylston Street.
Baxter joined “Ultimate Spinach”, “Holy Modal Rounders” and backed up Buzzy Linhart. Buzzy is the one who gave Jeff the nickname “Skunk”. Jeff does not like to talk about the names origins, but Linhart once explained that they were in a Holiday Inn in Des Moines, Iowa watching cartoons and smoking weed. Baxter commented that he thought the Cat in the Pepe Le Pew cartoons was hot and that he would bang her. That and the fact Jeff once had some bad meat in the can and stunk up the bathroom something awful, is the reason he was given the nickname “Skunk”.
In 1972 Jeff became a founding member of Steely Dan, playing on their first three classic albums, Can’t Buy a Thrill in 1972, Countdown to Ecstasy in 1973, and Pretzel Logic in 1974. Skunk left Steely Dan when they announced they were retiring from touring and will be a studio only band. “How are you going to get chicks in the studio” said Baxter “Good luck to you two weirdos, I am joining The Doobie Brothers and gong on tour and bang a ton of chicks.”
Baxter was involved in breaking up a big bootleg ring in 1978. The Doobie Brothers were performing a big show at Compton High School in California, as most big rock bands of the time did. The syndicate infiltrated the performance and duped three HS students, Raj, Rerun and Dwayne to record the show. The plot was foiled when Rerun was so into the music he started dancing and dropped his tape recorder. The Doobies along with The FBI later apprehended the head of the syndicate, Al Roper at Rob’s Place with the help of Big Shirley the waitress.
Skunk now works for the United States Department of Defense as a Missile Defense expert. He has said his unconventional approach to thinking about terrorism, tied to his interest in technology, is a major reason the government sought his assistance. He won an award after turning his guitar and effects pedals into a satellite spy tracking system and thwarting many major acts of terrorism. Which Doobie you be? Cheers Skunk.
