I am humbled by Joe Osborn yet again...

[chiplexic]

A funny story Joe tells.
He was doing a session and the producer told him ,we'd like it to have a tone or feel like... (enter name some popular player at the time). Well since Joe was working crazy hours several days a week he never had time to listen or learn who the other big name bass players were at the time. So he said,oh ya ,ok. The song started and he just did his Joe Osborn thing as usual and when he was done the producer said...that's it...perfect.

 

[jaywa]

A funny story Joe tells.
He was doing a session and the producer told him ,we'd like it to have a tone or feel like... (enter name some popular player at the time). Well since Joe was working crazy hours several days a week he never had time to listen or learn who the other big name bass players were at the time. So he said,oh ya ,ok. The song started and he just did his Joe Osborn thing as usual and when he was done the producer said...that's it...perfect.

Love it. Right up there with Lee Sklar's famous "producer switch."

 

[pedro]

You can find a Joe Osborn interview Link Removed, and a link to a discography beneath it. I doubt the discography is complete, I have at least a couple of albums he played on that aren’t listed. It appears to only be a listing of songs he did that charted – not that that record isn’t impressive enough... He isn’t credited for “Age Of Aquarius,” but it sure does sound like him.

As far as “Sugar Sugar,” I can’t find anything on the web as to who the Archie musicians were.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt




Pedulla Club #45

Wayne thanks for the link. Absolutely fascinating read, IMO.

 

[fenwickbacker]

My mom was/is a huge Simon & Garfunkel fan - their albums (33-1/3's) played in the house regularly. I remember being mesmerized by the bass line on "Only Living Boy . . ." among others. The bass line was featured so prominently in that song.

 

[jaywa]

Another one of my JO favorites is "(If You're Going to) San Francisco". Not one of his more complex lines but the feel is so good and his tone is from heaven.

 

[chanson]

I agree. Tone from heaven. I don't know much about Joe, but from what I understand, he plays a jazz bass with flatwounds and a heavy pick?

 

[jaywa]

Yep, that was the recipe. Like James Jamerson, he would roll w/the same set of strings for years. That's why you hear the attack but no "twang". Also IIRC he left the bridge pickup cover installed on his J-Bass which would have had a foam mute pad inside as well.

I've messed around a lot on my P-Bass trying to replicate that sound and the closest I can get is by using a heavy pick, playing about halfway between the bridge and the pickup, and palm-muting heavily. That gets me a reasonable approximation of the sound. The approach and feel... well, that's his and his alone.

 

[pedro]

I gotta say that while I admire the heck out of his playing I'm not nearly as fond of his tone. I much prefer the tone from Jamerson, Jemmott, Rainey, etc. Still I'd give a lot to sit with the guy and just listen to the 800000000000000000000000 great stories he must have.

 

[JTE]

A very big part of Joe's sound is that he never used the bridge pickup in his bass. It's all the neck PUP. And when he was first interviewed in Guitar Player Magazine (late '70s, way before there were any bass mags at all) he had had the same set of LaBella flats on that bass since shortly after he got it. So at that time those strings were well over 20 years old.

I don't recall whether he had the cover on, but on his bass it wouldn't have the mutes on the cover. They were installed on fingers under the strings. The picture of him on page 28 of the newest issue of Bass Player (May 2010, the 50th anniversary of the Jazz Bass) clearly shows he didn't have any covers on, and the mutes aren't installed either.

John

 

[jaywa]

JTE, thanks for the clarification on the foam muting. So then apparently the majority of JOs sound was the super-dead flatwound strings and the pickup selection. I stand corrected.

 

[Fretlessboy]

I totaly agree

You can look at two "bassic" types of players in the 60s/70s. There were the McCartneys, Jones, Bruces that spent the largest part of their careers with a particular band. Then, there were the Osborns, Jamersons, Scheffs, and Dunns who were studio guys who could plaything and turn on a dime.

Try and picture walking into a studio and recording something that you never heard, perhaps with people you never met before. I love these guys. Out of them, for my own taste, Joe is my favorite. Forget the nameless/faceless schtick... his style and sound said it all!

 

[Doc Halo]

Don't even get me started on the R&R HOF...

Is it true that Joe has basically retired the J-Bass on which he did so much of his legendary work? I thought I read that someplace recently (might have been Vintage Guitar, for that matter)?

Agreed--the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is meaningless. However, you might take some satisfaction in knowing that Osborne was one of the first inductees to the Invalid Link Removed here in Nashville. And the Jazz bass that he used on all of those songs is Invalid Link Removed--in fact, I believe it was their first acquisition.

FWIW, the museum is now closed, but will reopen as key feature of an eleventy-million dollar convention center that the city is now building.

 

[jaywa]

You might take some satisfaction in knowing that Osborne was one of the first inductees to the Invalid Link Removed here in Nashville. And the Jazz bass that he used on all of those songs is Invalid Link Removed--in fact, I believe it was their first acquisition.

Great news... thanks for sharing that. I was wondering if JO still had that Jazz bass in his possession and if not I was hoping it was someplace in very safe keeping... it is truly a piece of American music history.

 

[LHbassist]

A very big part of Joe's sound is that he never used the bridge pickup in his bass. It's all the neck PUP. And when he was first interviewed in Guitar Player Magazine (late '70s, way before there were any bass mags at all) he had had the same set of LaBella flats on that bass since shortly after he got it. So at that time those strings were well over 20 years old.

I don't recall whether he had the cover on, but on his bass it wouldn't have the mutes on the cover. They were installed on fingers under the strings. The picture of him on page 28 of the newest issue of Bass Player (May 2010, the 50th anniversary of the Jazz Bass) clearly shows he didn't have any covers on, and the mutes aren't installed either.

John

Joe Osborn's signature tone is indeed the neck pickup only, on hundreds of recordings. HE DID use both pickups on for quite a surprising number of hit records, however...and you can REALLY hear it. The ones I recall with a GREAT Jazz bass with flats pick and both on tone from him are,

1. "One Less Bell To Answer" Fifth Dimension -major pick click tone!
2. "This Diamond Ring" Gary Lewis
3. "Midnight Confessions" Grass Roots
4. "I Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In" The First Edition (He de-tuned his bass for this incredible performance- listen to the second bass break, wow.)
5. "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things" The Cowsills
6. "I'd like To Get To know You" Spanky And Our Gang.

If you listen to his other tracks, like "Stone Soul Picnic" then A-B them, you'll hear the difference. Whatever sound he used, he always made the track.

 

[Roy Vogt]

When I read the Guitar Player articles on Carol Kaye and Joe Osborne I knew what I wanted to do for a living....
Fantastic player!

 

[sigmafloyd]

This is an old thread, but just a heads up that the current issue of Bass Player has a nice article and transcription of the Aquarius bassline. For what it's worth, he does have the bridge pickup cover on his bass in the photo.

 

[TripleDouble]

He plays with a pick? What a hack. Can he slap? Yes I'm kidding, he's a huge influence on me. I've always thought of him as the perfect balance of taste and understatement and flash and movement as needed. And there was no "we'll just fix it in the ProTools" for his (often first) takes...totally amazing command of awesomeness. I need to go practice now...

 

[fourfinger]

I just began learning more about Joe Osborn.

In my AM radio listening days, when I was starting to love music, but before I played bass, I never even heard the bass lines behind most of the songs I was singing along to.

Looking at Joe's discography, an incredible percentage of it consists of songs I remember very well from back then, that were AM hits. Too many to be just a coincidence.

But I never realized the astounding bass lines behind songs like "America" until I needed to learn that song to audition for my new band this year. After that, I had to find out who had sneaked such bass virtuosity into an iconic folk-pop classic, without me noticing it before.

Thanks for resurrecting this thread. It is still relevant. Kudos to Bass Player magazine for the recent transcription and story.

 

[harperbass]

oops "America" sometime and listen to the nifty bass stuff you didn't know was there!

 

[mccartneyman]

Check out Joe's playing on the "Birthday" LP by The Association, particularly "Everything That Touches You." But of course he was also the bassist on "Windy" and the THe Association's other hits & LPs.