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Who Was Your First...

#301
Well what can I say, I once was blind, but now can see, was lost, but now am found!

I started out my musical journey as lousy hack, a sinner, a simple heathen infidel and took the easy narrow trebley road down a guitars finger board.

Then a couple of years went by as I continued still digging the hole to my musical grave ever deeper down, with each dig one step closer to hell, one step further away from my salvation.

Or so it seemed at least.....

Then finally one glorious day, still vivid present in my mind, an epiphany suddenly and quite unexpectedly stroke me as I peered up from my hole to watch the looming clouds make way for the sun:

Light beamed down from heaven and the angles sang ever so gently as God himself descended from his solemn throne to crown me heavenly King of the bass.

As such in all my naive delusion I, previous to this revelation, looked up to the crooks who mastered the way of the 6 tiny strings, and it took me a couple of years to wake up from that treasonous and depraving daze.

However then finally I opened my eyes to the truth blinding light and let myself be embraced by the noble fourfold path to the low side.

Well, enough about me for now and how I found my salvation at last, time to get down to the ground again and on topic:

I guess Lou Barlow might have been the first bass player I really looked up to, later names such as Justin Chancellor, Bill Laswell, Trevor Dunn, Cliff Burton and Jack Casady has joined the ranks to my cabinet of the lucky few bass heroes I truly can say who's work on the bass I endorse and can relate to.

To be honest though for me it has never really been much about the players, but more about the band and the music they make.
 
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#302
NoiseNinja said:
Well what can I say, I once was blind, but now can see, was lost, but now am found!

I started out my musical journey as lousy hack, a sinner, a simple heathen infidel and took the easy narrow trebley road down a guitars finger board.

Then a couple of years went by as I continued still digging the hole to my musical grave ever deeper down, with each dig one step closer to hell, one stap further away from my salvation.

Or so it seemed at least.....

Then finally one glorious day, still vivid present in my mind, an epiphany suddenly and quite unexpectedly stroke me as I peered up from my hole to watch the looming clouds make way for the sun:

Light beamed down from heaven and the angles sang ever so gently as God himself descended from his solemn throne to crown me heavenly King of the bass.

As such in all my naive delusion I, previous to this revelation, looked up to the crooks who mastered the way of the 6 tiny strings, and it took me a couple of years to wake up from that treasonous and depraving daze.

However then finally I opened my eyes to the truth blinding light and let myself be embraced by the noble fourfold path to the low side.

Well, enough about me for now and how I found my salvation at last, time to get down to the ground again and on topic:

I guess Lou Barlow might have been the first bass player I really looked up to, later names such as Justin Chancellor, Bill Laswell, Trevor Dunn, Cliff Burton and Jack Casady has joined the ranks to my cabinet of the lucky few bass heroes I truly can say who's work on the bass I endorse and can relate to.

To be honest though for me it has never really been much about the players, but more about the band and the music they make.
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A transformation of biblical proportion, and a beautifully told recollection of it!
 
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#303
NoiseNinja said:
Well what can I say, I once was blind, but now can see, was lost, but now am found!

I started out my musical journey as lousy hack, a sinner, a simple heathen infidel and took the easy narrow trebley road down a guitars finger board.

Then a couple of years went by as I continued still digging the hole to my musical grave ever deeper down, with each dig one step closer to hell, one step further away from my salvation.

Or so it seemed at least.....

Then finally one glorious day, still vivid present in my mind, an epiphany suddenly and quite unexpectedly stroke me as I peered up from my hole to watch the looming clouds make way for the sun:

Light beamed down from heaven and the angles sang ever so gently as God himself descended from his solemn throne to crown me heavenly King of the bass.

As such in all my naive delusion I, previous to this revelation, looked up to the crooks who mastered the way of the 6 tiny strings, and it took me a couple of years to wake up from that treasonous and depraving daze.

However then finally I opened my eyes to the truth blinding light and let myself be embraced by the noble fourfold path to the low side.

Well, enough about me for now and how I found my salvation at last, time to get down to the ground again and on topic:

I guess Lou Barlow might have been the first bass player I really looked up to, later names such as Justin Chancellor, Bill Laswell, Trevor Dunn, Cliff Burton and Jack Casady has joined the ranks to my cabinet of the lucky few bass heroes I truly can say who's work on the bass I endorse and can relate to.

To be honest though for me it has never really been much about the players, but more about the band and the music they make.
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I see what you did there :meh:
 
#304
ubernator said:
I see what you did there :meh:
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You think you did, but you don't. :cool:

After I've read your version I can see how you got the idea that I was trying to turn the fascinating tragic tale of your miss spend youth into a parody though ;)

There might be more of us misguided bass players out there than you realize, starting their musical journey in the wrong camp distracted from their true call by flashy flaming guitar solos.
 
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#306
comatosedragon said:
Mel Schacher.

I used to sneak downstairs and listen to moms records (we were forbidden from touching the stereo) -- I had no idea who he was, or what the difference between bass and guitar was, but that red album cover man, and that album hits the ground running from the first second -- should be in every bass players collection, IMHO.
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I Like the cut o' yer jib!
Grand_Funk_%28album_cover%29.jpg
 
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#308
Local guy in Green Bay, WI: Mike Larscheid; Jamerson "I Was Made to Love Her" (tho' I did not know his name then); Rocco on "East Bay Grease;" Stanley Clarke (acoustic) on "Light as a Feather;" Pretty much every soul and R&B guy on pretty much every soul and R&B tune I heard back in the late '60s - Duck, Chuck Rainey, Bernard Odum and countless others. I learned the groove is paramount, virtuousity less so.
 
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#309
Haroldo said:
Local guy in Green Bay, WI: Mike Larscheid; Jamerson "I Was Made to Love Her" (tho' I did not know his name then); Rocco on "East Bay Grease;" Stanley Clarke (acoustic) on "Light as a Feather;" Pretty much every soul and R&B guy on pretty much every soul and R&B tune I heard back in the late '60s - Duck, Chuck Rainey, Bernard Odum and countless others. I learned the groove is paramount, virtuousity less so.
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I agree wholeheartedly! Nobody cares how many words you know if you have nothing to say!
 
#310
theFixer said:
I haven't heard a vast array of the works of the Duck, but of the stuff I HAVE heard... I hafta wonder... Did he play flat wound?
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lowplaces said:
Not sure but there's a new book on the Duck written by a fellow TB member due in July.

Invalid Link Removed
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Hey, that's me!

And yes, Duck played flats...and according to one of my sources, he used roundwounds on Hip-Hug-Her. But 99% of the time, he was on LaBella 760's, and only changed the set if a string broke.
 
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#312
My first bass icon was Cliff Burton, way back in the early years of Thrash. He was head and shoulders better than any other metal bassist of his time. Anesthesia is still one of the coolest pieces of music Metallica ever released. I got to see Robert Trujillo play it in Soldier Field last night, in fact. It was amazing.
 
#313
Steve Harris. I was 10 when Number of the Beast came out (1982) and it got into my ears because some older kids were playing it on portable cassette players. I was pretty aware of music before this but it was the first time the bass guitar really jumped out at me. Man, for most of the 80s I wanted to be Steve Harris. I obsessively learned every Iron Maiden tune (and I still remember a lot of it) and even though his influence on my playing waned I still find myself pulling little Steve Harris tricks and fills out of my pocket now. I started learning Iron Maiden tunes on a detuned classical guitar even before I got a real bass. :D

After Harris, the next guy that really jumped out at me was Geddy Lee.
 
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#314
Mark Reccord said:
Steve Harris. I was 10 when Number of the Beast came out (1982) and it got into my ears because some older kids were playing it on portable cassette players. I was pretty aware of music before this but it was the first time the bass guitar really jumped out at me. Man, for most of the 80s I wanted to be Steve Harris. I obsessively learned every Iron Maiden tune (and I still remember a lot of it) and even though his influence on my playing waned I still find myself pulling little Steve Harris tricks and fills out of my pocket now. I started learning Iron Maiden tunes on a detuned classical guitar even before I got a real bass. :D

After Harris, the next guy that really jumped out at me was Geddy Lee.
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Yeah man! That's a badass place to come from! Even back then, in my early days as a drummer... the average Iron Maiden listening experience was the same for every song. "Steve Harris, Steve Harris, Steve Harris, guitar solo... Steve Harris, Steve Harris, Steve Harris, guitar solo".
 
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#316
gidbass said:
Steve-Harris-Machine-Gun-Bass.jpg


Then...

1200px-GeddyLee.jpg
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Ditto. :D

theFixer said:
Yeah man! That's a badass place to come from! Even back then, in my early days as a drummer... the average Iron Maiden listening experience was the same for every song. "Steve Harris, Steve Harris, Steve Harris, guitar solo... Steve Harris, Steve Harris, Steve Harris, guitar solo".
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IM were the first band I heard where the bass guitar was so prominent in the mix and the playing so over the top that you just couldn't ignore it even if you wanted to. I remember being floored by that when I was 10. :D

I just finished reading the rest of the thread and I wasn't surprised to see Steve Harris' mentioned name multiple times. He's definitely a big influence in my age group.
 
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#319
Steve Harris and Jimmy Bain (Dio). I was around 8 years old at the time, mainly listening to early 80s hard rock/metal. I remember that it was around this time that I started mainly listening to the bass when I played music. What Jimmy Bain did in Dio wasn't mind blowing in terms of chops but it was seriously tasteful and really forward in the mix.
 
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#320
LifeIsBass said:
Steve Harris and Jimmy Bain (Dio). I was around 8 years old at the time, mainly listening to early 80s hard rock/metal. I remember that it was around this time that I started mainly listening to the bass when I played music. What Jimmy Bain did in Dio wasn't mind blowing in terms of chops but it was seriously tasteful and really forward in the mix.
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Hmm... you listened to DIO when you were 8 years old, and you live in Central Illinois. Interesting. Either hell is a LOT closer than I thought... or my parents lied to me!
 

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