Rick James redeemed me

[EddiePlaysBass]

Lately there has been a lot going on in my life. Mind you, all good stuff! No complaints whatsoever: the new job is working out well (I get better at it every day); the course they signed me up for is interesting and I passed 2 modules so far; my misses and I now own a piece of property on which we will start building a house as soon as we save up a wee bit o' cash again.

 

But all these things have intervened with my playing bass. As some of you know, my band's drummer is currently enlisted and is not home during the week. None of us want to do weekend practices so the band is more or less on hiatus, unless we have the occasional gig. So no band practice. My bass student only comes about once a month (because I told him so - looking back I could have used the money from weekly lessons, but I stand by what I told him: "practice on your own time and come see me when you want to learn something new") so not a lot of prep work there either.

 

All in all, bass was slowly starting to creep into the background. There have been days and even weeks where I have had ample time for practice and chose not to. Well, "chose" is a wrong word. It just did not occur to me that I could spend said time practising sight reading or preparing for a lesson or learn new songs. Not playing bass sort of became the norm.

 

And the funniest thing happened today. I drove home from work and with the whole winter thing it took me 3 hours instead of 45 minutes. Great, I had actually planned on playing bass tonight. Surely this was a sign. So I ate the meal my mom left me while watching UFC reruns, washed the dishes (gotta do something to show your gratitude) and then said to myself: I am going to post about how bass is becoming less important and how I want to prioritize other stuff that is going on in my life right now.

 

But then I realised that this Saturday morning, I have a bass lesson scheduled. And I kind of promised the good lad that I would teach him (amongst other things) how to play Rick James' "Super Freak". Fair enough, but I didn't actually know the song myself. So I turned on YouTube, grabbed my bass and listened. Roughly 30 seconds later I have the main riff down and I am grooving my *** off (unplugged) to this awesome song.

 

So Rick James, here's to you! *insert raised glass smiley*

[Chad Thorne]

When you're done with "Super Freak" move on to "Give It To Me, Baby." It's got the stank and it's fun to play. I break it out between songs sometimes to suck the drummer in and annoy the guitar player...:grin:

[Paul K]

What's "UFC"?

[EddiePlaysBass]

Youtube alert: Ultimate Fighting Championship

 

Chad, thanks for the recommendation! Think I need me some Rick James in my collection. Some nice bass grooves!!!

[Chad Thorne]

Cool! Don't be influenced by Dave Chappelle's "I'm Rick James, bitch!" routine. In the 89s RJ was a musical force to be reckoned with, I would say nearly on par with Sly Stone or Prince as composer, arranger, producer, performer. Same old story - drugs laid him low...