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Happy Birthday, John McVie

EdwardofHuncote

EdwardofHuncote

I Still Dream of Jeannie
Aug 21, 2013
6,645
2
16,408
Disclosures
I privately own and operate a local musical instument repair shop.
#1
Fleetwood Mac's "anchorman" turns 80 today. John's been an inspiration to me for years. Even if I could never play it like he did, I've always tried to keep that 'play for the song' sensibility in my approach to whatever music was in front of me.

Happy-Happy Johnny-Mac... wishes for many, many more.
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#11
baxter_x said:
Weird..... Right before reading this thread, I was reading a book about the chateau of Hérouville where they recorded an album.
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I remembered that happening but not which album. I thought it was Tango, but the interwebs say it was Mirage. Some of the imagery from Tango in the Night videos were kinda' Euro-villa inspired, might be why?

There's some really interesting bass parts on both those records that largely gets overlooked.
 
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#12
BigJohnAZ said:
The first bass phrase I ever learned was, you guessed it, from The Chain. Even to this day, if I'm in my vehicle and the song comes on, I'm cranking it.

Happy Birthday, John!
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Right on.

Custom inlay on my bass... where the 24th fret would be.

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#15
Bass4ThePublic said:
View attachment 7376695

Happy birthday John McVie! Being in cover bands around town with female vocals I’ve learned a lot of his bass lines. Very cool stuff. Heres one of his Alembics from the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in NYC.
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Nice old Alembic, but I believe this one belonged to John Entwistle... different monster bassist John, with similar tastes in bass guitars. 😉
 
#17
bassdude51 said:
Eighty and still doing it!

Love the music and time he played bass for John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers! And the original Fleetwood Mac. (Looking young and next to Clapton on the left.)

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Happy Birthday John McVie!

This is him before he joined Fleetwood Mac. He was with the Bluesbreakers in 1966. He's third from left on the album cover, but directly to Eric Clapton's left from his point of view.


I'm also surprised nobody has posted this on here yet:
 
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#18
EdwardofHuncote said:
Even if I could never play it like he did, I've always tried to keep that 'play for the song' sensibility in my approach to whatever music was in front of me.
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Same here. I always think of him when trying to find that perfect simple, undeniable part that dovetails just right with the drums, and then give each song a little extra flourish or two that help create the arc of the piece (and in his case, they become total hooks themselves).
 
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#20
I watched a John Mayall documentary on YT over the weekend.

John McVie was one of the interviewees who had much to say about those early times along with how how drinking got him sacked and led to the formation of Fleetwood Mac. He went pro as a teenager and never looked back.
 

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