Jeff "Skunk" Baxter - ASYMMETRICAL THINKING IN A CONVENTIONAL WORLD.
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
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InnoTown®2011
Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers guitarist and National Security Advisor.
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I worked in the same studio complex that Jeff had a studio in, in the late 90’s. He was the nicest/coolest guys you could ever imagine to know. Talented, ego-less and a giver.
Amazing Man, His Solo Steely Dan's Rikki Dont Loose that Number, One of the best from the 70's
His lead in Steely Dan's "My Old School" is the best...
Had no idea Jeff was an all round total genius. Absolutely fascinating. Thanks for posting!
Jeff, and Brian May, from, Queen. NO INSULT MEANT! But, to actually, watch, and listen....
Genius finds its level no matter what profession the smart guy happens to be in. Brian May is another great guitar player with a stratospheric IQ. I remember seeing the Doobie Brothers around 1976 with Skunk sitting, literally sitting, right in the middle of the stage playing his virtuouso guitar. Who knew about his virtuoso mind? Interesting guy.
This guy is a polymath I feel.
Brian May has a Ph.D in astrophysics. Mr Baxter is one of my favorite musicians, but his grasp of physics leaves a lot to be desired.
I knew of Jeff Baxter since I was a child, mostly because of the Doobie Brothers appearance on What’s Happening and his unique look, which I thought was cool, still do.
I learned to appreciate his musical talent as I learned to play guitar.
Now I’m blown away by his vast knowledge and keen intellect.
He’s one interesting cat and a true nation treasure.
This may be the first time I have heard someone accurately describe the science behind music in an easy to understand way (36 min mark or so). This should be a required watch for every up and coming musician.
Brilliant mind, and in person, quite humble. A privelige to get inside his head again. When I was a young Apple contractor, I got a chance to visit him for an evening. A mutual friend introduced us, and we all talked technology and music from 7ish to midnight at Jeffs house. Still gobsmacked after all these years and grateful for his hospitality and kindness.
forgive my typo! Still having my first cup of coffee!
This is not just for musicians....who knew Jeff was such a great philosopher with great sensability. Genius guitar player and Genius human being. just great stuff!!kudos
Guitarist for 56 years. Worked in print graphics color labs for years. I have never felt so encouraged and empowered. I feel as if some of those meaningless keys I've picked up over the years have met the correct lock in the correct way. Connected dots. Joy.
This guy is incredible. I am not bragging but I became an aerospace engineer and worked as such for 40 years. Retired now. But this guy was a rock star (one of my other wishes but never achieved). And he made a significant contribution to the technology field! That is amazing! Everyone should listen to this.
I get you. I'm not bragging either, but I performed music semi-pro though most of my 20s, then got a mechanical engineering degree. Still working, the twilight of my career now. But I feel like a kindred spirit to Skunk after this talk.
Don't forget Brian May, guitarist for Queen and PhD astrophysicist!
Move over, Hedy Lamar.
Better explained than my college professors...and I came for guitar lessons.
One of the best talks about everything that I have heard. Amazing person and great guitarist of our time.
It still blows my mind how he made the leap from rock star to high-level government clearance on classified missile defense systems, all from reading a bunch of articles and writing a paper for the hell of it. It must take a level of dedication and cojones that few people have.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Jeff were an agency man all along. The American deep state deeply infiltrated, was heavily involved in, and likely helped to create the 60s counterculture.
He’s a polymath for sure.
Marvelous. I always suspected this guy was in the genius category and I'm not disappointed by this. Thank you.
Music- vibrations- human spirit- spectrum of light.... Revelations....
Skunk is a renaissance man, no doubt! NOTHING can stop an idea whose time has come.
Highly educated man from universities in Connecticut and Massachusetts. They hire kids out of college to military contracts and national security. This man was a proven rock musician with a high aptitude for intelligence. Anyone that thinks he isn't credible or made a crazy jump from musician to working in the Pentagon needs to understand that this man is HIGHLY EDUCATED and thus as qualified as any of the brass wearing a uniform and especially college kids hired in government out of college. Yes, I was in the Marines. He's right about the Marines having the poorest budget in the Department of Defense.
Night by Night and Bodishatfa are genuis guitar woks. I bow
agree!
In the field of science , this guy is a rock star.
I was fortunate enough to have seen/heard him on 11/14/23 at Sellersville Theater (Philadelphia area). Been a music fan of his since the first Steely Dan album. He did some cool versions of the same stuff he did here, amazing mind!! And he’s now 75!
Thank you for caring enough to get interested in keeping us prepared and safe!
Been a big fan forever....I knew the "skunk" was a Genius just by trying to figure out some of his tasty "licks"....I had no idea his Genius was off the chart ..... excellent post, thank you !
Outstanding ! I can see the skunk didn't harm this fellows brain.
Before The Doobies, before Steely Dan…there was Ultimate Spinach!!! I first heard Skunk on an album called Ultimate Spinach! Look it up!
He was part of the Boston sound remember❤
Retired. Power on. Open UA-cam. Yawn. Browse. Stumble upon "my" Skunk Baxter, now a national security advisor, giving a talk on Asymmetrical Thinking. Hooked for an hour. Wow! I still play his vinyl from Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers where for decades I tried to get into his head as he played. Now he's in my head. Thank you, man. Peace.
What an incredible video. I would have never imagined a guitar player from the Doobies and Steely Dan teaching the federal government how to do things properly. The modern direction of human culture has created a larger amount of "followers" rather than "leaders". There are so many things that have yet to be understood and discovered in this world and universe. Don't become a follower. Think with your own mind. Create something.
I HEAR AND OBEY I WILL NOT BECOME A FOLLOWER I WILL THINK WITH MY OWN MIND AND CREATE SOMETHING
@@apopheniapays9963 - I see what you did there ... Very clever, very clever indeed!! 👍
In an alternative universe, he's just another bean-counting cog in some frighteningly- dystopian bureaucratic machine.
"I hear (Skunk's guitar solos) and obey (my instinct to ingratiate myself with him.") -Geek O'Ddept
Now Im even more convinced that talent is just one of the many facets of smarts.
Anyone who wields a Fender while citing Sun Tzu and Clausewitz has got to be a genius.
or an idiot
WELL SAID -BROOOOO-HO HO HO -PS -THAWACK EM ON THE GROUND??
@@modgiemodge261 WE MET-NO IDIOT KA??
I saw Steely Dan open for Elton John at Balboa Stadium in San Diego on Sep. 1, 1973. My most enduring memory of that show was Skunk, between songs, ranting about “sloppy seconds” (presumably received the night before).
@2JOHNNYT I was about 10 rows back and he said it right into the mic!
Best thing I've seen in a long time. Amazing guy.
How I went from musician and jazz major/ piano to lawyer to conflict resolution and legal management software company owner to advocate for independent dentistry made no sense to me UNTIL NOW!! Thanks Skunk! btw ... we play a lot of Steely Dan. THANKS AGAIN!
But is your band named after your girlfriends toy ?
"To the thinking man life is a comedy, to the feeling man life is a tragedy."
They never teach you HOW to think in school, only what to believe...
This was a great lecture on the craft.
Facebook was created by DARPA. It was "Lifelog" rebranded.
Aether is that glue that holds everything together. [Energy, frequency & vibration]
My Old School is a great freaking song. Love all those versions.
DARPA® needs a name-change now, to follow META®
Brilliant and Skunk gives me new HOPE in US as a people. Solving problems, not creating them. Beautiful and Serious. A lesson for all citizens. Thank You Skunk, I love your music and now respect and love you more as a caring, problem solving and willingness to get involved and contribute as a citizen American. Thank You. OOH RAHH!!!!!!
Great video! Most normal people do not realize that radio frequencies, and our color spectrum, as well as infrared, ultra violet, X-rays, gamma rays...etc., are all on the same spectrum. I used to talk about this with my past students, when I was a music professor decades ago. ... Peace! 🎼❤☮
yeah and the Reelin in the Years intro they play to that piece was by Elliot Randall, not Skunk
Randall played lead, Jeff played rhythm all over it....
Thank you Jeff Baxter !!!!!!!!
Jeff Baxter never ceases to surprise me. I have never met a more generous and brilliant musician. I love him.
When he talks about harmonics (frequencires). An example is say a block of wood (which is energy just in a lower frequency state) - but when it burns, it is changing its state of frequency, or changing from one form of energy to another. Its how the entire universe is constructed. Its all energy. Just in different states of "frequency".
I personally think it's a mistake to confuse the potential for transmutation of matter into energy and vice versa, for "it's all energy". It wouldn't be as strong a case to say "it's all matter", but your case is still not strong.
I don't deny that the potential is amazing, and yes, once matter is broken down into sufficiently small particles and given sufficient velocity, it will behave partly as a wave, and consequently will have a frequency (but will still be quantised, reflecting its particulate character): that's authentically and without embellishment miraculous, but to repeat myself another way, I think you diminish it by overstating it.
One last thing: The frequency of which you speak, only arises if we add enough energy to accelerate the particles to VERY high velocities. And the frequency is partly a function of which particle we choose, but ALSO what velocity we achieve in our particle accelerator.
@@Gottenhimfella i agree with your thoughts here.would you like fries with that?
How often do you use the word "frequency"?
the main thing to understand about this guy is he is a monster guitar player
not a great guitar player
A MONSTER
the point is making music uses your brain in a way that's not your everyday mode in REAL TIME
alot like john boyd flying a fighter jet
its a good thing to do for your brain
Oversimplification... It's not just music, but a history of taking psychedelics ALSO helps you think and develop in revolutionary, diverse/eclectic ways... A kind of multilateral thinking... Meditation also helps.
@@jasoncampbell3955 yep
"All wars are bankers' wars." -Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, U.S.M.C.
Funny synchronicity here. My dad (a musician named Jimmy, the guy who sent me this video, and HUGE Dan fan) told me when I was little that "All wars are for money."
My German maternal grandmother, who spent the war in Berlin, also told me the same thing.
I'm now in my 30s and make what I call "antiwar propaganda" videos. (Which are constantly censored from UA-cam nowadays.)
My latest project actually ends with a montage to the Steely Dan song "Dirty Work". (Which is probably my favorite of Jeff's guitar parts)
@@clicheguevara5282 after awhile, i had to wonder what exactly his genius thesis was, other than "here's how the defense industry can keep getting obscene plus-profit contracts from the government for decades to come"-of course the pentagon and congress want to listen to what this roguish guitarslinger has to say
@@ObjectorSnark I love his guitar playing. I’m _thoroughly_ unimpressed with all his DOD sales pitching though.
War is a racket.
-Smedley Butler.
Thanks for posting this this was awesome
One of my greatest guitar heroes, this man continues to amaze and inspire me. Thank God for Skunk Baxter.
Genius in multiple mediums.
I like how he ended up iterating the idea that the big obstacle to problem solving or any progress is the paper tiger called fear.
1John 4:18
Damn! YES! I love this. Thank you sir, you SO ROCK
What an amazing Highly intelligent man. I am a muso and loved his music over the many years.
ive seen a lot of fake shit in my life, but this dipshit declaring himself a "defense expert" is just vomit inducing. fucking fraud.
Fascinating guy - I could listen to him for hours.
Why not look up whether what he says about molecules and atoms is correct?
Just came back through to thank you.
I wasn't seeing my talent.
Buster brown.
Wreaking havok.
All over town!
I could listen to him play music or talk about creativity all day long and never be bored. His musical phrasing reflects a purity of thought that really connects with me.
Jeff "sknunk" Bexter is genius at music
He says the old ways are not going to help us ,,, and yet he quotes Winston Churchill , and rock and roll
Elvis and so on, I can think of many ways the old ways can help us and are helping us every day in life
I've found asymmetrical thinking skills to be a necessity in todays world. For everything.
Gotta say, it’s very incongruous. Even after all the explanations. Especially the need to publicise this.
Awesome story. Genius comes in many forms.
"He comes at it from a different perspective".
👍✌
Talk about a "Beautiful Mind" I already knew Skunk was a genius but DAMN !
The a he played is not a 440 the 440a is at the fifth fret of the high E string. The low E on a bass guitar resonates around 41 cycles a second. The low E on a electric guitar resonates around 82 cycles a second. I am also a lifelong professional musician and also a techie to the extreme. And many people who know me think I'm a genius. Who's to say. All I know is that drugs take you to another level of artistic consciousness. And people who study music to a high degree academically are 15% more intelligent. And being an artist in any form leads you to have the ability to be an abstract thinker. And music being as it's based on math teaches you to think about abstract math concepts subconsciously. So together with drugs and being a professional musician Jeff Baxter and I have a lot in common. Much respect Jeff.
No offense, Gary, but a genius doesn't have to call himself that on an anonymous social media website to impress people.
Wow.. listening to him playing his 'favorite song' now- 'America the Beautiful' Now, after all these years: He gets it!..... Appreciation for the greatest country on the face of the earth.
It's all a gift 🎁!!
Golly, a rock star who works for the military industrial complex! This is what passes for genius in the fall of Empire.
There are people we want to do very bad things to good people. How should this be prevented?
I second the recommendation of Col. Boyd's biography.
"Skunk" is fascinating and easy to understand.
Thank you first for the music, that in itself is enough to inspire me. But what I'm learning about myself lately is never paint myself into a box that everyone expects you to be in.. I bet you felt the same way, don't know what box to be in. Without your talent and insight at my advanced age, who knows, maybe I'll wake up to the enlightenment I've always avoided... I will always aspire to be different and take advantage of gifts I have that I never fully appreciated. Rock on!
There's no one more dangerous than a passionate politician, bureaucrat, or scientist. They believe the end always justifies the means, even if it includes criminal activity and genocide.
Don't forget the damned religions, the worst of the bunch! Condone tax evasion, child rape and murder.
For THEM it's ok, but you're going to hell for farting crooked, of course.
Awesome, awesome, and awesomely interesting! Thank yuo!
captivating talk. Awesome Job, Skunk
One of the best videos on UA-cam
As someone who has heard more than once that "You come up with great stuff but it's always out of left field" (or similar), Skunk is my kind of guy.
High IQ, great musician and a lot of things else.
37:48-44:44
The power of music, the power of vibration, the power of frequency....✨🙏✨
I understand 440 vibrations per second of an A string. But don't understand how higher frequencies turn to color green. Sound and color are different.
yeep de beep dupp deh dah duh doop.
@@Better_Call_Raul I think all he said was that the frequencies of the pentatonic scale in the 'harmonic series' approaches and intersects with the frequency of the color blue in the 'electromagnetic spectrum'. Like 2 linear functions/graphs.
@@Anders2112 2 linear functions, almost as if from a simple caress of steel
Jeff Baxter, Brian May, and Bruce Dickinson are extremely bright!
The OODA Loop is basically taking those pieces that were broken down through the analysis process, and then prioritizing them in the order of importance in which they must be performed for the problem or situation you are trying to solve.(aka - the solutuon to the problem). The Loop, or the feedback, is when those certain pieces that have been prioritized are being implemented, can, and very often do, lead to other innovations, or methods of solving the problem, or even other problems.
Thanks!
What does it mean to "orient"?
OODA Loop - brilliant concept
The first musical clip that kicks off your recorded presentation features guitarist Elliot Randall - not Jeff Baxter.
I was gonna say the same 😂
Regrettably (at least these days) it's widely considered unAmerican to bring facts to a discussion.
you'd have to blame the Today Show for that one.
@@jamesquimby418 Not really looking to assign blame, just to give credit where it is due. It's an iconic solo, and Elliot played it on the record.
@@jongordonmusic1 and excellent credit is due... LOL- besides, I don't think there's any point in calling out Matt Lauer for this.
Way to go Jeff and thanks for your expertise!
Music - is math - done elegantly
Among the most brilliant talks I have ever heard. I loved jeff's music, not to hear a deeper him I am super impressed.
Me too 8-}
While Jeff is certainly smarter and more talented than I am, he's playing quite fast and loose in his discussion of frequency and harmonics. He talks about starting at A440, multiplying it by 10E23 times Planck's constant and getting the color green. He's conflating the mechanical spectrum (compression and rarefaction of a medium [such as air molecules] by which sound propagates) with the electromagnetic spectrum (where radio, microwaves, visible color, and other EM frequency ranges reside, no medium required). Otherwise, fantastic presentation! Brilliant insights and much to learn from him.
Skunk is pretending to be bad at math, because A440 up two octaves is 1760Hz not the bizarro number he gave. But his A440*Avagadro*Plank=Green thesis is New Age nonsense, because *everybody* knows we should be tuning to 432Hz ;-)
I took a reverse direction: Physicist-Physician-Surgeon-Jazz guitarist-Country Guitarist. Yes life is a ride. Just follow your own road. Every place I have been has helped me in a unique way in my next endeavor finctionally that formally training person was blocked from seeing.
I must be really cashed; I had to read the comment like 4x. Lol. Charting songs makes me so damn tired.
Jeff, now coming up to 72 Dec. what a great guy, with a great brain and a loving heart
There are no brilliant Socialists with loving hearts. There are some brilliant Socialists with evil hearts.
I like the new glases.
Hanging out at the Baked Potato is always a good idea! 😉
As a guitarist and a fan of Jeff Baxter's for many years, but also as a big proponent of science and mathematics, I found this talk to be quite profound. But, as a musician and an amateur mathematician, I feel compelled to point out a couple of inaccuracies. When Jeff hit the open A string on his guitar, he stated it was A440. It wasn't. It was A110, two octaves below A440 (440 then 220 then 110). And then when he was hitting the harmonics, he said the first one was A880 (it wasn't, it was A220) and the second harmonic he claimed was A1620 (it wasn't, it was A440), but even if it had been double A880, it would be A1760, not 1620. 3rd grade math, folks. OODA, a new methodology for me.
i was thinking the same thing, but we both understood what he meant, right? Im sure if you were on stage in front of a huge stiff crowd youd make a mistake or 2 as well.
Yep. Jeff is talking about dialectic, you derive the next question from the back and forth of the current question.
Do you find yourself amazed watching this? But unable to identify a single thing you learned? This is sophistry.
An older fellow musician highly recommended this talk. To each their own, I suppose. Seemed like a buncha name dropping and playing connect the random dots. I did learn how The Second City got started, and now I know of a thing called sophistry, but overall I feel like I missed the point. If he wasn't a famous guitar player, would anyone have been impressed?
Brilliant Skunk, thank you. I'd like to point out, though, that when faced with a really incompetent conductor (which happens more often than one might suppose), a symphony orchestra creates an interpretation based on teamwork and recognizing fluid leadership within the ensemble.
That sounds very interesting and logical though I have never thought about this before. I imagine a symphony orchestra is filled with amazing musicians well up to the challenge of a mediocre conductor.
OMG, I had no idea he was such an intellectual!! Very talented man indeed, I've LOVED his guitar playing for DECADES!!
musicians usually are
Wow !!!.............. Wow !!..
Pass this on to the most inquisitive person you know.....
I hope in these climate talks the planet doesn't have other ideas. Enjoyed this all the way. In many ways the last thing we learn to do is THINK. To avoid war one has to make the "enemy" more scared of himself. I'm afraid the "enemy" might have won that one.
No doubt he is a genius. A hidden gem in the UA-camverse and possibly one of the best videos I have seen on problem solving among the slew of debris out there.
This is like a how-to lesson on staying ahead of AI. Artificial intelligence is entirely linear capable of replicating what already exists, not creating new ideas.
I started watching this four months ago, and just don't want to continue. I recall three different people re-doing the introduction, which was already covered by the selection process.
Can't say that I ever spent a second of my entire life worried that Steely Dan might beat me up. :D
But they did Gaslight Abby........ just sayin.
Like how they opened this with Elliot Randall's riff
From peace to war... wow, what a change. The Big Chill takes on a whole new meaning :-0
Well said
I thought the interviewer was Barbara Streisand for awgile there! LOL!
Pity his innovative genius is being wasted in the area of weapons and destruction. He is needed in the world of environmental protection, economic and social transformation. Frank Zappa, also a genius and free thinker, would not have dirtied his hands with the craft of killing.
Good chance is that Zappa was cia early in his adult hood.
The entertainment/news/advertising/MSM industries are the propaganda arms for the defense industry/MIC and Big Finance.
Look up Black Rock or State Street
Dude , what part of the word DEFENSE do you not understand? As in missile defense. ! , I’ve met Skink on two different occasions. One for music and the other to discuss theoretical ideas. . He is light years ahead of Zappa. Zappa is nothing more than a child with a high I q and did nothing with. Great esoteric music that most people without a mathematical degree can appreciate. Baxter actually care about people and America.
Defense not wanton killing. Difference.
I had NO IDEA of this man's awesome talents....He's my newest FAVORITE rock star !
I said this exact same thing to someone today.
Anybody with a stash like that has a story. Cool guy and grounded! It's refreshing these days.
440 Hz is actually A *above* middle C. The open A string on guitar is 110 Hz - two octaves *below*. Infrared and colours etc are frequencies of electromagnetic radiation - not vibrations of air molecules. But he's using poetic license to make a point, so OK. I love the guy and he's a genius.
I thought this many years ago, l knew l was on to something big but because of my background l gave up. First time hearing this l,m blown away. I need to finish this theory.
You have a great sense of humor….. patriot:)