Interviewing Bassists Stories Pt. 3

[maxgroover]

I was sad to see the part 2 thread closed for review. But tonight I log on and find I'm subscribed to this thread and it feels like a continuation of the pleasant side of part 2!

I think it's unanimous Tom - no apology required. I was going to suggest you change the title of this thread to Interviewing Stories Part 3, but as all the nice followers of part 2 appear to have continued on with this thread and other members are checking out this thread and finding out about Interviewing Stories for the first time, I now say leave it as is and carry on!

It really feels like nothing happened in part 2 now and that to me is the best thing about this new thread.

[maxgroover]

One further thought - I wouldn't reopen the part 2 thread and instead add a link to this thread in the last post.

[KPJ]

Originally Posted by maxgroover

One further thought - I wouldn't reopen the part 2 thread and instead add a link to this thread in the last post.

Agree. That thread ran its course. This one can carry on.

[Lady Kayri]

Glad you're still here, Tom. The "ignore" button is your friend. I'm also one of those looking forward to the new book. Will it be available as an eBook? Gotta admit that these days I read far more material on my iPad or Kindle. Not much more room for hard copy books!

[bigsnaketex]

I will say that of all the forums I visit, TalkBass does the best job at "moderating".

Which is a thankless job to begin with!!

I will never understand how folks can be so uncivilized because they are on an internet forum and not face to face with someone.

I'll be your momma would not be proud of how you act when you rip into someone without a thought for how it looks or sounds to others.

Shame on your house for all that do.......

[KPJ]

Originally Posted by bigsnaketex

I will never understand how folks can be so uncivilized because they are on an internet forum and not face to face with someone.

Because they can. It appeals to socio-pathic tendencies and gives them a thrill because they are able to assert some power without any obvious consequence.

[bigsnaketex]

Originally Posted by KPJ

Because they can. It appeals to socio-pathic tendencies and gives them a thrill because they are able to assert some power without any obvious consequence.

well, like I said, their momma ain't very proud of them for acting like that.

Unless she's a meth head and doesn't care.

Common courtesy is the bare minimum that we all owe each other.

People that don't follow that tenent need to be schooled in polite society.

[AltGrendel]

1) Anonymity can make people act like jerks.
2) If your post isn't moving a thread forward in a positive way, don't post it.

Tom: At least you were adult enough to stand up and say you made a mistake. Kudos to you.

[bigsnaketex]

Originally Posted by AltGrendel

1) Anonymity can make people act like jerks.
2) If your post isn't moving a thread forward in a positive way, don't post it.

Tom: At least you were adult enough to stand up and say you made a mistake. Kudos to you.

Amen - Kudo's to Tom.......you have laid your soul bare to all of us.

And I"m sure that has helped you more than it has enriched any of us. It's part of your therapy and probably a necessary step in your personal evoloution of going from a hermit stewing in your own misery to a functioning member of a community........and I, for one, applaud you for it and have thoroughly enjoyed the journey with you.

Please, Dear God, don't allow the few to ruin your progress because that would be a shame.

You have to know that 99.9% of us are pulling for you and have enjoyed this entire process.

Grow, thrive and above all, enjoy your new found freedom.

And please know that in my opinion, this entire thing has had the side benefit of actually changing the culture at Bass Player Magazine.

I truly believe all you have written about what happened effected the current management and they have turned that ship to the vision that you once had for the rag.

And how cool is that??!!

[king_biscuit]

Originally Posted by Arthritic_Tom

Don't know if you saw this in the other thread, but here's the black P-bass in action last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlmFW21ypME

What's amazing to me is that he's lost absolutely none of his skills, even after not playing with a band for such a long time.

That's great, thanks again for the info. I wonder if Scott would tell us about the early 60s Jazz Bass he was playing during the 1984 tour.

[Roadkill]

Originally Posted by maxgroover

One further thought - I wouldn't reopen the part 2 thread and instead add a link to this thread in the last post.

I was about to suggest the same thing . For those new here, links to part one:
Interviewing bassist stories
and part two:
Interviewing Bassists Stories part 2

And all you all can bask in the glory of all of Tom's YouTube suggestions from all three threads here:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA0D1A4D1EF823676

[Arthritic_Tom]

Originally Posted by Lady Kayri

Glad you're still here, Tom. The "ignore" button is your friend. I'm also one of those looking forward to the new book. Will it be available as an eBook? Gotta admit that these days I read far more material on my iPad or Kindle. Not much more room for hard copy books!

They tell me it will be available as an e-book. Half of all book sales now are e-books, so it makes good business sense for it to be published in that form.

And you're in it!

[Arthritic_Tom]

Originally Posted by bigsnaketex

I will never understand how folks can be so uncivilized because they are on an internet forum and not face to face with someone.

They've done lots of experiments in which they either sit people face to face or put them in different rooms. One person is supposed to administer an electric shock to the other if the other person answers questions wrong. It's all fake; the person being "shocked" isn't actually receiving any electricity but is just pretending.

When the people are face to face, the person in control of the shock button almost never uses it. But when they're in different rooms and the shock-button pusher can't see the shockee's face, most people have no problem administering electric shocks.

It's the anonymity. If all discussion forums were like live two-way TV, either everyone would be civil, or everyone would wear disguises.

Here's an idea: Equip all computers with buttons that allow you to administer an electric shock to someone through their keyboard if they harass you!

Actually, that would be abused, the way "like" and "dislike" buttons are abused. I used to belong to a discussion forum in which some guy took a dislike to me, so he spent several hours downgrading all my comments. Lopped off over two hundred points. I only use the "like" buttons. I've never downgraded anyone anywhere.

That whole thing is pretty scary. "Please like me!" The entire world is becoming high school.

[Arthritic_Tom]

Originally Posted by bigsnaketex

And I"m sure that has helped you more than it has enriched any of us. It's part of your therapy and probably a necessary step in your personal evoloution of going from a hermit stewing in your own misery to a functioning member of a community........and I, for one, applaud you for it and have thoroughly enjoyed the journey with you.

It wasn't what I'd planned! That's for sure.

I just wanted to get a few things off my chest and make a few people laugh before I tried to figure out what to do next.

When I interviewed Patrick O'Hearn, he told me that he started out as an acoustic bass straight jazzer. He was hired by Zappa and made the switch to electric, and then when he joined Missing Person's he did 90 percent of his bass work on keyboards.

What he does now I guess you could call ambient soundscapes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s1mZg4D_kI

Stick with that tune to the end. It changes a lot and ends with tasty fretless.

His career has gone through quite an evolution, and I'm sure he didn't plan any of it.

[Arthritic_Tom]

Originally Posted by king_biscuit

That's great, thanks again for the info. I wonder if Scott would tell us about the early 60s Jazz Bass he was playing during the 1984 tour.

I'm asking. He's, um, how to put it...?

He's exercising his privilege to be Scott Thunes at this point. In the future he may respond with answers that provide actual information. If and when he does, I'll post them.

This is how Scott tends to answer questions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7JrtIqKwyo

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

You can ask him a two-minute question, and he'll say, "No." Or you can ask him a yes-or-no question, and he'll talk for half an hour. You just never know.

[groovaholic]

Tom, your description of Meniere's disease reminded me of a bout of viral meningitis that I had last summer.

An early symptom was driving and suddenly having the STRONG sensation that I was moving sideways -- the disconnect between what my eyes and my inner-ear were telling me was incredibly difficult to cope with, and I nearly crashed.

By the time the meningitis got bad enough that it was causing nausea and vomiting, the vertigo was actually much less severe.

I can't imagine having to cope with both at the same time! Much less keep writing funny, coherent things through it all...

I didn't get far enough into the original threads to see if Thunes ever appraised your bass farewell, but my feeling about it would be this: At some point, every old married couple will have made love for the last time. But that doesn't mean they don't love each other any more.

You're physical inability to play the instrument doesn't preclude you from expressing yourself and contributing as a bassist; this thread is proof of that fact.

Thunes said as much in your famous interview of him: he isn't a bassist specifically, so much as a musician, and the bass is just a vehicle through which he expresses himself.

Your stories and your humor give a great sense of the person you are, and that sense is a powerful contribution to the bass playing world, regardless of what Scott Thunes thinks of the playing itself.

[Arthritic_Tom]

Originally Posted by groovaholic

I can't imagine having to cope with both at the same time! Much less keep writing funny, coherent things through it all...

I didn't get far enough into the original threads to see if Thunes ever appraised your bass farewell, but my feeling about it would be this: At some point, every old married couple will have made love for the last time. But that doesn't mean they don't love each other any more.

You're physical inability to play the instrument doesn't preclude you from expressing yourself and contributing as a bassist; this thread is proof of that fact.

Thunes said as much in your famous interview of him: he isn't a bassist specifically, so much as a musician, and the bass is just a vehicle through which he expresses himself.

Your stories and your humor give a great sense of the person you are, and that sense is a powerful contribution to the bass playing world, regardless of what Scott Thunes thinks of the playing itself.

Oh, he commented. I didn't include it in the thread. But it's in the book, in the chapter titled Codas.

I deleted my YouTube account to erase all the really angry things I'd said over several years. They embarrassed me. The account was under a pseudonym, but the new one is under my real name to keep me from going off on people the way I did before. Though I re-uploaded the "Mobile" video, Scott's comment is gone because deleting the account deleted all the comments. I saved the comment and put it in the book.

It was necessary for him to comment not as a judgment of my playing but as a coda, a way for me to give my playing the send off it deserved. What better way to say goodbye to it than with a comment on it by one of the players I admire the most and the player with whom I have the closet relationship as a person?

Meniere's has its blessings. No more jury duty! And no personal appearances to promote a book. And no more junk food.

These jeans got too tight for me in 1995. I had to stop wearing them because I couldn't button them anymore.

[miles'tone]

Originally Posted by Arthritic_Tom

"Tell him it was forged in the fires of Mt. Doom, and if anybody else plays it, it sounds like a toy piano, ala The Twilight Zone."

When I pleaded with him to be reasonable, he said this:

"Tell him to come back tomorrow, with a witch's broom!"

This cracked me up Tom! Proper belly-laugh. :-D

I am literally drooling at the thought of reading Mr. Thunes memoirs that you'll be helping with.

Godspeed with THAT one!

[Arthritic_Tom]

Originally Posted by miles'tone

This cracked me up Tom! Proper belly-laugh. :-D

I am literally drooling at the thought of reading Mr. Thunes memoirs that you'll be helping with.

Godspeed with THAT one!

It's going to be a blast. He's asked me to not discuss anything about it with anyone until it's finished.

An oversight on his part was not asking me to say anything on his use of the language, so I get to comment on it all I want (until he tells me to shut up). His use of the language parallels his use of the bass guitar. It's unique.

The closest mainstream writer who approximates Thunesian English is Tom Wolfe.

"At 2 or 3 or 4 a.m., somewhere along in there, on August 25, 1966, his forty-eighth birthday, in fact, Leonard Bernstein woke up in the dark in a state of wild alarm. That had happened before. It was one of the forms his insomnia took. So he did the usual. He got up and walked around a bit. He felt groggy. Suddenly he had a vision, an inspiration. He could see himself, Leonard Bernstein, the egregio maestro, walking out on stage in white tie and tails in front of a full orchestra. On one side of the conductor's podium is a piano. On the other is a chair with a guitar leaning against it. He sits in the chair and picks up the guitar. A guitar! One of those half-witted instruments, like the accordion, that are made for the Learn-To Play-in-Eight-Days E-Z-Diagram 110-IQ fourteen-year-olds of Levittown! But there's a reason. He has an anti-war message to deliver to this great starched white-throated audience in the symphony hall. He announces to them: "I love." Just that. The effect is mortifying. All at once a Negro rises up from out of the curve of the grand piano and starts saying things like, "The audience is curiously embarrassed." Lenny tries to start again, plays some quick number on the piano, says, "I love. Amo ergo sum." The Negro rises again and says, "The audience thinks he ought to get up and walk out. The audience thinks, 'I am ashamed even to nudge my neighbor.'" Finally, Lenny gets off a heartfelt anti-war speech and exits."

http://www.tomwolfe.com/RadicalChicExcerpt.html

[groovaholic]

Originally Posted by Arthritic_Tom

The closest mainstream writer who approximates Thunesian English is Tom Wolfe.

"At 2 or 3 or 4 a.m., somewhere along in there, on August 25, 1966, his forty-eighth birthday, in fact, Leonard Bernstein woke up in the dark in a state of wild alarm. That had happened before. It was one of the forms his insomnia took. So he did the usual. He got up and walked around a bit. He felt groggy. Suddenly he had a vision, an inspiration. He could see himself, Leonard Bernstein, the egregio maestro, walking out on stage in white tie and tails in front of a full orchestra. On one side of the conductor's podium is a piano. On the other is a chair with a guitar leaning against it. He sits in the chair and picks up the guitar. A guitar! One of those half-witted instruments, like the accordion, that are made for the Learn-To Play-in-Eight-Days E-Z-Diagram 110-IQ fourteen-year-olds of Levittown! But there's a reason. He has an anti-war message to deliver to this great starched white-throated audience in the symphony hall. He announces to them: "I love." Just that. The effect is mortifying. All at once a Negro rises up from out of the curve of the grand piano and starts saying things like, "The audience is curiously embarrassed." Lenny tries to start again, plays some quick number on the piano, says, "I love. Amo ergo sum." The Negro rises again and says, "The audience thinks he ought to get up and walk out. The audience thinks, 'I am ashamed even to nudge my neighbor.'" Finally, Lenny gets off a heartfelt anti-war speech and exits."

http://www.tomwolfe.com/RadicalChicExcerpt.html

That almost seemed more Tom Robbins to me than Tom Wolfe...

It could have been an aside in Still Life with Woodpecker