I voted "always wanted to play the bass".
Here what I remember (
)...highlights of my youth, I guess:
In the early 60's, I was a wee lad sitting in front of a grainy black and white TV(complete w/ rabbit ears and aluminum foil), eating my Corn Flakes & watching a show called "Kaptain Kangaroo"....Someone was on the show playing something that looked like a violin, but was much bigger and better sounding...it made me want to dance...I was hooked. I had to learn about this manly instrument that grooved so well.
With siblings much older than I, I was exposed to much of the best music the 60's & 70's had to offer. My sister was a wanna-be hippy, and my brother was a DJ. My grandmothers both played piano and I was always attracted to the scary bass notes on the piano. I wasn't old enough to realize these were the same notes I was digging on Kaptain Kangaroo...
Early 70's...along comes KISS, and by this point, I HAD to play bass. I had no attraction to guitar...they were for girly-men singing about wanting some girl to love them...they were for the weak...Simmons made it clear, Bass was a MAN's instrument. Since I didn't care for sports and such very much, as a early teen, I was cool with having a way to establish myself as a man, without having to put on football pads, and take showers with other guys
.
Anywho...My first concert was also KISS in 1979. These were the days of "general admission"...survival of the fitest, if you will. That means if you get to the show early enough, and push and swing enough elbows, you can have the best seat in the house! I had front row. The bass was SO LOUD my insides shook the whole show. It felt like I was on a roller-coaster.
Time to get serious about my playing, for I had seen the power of rock.
As a side note, somewhere along the way, my father told me I had to learn to play piano before he would buy a bass...I took lessons for 2 -3 years...I held up my end, and he did his, with an epiphone something or another and a Peavey TNT 100 for an amp.
My first exposure to slapping was Larry Graham, but in the days before the internet, and only a Mel Bay book to learn bass with, I couldn't figure out how to do it, just off the record. Then I went to a show in Savannah, I was there early enough to catch the band, and there was a bass player slapping and popping. He showed me how he did it, and I couldn't wait to get back home and try it. Imagine my disappointment when I couldn't get that slap tone out of the flats, LOL.
But this taught me that the best way for me to learn was to see every live act I could find, get there early and stay late with as close of a seat as I could get to the bass player. Be really nice, help carry gear, lights whatever, just for a little more insight into the majic of the bass. I don't remember ever meeting a bass player during this time who minded sharing some tips.
I also was wanting to write my own songs, so I figured I better learn some guitar. So I was now playing Bass, Guitar, and piano. The only one I loved was bass.....until....
Van Halen, 1980, Augusta, Ga:
I thought it would be so cool to try to cop some ideas watching EVH from front row, little did I know who was opening for them. Oh I thought I had a handle on bass: walking, 12 bar blues, grooving, even some slap(now that I had discovered round-wound strings), yep I was getting my confidence up...So here I was front row, patiently willing to suffer through another bad opening act just to see Eddie...have you guessed yet?
The opening act was Talas! Billy Sheehan(I didn't know who he was at the time) playing his "wife"! Holy Crap! I was suddenly feeling like I had wasted my life. I "called" myself a bass player??! I was watching the very definition of bass player being changed(still front row). I felt like the air was knocked out of me. I started thinking that maybe I should give up bass, if that was going to be the how high the bar was raised.
Then something imporatant happened...during the VH show(I was front row on Eddie's side of the stage). When Eddie started his solo, a freshly showered and now wearing a brown leather jacket (& a tad too much BRUT), Billy Sheehan came into the audience and stood shoulder to shoulder with me, also studying Eddie's every lick. He said "he's amazing"...then it hit me. Even though Billy was on tour opening for the biggest act in rock at the time, he was
still learning. I suddenly realized, being a student of the bass is a lifelong effort that we all make. We have the same goals, but the destination and path is always changing. I realized playing bass is a lifelong journey. Perhaps that is why he called his bass his wife, other than being with him all the time, it also reflects his lifelong commitment. I decided that while I may never have the chops of Billy Sheehan, I COULD have his level of commitment, and his willingness to learn. Seeing someone (who just blew the headliner's bass player off the stage, btw) come back into the crowd to learn with the rest of us, well, that changed my life(I was probably about 17 at the time). Billy Sheehan taught me a lesson in being humble, that I will never forget.
Bassgod, that night also destroyed any inclination that I may have had about pretty, expensive brand name gear being better, and a
modder was born.
Seeing what Billy Sheehan can do on his original "wife" and what EVH could do on his original Frankinstein guitar will do that to an impressionable teenager
Get what you can afford, and MAKE it work for you, became my philosophy...and it has been ever since.
Lots more music and influences through the years, but those are my roots. I grew up in what was a funky part of the world, that has an impact too. I remember being a little kid and watching James Brown land in his private jet at Bush Field in Augusta....A completely black jet with JB on the tail in green, LOL...You couldn't escape James Brown or Parlament Funkadellic around here if you tried back then
I won't even get started on the Allman Bros, who were in Macon at the time.
I also remember the first time I saw Sting and the Police...he was playing a fretless...I remember thinking "why couldn't you just play a regular bass...great, one more thing I don't know how to do
"
Today I love fretless. I love Jaco. But Sting first opened my eyes to fretless.
Sorry for the long story, Bassgod....this concludes my version of "why I picked up bass"
