...but I sure wish I could play like this guy.
He didn't just play the bass, he slayed the bass!
He didn't just play the bass, he slayed the bass!
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I never wanted to sound like someone else...
- Thread starter jd56hawk
- Start date
Well, yeah, amazing stamina, plus all the hopping around that he did. I saw them in their heyday, early ‘78, was blown away at how all of them just piledrived everything continuously throughout their set. Plus, I just had fun, which had been missing from shows in that time period.
If he was using heavily then, I don’t know how he did it night after night on tour. Sadly, I saw him from a distance about a week before he died, didn’t look too good.
The thing is, for that time and realm, I found JJ Burnel of the Stranglers far more impressive/inspiring for what he was doing on bass.
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It’s actually easy to not sound like someone else. I’ve been doing it for fifty years 
dude, you are like talkbasses forrest gump of good rock stories. i wanna party with you, cowboy.
got any stranglers recommendations?
I saw them in 1995 in San Diego open for Pearl Jam in the front row. No clue who was in the band at that time but they were great as was P.J.
As for sounding like someone else, I have always wanted to sound like Jack, Noel, John Paul, Geddy, The Ox, Jaco, et al.
As for sounding like someone else, I have always wanted to sound like Jack, Noel, John Paul, Geddy, The Ox, Jaco, et al.
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How about "Bring on the Nubiles"....seems a propos to where we find ourselves in '26
That said, I prefer JJ's later work (eg. the Aural Sculpture album)
That would have been C.J. Ramone(Chris Ward)on bass, then a returned Marky Ramone on drums plus Joey and Johnny. A kind of a slap in the face that they were opening, but such was the pecking order.
I sound like every bass player I’ve ever heard. I grew up and out of that notion to persue “sounding” like anyone in particular by high school. I can be inspired by certain people, some may give me ideas that I might expand on, but I can only be myself.
Hmm, not sure about the Gump comparison directly…it’s somewhat, faintly, indirectly similar to an earlier film by Woody Allen, Zelig. Either by accident or design, I managed to end up in some interesting situations from time to time. Or else, I knew a guy(or gal).
That observation of Dee Dee was at work, but then ‘work’ was this gigantic physical media store(I hate to call it a mere ‘record store’)on Sunset Boulevard, so sightings such as his was an almost daily occurrence*. I once had to work around Johnny(and Linda)as they browsed through some bins, and another time I saw Tommy and his wife perusing the Folk section(he was deep into Bluegrass).
And…that wasn’t my first encounter with Dee Dee…at the time of that show I mentioned earlier(in my nowheresville home town), they did an instore appearance at the cool record outlet back then(owned by actor Ed Asner’s brother), so my drummer at the time and I went, and ended up getting our picture in the local newspaper, talking to Dee Dee and Joey(that’s not Johnny next to him):
*for a fascinating YT rabbit hole to go down, search “what’s in my bag”, and you’ll see what music and film is bought(while they’ve been in to shop) by many who have made the music and film that you might have.
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Any of their albums with Hugh Cornwell on guitar, earlier is great, the 80’s stuff on Epic is slightly different, but good overall. Otherwise…
An outlier tune, this has been covered by others…
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Perhaps you like his look and attitude more than what he sounds like. Nothing wrong with that, most people hear music with their eyes more than their ears. Get a mirror and practice your look. I’m not a huge Ramones fan, but I appreciated them for their retro vibe and attitude. It’s rock & roll!
While there was a bit of an adjustment to their minimalist approach, I’d already been listening to their precursors(MC5, Stooges, Dolls, Dictators), so they weren’t exactly a surprise, and I came to interpret them as a musical market correction, ‘cause what I was hearing on radio in general was so bland and boring…yeah, all the “classic rock” sacred cows.
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Certainly one of my first inspirations and the first show I ever paid to go to.
Agree with @Michedelic on JJ. Love his/their take on Burt Bacharach:
Then Dave Allen with Gang of 4 and Klaus Flouride with the DKs (though in my progression I saw them before Burnel). Jimmy Wilsey with The Avengers was a huge local inspiration - and saw Jack Casady with SVT a bunch of times - he really had the rock attitude with that band - funny that he seemed so 'old' then...
And Bruce Thomas and Graham Maby and lots of others a little later.
Agree with @Michedelic on JJ. Love his/their take on Burt Bacharach:
Then Dave Allen with Gang of 4 and Klaus Flouride with the DKs (though in my progression I saw them before Burnel). Jimmy Wilsey with The Avengers was a huge local inspiration - and saw Jack Casady with SVT a bunch of times - he really had the rock attitude with that band - funny that he seemed so 'old' then...
And Bruce Thomas and Graham Maby and lots of others a little later.
I was pretty much on the same track, but I’ll add Colin Moulding, Barry Adamson, Peter Hook, Jah Wobble, and to a lesser extent David J, Youth, Graham Lewis, and Steve Severin.
Peter Hook was a big one on the records; though I saw New Order play in an art gallery in SF in must have been '82 or '83 - very up close - but it was honestly one of the worst 'name' band live performances I've seen.
re: Barry Adamson, still one of the best shows I ever saw was The Buzzcocks with a then unknown in the US Gang of 4 opening - at Geary Temple/Temple Beautiful in SF. Both great but Gang of 4 stole the show.
Still, Dee Dee does remain an archetype of cool from that era.
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Albums...Rattus Norvegicus and Black and White are my faves
No more Heroes and Raven are great too
Magazine were/are a wholly underrated band, Without Barry Adamson I don't think they would every have been the same. The two songs that demonstrate to me how even though his bass lines seem simple and yet incredibly complex are the pornographic discord of Permafrost, the thumping BL of Light Pours Out Of Me.
Not forgetting the tragic loss of the inimitable John McGeoch (guitar) who sadly passed away in 2004
