Noel Redding - Bass Beast?

jsbass · #1 02-19-2008, 05:20 PM

Anyone agree? He was best known for his work with Hendrix. His tone and playing style is just awesome to me, all that room he had to jam just holding it down while Jimi is off soloing or playing some rad riff.

Shame he's not with us anymore. He was only 57 when he died. And of course Jimi, died so young.

grieverOSOK · #2 02-19-2008, 05:46 PM

i dig his stuff too. incredibly how well he could stay in the pocket and still be all over the place. especially with playing as abstract as Jimi's.

RED5 · #3 02-20-2008, 07:08 AM

I always dug Noel Redding, great player in a legendary band, plus he looked cool carrying that big old Jazz.It's been written that Jimi actually played alot of the bass parts on his music. Especially towards the end of the Experience, and that Noel only did the live material. Redding got the gig when he auditioned for the guitar job in the "New Animals" Animals bassist Chas Chandler tagged him and asked if he'd play bass for a new project he had. that project was the Hendrix Experience. If you listen to some of the Electric Ladyland tracks closely you'll hear riffs that no 60's bassist would have come up with. For comparison? Jack Casady plays on Voodoo Child slight return, I think Jack was a good reference point for the 60's. Also aside from the topic? If you can find out who the guy that yells out "it's too loud" near the end of the track is? that'd be awesome. Who wants to be the guy told Jimi Hendrix he was too loud?...show of hands?

Alan Vorse · #4 02-20-2008, 07:39 AM

Jimi Hendrix is the reason I'm a musician. Noel isn't bad, but I think he sounds like a guitar player playing bass. He had some good lines, my favorites being his pseudo-jazz and pseudo-Latin figures on "If 6 was 9" and "Third Stone From the Sun."

Personally I'm more of a Billy Cox fan. The man could groove.

chroma601 · #5 02-20-2008, 07:49 AM

Playing in a trio gives you a lot more room to jam. I've played in a lot of band configurations, and the classic power trio allows the bassist a lot more freedom than a six piece band does!

Frank Louis · #6 02-20-2008, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan Vorse

Jimi Hendrix is the reason I'm a musician. Noel isn't bad, but I think he sounds like a guitar player playing bass. He had some good lines, my favorites being his pseudo-jazz and pseudo-Latin figures on "If 6 was 9" and "Third Stone From the Sun."

Personally I'm more of a Billy Cox fan. The man could groove.

+1 . . . Billy was a great player, under-rated and un-appreciated.

zazz · #7 02-20-2008, 08:02 AM

i always thought it a shame that noel reading ..ringo star and bill wyman didnt form the first two bass player power trio ...in theory it should be one amazing super group.

**baba** · #8 02-20-2008, 08:05 AM

I saw Noel play at the Haight St. Fair sitting in for the entire set with a horrible band. He was very gracious, smiled like nothing was wrong, and went along with it. I thought this said a lot about his character.

dlloyd · #9 02-20-2008, 08:23 AM

A lot of people look down on Noel's playing, but there's not many people who have done a tour with Hendrix and cut a record of the calibre of Hey Joe within two weeks of taking up the instrument.

Guiseppe · #10 02-20-2008, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan Vorse

Jimi Hendrix is the reason I'm a musician. Noel isn't bad, but I think he sounds like a guitar player playing bass. He had some good lines, my favorites being his pseudo-jazz and pseudo-Latin figures on "If 6 was 9" and "Third Stone From the Sun."

Personally I'm more of a Billy Cox fan. The man could groove.

No doubt. Band of Gypsies is still way up at the top of my list! Great songs, and IMHO that was about as good as Jimi ever did in a live gig...to see the footage, he was all about playing well that night, not near as much "theatrics" as he did in most of his live appearances.

bassist15 · #11 02-20-2008, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RED5

If you listen to some of the Electric Ladyland tracks closely you'll hear riffs that no 60's bassist would have come up with.

You said that Hendrix played alot of bass near the end. This is really true , especially for Electric Ladyland. Hendrix played bass on over half the album. So most of the riffs you're hearing are Hendrix playing the bass. It was said that Hendrix was a big fan of Jamerson and Larry Graham and would listen to them alot on tours. Putting all that aside Noel is still a great bassist. I always thought he looked really cool with that Jazz bass too. It influenced me in getting one haha.

BuffaloBass · #12 02-20-2008, 11:59 AM

Noel was a great musician, but I still prefer Billy's feel to his. Just a matter of my personal opinion.

If I make it to " The Big Show", y'all will have to fight me for first dibs to jam with Jimi.

dlloyd · #13 02-20-2008, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassist15

You said that Hendrix played alot of bass near the end. This is really true , especially for Electric Ladyland. Hendrix played bass on over half the album.

Do you have a reference for that? As far as I was aware, Noel played on everything except All Along The Watchtower, which was Hendrix, and Voodoo Chile (the bluesier track, not 'Slight Return'), which was Jack Cassady.

marcray · #14 02-20-2008, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlloyd

Do you have a reference for that? As far as I was aware, Noel played on everything except All Along The Watchtower, which was Hendrix, and Voodoo Chile (the bluesier track, not 'Slight Return'), which was Jack Cassady.

check out VH1's "classic albums" DVD on Electric Ladyland... a lot of personal strife going on with Eddie Kramer remarking on Noel spending most of his time in the pub, while Jimi jammed with other bassists or did the part himself... a shame really. Noel remarks that he was exhausted, financially disgusted with the business side, and simply didn't dig starting to jam at 3AM til the sun came up, as Jimi would, with 150 liggers (look it up) watching from the control room.

dlloyd · #15 02-20-2008, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marcray

check out VH1's "classic albums" DVD on Electric Ladyland... a lot of personal strife going on with Eddie Kramer remarking on Noel spending most of his time in the pub, while Jimi jammed with other bassists or did the part himself... a shame really. Noel remarks that he was exhausted, financially disgusted with the business side, and simply didn't dig starting to jam at 3AM til the sun came up, as Jimi would, with 150 liggers (look it up) watching from the control room.

I've seen it, they were talking about All Along The Watchtower. I was looking for references to other tracks Noel didn't play on.

jsbass · #16 02-20-2008, 03:02 PM

On my Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix, for each of these songs in lists who played what. Here's what it said for who played bass on them. Note that these are all the studio recorded versions that you would get off the album.

1. Purple Haze (Bass: Noel Redding)
2. Fire (Bass: Noel Redding)
3. The Wind Cries Mary (Bass: Noel Redding)
4. Hey Joe (Bass: Noel Redding)
5. All Along The Watchtower (Bass: Jimi Hendrix)
6. Stone Free (Bass: Noel Redding)
7. Crosstown Traffic (Bass: Noel Redding)
8. Manic Depression (Bass: Noel Redding)
9. Little Wing (Bass: Noel Redding)
10. If 6 Was 9 (Bass: Noel Redding)
11. Foxey Lady (Bass: Noel Redding)
12. Bold As Love (Bass: Noel Redding)
13. Castles Made Of Sand (Bass: Noel Redding)
14. Red House (Bass: Noel Redding)
15. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) (Bass: Noel Redding)
16. Freedom (Bass: Billy Cox)
17. Night Bird Flying (Bass: Billy Cox)
18. Angel (Bass: Billy Cox)
19. Dolly Dagger (Bass: Billy Cox)
20. Star Spangled Banner (Bass: Billy Cox)

Looks like Noel did a lot of playing while he was around. Jimi only did Watchtower, and the ones Billy Cox did were after Noel.

jsbass · #17 02-20-2008, 03:13 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE9ofj8mORk&NR=1 Pretty cool. Noel is playing guitar for the bass parts, with the treble rolled all the way off and the bass all the way up.

marcray · #18 02-20-2008, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlloyd

I've seen it, they were talking about All Along The Watchtower. I was looking for references to other tracks Noel didn't play on.

I got the impression from Kramer that Noel was missing from most of the sessions...
try this... again it may lack exact details... http://books.google.com/books?id=8DF...YjwMs#PPA17,M1

this is from wiki's entry on E.L.... Co-operation between Hendrix and bassist Noel Redding (who was of the same opinion about time spent in the studio as Chandler) was strained during the production of the album. Hendrix plays bass tracks (on a right-handed bass guitar) on many tracks including the bass solo parts on "1983." While recording "All Along the Watchtower" Redding went to a nearby bar for a beer and Hendrix used his bass.[3] Sometimes Hendrix recorded bass tracks just in order to make things go on faster. Redding plays acoustic guitar and sings lead vocals with Mitchell on his own track, "Little Miss Strange."

bassist15 · #19 02-20-2008, 03:38 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Ladyland . And there is an Article titled "Jimi on bass" that I have printed but the site it was on no longer exists. It basically had the same tracks as the wikipedia site. Noel was very willing to say that most of the time he didnt bother showing up because he was tired of the recording process and he knew that Hendrix would probably eventually overdub his own bass part.

dlloyd · #20 02-20-2008, 04:05 PM

That's cool, that's a lot more than I was aware of. I'll have to have a good listen to it again.

Not quite 'over half' the album. Of the 12 (out of 16)tracks where a bassist is credited, Noel played on 6, Jack on 1, Jimi on 5, plus a bass solo on a track Noel had already played on.

Edit:

Yeah listening back to it, if I'd returned to the studio from the pub to hear my guitarist had done some of those, I'd probably have left too