I just "discovered" an old song.

[IvanMike]

I wasn't sure to put this in "recordings" or "bassists" (I hate that term, I'm a bass player). Because of my preference for "bp", and because i couldn't name the bass player in question, I put it here.

Have you ever "discovered" an old song for the first time? How about one you have heard a zillion times? That happened to me this week at work. I was in a truck headed to a job and Boston's "More than a feeling" came on the radio. I'm not sure if was just the sound of the truck's radio, of the fact that the left speaker was near my head, but I heard the whole bass line for the first time.

Anyone who is as old as I am (41), has heard that song a lot. I've always heard what everyone else does in a Boston tune. Great vocals, harmonies, and that signature guitar tone. This time the bass line came through loud and clear and I was blown away.

I can't name the cat who played it, but he managed to overplay without seeming to, ever. The bass line kept moving and never got boring. Despite being a bit busy, it never stepped on the song. The note choices and style (or "feel", if you like) were enough to keep me interested for the duration. and the tone was impeccable. Surprisingly modern and vintage all at once. Punchy and defined yet warm and full. Great engineering by whoever recorded it.

I was genuinely surprised to enjoy a song I've heard enough to bore me to tears in the past.

Anyone else ever have this sort of thing happen? Or am i a nut?

[COOL AND DEADLY]

I started playing bass at 32. I play mostly reggae and am delving into jazz. As a kid i loved and still love classic rock. Now when I hear those old songs I listen closely for the bassline, and it is like you said, discovering them again. One that really sticks out for me is "Horse With No Name." I guess it was Joe Osborn on the bass. I've heard the song thousands of times, but re-heard it as a bass player and was blown away! There is an intro with no bass, then the bass kicks in and wow! The tone and musicianship is just perfect! I also had a similar experience listening to a compilation of Paul Simon.

[Lazylion]

Originally Posted by IvanMike

...Boston's "More than a feeling" came on the radio... I heard the whole bass line for the first time... loud and clear and I was blown away.

I can't name the cat who played it, but he managed to overplay without seeming to, ever. The bass line kept moving and never got boring.

After doing a bit of reading on bandboston.com, I conclude that it was Tom Scholz himself who played the bass (and the guitar) on that tune. The official bass player, once the band hit the road, was Fran Sheehan.

But yeah, it's great to rediscover an old classic like that!

[IvanMike]

Really?

It's amazing to find a GP who plays bass and manages to do it like a bass player and not as if it's a guitar. Usually i can spot those frustrated guitarists a mile away.

Great recording, actually made me want to learn the tune and play it with a band.....

[Prof.Dr.Metz]

Originally Posted by IvanMike

I wasn't sure to put this in "recordings" or "bassists" (I hate that term, I'm a bass player). Because of my preference for "bp", and because i couldn't name the bass player in question, I put it here.

Have you ever "discovered" an old song for the first time? How about one you have heard a zillion times? That happened to me this week at work. I was in a truck headed to a job and Boston's "More than a feeling" came on the radio. I'm not sure if was just the sound of the truck's radio, of the fact that the left speaker was near my head, but I heard the whole bass line for the first time.

Anyone who is as old as I am (41), has heard that song a lot. I've always heard what everyone else does in a Boston tune. Great vocals, harmonies, and that signature guitar tone. This time the bass line came through loud and clear and I was blown away.

I can't name the cat who played it, but he managed to overplay without seeming to, ever. The bass line kept moving and never got boring. Despite being a bit busy, it never stepped on the song. The note choices and style (or "feel", if you like) were enough to keep me interested for the duration. and the tone was impeccable. Surprisingly modern and vintage all at once. Punchy and defined yet warm and full. Great engineering by whoever recorded it.

I was genuinely surprised to enjoy a song I've heard enough to bore me to tears in the past.

Anyone else ever have this sort of thing happen? Or am i a nut?

All the time!

[JimK]

Originally Posted by IvanMike

Have you ever "discovered" an old song for the first time? How about one you have heard a zillion times?

Happens a lot.
I grew up on the '60s Pop that came out of my parents' Rambler's AM radio.

10-15 years ago, we used to have a decent Oldies radio station here...hearing some of those tunes, years later, & with more "mature" ears was an eye opener-
"The Name Game"- Shirley Ellis
"Backfield In Motion"- Mel & Tim
"Grazing In The Grass"- Friends Of Distinction
...tunes by The Carpenters, Fifth Dimension, Three Dog Night, Buckinghams, etc.

Some '70s Rock stuff, too...scoffed at when I was in my Jazz-Nazi daze.

[barbarbass]

This happened to me recently with The Foundations -- that old soul group from England in the 60s. I was in a supermarket and they were playing that one that goes "Baby, now that I've found you/I can't let you go".

Probably one of the best pop hooks ever written.

But yeah -- I do loves me some Boston. That whole "spaceship" album is pretty fantastic. It's one of the best engineered albums, in terms of sound. And the playing -- as far as people playing "parts for the song" -- has never been matched.

[Deacon_Blues]

It happens sometimes, definitely. One example that stands out - although it happened a few years ago I remember it quite well - was the discovering of the bassline in "Something" by The Beatles. It's almost like a separate melody while still being a very supportive bassline. One of the best rock/pop basslines there is, without a doubt.

[Kink Rimson]

Slightly different, but a couple of years ago I was in hospital for a minor op on an ingrowing toenail. It was a local anaesthetic but I was sedated with god-knows-what.

so I'm laying there in fairyland when 'Stars' by Simply Red comes on the radio. Now I can't stand Simply Red, but under sedation, it all suddenly made sense! I could see the music and the bassline was incredible.

So there is the key to enjoying Simply Red - heavy sedation.

[Sonicfrog]

Last fall, I was flipping through the stations while driving home. I stumbled across an old 80's pop / funk song that I had heard a bazillion times, but this time it caught my ear..... There was something so familliar about the bass line. It was so punchy, funky, and tasty - just about perfect. I realized in an instant I knew who the bass player MUST be. How could I not have noticed before? Went home and googled it. Yep. I was right.

The song was "It's Got To Be Real" by Cheryl Lynn. The bass was played by personal fave, David Hungate.

[Bruce Lindfield]

I even started a thread about how I completely missed Stevie Wonder's "Do I Do" when it came out and then got turned on to it very recently and it has one the best bass lines ever - the long version has over ten minutes of wonderful bass fills and variations that never fail to amaze ! Especially as Nathan Watts has told how it was recorded with the whole band, live in the studio!!

[Illbay]

Originally Posted by IvanMike

Have you ever "discovered" an old song for the first time?

** RANT ON **

Here's something that's always stuck in my craw. Basically, you have EITHER covers band OR originals band.

A "covers band" does popular songs that everyone knows. They play off the "gee, I remember where I was and who I was with and in what state of undress when that song was playing..." mentality of the middle-aged.

Playing for free beer and the occasional drunk cougar is not unheard-of.

An "originals band" wants to get signed, make CDs, and eventually be covered by "covers bands."

"Modern Rock" has been around a long time, since the late 1960s. That's forty years of supergroups, one-hit wonders and near-misses that have passed across the Billboard charts like a parade of ghosts.

In their wake, they have left some INCREDIBLE songs...only a very few of which ever get played! I think I saw an estimate that the most LIBERAL-MINDED FM "hits" radio station has at MOST one hundred (100!) songs in rotation, and they never vary from it.

The FACT is, there are far, far more than one hundred very, very good songs in the modern popular music genre, made in the past half-century. There are probably closer to a hundred times that number. H*ll, I have 8,000 songs on my iPod alone, and there's still a lot of stuff left for me to get.

I have tried - very unsuccessfully - to get other musicians interested in a "covers band" that plays little-known songs, some by well-known artists, others by not-so-well-known, that I think are incredible songs. You can play them "note-for-note" or do your own interpretation. They're great songs, and they deserve to be played.

But no one's interested. If you're a "covers band" type, you want the beer and the cougars, and that means "Free Bird" or "Why Don't You Stay" or "Little Pink Houses" or anything by Led Zeppelin (if you can manage to play it).

If you're an "originals" type, you think YOU can write the next big hit, and get BETTER beer and women who aren't scheduled to be cougars for another 15 years or so. You're not interested in what someone else wrote.

So there. An incredible catalog of songs goes untapped, and no one but me cares!

I'm out.

** RANT OFF **

[KPJ]

+1 Illbay!

The times when I do find myself listening to the local classic rock station, I know the song that they are going to play when they mention who the artist is. I can usually pick 2 of 3 (if not all 3) of an artist 3-fer.

It is amazing the amount of music, both old and new, that does not get the exposure it should. A personal example, I was much too young to experience the original incarnation of King Crimson. I became intrigued upon hearing that Kurt Cobain considered "Red" to be the greatest album ever, or something to that effect. I had to check that out, mainly because Nirvana and what I knew of King Crimson didn't seem to connect. Once I did, I remember thinking upon hearing "Starless" "Why have I never heard this song on the radio?" What an incredible composition! It was one of those times where I had to sit there and contemplate what it was that I just heard after the CD finished. It made me wonder what other songs and artists I am missing and what a shame that more people haven't been exposed to such music. But, there are only so many hours in a radio broadcast day and the lowest common denominator brings in the biggest bucks...

[Illbay]

Originally Posted by KPJ

It made me wonder what other songs and artists I am missing and what a shame that more people haven't been exposed to such music. But, there are only so many hours in a radio broadcast day and the lowest common denominator brings in the biggest bucks...

I was around when the earlier incarnations of KC were abroad upon the earth. "Islands" had just come out when I discovered them, and I bought "Larks' Tongues in Aspic," "Starless and Bible Black," and "Red" when they were first issued.

The fact is, that you actually have a big advantage today because you don't have to rely on word-of-mouth or purchasing recordings to discover new music.

A few years ago, when it was still a new concept, I subscribed to Rhapsody. Back then, it was still a "streaming-only" service, but it did contain hundreds of thousands of tracks, and I was able to not only discover "new" stuff, but go back and dig around and find some OLD stuff that I'd neglected to explore for lack of time and money.

With the help of ReplayMusic, I ended up snagging several GBs of MP3s, and in the process got into a whole new bunch of artists and their works, many of which I still listen to regularly now.

It is fairly easy and inexpensive, if you devote time to it, to discover "new" old music, and even new NEW music, in that way.

But that's NOT going to change the fact that for the great majority of people, "music" isn't about the music at all, it's about all the peripheral social interactions that they associate with it: mostly booze, sex and general mayhem.

When you play "covers," your audience wants the same old-same old. And the majority of "originals" musicians aren't interested in "One More Red Nightmare."

[JimK]

Originally Posted by Sonicfrog

The song was "It's Got To Be Real" by Cheryl Lynn. The bass was played by personal fave, David Hungate.

We have talked about this tune since day 1 here at Talk Bass.
For the record, I insist it's Chuck Rainey...somewhere, back in the day, I read that (probably from a Guitar Player magazine).
Others here will disagree. David Hungate is a new candidate, I'll give you that.
Anyway, awhile ago, I e-mailed Rainey & he replied with a long, detailed account of "Got To Be Real"...w/ Bernard Purdie on drums, etc. I don't recall him mentioning david paich as the keyboardist (according to Wiki).

I do always cite David Hungate as the bassist for "Mr. Briefcase" by Lee Ritenour...although the masses here always say it's Louis Johnson.
(Hungate is listed in the liner notes on the LP...which has more details than the cassette copy that the nay-sayers own).

[lowb1970]

Originally Posted by Deacon_Blues

It happens sometimes, definitely. One example that stands out - although it happened a few years ago I remember it quite well - was the discovering of the bassline in "Something" by The Beatles. It's almost like a separate melody while still being a very supportive bassline. One of the best rock/pop basslines there is, without a doubt.

Great point. Though not technically as adept as some of the players who are out there now, this is surely what made his playing with the Beatles so magical...and probably why so many people are drawn to his playing.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by Illbay

** RANT ON **

Here's something that's always stuck in my craw. Basically, you have EITHER covers band OR originals band.

Not sure about that...The Beatles, Stones, The Who, Deep Purple, et al were all "covers" bands first...right?
Maybe I missed your intent?

"Modern Rock" has been around a long time, since the late 1960s. That's forty years of supergroups, one-hit wonders and near-misses that have passed across the Billboard charts like a parade of ghosts.

In their wake, they have left some INCREDIBLE songs...only a very few of which ever get played! I think I saw an estimate that the most LIBERAL-MINDED FM "hits" radio station has at MOST one hundred (100!) songs in rotation, and they never vary from it.

The FACT is, there are far, far more than one hundred very, very good songs in the modern popular music genre, made in the past half-century. There are probably closer to a hundred times that number. H*ll, I have 8,000 songs on my iPod alone, and there's still a lot of stuff left for me to get.

Agree 100% on that.
Our Classic Rock station has recently altered its format...they were definitely stuck in the 100-song rotation. Now, they're mixing in more "new" stuff.
I also agree, it would be happening to play "deep cuts" covers of various bands (well-known or maybe not).

[two fingers]

Originally Posted by Illbay

** RANT ON **

Here's something that's always stuck in my craw. Basically, you have EITHER covers band OR originals band.

A "covers band" does popular songs that everyone knows. They play off the "gee, I remember where I was and who I was with and in what state of undress when that song was playing..." mentality of the middle-aged.

Playing for free beer and the occasional drunk cougar is not unheard-of.

An "originals band" wants to get signed, make CDs, and eventually be covered by "covers bands."

"Modern Rock" has been around a long time, since the late 1960s. That's forty years of supergroups, one-hit wonders and near-misses that have passed across the Billboard charts like a parade of ghosts.

In their wake, they have left some INCREDIBLE songs...only a very few of which ever get played! I think I saw an estimate that the most LIBERAL-MINDED FM "hits" radio station has at MOST one hundred (100!) songs in rotation, and they never vary from it.

The FACT is, there are far, far more than one hundred very, very good songs in the modern popular music genre, made in the past half-century. There are probably closer to a hundred times that number. H*ll, I have 8,000 songs on my iPod alone, and there's still a lot of stuff left for me to get.

I have tried - very unsuccessfully - to get other musicians interested in a "covers band" that plays little-known songs, some by well-known artists, others by not-so-well-known, that I think are incredible songs. You can play them "note-for-note" or do your own interpretation. They're great songs, and they deserve to be played.

But no one's interested. If you're a "covers band" type, you want the beer and the cougars, and that means "Free Bird" or "Why Don't You Stay" or "Little Pink Houses" or anything by Led Zeppelin (if you can manage to play it).

If you're an "originals" type, you think YOU can write the next big hit, and get BETTER beer and women who aren't scheduled to be cougars for another 15 years or so. You're not interested in what someone else wrote.

So there. An incredible catalog of songs goes untapped, and no one but me cares!

I'm out.

** RANT OFF **

I've played covers for years....mainly to college kids. Just sayin. PLEASE TO NOT DERAIL. I was just responding to what you said.



Back to the OP. I LOVE it when that happens! It happens to me all the time! I'm going down the road and a song comes on and I ALMOST hit the button for another station. But wait.... I'm in my wife's car. (She drives a Trail Blazer SS....390HP Corvette engine....and lots of Bose.....Damn I love that woman.....AND that car) Anyhoooooo....her car system is better than mine. I hear something going on. That's a really COOL bass line! The song could be one that I found to be REDICULOUS up until now. (happened to me on a Duran Duran song recently....stop throwing things!!!) I run in the house and download the song. Then I run over to my little music corner and learn the bass line.


Fun stuff.

[Bubba Ghanoosh]

Originally Posted by Illbay

I have tried - very unsuccessfully - to get other musicians interested in a "covers band" that plays little-known songs, some by well-known artists, others by not-so-well-known, that I think are incredible songs. You can play them "note-for-note" or do your own interpretation. They're great songs, and they deserve to be played.

Originally Posted by JimK

I also agree, it would be happening to play "deep cuts" covers of various bands (well-known or maybe not).

Me too. Maybe we can start our own cover band. We can call it Big Bottom.

edit: Oops. Didn't mean to derail. BTW have you listened to the bass line on the Guess Who's "Undun"?

[Illbay]

Originally Posted by JimK

Maybe I missed your intent?

I was speaking exclusively about present-day.