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Richest bassist?

#181
corinpills said:
Kind of curious, DW, just in regards to the time when you first started playing the bass, what was the impetus? It probably seemed like the most natural thing in the world if your whole family played, but what was it that made you pick up the bass?
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I played piano, guitar and violin until the early 70's (1972, IIRC) when console stereos started to come into play. These stereos had Bass, Midrange and Treble knobs and bigger speakers than the transister AM Radios I was used to listening to music on. I heard 'bass' clearly for the first time and was hooked. I was specifically listening to a Stevie Wonder record at the time at a cousin's house! I immediately went home and asked my mother to trade in my electric guitar for a bass! Just hearing that low frequency did something for me!! Just to reiterate, it was 'Motown/Tamla' music and NOT the Beatles! To this day, I've not been a Beatles fan!
 
#185
firststringer said:
What does ethnicity have to do with anything? Young impressionable white people also bought millions of Supremes records too, since they were the second biggest act in the 60's, at least in in terms of record sales. Were the millions of records they and all the other Motown artists sold bought exclusively by black people?

And I don't think you can't just say if the Beatles weren't seen on TV they wouldn't have been as influential because A) that is a completely unprovable position because, B) they were on TV. We can't change that logical fact. Also it kind of devalues their music a bit. TV helped "make" the Beatles, but the music is what counts.

Anyway, truth be told, Ed Sullivan for one, probably had just as many Motown acts on his shoe, (I mean show) as anyone else, so it wasn't just they who were helped by TV.

Jamerson was great - McCartney was great. "Credit" aside isn't the point really that decades later the work they, and others did still inspires people?

Again. It's all good...
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Not to get of topic but I have to address the question.

Ethnicity has a lot to do with it, if it didn't there would not have been a need to create an Elvis Presley. We all know what that was about.

Do you know who Lonnie Brooks is? Well he had a hit single in the late 50's- early 60's that got a lot of air play, did very well in sales and it was heavily requested at the radio stations, as soon as he appeared on a TV show to sing his hit and it was now known that he was a black man, the game changed, so don't ask me what does ethnicity have to do with music.

And this is what Lonnie Brooks told me himself.

Did you know that the Beatles were once on a black owned record label in America?

http://www.dermon.com/Beatles/Veejay.htm

Would you be offended to know that Paul M. didn't play bass on all the Beatles recordings?


flipper_gv said:
That makes him billionaire in USD, even if one Euro makes you Billionaire in USD these days
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:)
 
#186
MrLenny said:
Top LA session guys can make up to $250,000 and then touring.
Nathan East makes up to $25,000 a week when on tour with Clapton.
My last gig paid $70 after gas expenses.
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Well, I'd like to know who the highest paid 'working bassist' is?? I'd have to say, Nathan East is up there. Look at this resume starting from 1972!! Not listed was his time with Barry White's Orchestra.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hbfuxqw5ld6e~T4

I'm sure Daryl Jones is up there. Michael Anthony must have made a mint.
 
#189
#191
DWBass said:
I didn't know that!

http://www.dermon.com/Beatles/Veejay.htm

This I did know!
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Did you know that Willy Dixon had to sue Robert Plant and Jimmy Page for stealing some of his songs and then trying to pass them off as there's?

Led Zeppelin covered a bunch of Dixon's songs without giving him credit. He later successfully sued them.
 
#192
JAUQO III-X said:
Did you know that Willy Dixon had to sue Robert Plant and Jimmy Page for stealing some of his songs and then trying to pass them off as there's?

Led Zeppelin covered a bunch of Dixon's songs without giving him credit. He later successfully sued them.
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I wouldn't say covered was the right word... integrated his music and lyrics into new songs..., "sampled" maybe... :D

Dixon being just the tip of the iceberg of earlier writers and artists that Zep borrowed from, although they do admit this and pretty much always have, Plant always admitted to what he calls a certain amount of thievery. But they, like most borrowers of music, didn't pay for it, or credit it, until they were made too.
 
#194
JAUQO III-X said:
Not to get of topic but I have to address the question.

Ethnicity has a lot to do with it, if it didn't there would not have been a need to create an Elvis Presley. We all know what that was about.

Do you know who Lonnie Brooks is? Well he had a hit single in the late 50's- early 60's that got a lot of air play, did very well in sales and it was heavily requested at the radio stations, as soon as he appeared on a TV show to sing his hit and it was now known that he was a black man, the game changed, so don't ask me what does ethnicity have to do with music.

And this is what Lonnie Brooks told me himself.

Did you know that the Beatles were once on a black owned record label in America?

http://www.dermon.com/Beatles/Veejay.htm

Would you be offended to know that Paul M. didn't play bass on all the Beatles recordings?
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I'm not denying that some black artists suffered in the 50's and later, but if you are making the argument that McCartney and the Beatles owed their popularity to the fact that were white, then you've lost me.

How about they owed it to the fact that they were good?

Yes, some white artists in the 50's - that Pat Boones and the like - who were "given" the music of black artists and had hits were absolutely less "authentic" and talented than the original artists. No one denies that and it is shameful that the world was as it was back then.

I think however, that Elvis Presley, holds the same place in the argument as the Beatles, because he (back in the 50's) - like they in the 60's - were at least as talented if not more so than their contemporaries no matter what their race.

You know, there's nothing wrong with acknowledging that white people can have talent. Not all of them "stole it" from others. I mean Lennon and McCartney wrote a whole bunch of incredible songs that inspires all sorts of people. That doesn't or shouldn't count because some unfortunate black artists that they had nothing to do with were ripped off or taken advantage of?

And yes, I know about VeeJay Records and that Harrison and Lennon played bass on a handful of Beatles' recordings...

I'll change what I've been saying all along from - "it's all good" to "it's all good now"...
 
#200
JAUQO III-X said:
firststringer, I'm not here to discredit any one but truth is truth. I'm going to end this now because you obviously don't want to acknowledge what I'm saying (and I'm not being sarcastic).
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Actually, I've acknowledged pretty much all of your points, and opinions, JAUQO. I just didn't agree with them. There is a difference, you know. ;)

As far as what's true - well, I don't know. You seem comfortable denying, or at best minimizing the talents, influences and reasons behind the popularity of certain artists. I don't see it that way.

That said, throughout this thread I have done nothing but praise Jamerson and Motown and shown respect and understanding for the artists in the 50's who were ripped off and exploited.

Look, I'm not here to fight you or anyone either, but if you are uncomfortable that this conversation has taken on race as a topic, or whatever else, I am sorry. But please remember that you introduced it. I chose to respond because I felt I should, and that I had something to contribute to the conversation.

Whatever the case, I certainly have no issue with you or anyone here.

Live and let live...
 

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