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Video VideoBernard Edwards/Chic
Good to be back, a busy summer schedule has meant this little project has been on hold for a while. Also with so many musicians to choose from its hard to decide exactly who to write about at a given time. Skipping through Jaco, Stanley, Victor, John Paul Jones, Paul McCartney, James Jamerson, Stanley Jordan, John Pattitucci, Chuck Rainey (see what I mean?) …. and more …. I’m cutting ahead to one of my greatest teachers and favorite players – Bernard Edwards of Chic fame.
One of my first ever working/gb bands was a dual boot ABBA/Disco group in the UK back in the early 2000’s. I don’t remember the name but I do remember that ABBA Banana was in the running but didn’t make it. Thank God. When I was asked I need the work so I said yes without really knowing the music or having an opinion about it. In those first few months I grew in my appreciation not only of the sophistication of ABBA’s pop music but of the beauty, power and simplicity of the repetitiveness of disco music.
Cut to music… 1978 …. Le Freak
(Sound on Sound have an article about the writing and making of this song)
As a young player schooled in rock and 70’s fusion I was all over this! Licks to the left, licks to the right! A good time was had by all – we were a successful and fun band and playing together all over the country with good friends is one of life’s great pleasures. As I settled down into the material and listened back to Bernard it struck me that he was actually saying MORE by choosing his moments. Listening back to ‘Le Freak’ I’m still impressed by his understatement, the first variation in the line is not until half way through the second verse (a unison with the vocal that creates that special ‘2nd verse is slightly different’ moment). The ‘bass solo’ is simply a great 4 bar loop that repeats with slight variation, and out of tune bends that sound great!
Next time that song came around I played it Bernard’s way and heard, felt and saw the difference in the crowd. The groove went deeper throughout the whole piece, the other players shone more brightly and the crowd was dancing a frenzy. That was it for me, no more ‘bass solos’ for about 5 years! I was hooked on simplicity, hooked on ‘the hook’ – the concept of taking a simple idea and catching the fish/listeners.
As you no doubt picked up from the Sound on Sound piece (if you didn’t go back and read it, all their articles are goldmines), Edwards and his partner Nile Rodgers were involved heavily in the production of dozens of hit records in that late 1970’s early 1980’s period. There are so many wonderful tracks to check out, so many iconic dance-floor bass lines to absorb. Here are few of my favorites with thoughts…
Marcus Miller talked at his recent clinic in DC about the playing with the power of expectation – setting the audience up to expect a lick or idea and then NOT playing it (instead). That’s exactly the feeling I get when I listen to the first chorus and miss that hammer-on bass lick not happening on the third repetition of the intro – consequently when it comes again it’s a welcome reappearance of an old friend, not overplayed but is underplayed to great effect.
One of my other favorite moments is the double snare tap in the second verse after the line “No we don’t get depressed” … You always know if a drummer has really learned a song from little details like that. Another instance of the slight variation in the second verse.
It seems kind of obvious to include Good Times, but to not to would be a glaring omission.
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Wikipedia has a lot to say about Bernard but this is a nice paragraph to end on.
Thanks for reading.
CB
Influence
Bernard Edwards is considered one of the most important bass players of the 20th century. His bass line from Chic hit “Good Times” has become one of the most copied pieces of music in history, and had a huge influence on musicians of many genres when released and was the inspiration for “Another One Bites the Dust” by Rock group Queen.
The Chic song “Good Times” was credited on Sugarhill Gang‘s “Rappers Delight” in 1979 (“based on the music from the song ‘Good Times’ N.Rogers/B Edwards”, is on the vinyl label)- the first rap song to become a mainstream hit. The following twenty-odd years has seen it sampled by artists of diverse genres, from Rap to Punk and Techno to Pop. Duran Duran bassist John Taylor often played the song in homage during his solo performances, and cited Edwards as his primary influence.
On 19 September 2005 Edwards was honored posthumously for his outstanding achievement as a producer, when he was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame at a ceremony held in New York.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged arrangement, Bass, bass lines, bernard edwards, chic, composition, disco, Funk, Music, nile rogers, production, repetition, simplicity, sister sledge
Rage Against the Machine – Timmy C / Tim Commerford
I used both names in the title because he used both. Less talky, more rock – let’s kick things off with some live footage. This is going to make you very happy…
Right off the bat – what do we see? Lots of people jumping up and down, like a living carpet. Probably one of my absolute favorite things to see, especially from the stage (been a while to tell the truth, blues fans tend to swing dance…).
Huge bass tone. Hee-ow-jjjjjjj. Tim uses multiple amps & cabinets with varying degrees of distortion and grit, blends between them for different songs and sections. This is a nice way to start a gig though – full on throaty bass doom.
Accelerando at 0:51. Undeniable. Sounds great, the crowd go wild. In this era of digital editing, auto-tune & quantization isn’t it nice to hear a group varying tempo to musical effect? ABBA were also masters of this (I may be the first person to draw a legitimate parallel between those two acts but it is true!).
Space. Plenty of it. The guitar part is textural during the verses, the bass line has lots of breathing room, the drums and vocals carry it. The bass plays a nice, repetitive, hypnotic line that answers and compliments each vocal phrase during the verses. Listen closely at 3:46 to hear the only fill/variation – just one extra 16th note syncopation that helps the bounce into the last half of the last chorus. I hesitate to use the word genius but it is a really, really nice touch – the sort that only comes from having played the tune so many times, and trying so many different things that you finally settle on the simplest thing you can find.
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This group did so much and as you can already see it’s pretty easy for me to wax lyrical about the music, let alone the politics. Because of that I’m going to (TRY TO!!) keep this to the first album only and just talk about the bass playing.
This image is taken from the cover of the first album. You pretty much have a clear idea of what you’re getting into I think. Learn more. Looking at the credits you can see Andy Wallace mixed and Bob Ludwig mastered, it’s an incredible sounding record. These are names that crop up again and again in the world of incredible sounding music. Here’s a couple of cuts that feature some distinctive bass lines.
TAKE THE POWER BACK ( “..Crank the music up..” )
Great slap bass riff in drop D. Simple and effective. Musicman Stingray with a tonne of compression (just like Flea).
On paper this bass-line would probably say …. E7 🙂 The riffs are crushing, the variations on the main chord idea are hip.. there’s a message, simply – it kills. The first top comment is “i’m 53 years old and this is still fucking awesome”.
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Like Jane’s Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers RATM wore everything were everybody could see it. It’s not even a matter of courage – looking back it just looks like groups of guys living their out beliefs & dreams. Where Rage is/was different is that it was all about politics, I don’t think there’s a single song that is not politically motivated and there’s certainly none about getting it on with pretty girls 😉 It’s tribal (just look at the crowds), it’s deep groove music packed with intensity and emotion.
While it took me a few weeks to learn everything from this record it’s really not technically or harmonically challenging for the most part. Lots of pentatonics, blues scales, chromatics, simple forms, easy keys (D, E and F# exclusively I think) – the challenge is in the sell, making every note count like it’s your last, the stage moves, the passion. Tim will come up again as part of Audioslave in about 5000 posts time (I’m moving chronologically through my bass related listening – talking about how each cat influenced me for the new readers) – their first record was also something pretty special.
“F#ck you I won’t tidy my bedroom” – LIVE
I had the last 12″ white vinyl single in Redditch. It was EPIC 🙂 I had to sell it years later so I could eat 😦
Commitment. Passion. Pentatonics. Playing the strings really, really hard. These are the lessons I take from Timmy C.
Posted in Uncategorized
Porno for Pyros – Martyn Lenoble
For the sake of completeness I thought I would tag this on to yesterdays offering.
Porno for Pyros were the band Perry Farrell and Stephen Perkins formed after Jane’s Addiction broke up in the early 90’s. This post would probably make more sense in the context – if you didn’t already I encourage you to back and check that posting out first.
I first saw this next song live on “Later with Jools Holland”. For those of you unfamiliar it’s probably the best music show on television… 11pm on a Friday night on BBC2 (perfect after-pub watching) with a hugely diverse and divergent range of guests. Radiohead premiered Paranoid Android on there but that’s a different story for another time.
Martyn Lenoble was the founding bassist of the group, his lines are definitely worth checking out – a sophisticated concept that pairs beautifully with Perkins’ tribal style and the spacious, textural guitar from Peter DiStefano. This particular track features a full-bodied tone, some fierce funk, some nice textures and touches in unusual places – and a nasty heavy post-chorus section that SLAYS!!!
I couldn’t find that particular song on that particular show but I did come across this nugget.
It actually reminds me a lot of a group I was with in Boston and NYC called Copal – you can link to their bandcamp to listen. We had tribal beats, belly dancers, hypnotic bass and ambient pads – P4P were there a decade earlier.
Janes Addiction started the Lollapolooza festival – and those of you that read yestersdays JA post and saw the live video at the end – you can almost see how pivotal a character Perry Farrell really is in the wider context now – looking at Burning Man as well what’s happening in the underground scene in the NE. Interesting hindsight….
One more before I call it a night. This next track, Pets, has one of the only effective uses of a delay on a bass-line – for that alone Mr Lenoble should go down in the annuls of bass history. 1/4 note delay + simple line = great vibe.
(The only thing that bothers me a little is how ridiculously good looking the band members all are.)
Thanks for reading, comments welcome.
Til next time.
CB
Posted in Uncategorized
Jane’s Addiction – Eric Avery
Eric Avery – bassist for Jane’s Addiction shown above and in the bottom left of the photo to the right.
The “Ritual de lo Habitual” album is today’s time-travel prescription. Released in 1990 it blends Dave Navarro’s screaming guitar, Eric A’s hypnotic snarling bass with the pounding tribal drumming of Stephen Perkins and the pure erotic insanity of Perry Farrell.
“Senores y Senoras,” — Ladies and Gentlemen,
“nosotros tenemos mas influencia” — we have more influence
“con sus hijos que tu tiene,” — over your children than you do,
“pero los queremos…” — but we love them…
“creado y regalo” — created and a gift (bred and spread)
“de los angeles” — of the angels (from Los Angeles)
“Jauna’s Addiction” — Jane’s Addiction.
Pure sex. Sorry for the poor audio quality. Blame Youtube (whose pimping of crappy versions of ‘user uploaded’ music so they can advertise at us and cheapen all that is good and true) and their terrible compression algorhythms. And the inability of most people to really tell the difference. And my sh%tty grammar (twice ;o)
Cut Shallow Radio has the great blog posting about the band and this particular record. You can read the full track listing, search and listen online. If you like it, buy, beg or steal a real copy – the mix and production are both really quite nice on this record. I implore you to teach yourself the difference! On an aside from an aside I once heard George Massenburg talk about how ‘there’s something missing in an MP3, we don’t know what it is yet but the difference is real.’ I was actually reading a mastering engineers website today who has proprietary software to fill in the gaps between the samples, creating an unaliased waveform that no longer saps a persons energy. On an aside from an aside from an aside, if this makes no sense you can find a decent explanation of how digital audio works here and an explanation of audio aliasing here.
Rant and meta-rant over ….. Moving along deftly ….
Track 5 – Been Caught Stealing
This was the first song of Jane’s Addiction that I heard, probably even saw the video on MTV at Simon Beach’s house one saturday afternoon. The image of that cross dresser sticking pineapples up his dress is worth the price of admission alone. The bassline, in the unusual key of G#/Ab is actaully pretty tricky to make sit well. Three notes played in a swung sixteenth feel that may be a hair staighter than the drums…. also some great funky note choices on the contrasting section, surprising angles. Great video, great song.
One of my favourite things about albums is those delightful moments of contrast between unlikely bedfellows.
Click here now!! – Track 6 – Three Days
(The joke used to be that the song is three days long – but stay with it – it’s absolutely worth it.)
Eric has been quoted as saying that his style is very influenced by his acoustic guitar playing. All these songs have grinding, hypnotic lines with this incredible swinging drive, great examples of why you SHOULD learn to play bass with a pick (It was over 15 years til I did). The bass part here has a little bit of everything – I’m listening for the second time and hearing incredible ideas executed with passion and commitment. In here you can the Chili Peppers, Led Zeppelin in abundance and I will send a prize to whoever points out the Joy Division derived bass interlude….
Track 7 – And then she did – Live in NYC
Transcendant music unconstrained by the modern curse of the ❤ minute attention span. Also look who’s on bass… what a wonderfully small world it really is.
Sadly Eric (and Dave) left the band after the 13 month tour that accompanied this record. Eric’s been involved in all sorts of musical projects (and Dave joined the Chili Peppers after John Frusciante swam out to sea through the sewers to record “One Hot Minute”). Perry and Stephen went on to form Porno for Pyros with Martyn Lenoble and Peter DiStefano – the first record has some really cool things going on, maybe I’ll dig around and see if I can find it..
Thanks for joining me on this trip. Thanks for enduring my rants. Thanks for being interested. Til next time..
C
Posted in Uncategorized
Muzz Skillings / Living Colour
(Muzz is on the far right)
oh My GOD LIVING COLOUR ARE AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Read the wiki at the link, it’ll do a better job than I could of the history of the group.
(Notice the English / real spelling of Colour – stick that in yer pipe Webster!!)
Funk, rawk, metal, free jazz, humor, insane chops, great writing combined with backflips and outlandish garb. Pimpin hair naturally. Four guys that could play their asses off and meant every note. That transcends race and culture, you can just feel it, I was 15 when I first started hearing this stuff and I completely got it.
Their first record was called ‘Vivid’, I got a bootleg tape of a gig at Brixton Academy that was just slamming. It’s hard to find early video but this one is a treat. Listen to the crowd at 3:43. Real heartfelt, amazing music about something real. In my own way I could completely relate to their feelings about where they grew up.
This version of Broken Hearts is also great. Killer groove, a great pop song, strong performances including an interesting bass solo (check out the Jaco influence?) and some interesting volume pedal skullduggery at the very end.
Here’s a live version of the first hit – Cult of Personality on Arsenio. Corey Glover takes it out into the crowd and the host loses his sh@t at the end. Watching Vernon Reid play that insane static solo reminds of the sound of my old ZX Spectrum loading games from tape…
The rest of the record is a smorgasbord of funk metal, dashes of electronica, caribbean sounds…. it’s just a giant mash-up of everything they felt and thought expressed with incredible articulation. It works. As I write this I realise there’s really inventive ideas from everybody, not just Muzz, and that I was influenced as much by their willingness to embrace and combine concepts and styles. Perhaps even more so than the licks I stole 😉
(While on the subject of stolen licks, apart from all the chords, harmonics, slapping and all that the main thing that blew away about that live tape was how many different ways the bass could move in half steps from the major 3rd of the chord to the 5th. Every bass player knows this as meat and potatoes bass but this was the first time I really heard it clearly and with so much variation. All of a sudden the bass wove in, and out, of the chord – there was a new freedom in the notes that could work – and the rhythms fitted with how Will Calhoun was improvising in that bar. We’ll thank James Jamerson another day though…)
The next record, “Times Up”, was unfortunately Muzz’s last (Internet rumors suggest that he trained to be a fire fighter in New York) before Doug Wimbish (Sugarhill Gang) took up the slack. The hit from this record was “Love Rears it’s Ugly Head”. (There are a lot of videos of them looking really ‘not into it’ playing this live). I spent 9 hours in one sitting figuring out how to play this song. While rewinding and rewinding the tape to pick out the notes the sun had gone down and my room was completely dark.
Times Up will F you up but the uber creative Ology is my favourite cut of Muzz’s – and a nice way to end a night’s trawling and writing.
I look forward to your comments and thoughts, if you got something from this, drop me a line and let me know.
Cheers
C
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