Fred Smith of Television

[thebbconspiracy]

I think Fred Smith is an underrated bassist in an underrated band. He's not really flashy, but his basslines fit perfectly in Verlaines and Lloyds guitar work. I've read in an interview with Richard Lloyd where he said that when Verlaine pushed Smith to quit Blondie for Television that the band became a lot tighter than it was with Richard Hell, who was more of a showman than a bass player.

Anyways, I can never find much about him besides small mentions in interviews, so I was wondering what the TB community thinks of his playing or knows about him.

Thanks!

 

[Hankenstein]

MC5!

 

[Bassist4Eris]

The Fred Smith in MC5 wasn't the same cat.

Fred Smith of Television is one of my favorites. Marquee Moon is probably my favorite rock album ever. The way the instruments all intertwine, never stepping on each other, all complementing each other, and every part everyone plays is fascinating.

Richard Hell was also a great and unique bassist. Check out his Blank Generation album. The playing is quite quirky, and is an obvious forerunner of Mike Watt.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Obscure bass note:

Fred's favorite bass was/is an Ampeg SSB. If you've never seen one, it's a small short scale bass that Ampeg made in 1967. They are very rare; only about 50 of them were made. Fred is about the only pro musician that I know of that plays one.

Fred's original SSB was Tobacco Sunburst, and he played it for many years. Unfortunately, it got stolen at some point and was never recovered. A few years later he found another SSB, a black one. He still has that one, and I believe it's still his favorite gigging bass.

We've exchanged e-mails a few times, talking about them. I'm an expert on the old '60's Ampeg Scroll Basses, and I have two SSB's in my own collection.

 

[thebbconspiracy]

The Fred Smith in MC5 wasn't the same cat.

Fred Smith of Television is one of my favorites. Marquee Moon is probably my favorite rock album ever. The way the instruments all intertwine, never stepping on each other, all complementing each other, and every part everyone plays is fascinating.

Richard Hell was also a great and unique bassist. Check out his Blank Generation album. The playing is quite quirky, and is an obvious forerunner of Mike Watt.

He's one of my favorites too, and I'm in the process of learning all his lines from Marquee Moon, I just really wanted to know more about him. It has to be one of the best rock albums. I was floored when I first heard it. TV is one of those bands that changed my outlook on music and playing along with Pixies, the Who, the Beatles and the Velvet Underground. It's a shame that TV didnt get a lot of recognition here in the US. They deserved more IMO. Iknow it's rare to find someone in the US who actually knows them let alone of them.

Obscure bass note:

Fred's favorite bass was/is an Ampeg SSB. If you've never seen one, it's a small short scale bass that Ampeg made in 1967. They are very rare; only about 50 of them were made. Fred is about the only pro musician that I know of that plays one.

Fred's original SSB was Tobacco Sunburst, and he played it for many years. Unfortunately, it got stolen at some point and was never recovered. A few years later he found another SSB, a black one. He still has that one, and I believe it's still his favorite gigging bass.

We've exchanged e-mails a few times, talking about them. I'm an expert on the old '60's Ampeg Scroll Basses, and I have two SSB's in my own collection.

Wow! I know Rick Danko of the band played a fretless one on the Rock of Ages live album and on their Cahoots album as well. I would love to find one for my collection.

Thank you both of you guys for the info!

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Just to clarify:

Rick Danko played an Ampeg AMUB-1 fretless Scroll Bass. That's the one with the scroll headstock and the F-holes in the body.

The Ampeg SSB is a small bass with a conventional flat headstock and a sweeping curved pickguard. Here's the page about them from my web site, if you're curious:
http://xstrange.com/ssb1.html

 

[Mark Desmo]

Fred Smith is the glue that held Television together.

 

[Michedelic]

Fred is a classic example of tight economic playing, the right notes in the right spaces(and leaving space), but still very tasty with a few surprises. It’s too bad, while historically part of the CBGB’s legend, Television always got tagged with the ‘punk’ label...their stuff can be quite complicated. I’ve tried, over the years, to turn people on to the band, especially if they were into early Quicksilver Messenger Service and similar, but most of the time they’re way too stodgy and resistant. I saw them in early 1977 when they were Peter Gabriel’s opening act(first album tour), and the Genesis fans were having none of it. Shock of the new, I suppose. Fred was playing a Fender Mustang on that gig(Verlaine had a Dan Armstrong Plexi, Lloyd, a Travis Bean). In the mid-80’s I saw him in a band backing up a proto-Americana/Honky Tonk singer named Kristi Rose, who was having a go with a cover of Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight”. Fred was using a P at the time. A couple of years ago I saw TV(with Jimmy Ripp)at an outdoor festival in Joshua Tree, playing to a crowd of 5000+, fittingly, under a full moon. He had that odd little Ampeg.

 

[MattZilla]

an underrated band

underknown, but not underrated. They're great.

 

[Spectrum]

I don't know much about the man, other than that I love his band and my pink vinyl copy of Marquee Moon is one of my favorite records.

 

[petrus61]

Fred’s a super nice guy also. Anyone who can appreciate world class wine owes it to themselves to check out his current passion:

Cereghino Smith

 

[JMacBass65]

Love Television, and his playing. I have an interview with The Edge in Guitar player to thank for discovering them. It was around Joshua Tree time, and he was talking about influences, and he mentioned them, and said something along the lines of "Verlaine, idiot or genius, who's to say?" I went and bought Marquee Moon the next day.