Herbie Flowers

[Gary Holder]

Please visit this great instructional website & check out the live session & interview with Herbie Flowers.

www.showmehowtoplay.com

Best wishes
Gary

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

"It’s even Herbie’s bass playing at the beginning of The White Stripes ‘Seven nation Army’."

really? everyone says that it was Jack White playing guitar through an octave pedal- I recorded with a band at Toerag studios where the White Stripes did the Elephant album and the engineer concurred.

[Alan U]

Thanks for the link Gary.
He's a bit eccentric isn't he.
When speaking he reminds me of Grandad (Lennard Pearce) in 'Only fools and horses'.

[bassist15]

I LOVE Herbie Flowers' playing. I think he is really funny in the interview when they ask him what advice he would give to young musicians and he says "Don't smoke" . Made me laugh so hard. His playing is great on both Acoustic and electric. All I know about it a few things he has done with David Bowie and the Transformer by Lou Reed . Anyone got any other recommendations? I kind of view him and Klaus Voorman as similar bassists who are beasts of the instrument but aren't to well known. It's a shame.

[Alan U]

Yes bassist15, made me laugh too.
He was notorious for rolling the biggest joints.

Another interview revealed what he'd learned from being a musician all of his life (so far).
Not to take the micky.
To stand up straight.
Not to park on the pavement.
To take a change of clothes.
Not to fiddle with the mobile phone while someone is talking to you.

Sounds fair to me. How about you?

Look him up on the net.
He did all the Henry Mancini recordings for the Pink Panther and about 20,000 other sessions.
Three sessions a day for over forty years?
Plus tours with everyone that needed the most reliable bassist. Including Shirley Bassie, Sandie Shaw, Lulu, Bowie, Bolan, etc. et al.
The list is probably longer that he or his accountant can recall.

Doubling on a session is a useful ploy, as on 'Wild side'.
Whoopie! We're in the money. £6/00/00. Suddenly becomes £12/00/00.
Ok, we can afford to eat tonight.
No repeat fees or royalties, you'll notice, though.

[mc505]

Originally Posted by bassist15

I LOVE Herbie Flowers' playing. I think he is really funny in the interview when they ask him what advice he would give to young musicians and he says "Don't smoke" . Made me laugh so hard. His playing is great on both Acoustic and electric. All I know about it a few things he has done with David Bowie and the Transformer by Lou Reed . Anyone got any other recommendations? I kind of view him and Klaus Voorman as similar bassists who are beasts of the instrument but aren't to well known. It's a shame.

My personal favorites (so far):

-"Watch Out" -detuned groovy! (Blue Mink)
-"Jump Into The Fire" -more detuned groovy! (Harry Nilsson)
-"Space Oddity" -masterpiece!!! (David Bowie)
-"Walk On The Wild Side" -hook, making the tune. (Lou Reed)
-"Good Night Ladies" -tuba!!! (Lou Reed)
-"Where Were You Today" -swinging a pop song. (Blue Mink)
-"Daughter of Someone" -subsonic candystore! (Blue Mink)
-"Andy's Chest" -absolutely gorgeous!!! (Lou Reed)
-"Perfect Day" -how to rock a ballad. (Lou Reed)

I am just discovering him (late) myself. Not that I wasn't appreciating him, just didnt know his name.

[frankie5string]

Check out http://www.peteatkin.com/disworks.htm#driving
He played on a few Pete Atkin tracks and one particularly interesting bass track is "No Dice"... These would have been classified under the "I'm just paid to get from point A to B" tracks - as a hired muso rather than having much invested in the group.

[RHFusillo]

I've been listening to Bowie's "David Live" lately. Herbie Flowers kills me on that.

[frankie5string]

Hey guys,

Here's another good example of Mr Flowers playing...This is Al Kooper's cover of "Come Down In Time"... I believe Herbie played acoustic on the Elton John version.

That Bass tone he's getting is excellent - sounds like a real deep "smiley face" tone curve!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0wZBi9glRQ

[Che]

i believe he also played on the whole Melody Nelson album by Serge Gainsbourg

sorry for digging this one up haha.

[bass71]

Went to a local food fest recently near my home village in Hampshire UK. As I got closer I could hear the funkiest jazziest sounding electric modern jazz trio Ive ever heard, you guessed it, it was Herbie Flowers playing his old LPB Jazz bass standing on a small riser with drums and power keyboards groovin it like nuthin else...and it was pouring with rain, the band were soaked but heck they did'nt seem to mind...ha... it was really amazing to hear.....just fantastic..

[Che]

ha! awesome i love that jazz. it sounds fantastic.

[Kink Rimson]

Lest we forget, my fave Herbie moment-

That bit on Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, when the hatch unscrews off the martian ship - evil bassline!

Unsettled me greatly as a small child.

[Kink Rimson]

Originally Posted by Alan U

When speaking he reminds me of Grandad (Lennard Pearce) in 'Only fools and horses'.

[KPAX]

I liked his playing on Bowie's Diamond Dogs.

Originally Posted by Gary Holder

Please visit this great instructional website & check out the live session & interview with Herbie Flowers.

www.showmehowtoplay.com

Best wishes
Gary

[lunarpollen]

I wonder if he was the one who played on Bowie's "Let Me Sleep Beside You", one of my all-time fave Bowie song basslines...

[frankie5string]

Originally Posted by Kink Rimson

Lest we forget, my fave Herbie moment-

That bit on Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, when the hatch unscrews off the martian ship - evil bassline!

Unsettled me greatly as a small child.

Kinda interesting... According to Herbie, that was simply a case of "Play these notes please" and the rest of it was done during the mixdown/sweetening stages... Herbie had no idea they were going to do that to the bassline he played...

In most cases, Herbie was chosen because he was such a good reader... In fact one of the other guitar players (not Spedding) used to lean on Herbie during sessions because he could rely on Herbie to explain what the notes on the paper were trying to convey...

[tomersg]

the bass of Herbie at the war of the worlds is so great. its one of my life favorite albums and flowers is defiantly one of my bass heroes. watch that concert DVD. he plays there so great with his fabulous jazz bass.