Disco sucks????

[Joe Nerve]

I have an opportunity to jump into a party band, and was given a couple of tapes to learn. Most of the songs are songs that I vehemently hated back in the days of Disco/Rock. I can't tell you how much I'm loving this stuff now - it's opening up a whole new world of bass playing for me.

YMCA - playing ocataves with my thumb and 2 other fingers.

Freak Out - great funk exercises (especially the break part and those little fills going into each verse)

Ease on Down the Road - amazing "flea like" fills in the choruses.

Last Dance - always loved the bass on that.

KC and the Snshine Band, Songs from Grease "You're the One That I Want" ..... I am LOVING this stuff. I think I'm also really getting off on the fact that I can play it all now also. A couple of years ago this stuff I think just intimidated me.

Just wanted to rant.

[ZoomBoy]

Fun stuff to play plus it gets people on the dance floor which is ALWAYS cool. Congrats on the new gig.

[JimK]

Originally posted by Joe Nerve
Ease on Down the Road - amazing "flea like" fills in the choruses.

C'mon, "Flea-like"?!
The Wiz was from the '70s(wayyyyyyy pre-Flea). If anything, Flea is "Wiz-like".



BTW, I recall two versions of that tune...the Original Cast Soundtrack & the movie soundtrack(Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, et al).
Both, I think, had pretty killer R&B/Gospel-esque lines.

[Brad Johnson]

Some of the stuff during the Disco days was extremely cheesy... but the good stuff was good. Check out the bass work on one of the most hated and best selling albums ever, "Saturday Night Fever"

I still dig the basswork on "You Should Be Dancing".

[Brad Johnson]

Originally posted by JimK


C'mon, "Flea-like"?!
The Wiz was from the '70s(wayyyyyyy pre-Flea). If anything, Flea is "Wiz-like".

Funny how that gets turned around

[JimK]

Yeah!
I noticed there was a thread here that discussed Flea's bass part on "Right On Time"...now, if that ain't a blantant Disco figure, I don't know what is!


Too, a lotta the cool stuff from that era gets branded as Disco(the 'kiss of death')when, actually, it was R&B/Soul.
Anything with "Disco" in the title("Disco Duck")was Disco...any of the one-hit processed/product bands("A Fifth Of Beethoven") was Disco.
"Disco Nights" by G.Q. could go either way(maybe).

On the other hand-
Kool & The Gang, EW&F, AWB, Ohio Players, A Taste Of Honey, LTD, Brothers Johnson, etc got played in Discoteques...IMO, they weren't really Disco, per se.

[frankencow150]

i hate disco,but i must admit that they always have ultr-groovy basslines.i gotta learn them someday.

[gruffpuppy]

I took my baby too the pizza parlor
to get a bite to eat.
I put some money in the jukebox for her
You know she ate her pizza dancing to the beat.

[Bassdadto2]

Originally posted by gruffpuppy
I took my baby too the pizza parlor
to get a bite to eat.
I put some money in the jukebox for her
You know she ate her pizza dancing to the beat.

She Got the Boogie fever
She wants to Boogie down!!
She got the boogie fever
I think it's going around and a round and around!!!

But seriously folks.........

There is a good reason that people like Anthony Jackson, Doug wimbish and others played on all those records.

[Joe Nerve]

Do you guys know the names of the guys who played on any of the above mentioned stuff (specifically) - I just have the songs on tape.....

I still don't know who played on J5 records, The Village People, any of te Saturday Night Fever songs, or any of the popular "disco" from the 70s & 80s. Wouldn't mind being able to connect a bassist with the songs.

PS. You mean Flea didn't invent those lines?!? (if I knew how to insert a smily here I'd put the blue one with the bug eyes and open mouth).

[Brendan]

Dude...Grease tunes rule! It's fun to play those songs...people recognize them, and it's kinda a hoot. Not to mention funny when played at a metal show...

Disco may suck, but the basslines were pretty groovy...

[JimK]

Originally posted by Joe Nerve
I still don't know who played on J5 records, The Village People, any of the Saturday Night Fever songs, or any of the popular "disco" from the 70s & 80s. Wouldn't mind being able to connect a bassist with the songs.

J5-Carol Kaye
Village People-Carol Kaye
Saturday Night Fever soundtrack-Carol Kaye


Sorry 'bout that-
Actually, I think in the J5's early days, guys like Bob Babbitt, Ron Brown, & Wilton Felder were used.
These 3 guys are often mentioned as Motown's WEST Coast bass connection.
I THINK it's Felder on "I Want You Back"(cool little bass solo break!). Supposedly, it's Jamerson on the Third Album playing "Darling Dear"(that particular line is very busy...personally, I'm not sure any BUT JJ could've played that!).
I'd like to know who played on "Never Can Say Goodbye"...sounds very Chuck Rainey-esque to me.

Brad or Bassland(Bob)would probably have some more data.

...Scott Edwards is another studio musician that played bass on a lot of those '70s hits.

[BassGuyNL]

Originally posted by JimK



I'd like to know who played on "Never Can Say Goodbye"...sounds very Chuck Rainey

I know Rainey played on some Motown records, particularly Marvin Gaye. I recently bought the "Musical Massage" CD by Leon Ware. He is the producer of Gaye's album "I want you". Actually, he more or less gave Marvin a completely finished album minus the vocals. After the release, Motown did not want to support Ware's own album, which is now on CD, with Chuck Rainey on bass. Very nice! I saw the word "cheesy" mentioned above. Check out this album's artwork.

I also particularly like Rainey's groove on "All the way around" on "I want you".

[jimmysquid]

I think Anthony Jackson played on the Wiz soundtrack.

[jimmysquid]

Some of Chuck's discography:

Solo albums: Born Again, Hammer 'n' Nails; The Chuck Rainey Coalition, Skye. With Aretha Franklin: (all on Atlantic) With Everything I Feel in Me; Let Me into Your Life; Hey Hey Now; Amazing Grace; Young, Gifted & Black; 30 Greatest Hits. With King Curtis: King Curtis Anthology: The Capitol Years, Capitol; Everybody's Talking, Atlantic; Live at Small's Paradise, Atco. With Steely Dan: (all on MCA) Gaucho; Aja; The Royal Scam; Katy Lied; Pretzel Logic. With Donald Fagen: The Nightfly, Warner Bros. With Quincy Jones: (all on A&M) I Heard That; Body Heat; You Got It Bad Girl; Mellow Madness; Walking in Space; Smackwater Jack. With Marvin Gaye: I Want You, Motown. With the Jackson 5: Get It Together, Motown. With Donny Hathaway: Donny Hathaway, Atlantic. With Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway: Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, Atlantic. With the Rascals: (all on Rhino) The Rascals Anthology 1965-1972; Good Lovin'; Groovin'. With Louis Armstrong: What a Wonderful World, RCA/Bluebird/BMG. With Lena Horne: Something in the Way She Sings, CBS. With Herbie Mann: Push, Push, Atco/Atlantic. With Rickie Lee Jones: Pirates, Warner Bros. With the Crusaders: The Golden Years, GRP. With Donald Byrd: Blackbirds, Blue Note. With Gary McFarland: America the Beautiful, Skye. With Cornell Dupree: Bop 'N' Blues, Kokopelli. With Jackson Browne: The Pretender, Asylum. With Melissa Manchester: Don't Cry Out Loud, Arista. With Peggy Lee: Let's Fall in Love, Capitol. With Grant Green: Visions, Blue Note. With Larry Coryell: Fairyland, Flying Dutchman. With Allen Toussaint: Motion, Warner Bros. With Minnie Ripperton: Minnie, Capitol. With Harry Belafonte: Harry & Lena, RCA. With Sergio Mendes: (both on A&M) Brazil '77; Brazil '76. Television soundtracks: M*A*S*H*; Sanford & Son; Charlie's Angels; Hawaii Five-O; The Rockford Files; Baretta; Good Times. Film soundtracks: White Men Can't Jump; Money; Three Days of the Condor; The Getaway; For the Love of Benji; Ben; Lady Sings the Blues; Midnight Cowboy.

[JimK]

Rainey was my personal favorite way back(still have the '70s Guitar Player mag with his interview...Merle Travis cover).
Seriously, though, the TV "Theme To M*A*S*H" sounds like Carol Kaye. I know Rainey is usually credited with "Theme To M*A*S*H"...I'm just wondering if it was Rainey playing on the movie's theme(?).

Regarding "Never Can Say Goodbye"...maybe it's the bass playing on "Where Is The Love?" that makes me think of Chuck.
It doesn't get much better than Rainey's playing with Aretha(e.g. Young, Gifted, & Black) & Steely Dan("Kid Charlemagne", "The Fez", "Green Earrings", "Josie", "Peg", etc).

JimmyS-
...Rainey also played on pianist Richard(RIP)Tee's solo records(nice double-stop groove on the 1st disc's opening tune).
(I think Rainey also played with The Archies..."Sugar, Sugar").

Anton-
I may have to check out that Ware album.

[BassGuyNL]

Originally posted by JimK

Anton-
I may have to check out that Ware album.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a show on Dutch TV featuring Leon Ware, backed by Holland's best musicians, and Carleen Anderson and Spearhead's Michael Franti on vocals.

Despite his very small and wrinkled up appearance, Ware commanded the stage, and was radiating a kind of soulfulness that probably only comes with age. Definitely one of the best live performances I've seen in a long time.

The album's fun to listen to if you like '70s style laid back soul and it features Rainey on bass and James Gadson on drums. I should say that I prefer Marvin Gaye's vocals over Ware's. There is a version of "I wanna be where you are" (nice groove!) on both "I want you" by Gaye and "Musical Massage" by Ware, with the same rhythm track, if you want to compare.

[BigBohn]

YEAH, DOOBIE BROTHERS, ROCK ON!!!

Long Train Runnin' is a neato song, dude!

[pedro]

[Funny how that gets turned around


LOL! Brad I was thinking the same thing. Anyhoo, I think disco takes it on the chops more than it deserves mostly by guitarist who don't like anything that doesn't feature a screaming guitar solo crammed in the middle of a song. But there was some good stuff that was played in discos. EWF, Isleys, Commodores, etc. and even the Bee Gees had some nice material. So the question asked by Fee Waybill still stands, 'Was it my footstep or was it my shoes?' (Pedro wondering why he slipped his disco.)

[JimK]

Speaking of EW&F-
I picked up their debut; never had it, never heard it.
Originally released in '71...very Sly & The Family Stone-ish, very happenin'(IMO).

Pedro-
'Sfunny about your guitarist comment.
I used to play with a guitarist in an R&B/Top-40 band...he could solo like the wind(really, he would put goosebumbs on yer arm...tone was similiar to Steve Lukather). When I was but a teen, I remember him playing in one of the 'better' Hard Rock groups around here; I never, ever thought I would be 'decent' enough to play in the same band with the guy.
Anyway, I also remember sitting in rehearsal, literally, for 2 HOURS while the drummer attempted to explain how to play the 'funky' intro to Lionel Ritchie's "All Night Long"(he did nail the ending solo, though!).