![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Jeff-Skunk-Baxter-The-Doobie-Brothers-Steely-Dan-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Carl Lender)<\/p>\n
As a guitarist with such an undeniable sense of flair, Jeff \u2018Skunk\u2019 Baxter was a massive part of the first three Steely Dan<\/a> records, helping to define the legendary jazz-rock group\u2019s sound from the beginning. While the group were surrounded by virtuoso musicians from whom they demanded nothing less than perfection, Baxter\u2019s guitar playing was electrifying to the point that their songs would have sounded somewhat incomplete without his offerings.<\/p>\n While Donald Fagen and Walter Becker called the shots within the band and wrote all of the material performed by the group, they always ensured that they were steering a tight ship and keeping the rest of their band in check. It might seem as though being in the band could have been an arduous task<\/a>, but it was clear that Baxter was the sort of accomplished player that they knew they could depend on.<\/p>\n The group came out swinging with a trio of genre-defining records, with Can\u2019t Buy a Thrill, Countdown to Ecstasy, and Pretzel Logic being as strong as you could possibly want from a group that were only just starting out. Most bands don\u2019t elevate their sound to this level until they\u2019ve established themselves a little more, but with Steely Dan, things were evidently in place from the beginning.\u00a0<\/p>\n You kind of get the impression that Fagen and Becker wouldn\u2019t have settled for anything less than emerging as a fully-formed concept, and therefore they needed musicians such as Baxter to help them along, just as much as the personnel on these records would have benefitted from the regimented process of being part of Steely Dan. This strict ethos is ultimately what made them such a formidable group, and if they hadn\u2019t managed to perfect everything from the beginning or been quite so driven, then perhaps later masterpieces such as The Royal Scam and Aja wouldn\u2019t have been able to exist.<\/p>\n