Who played bass in Don't Leave Me This Way?

Not Jamerson, IMO.

I always liked that tune...Diana Ross' "Love Hangover" is very, very similar.

 

Ron Baker maybe? That band had a very Philly Intl. sound. Definitely a Gamble & Huff tune. No info found online but Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes did the song originally so I'm gonna go with Ronnie Baker.

 

No way "The Hook" could have played those runs in that song.

 

HI

Just a guess but Bernard Edwards?

Rob

 

DW, I think it was actually a Motown record. I think it was likely recorded in Motown's LA studio which means it could have been Jamerson, but more likely someone like Wilton Felder.

 

I did a quick look, and that release was Motown.

 

DW, you are right. It was written by Gamble and Huff, and first recorded by Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes in 1975. Thelma Houston covered it in 1977.

 

Maybe we could end the speculation and just say Carol Kaye did the track?

 

I saw the number of responses to the thread and figured the answer would already be here. I'm surprised.

Henry Davis of LTD, the band Jeffrey Osborne used to front.

 

Seriously?

May I present...

exhibit A: "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" by Gladys Knight & The Pips

exhibit B: "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" by The Four Tops

etc., etc., etc...

Jamerson could play those runs in his sleep, IMO!

 

Good ear, Jim. Same guy.

BTW he was on Herbie Hancock's "Man Child" along with Paul Jackson and Louis Johnson. Loved that album.

 

Thanks, Brad. It was killing me,,,I was almost in the DW camp & thought of Ronnie Baker (the Gamble/Huff and Harold & The Blue Notes connection).

Henry Davis, huh? The tone on the Houston & Ross tracks remind me of LTD's "Jam" & "Holding On" (both found on Togetherness). Testing my memory...his bass tone on the previous album (the one w/ "Back In Love Again") sounded a bit more "refined"?

There's also a '70s Fusion release by Alphonse Mouzon w/ Davis on bass (Mind Transplant).

 

The main reason I believed it NOT to be JJ...those somewhat Disco-fied octaves used throughout "Don't Leave Me This Way".
Don't think JJ ever did any of those.

 

If that's the case, he definitely used more than one finger. He had to have some unique technique that made it look like it was just one finger. We're talking 1/16 note runs here. No way one finger did that. I'd have to see it to believe it.

 

DW-
Those in the Kaye played "I Was Made To Love Her" camp...say the same.
There's a youtube bassist that plays the Motown tunes in a very authentic manner...one-finger, sunburst P-bass, chrome ashtray over the pickup, etc. He pulls it off.
...and I can't remember his name, either!

 

The Thelma Houston version is on Motown. It sounds like Carol Kaye to me. PBass with a pick.

 

That was Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes version. Thelma Houston's version was two years later on Motown.

Brad, I'm just like JimK, the moment you said it was Henry Davis of LTD, I could hear the similarity in tone to all of those great LTD songs. As a guy who was never the fastest slapper, I loved Henry Davis (although I did not know his name) because he played such funky octave figures without slapping. I saw him live a few times too. He could really spank a P-bass!

 

Actually by the time Thelma did the tune she was working with Motown... You're right. So.... Jamerson could have pulled it off no question. I still don't think it's his style though.

 

This guy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlqHN485pD8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4KjJt4lD_I&NR=1