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Bass Player RIP...
- Thread starter Jeff Scott
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- bass player player rip
Yeah...they did cover some of the same guys over & over & over...woulda been nice seeing different p!ayers on the cover. "Different" = players that shoulda been covered vs. players with an agent that struck a deal for their client.
Would a Jerry Peek cover issue sold as well as a Fieldy cover issue? No? Whose fault is that?
I used to look forward to their Album & Book reviews. Pretty sure I was in the minority on that because they lost those 2-3 pages for years.
Probably not possible: Reprint some of the early Will Lee, Dave Larue, Anthony Jackson workshops. Hell, go back & reprint the Chuck Rainey columns from '70s-era Guitar Player, too.
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The latest issue made me happy, Robert DeLeo is on the cover. He hasn't had a feature since 2001 I believe.
I subscribe, and plan to continue to subscribe until they stop. My only quibble is that the issues don't seem to have as much content now as they did 20 years ago. The reviews were an issue for a while as well, regularly featuring only gear that very few of us can afford, but that's change over the past couple of years.
While they do seem to have a revolving door of artists, I think they do a good job of touching on many genres, even if some only get a few paragraphs. They are a for-profit mag, so one should expect some lip service to more popular acts.
I subscribe, and plan to continue to subscribe until they stop. My only quibble is that the issues don't seem to have as much content now as they did 20 years ago. The reviews were an issue for a while as well, regularly featuring only gear that very few of us can afford, but that's change over the past couple of years.
While they do seem to have a revolving door of artists, I think they do a good job of touching on many genres, even if some only get a few paragraphs. They are a for-profit mag, so one should expect some lip service to more popular acts.
Yeah...they did cover some of the same guys over & over & over...woulda been nice seeing different p!ayers on the cover. "Different" = players that shoulda been covered vs. players with an agent that struck a deal for their client.
Would a Jerry Peek cover issue sold as well as a Fieldy cover issue? No? Whose fault is that?
I used to look forward to their Album & Book reviews. Pretty sure I was in the minority on that because they lost those 2-3 pages for years.
Probably not possible: Reprint some of the early Will Lee, Dave Larue, Anthony Jackson workshops. Hell, go back & reprint the Chuck Rainey columns from '70s-era Guitar Player, too.
I think it would serve Bassplayer well if they dedicated a page or two of ever issue to some underserved legacy players or a where are they now page every now and then. A lot of the demographic that still buys magazines are older and have been around a while, just saying.
I would love that.
A few years, they briefly did something with "legacy" bassists...2-3 pages of info with some transcribed grooves/lines of theirs. One I recall was Marvin Isley. It was great stuff.
Dennis Dunaway, Gary Thain, the guys in Tull, etc have been pretty much ignored.
One of my big omissions is Alan Gorrie. A lot of R&B bass can be had from AWB's early albums.
Same for the guys in Heatwave.
"Duke" Jobe from Rose Royce?
Joe Hall from The Blackbyrds?J
...crickets.
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When Ron Garrant's BASSICS folded, I bought a subscription to BP. Didn't really like it much and ended up cancelling after a year. for the next few years I bought issues occasionally and they seemed to thin out their content around 2002.
Ron had a great magazine, one that didn't just rehash what everybody else was doing. Got into some great music and bassists from him rag. One bassist I got into was Terje Gewelt from Oslo, Norway. I wanted to buy a CD from him, and when he learned where I live he told me his mother-in-law lived not too far away! So, I went to visit here and picked Terje's CD from her in a small bookshop in Burton, Ohio. Small world, indeed!
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I stopped paper guitar & bass mags after having to move 400 pounds of them in my last move. Plus, the prices became out of control. Everything I need to know is online nowadays. Just the way it is.
