Tears for Fears- Curt Smith/ Ultravox- Christopher Cross

[CYoung]

Well, it is true, TFF is back together and we should see a new single in January, followed by a new album in the spring. Those of us die-hard TFF fans are lovin it right now.

As for great TFF bass lines: 'Mad World' is great, I like 'Change' personally.

'Woman in Chains' is a great one to do on a fiver or a four-stringer with the E dropped to a D. Pino's 'Standing on the corner of the third world' is a beautiful fretless piece.

Curt seems to prefer either a Warwick Thumb or a Status S2, played with a pick. He had a band out in LA called Mayfield, after Curtis Mayfield, whom you all know.

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

re. TFF's "change" bassline, on the extended version on the reissue of "the Hurting" you can hear how tightly played it is- especially in the fast middle-eight unison riff section.
I wonder if any digital editing was used.

the mini-solo bit from "the hurting" title track is interesting too- sounds like an octaver, or maybe a synth following the bass.


re. Ultravox "the island years", a song I'm particularly grabbed by is "the wild, the beautiful and the damned", with a distortion pedal on bass chords producing feedback at points, and Billy Currie's folk-style violin.

other songs on the compilation show their early Roxy Music influence - "rock wrok" "young savage", much like Simple Minds were heavily influenced by Roxy Music on their debut album Life in a day.
I have to say that the production on most of the tracks (first 2 albums?) is quite raw (although this was 1977,1978)-
Brian Eno produced the debut album- but Warren Cann says in the interview previously mentioned that he was more concerned with the processes than the eventual product, and thus a poor producer at the time, more an engineer.

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

Gary Jules/Michael Andrews' fluffy cover version of Tears for Fears' "Mad world" (as featured in Donnie Darko) is being touted as the prime contender for the UK Christmas no.1.

also Fame Academy's Alex Parks has recorded a version too-

details here- http://www.curtsmithzerodisc.com/

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

the new Tears for Fears single "closest thing to heaven" is up for listening on the Arista site-

www.arista.com

it's a bit like "Sowing the seeds of love" in the drums sound/effects and overall Beatles-pastiche feel.
Curt Smith's melodic bassline is suitably McCartney-esque

TFF are to play at the Brit awards on Feb 17, with Gary Jules.

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

I've finally got around to buying TFF's recent album Everybody loves a happy ending.
reviews have been lukewarm, but I really like it. it's unclear who plays bass on each track, but there's some great pop basslines on there, and excellent production balancing modern sparkle and retro warmth (Beatles pastiche recurring throughout, similar to Dukes of stratosphear)

 

[corinpills]

That was my favorite album of 2004. My friend Fred played drums on it and he does just about the best Ringo feel of any modern drummer. I believe Curt Smith played his Hofner club bass for most of the album. "Who Killed Tangerine" is a fabulously lysergic song.

I saw them on the short tour they did to support it, sounded great.

 

[CYoung]

Actually, I recently asked Curt via his web site what bass he uses nowadays. apparently, he found an older Gretsch bass which he now uses for nearly everything. You can see it in the video for Closest thing to Heaven on menithings.com.

 

[zazz]

had the pleasure of watching tff at my university bar when they first hit the charts with change....and they could really play then...seemed to remember a headless status bass ..but i could be mixing it up with other gigs. The following week it was wang chung in the bar on a warm up gig ... i just had no idea at the time who these bands were.

 

[corinpills]

Actually, I recently asked Curt via his web site what bass he uses nowadays. apparently, he found an older Gretsch bass which he now uses for nearly everything. You can see it in the video for Closest thing to Heaven on menithings.com.

Thanks for the link to the video- such a shame that song never took off. In the video, he plays the Hofner club bass he played for the entrire show when I saw them at the Beacon Theatre in New York last year.

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

nice video.

"28 days of rain"- pretty much standard weather here in the UK

faves on the album are CTTH, Call me mellow, who killed tangerine (inverted "Come together" verse), the devil, ladybird and last days on earth.

I like the artwork too- something i reckon bands should pay more attention to in the age of downloading.

 

[Blazer]

I always loved TFF's "Shout" that video also showed Curt playing a Status bass, when I talked to the people of Status at the Frankfurt music fair a few years ago they told me that Curt was one of their first endorsers and that he was a far better player than TFF albums showed.

I was a little dissappointed with their follow up single "Everybody wants to rule the world" because Curt didn't play bass on that one, it had a sequenced bassline.

With my band we play Melissa Etheridge's "Like the way I do" and when the song reaches its climax I always Roland Orzabal's solo from "Shout" because it's in the same chords and will have people asking me "Say man, that solo you played during 'Like the way I do' wasn't that from a Tears for Fears song?"

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

I was a little dissappointed with their follow up single "Everybody wants to rule the world" because Curt didn't play bass on that one, it had a sequenced bassline.

according to Derek Forbes (ex-Simple Minds bassist) the bass and drums on EWTRTW were sampled off SM's "waterfront"-
http://derekforbes.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_derekforbes_archive.html
(at the bottom of the page)

I guess at the time everyone was very Fairlight-happy and eager to sample everything.

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

the first 3 Ultravox albums with John Foxx- Ultravox, Ha ha ha and Systems of romance have been remastered-

I bought the eponymous debut today.
Derek Forbes says the first bassist he saw playing fretless was Chris Cross- and on the first Ultravox album it does sound like a fretless precision- eg. the slides on Dangerous rhythm.

also some iffy intonation on the live bonus tracks....

anyway, great to hear this early stuff in better sound quality than the rather rough island years compilation.

 

[Blazer]

according to Derek Forbes (ex-Simple Minds bassist) the bass and drums on EWTRTW were sampled off SM's "waterfront"-
http://derekforbes.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_derekforbes_archive.html
(at the bottom of the page)

I guess at the time everyone was very Fairlight-happy and eager to sample everything.

Nope. It wasn't sampled, they do sound very similar but the bass on "Waterfront" sounds like a Bassguitar played with a pick while the one on "Everybody wants to rule the world" was played on a Keyboard. Tears for fears nicked the Drum and bass line but not by sampling it.

Listen for yourself.

Tears for fears

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

the thing is, there isn't just the one bassline on Waterfront (the picked trebly line)-

there's several overdubbed- the picked line,

a low bassline, and a fretless melody line (and a slapped part in the middle)

It sounds like the low bassline was sampled.

from Derek Forbes' blog;
"3. Everybody Wants To Rule The World..........The bass and the drums are Mel Gaynor and Myself, which were sampled from Waterfront. I worked with Ian Stanley, keyboard player with Tears for Fears, and Chris Hughes, drummer with Adam and the Ants/Tears for Fears, and they both produced the second Propaganda album, 1.2.3.4.) at the Woolhall Studio in Beckington, near Bath. One day Ian said " oh Derek, forgot to thank you for Everybody wants to rule the world", then told me the story of them sampling Mel and myself from Waterfront."

 

[The Mighty 'V']

I always loved TFF's "Shout" that video also showed Curt playing a Status bass, when I talked to the people of Status at the Frankfurt music fair a few years ago they told me that Curt was one of their first endorsers and that he was a far better player than TFF albums showed.

I was a little dissappointed with their follow up single "Everybody wants to rule the world" because Curt didn't play bass on that one, it had a sequenced bassline...

Unfortunately I don't have the recording available to check, but isn't the bass line in "Shout" a synth one, too? At least in that instrumental piece before the last chorus.

I personally never like "Everybody...", apart from the intro maybe. Too soft compared to their stuff prior to that song. Just like OMD in their later days.

 

[Blazer]

Unfortunately I don't have the recording available to check, but isn't the bass line in "Shout" a synth one, too? At least in that instrumental piece before the last chorus.

I personally never like "Everybody...", apart from the intro maybe. Too soft compared to their stuff prior to that song. Just like OMD in their later days.

Here you go.

I can clearly hear Curt playing pick style when the Bass kicks in at "In violent times"

My guess is that they used a synth to dub Curt's bass line during the solo part. The video clearly shows that he was able to play that part, his hands are on the right places on the neck and he picks the right strings.

 

[The Mighty 'V']

Cheers! It'll just take a while before I can comment - I only have a bloody 56k modem.

"Pale Shelter" is on there, too! I had almost forgotten about that one - Great song!

 

[The Mighty 'V']

...I can clearly hear Curt playing pick style when the Bass kicks in at "In violent times"

My guess is that they used a synth to dub Curt's bass line during the solo part. The video clearly shows that he was able to play that part, his hands are on the right places on the neck and he picks the right strings.

I've seen them play live on TV at "Rockpalast" after releasing their debut album - no doubts about Curt's playing ability. But to me the verses are the only bits in the song that have something like a "real" bass guitar sound in them. Which is not a bad thing because the sounds are a vital part of this song, especially the snare drum, which was the thing sticking out to me when I first heard the song back in the '80s.

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

"Change" live is on Youtube- Curt playing a Steinberger.

the middle 16th note bit makes a nice cross-picking exercise- pick (like him) or fingerstyle. tightly played.


ps. re. "shout", someone asked Curt about how to play the lead bassline break on it on his site www.curtsmithzerodisc.com
and he replied it was quite straightforward on bass guitar, but they used synth bass on the record.