February, 1972

One Saturday night, Huxley Maxwell and Gus Jones went to see their friends, the band Big Dumb Buildings at Building 101 on South Base in Norman, Oklahoma. It was a big night because there was also going to be a light show. There were only two words Hux and Gus could think of anticipating the gig – far out. They were not disappointed.

After the show, Hux and Gus were hanging around talking with the guys in the band and were introduced to a friend of theirs, Lavin Edwards, Jr., who had played a few songs with them on Farfisa organ as a special guest. Lavin was throwing an after party at his house out by Lake Thunderbird, and invited the band, along with Hux and Gus to come.

The party at Lavin’s house was a mind blower for Hux and Gus. Lavin had a tape recorder and played them some of his experimental music, as he called it. After the tape finished playing, Gus said that some of the stuff reminded him of Cream and Blind Faith, particularly the songs Ginger Baker had written for both groups. Hux said he agreed. They both added that Ginger was their favorite member of both bands and Ginger’s songs were their favorite songs.

Lavin said that he’d spent the summer of 1969 in London and had gone to the Blind Faith concert in Hyde Park. He said he convinced the backstage security that he was Ginger Baker’s drum roadie and that Ginger had overheard him and motioned him to come over. He said Ginger told him he was impressed with his bullshitting ability and invited him to party with him after the concert, which he did. Then Lavin completely blew Hux and Gus’s minds when he told them that Ginger gave him his phone number too.

Hux and Gus left Lavin’s around dawn and were driving back to town talking about how far out it was that Lavin knew their hero, Ginger, and how far out and cool Ginger was. That was when Gus blurted out, “You know, Ginger Baker is like some sort of super electrical tangerine man.” Huxley said, “Right on! He is!” Then in a cosmic moment they both at the same time said, “That sounds like a song,” and decided they’d write it the minute they got back to their rooming house.

Hux and Gus finished up the song in fifteen minutes. Just as soon as they were done they went across the street to the pay phone and called Lavin. They told him about the song and asked if they could come back out to his place and record it on his tape recorder. Lavin told them yes and their timing was good; he was leaving town the next day for London once again and didn’t know when he’d be back.

Hux and Gus hauled ass to Lavin’s and recorded the song in one take. Lavin handed the tape reel to them. Hux asked if they could also get Mr. Baker’s phone number. Lavin said sure and wrote it on the tape box. Hux and Gus took their precious cargo and headed back to town. They both agreed the first thing they should do when they got back was call Ginger and tell him about the song.

When they arrived, they both emptied the change from their coffee cans and headed straight for the pay phone. A very patient operator helped them navigate the overseas call. Hux held the receiver between them so they could both hear. After seven or eight rings Ginger picked up.

“Speak!” he shouted.

Hux spoke first. “Hi, Mr. Baker. Our names are Huxley Maxwell and Gus Jones.”

Gus jumped in. “We wrote and recorded a song about you.”

Mr. Baker screamed, “So what! Sod off!”

The next sound was the receiver being slammed down. Hux and Gus looked at each other with their mouths agape, the receiver still between their heads for what seemed like a long time, and then Hux put the receiver on the hook. Gus checked the coin return. It was empty. They silently walked back across the street and up to their room. Huxley pulled a box from the closet, put the tape box in it, and shoved it to the back corner.

February, 2022

Hux and Gus were in their favorite pawn shop scouring through used records, CDs, and DVDs. It was one of their favorite activities. As Gus was going through the DVDs he suddenly said, “Whoa! Hux, look at this!” Hux stopped his browsing and looked up. Gus was holding up a DVD called “Beware of Mr. Baker,” a documentary film about their old hero Ginger Baker. Hux said that they had to buy it and watch it as soon as possible. Gus agreed.

Back at their apartment they loaded the DVD in the player they’d bought at the pawn shop a few months earlier, and watched their new purchase. At various points, of which there were quite a few, Ginger Baker would exhibit bad and rude behavior. Every time one of those moments would dance across the screen, Hux and Gus would say, “Hey, Mr. Baker, why were you so mean?” After the film had finished, Hux and Gus decided they had to write a song about Ginger just as they had fifty years ago and that it should be called “Hey, Mr. Baker.”

Right after they finished writing the song, which only took them fifteen minutes, they made a cassette recording of it on the boom-box they had bought at the pawn shop a couple of years ago. Huxley said that he thought they should make a single with it and their old song, “Super Electrical Tangerine Man.” Gus agreed and said it was meant to be.

About ten years before, Hux and Gus had become acquaintances of Terry Buffalo Ware and Gregg Standridge, two local musicians and songwriters. They began hanging out with them when they would be writing or recording, running errands for them and making them coffee. Ware and Standridge would also spend time helping Hux and Gus out with writing or recording a song and answering their annoying questions about gear and the music business. Hux and Gus decided they needed to call them right away and ask them to help them record their new single.

As fate would have it, Ware and Standridge had just finished writing and recording a new song at Ware’s home studio Buffarama when the phone rang. Hux and Gus told Ware and Standridge about their new song and their old song and that they wanted to make a single, and that they wanted to record it right away. Ware told them that he and Standridge wouldn’t be able to help them with the recording right away because they were both going on a retreat in New Mexico. However, they were in luck because Lavin Edwards, Jr. was coming to town and was going to be house sitting for Ware and doing some recording while he was there with his friends and collaborators Spats Carumbo, Rex Guppeigh, and Afton (Toes) Humphrey, and that Lavin would be the perfect producer for Hux and Gus. On top of that, they could use Spats, Rex, and Toes for their rhythm section. Hux and Gus both realized that it was yet another cosmic moment since they knew Lavin, but hadn’t seen him in a few decades.

The next day Huxley and Gus went to Buffarama. They spent an hour or so catching up with Lavin and getting to know Spats, Rex, and Toes. Lavin turned on the reel-to-reel in the corner of Buffarama and played the old tape of “Super Electrical Tangerine Man” and then put the cassette of “Hey, Mr. Baker” in a vintage cassette deck and wrote charts for the rhythm section. Hux and Gus didn’t need charts. They knew the songs inside and out. Besides that, if they had a chart in front of them they’d just wind up staring at it like a dog that had just been shown a card trick. (Thanks to the late Bill Hicks for that image)

Around 4:00 a.m. the recording of the two songs had been completed. The guys were ecstatic. They couldn’t wait to get their single out. Lavin explained to them that in today’s digital world single meant one song; what they were doing would be called a two song EP. He asked them if they were going to use their full names for the release. Gus said he thought that was a little long. Huxley agreed and said they needed to think about it. Just after he said that Spats said that he was going home and that he’d enjoyed the session. As Spats got to the door he turned he turned to Hux and Gus, who’d worn their paisley Nehru jackets to the session, and said, “By the way, snazzy outfits.” And then in another one of their cosmic moments Hux and Gus both said, “The Maxwell-Jones Outfit.”

November, 2022

After months of delays, mostly because of Huxley and Gus’s general laziness, their long awaited initial release is out. There won’t be a tour to promote it. After the Chicago debacle of a few years ago, they vowed to not ever go on the road again and to just be a studio “band.” How that works out for them is something nobody can or even wants to predict.