“The main reason I left”: Did Steely Dan really hate playing live?
When we think of Steely Dan, we tend to think of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. Rightly so, as a lot of the time, it was these two who drove Steely Dan. They were the chief songwriters and some of the biggest creative visionaries behind the massive amounts of work that the band put out. That being said, there were members who helped them with the recording process, such as guitar extraordinaire Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter.
Baxter worked extensively with Steely Dan and was a huge factor in putting down different guitar lines and solos. Without his ability as a guitarist, a lot of the iconic instrumentation we now associate with the band wouldn’t exist. While his impact is massive and cannot be understated, he also recognises the influence that Becker and Fagen had on the group as a duo.
When asked why he believes a lot of people think that it was only those two who contributed towards Steely Dan, he noted it was because of how closely their shared vision related. The rumours that they were two people with the same mind often seemed true, given how often they were on the same page with one another.
“I think they were both of common mind and purpose,” said Baxter, “and they saw the band as a way to present their songwriting to the public, as was a fairly common concept at the time, as many bands were self-contained and wrote and performed their own material.”
Baxter was never offended by how much the two seemed to enjoy working closely with one another. He was a session guitarist and had worked with a number of other people, so being called upon to help with different guitar parts was something he was used to. The only time that Becker and Fagen’s shared decisions became an issue was when they decided to stop touring and playing live.
The duo decided that they were being held back by the pressure of constantly needing to tour. They were always worried about translating songs to the stage, so they didn’t push themselves as far as they could with the music they wrote. They felt as though this was a waste and opted to stop touring and start pushing themselves more creatively with the music-making. While this makes sense from a songwriter’s point of view, Baxter wanted to keep touring, so he decided to stop working with the band.
“The main reason I left was that Becker and Fagen decided that they didn’t want to tour any more, and I very much enjoyed playing live,” said Baxter. “I was playing with the Doobie Brothers at the time, as well as with Linda Ronstadt and a number of other bands, and I wanted to continue down that road. I have always felt that the combination of performing live as well as being a studio musician offered a unique and eclectic opportunity to be a better musician and guitarist: the idea being that I could bring all that knowledge to both genres.”
While Baxter admits that the band stopping playing live contributed towards him ceasing to play with the band, he also said that contrary to popular belief, he doesn’t believe that Fagen and Becker hated performing. Their decision was driven more by creative restrictions imposed by playing live as opposed to a dislike for it.
“I think it could be said that I was the most energetic player in the band but I also know that the idea that no one else in the band enjoyed playing live was pretty much a myth,” he said, “When I watch early Steely Dan performances, it’s pretty clear that Fagen is enjoying himself.”
