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Tony Visconti on Rethinking Rock Bass...

gjohnson441496

gjohnson441496

Dec 14, 2014
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#1
Just thought I'd share this tidbit from an article I read...

"Then, that's not rock anymore. That's like playing the Queen musical, where you are imitating the music on the albums in order to do a Broadway show with rock music in it. See, that's what's missing in today's rock. This is why rock is slowly dying. It's stagnant. Rock has its roots in rhythm and blues and country, and those are improvisational styles. People didn't read music; they made up their parts and went along. If you don't allow yourself to evolve, then you're being robotic. If there's no real and organic spontaneity, then what you are doing is not rock & roll." Tony Visconti.

The full article is here... Tony Visconti on Rethinking Rock Bass for David Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold the World'
 
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#3
Thx for posting gjohnson441496. Nice article. Tony's 'take' on today's bassist, they most often play too safe. One of the coolest parts from the article, Tony's modded P. This is the kind of thing guys did back in the day, me included. MODDING was so common. Interesting to see/hear any responses to Tony's MAJOR mods....

From the article: "I went to Bill's Guitars, and I had luthier Roger Gitten put a Telecaster Bass pickup on the P-Bass with a toggle switch. Then, I could switch between the P-Bass pickups and the Tele pickup, which would rumble the way I wanted when I played with a pick. Roger did another modification for me in the mid 1970s, installing two DiMarzio pickups near the bridge, adding active circuitry for treble and bass and a toggle switch, and carving a cavity in the back to accommodate a 9-volt battery."

Tony Visconti w Bass P Bass Telecaster PU + Dimarzios-resized cropped.jpg
 
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#4
I think I agree (!). I've reached the age that when I hear myself playing a cozy old lick I get embarrassed with myself.

I'm mostly a regular guitarist (since 1965) and only took up the Bass very recently - because I felt like it...

Best, Pete.
 
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#6
gjohnson441496 said:
Just thought I'd share this tidbit from an article I read...

"Then, that's not rock anymore. That's like playing the Queen musical, where you are imitating the music on the albums in order to do a Broadway show with rock music in it. See, that's what's missing in today's rock. This is why rock is slowly dying. It's stagnant. Rock has its roots in rhythm and blues and country, and those are improvisational styles. People didn't read music; they made up their parts and went along. If you don't allow yourself to evolve, then you're being robotic. If there's no real and organic spontaneity, then what you are doing is not rock & roll." Tony Visconti.

The full article is here... Tony Visconti on Rethinking Rock Bass for David Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold the World'
Click to expand...
Or worrying about nailing how James, Pino, Paul, John or anyone else done it. In short find your own tone and groove.
 
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#7
LarryR said:
Thx for posting gjohnson441496. Nice article. Tony's 'take' on today's bassist, they most often play too safe. One of the coolest parts from the article, Tony's modded P. This is the kind of thing guys did back in the day, me included. MODDING was so common. Interesting to see/hear any responses to Tony's MAJOR mods....

From the article: "I went to Bill's Guitars, and I had luthier Roger Gitten put a Telecaster Bass pickup on the P-Bass with a toggle switch. Then, I could switch between the P-Bass pickups and the Tele pickup, which would rumble the way I wanted when I played with a pick. Roger did another modification for me in the mid 1970s, installing two DiMarzio pickups near the bridge, adding active circuitry for treble and bass and a toggle switch, and carving a cavity in the back to accommodate a 9-volt battery."

View attachment 937381
Click to expand...
I can just hear the Vintage Bass worshipers crying for the lost soul of that bass, but that is how it wuz done back in the day. It was a tool for musicians to ply their trade, not some holy relic.
 
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#9
bassbrad said:
I can just hear the Vintage Bass worshipers crying for the lost soul of that bass, but that is how it wuz done back in the day. It was a tool for musicians to ply their trade, not some holy relic.
Click to expand...
I know right. And honestly, I paid $450 for my 77 precision and I didn't think that was a lot of money even in 1977. But the money is not the point I guess... Basses regardless of cost SHOULD BE PLAYED!
 
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#10
a. Yeah, I remember people would not buy a second instrument, just adapt the one you had. A guitar player high school friend had a modified Tele with a humbucker.

b. OP, yup music is kinda "commercial" as we used to say, waiting around for "the next best thing", borrowing from another industry, to happen. Let me add that Hip Hop is a worldwide phenomenon and it is, IMO, replacing the previous way of doing biz. We are clarinet players from the 30-40's in the age of Elvis and electric guitars kind of thing. Call me a steam pipe fitter?
 
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#11
StyleOverShow said:
a. Yeah, I remember people would not buy a second instrument, just adapt the one you had. A guitar player high school friend had a modified Tele with a humbucker.

b. OP, yup music is kinda "commercial" as we used to say, waiting around for "the next best thing", borrowing from another industry, to happen. Let me add that Hip Hop is a worldwide phenomenon and it is, IMO, replacing the previous way of doing biz. We are clarinet players from the 30-40's in the age of Elvis and electric guitars kind of thing. Call me a steam pipe fitter?
Click to expand...
I hear you StyleOverShow! If you don't change with the times you'll get left behind.
 
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#14
I like the playing on Man Who Sold the World, perhaps a little gliss-happy, but all the instrumentstion has character, or as Visconti said, an organic texture (of him and WW on drums).

I would not have thought it was recorded in that way - drums bass and guitar blasting in one room, Bowie in a vocal booth opposite them. But in retrospect it does sound that way. Quite an engine there. Having seen (video) Trevor Bolder play a Gibson live on some of those tracks, I've sometimes confused one bassist for the other, but I think Trev was less gliss-happy and built his lines in a more proto-punk way with a lot of tasty passing tones (like under "and the spiders from mars...."

Its awesome they are playing this material live, I have blasted that album many a time and the material deserves the manifestation. Friends with the Woody Woodmansy FB page so I am apprised of it. AFAIK it's really him.
 
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#15
"I think many bass players tend to underplay."

Take that TB orthodoxy. "Less is more." Nonsense; less is less and more is more.

That last paragraph that the OP says it all. Rock needs to be felt, it needs to be innovative; not boring, over simplified and warmed over repeats of things that have been done for the last 40 years.
 
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#17
bearfoot said:
I like the playing on Man Who Sold the World, perhaps a little gliss-happy, but all the instrumentstion has character, or as Visconti said, an organic texture (of him and WW on drums).

I would not have thought it was recorded in that way - drums bass and guitar blasting in one room, Bowie in a vocal booth opposite them. But in retrospect it does sound that way. Quite an engine there. Having seen (video) Trevor Bolder play a Gibson live on some of those tracks, I've sometimes confused one bassist for the other, but I think Trev was less gliss-happy and built his lines in a more proto-punk way with a lot of tasty passing tones (like under "and the spiders from mars...."

Its awesome they are playing this material live, I have blasted that album many a time and the material deserves the manifestation. Friends with the Woody Woodmansy FB page so I am apprised of it. AFAIK it's really him.
Click to expand...
I'm listening to it now. The vocals are swinging all over the place with (i'm no expert but) reverb and some kind of phase shifting. The players remind me of an In The Round session or something Live at Daryl's House.
 
#18
Yes I believe that is a pretty standard phaser effect. Modulators are very rare on DBs vocals, the only other place I recall a phaser on his voice is the spoken intro to "Diamond Dogs".

The lyric was written hurredly in the lobby of the studio, as legend has it.

Bowie pulled off some amazing vocals on that album - Saviour Machine, Holy Holy, Width of a Circle.
 
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#19
TMWSTW was such a radical departure for Bowie. The fact that it was arguably a 'hard rock' album was down to the fact that Bowie left Ronno and Visconti to their own devices; basically, they wrote a lot of that album!

Even as a kid I marvelled at Visconti's tone and was convinced, for decades, that it was an EB3. The man himself confirmed that the EB3 was used on that album but also the modded Precision, which I never, until now, knew that it had a mudbucker on it.

I also liked how Visconti mixed the bass forward. Check out Width of a Circle for some class playing!
 
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