RIP Andy Rourke

[Wood and Wire]

Yeah, i only posted because it relates. Absolutely not going for "promotion "

Anyway, my bandleader was in a band with Andy and Dolores from the Cranberries called D.A.R.K.

they toured opening for the Cranberries.

when he started this new band, which was mostly a studio project, he got Andy to record this one tune.

so i get to play one of Andy's lines every week. And it really is a lovely bassline.

I'm about 85% there. I can kind of get the feel spot on, but some of his fills i miss.

obviously he is famously a pick player and i only play with fingers so i dont get it exactly.



It's funny you mention that.

The song he plays on for us starts in F# and im always wondering if he is playing tuned to F#. It would makenthe song much easier to play i think, but i havent tried it.

I keep meaning to bring a capo to practice to test.

Well that's tragic that your band leader has lost two band mates, well before their sell by dates - but a great story nonetheless, and awesome that your legacies are intertwined.

Did you get to attend his tracking session, or meet him as part of this project?

 

[lidl e]

Well that's tragic that your band leader has lost two band mates, well before their sell by dates - but a great story nonetheless, and awesome that your legacies are intertwined.

Did you get to attend his tracking session, or meet him as part of this project?

I didnt as i joined the band just after the track was mastered.

He recorded it in England on his own and sent it over here to ireland to my buddy.

 

[WG Plum]

"Riding a Cock Horse"

That's the one!

 

[Eden Ray]

Throughout the day today, I've kept coming back to this thought; he was only 4 years older than me; how's that possible? It seems like an extremely bewildering form of time-space compression.

I never realized he was 10 years (and one day) older than me. He is a master for me and in my imaginary he might have been 1000 years older.

 

[Eden Ray]

So these have been indeed Smiths listening days.
Their music have continued to play in my head when not out from some speakers, but it then wasn't quite right.
It was obsessive and bitter and sad. Especially last night.

 

[IronLung1986]

Just found out about this. Really a shame. I loved his tone and playing.

 

[Grinderman]

Yes, well said.
I wore out my Walkman listening to him (in a rhythmic trance).

I have a particular memory of the hours-long boring AF drive through Indiana to Cincinnati Ohio for college in 1988, trancing out to Meat Is Murder on my Walkman.

Within a few weeks, I fell into partying with Greg Dulli and Rick McCollum at their house because it's Cincinnati. W.T.F. else was I going to do there on the weekends? I hated Cincinnati, no offense to whomever might be connected to Cincinnati.

"When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always twenty years behind the times." - Mark Twain

 

[SJLee]

As it so happens, Marr owns one of McGuinn's old Rics, but he has stated that Tom Petty was a primary inspiration in his youth, although there's plenty of Bryds DNA that filters through that.

I can see the connection there. Campbell is quite a modest yet tasteful player. With a slogan like, "Don't bore us, get to the chorus," one can expect an anti guitar hero. Both Campbell and Marr have well crafted interlocking parts. Campbell's to Tench and Marr's to Rourke.

 

[Michedelic]

I can see the connection there. Campbell is quite a modest yet tasteful player. With a slogan like, "Don't bore us, get to the chorus," one can expect an anti guitar hero. Both Campbell and Marr have well crafted interlocking parts. Campbell's to Tench and Marr's to Rourke.

I think it may have been more of what Petty, on a Ric 12(approximating what McGuinn had done before)was up to in a more or less rhythm guitar role…the chimey, arpeggiated sound, the jangle. Considering Marr's age, TP&HB would have been far more likely as an inspiration than The Byrds, who were fairly forgotten about around the time he was learning to play. I have no idea what impact REM might have had on Marr, but Buck certainly was channeling McGuinn in a similar fashion.

 

[Grinderman]

Oh man…tomorrow I'm going to the Cruel World festival in Pasadena(Iggy and Siouxie headling). Last year, Moz was technically the top bill, but after Bauhaus just absolutely killed it, totally owned the night, my friend who had come over from Amsterdam to attend, and I(both of us kinda 'meh' about him solo), set out for my car. The way parking was arranged, it was not easily found(didn't drop a pin). It took a frustrating hour to find it, all the while with him bleating in the distance. All I could think was, how perversely perfect. Heaven knows…

How were Iggy & Guns, or Roses, and Siouxie?

I could hear it from my place yesterday. There are only a couple of small foothill ridges between here and there to block sound but I could still hear the rumble.

Yeah, the parking lot there, oof... Ms. was a bit annoyed she could get to the pool (the very one Nirvana baby was photographed in the water) down there next door/same parking lot for her swim.

I've never seen a concert or concert festival at the Rose Bowl. I'd rather not see bands in that format. Pere Ubu with Watt + Missingmen at the Lodge Room over on Fig and Ave 52 is more my thing.

 

[Grinderman]

Re-listening to Meat Is Murder a few times has been interesting with about 35 years more music knowledge. How it slots in with other sounds from that era--e.g. other things Seymour Stein was connected with--, thinking about how I perceived it when I was 17 versus 55.

 

[Michedelic]

How were Iggy & Guns, or Roses, and Siouxie?

I could hear it from my place yesterday. There are only a couple of small foothill ridges between here and there to block sound but I could still hear the rumble.

Yeah, the parking lot there, oof... Ms. was a bit annoyed she could get to the pool (the very one Nirvana baby was photographed in the water) down there next door/same parking lot for her swim.

I've never seen a concert or concert festival at the Rose Bowl. I'd rather not see bands in that format. Pere Ubu with Watt + Missingmen at the Lodge Room over on Fig and Ave 52 is more my thing.

Well…a cruel ending of sorts(as you'll probably hear about)…
First thing, it's not in the stadium, but on the grounds/golf course to the north, with three different stages set up, very open air, pastoral. Well, as pastoral as it gets with thousands of three generations of punk/goth types wandering around. I saw U2 in the bowl several years ago(not my idea, but the wife's), typical experience. Like last year, parking intake was a c*****rf**k, otherwise, well set up, although you had to do a lot of walking to get to the main stage.

Performances during the day were uneven…Go4's Jon King seemed exhausted, Sara was great; ABC were as slick as they were cheesy; Echo sounded like they were phoning it in, Mac's voice was very rough; I suspect Numan might have been lip synching. Love and Rockets, just like the Bauhaus incarnation last year, were amazing, utterly astounding video visuals going with the performance(I could tell they were playing as Ash's guitar went out of tune, but there were still some tracks going on, mainly "Ball Of Confusion"), then Iggy come out with an entirely different band(no Duff/Chad), a horn section, very tight.

Josh Homme's young son came out to bust some dance moves on "The Passenger", then the mains dropped out twice, followed by the announcement that severe weather was approaching, lightening was spoted(I didn't see any), Iggy's set over, show's over, no Siouxie(the goth kids having something to really be bummed about). I couldn't catch a whiff of any storm developing, as you know it was just the usual marine layer drifting in, but everyone was told to go home. Very weird(I just wonder if something else was going on). In this litigious age, I guess Golden Voice didn't want any potential injury lawsuits. The mass exodus wasn't as much of a mess as it could have been. So, that happened.

 

[Grinderman]

Well…a cruel ending of sorts(as you'll probably hear about)…
First thing, it's not in the stadium, but on the grounds/golf course to the north, with three different stages set up, very open air, pastoral. Well, as pastoral as it gets with thousands of three generations of punk/goth types wandering around. I saw U2 in the bowl several years ago(not my idea, but the wife's), typical experience. Like last year, parking intake was a c*****rf**k, otherwise, well set up, although you had to do a lot of walking to get to the main stage.

Performances during the day were uneven…Go4's Jon King seemed exhausted, Sara was great; ABC were as slick as they were cheesy; Echo sounded like they were phoning it in, Mac's voice was very rough; I suspect Numan might have been lip synching. Love and Rockets, just like the Bauhaus incarnation last year, were amazing, utterly astounding video visuals going with the performance(I could tell they were playing as Ash's guitar went out of tune, but there were still some tracks going on, mainly "Ball Of Confusion"), then Iggy come out with an entirely different band(no Duff/Chad), a horn section, very tight.

Josh Homme's young son came out to bust some dance moves on "The Passenger", then the mains dropped out twice, followed by the announcement that severe weather was approaching, lightening was spoted(I didn't see any), Iggy's set over, show's over, no Siouxie(the goth kids having something to really be bummed about). I couldn't catch a whiff of any storm developing, as you know it was just the usual marine layer drifting in, but everyone was told to go home. Very weird(I just wonder if something else was going on). In this litigious age, I guess Golden Voice didn't want any potential injury suits. The mass exodus wasn't as much of a mess as it could have been. So, that happened.

Cruel World, indeed. That pretty much says a large part of why I don't like most music festivals.

Your review of Gang of Four, ABC, Echo & The B, and Gary Numan all strikes me as unsurprising; I believe it. Pleasant surprise about Love & Rockets though.

About that weather, my partner Veronica says she saw thunderclouds over the San Gabriel Mounts but when they're over that far they don't typically blow back toward Pasadena so the ostensible reason for cutting the event short does seem questionable. Apparently, there's some do-over show tonight at 5:00PM with Siouxie, but I'm not sure about Iggy. Funny because it does look like it could rain here at any moment.

Iggy always seems to have tight bands, particularly post-Stooges reunion. Iggy is the only reason I had any thoughts of getting tickets.

 

[Michedelic]

Cruel World, indeed. That pretty much says a large part of why I don't like most music festivals.

Your review of Gang of Four, ABC, Echo & The B, and Gary Numan all strikes me as unsurprising; I believe it. Pleasant surprise about Love & Rockets though.

About that weather, my partner Veronica says she saw thunderclouds over the San Gabriel Mounts but when they're over that far they don't typically blow back toward Pasadena so the ostensible reason for cutting the event short does seem questionable. Apparently, there's some do-over show tonight at 5:00PM with Siouxie, but I'm not sure about Iggy. Funny because it does look like it could rain here at any moment.

Iggy always seems to have tight bands, particularly post-Stooges reunion. Iggy is the only reason I had any thoughts of getting tickets.

It looks like Iggy will be on board for the rematch, the tix will still be good. Maybe they'll do a duet on "Passenger". I'd love to hear her on "Candy".
BTW, I wore my "Hang The DJ" T-shirt yesterday as a tribute to AR, plus that's my general attitude anyway.

 

[Grinderman]

Whoa...interesting: "Andy tuned his basses up to F# in the early days of the Smiths. In later years he would use a dedicated F# bass for older songs alongside a bass in standard E tuning..."

RIP Andy Rourke. My prior band had a couple of Smiths lovers in it. I've always enjoyed them, but was never a super fan. But in that band we played several Smiths and Morrissey covers (even though it was an originals band), and I learned a lot from the bass. Still Ill in particular expanded my mind and bass vocabulary, especially since I am not a picker by trade…

I'm getting the impression that in F# standard tuning Rourke liked to play a lot of open string or open notes which is a bit of a thing for me to get a hang of because I'm so used to E standard and E flat standard tunings and I tend to mostly prefer fretting notes even where playing the same parts with more open notes is an option. Is that weakness in technique or just a personal style or preference, I don't know.

I'm not so much of a picker either because it's a use-or-lose-it deal for my level of aptitude. I started out using a pick when I was a teenager but that was a long time ago.

I remember reading somewhere about Andy and the F# bit as it wasn't good for the neck and to use super light gauge strings.

Further in that link he talks about how he purchased his '64 p bass at Manny's Music in Manhattan in like 1984 or so. I wonder how much it was? that's like us buying a 2003 today.

If you've got a good neck that can handle stings like LaBella 760M 1954 Original flats or Rotosound 77 Jazz flats it should just as well handle 45-105 Rotosound 66 rounds tuned to F# standard just as well.

Seymour Stein apparently bought that bass for Rourke and a guitar for Marr.

 

[May Cassidy]

Seymour Stein apparently bought that bass for Rourke and a guitar for Marr.

If I remember correctly it was Marr's ES-355 and Andy's 1964 Precision. Both instruments that were so iconic in the early image and sound of The Smiths.

 

[Tony In Philly]

He was one of those special special bassists that really knew how to spruce up a trio instrumental format. He was so good at it!

 

[CaptainWally]

Not on TB much these days, but I popped on to read/commiserate about A.R. We put together this little tribute number.



He was a great/creative player.

 

[P. Aaron]

What a terrible loss. A terrific talent. A troubled life of addiction but a great musician. RIP.

 

[P. Aaron]

Late in hearing about this. I learned a bunch of Smith's songs for a tribute years ago and dug the music like crazy even as I was learning it.

He was a great player and his lines aren't always obvious but fit the songs so well. Every bassists goal.

The Smiths were on the innovative cusp whether they knew it or not. RIP Andy.