So I believe I've heard of Suzi Quatro but have never listened to her. I see that her dad let her use his 57 Fender P when she started. Has anyone here ever seen her live? Just curious to know if she's a good bass player. I watched a few videos but the music isn't always my taste. Just thought it was neat that her dad was really into her playing and even allowed her to use his bass.
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Suzi Quatro
- Thread starter Flyboyandy
- Start date
Been a fan since I was a young'un. She basically founded the whole genre of punkish hard rock mined later by The Runaways and Joan Jett and the like. I've basically had a crush on her since then. 
Depends on what you mean by 'good'. For the kind of music she plays, I'd say average punk-ish rock, she does fine, but it's not hard.
Keeping in mind she started her career in the mid-60s, a bass made in 1957 would have been neither vintage nor collectible.
My Dad got my brother's '54 P in 1970 from a guy at church who used to play. For $35. Considered quite a deal at the time, but yeah. (Discount for having sat in a hot attic twisting the neck.) But yeah, wasn't the "insane impossible score" then, that it sounds like now.
They're like barn finds. I know guys who had no problem buying up old English sports cars for small hundreds of dollars, because it was the 1990s and the number of people who wanted them were far outnumbered by the number of people who actually had them.
These days... is it still possible to find an MGB roadster in a barn? Maybe. Will the owner let you have it for $250 and a handle of whiskey? Ha ha ha haaaa... no. People out in the sticks have internet too.
I first heard her when her first album dropped ( in the states). And being a faithful reader of Circus magazine, I dutifully bought it as soon as it came out. Within a year I saw her open for Alice Cooper on the Welcome to my Nightmare tour.
She wore a silver metallic cat suit, and played a Gibson EB2 bass that looked HUGE on her tiny frame. She played hard edged British styled power pop, and played it as well as any other player of that style, male or otherwise. A real firecracker!
She was one of the artists in the stable of Chinn and Chapman, British producer/songwriters who also included The Sweet and others. Her older sister played guitar in a later version of Fanny.
Cute and talented .... We all had a crush on her.
She wore a silver metallic cat suit, and played a Gibson EB2 bass that looked HUGE on her tiny frame. She played hard edged British styled power pop, and played it as well as any other player of that style, male or otherwise. A real firecracker!
She was one of the artists in the stable of Chinn and Chapman, British producer/songwriters who also included The Sweet and others. Her older sister played guitar in a later version of Fanny.
Cute and talented .... We all had a crush on her.
I think we owe her a lot of respect. As a female bass player in the rock and roll world of that era, it was probably not that easy but she made it.
I first saw her on Happy Days. She’s from the Detroit area, not far away from me, but I’ve never seen her live.
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
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- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
Don’t worry, she’s good. Very good in fact, a total pro. Some might even use the phrase “legendary”
But it was still kind of out of reach for most lower-middle-class people and below. A Fender bass was relatively expensive. AFAIK, it would have been as expensive as a moderately vintage P bass today (going for about 6-8k).
Suzi Quatro needs to be right up there with Fanny in terms of trailblazing for women in rock and roll, at a time when the ecosystem was arguably difficult to anything other than a female vocalist.
Same
As a young boy growing up in the UK in the 70s, Suzi Q was a regular Thursday night attendee on the BBC's "Top of the Pops". Any British kid from that era will know "Can the Can", "Devil Gate Drive" and "48 Crash". Glam rock brought us some good and bad things, but Suzi was definitely one of the best things.
Just going to leave these here..
Bass solo 1979
Bass solo 11/15/23
She's not Jaco, but she can indeed play.
EDIT:
Here's an interview featuring the Fender bass.
Suzi Interview
Bass solo 1979
Bass solo 11/15/23
She's not Jaco, but she can indeed play.
EDIT:
Here's an interview featuring the Fender bass.
Suzi Interview
Last edited:
Mad respect for the lady in question here.
Being 5' 2" and jumping around with a 12lb Les Paul Bass while singing is not for the faint at heart.
Apart from her well-known Chinn & Chapman hit parade in the '70s, she and her (now ex) husband wrote some interesting pieces as well, this one being my favourite:
Being 5' 2" and jumping around with a 12lb Les Paul Bass while singing is not for the faint at heart.
Apart from her well-known Chinn & Chapman hit parade in the '70s, she and her (now ex) husband wrote some interesting pieces as well, this one being my favourite:
Would rather listen to her solo than people who play a million notes and slap till the Cows come home .........really would . 
I have less questions about this statement that any British TB members would have, but I have questions nonetheless.
