BP Feature: Graham Maby plays "Friday"

[Bottom End]

FYI-The most recent BP has a transcription of Graham Maby's bass line for "Friday" from the Joe Jackson Album "I'm The Man".

 

It's great to see Graham get some attention, and it also led me to put Joe Jackson in heavy rotation while I worked through the line. What seems simple on paper just demonstrates how important being "in the pocket" is, and that even fast picking can be funky, and not every great bass player has to slap.

 

Graham Maby has played on every Joe Jackson album, amongst others, and is one of my top 5 bass inspirations. Even before I started playing music, his playing caught my attention, and great challenges in learning how to play his lines. He was predominantly a pick player in his early days, as a lot of British bassists seem to be, and his playing is an argument for learning picking skills no matter how much you might love/be comfortable with fingerstyle.

 

It's mentioned in the article that the late 70's-early '80's was a great time for music where the bass was very prominent; besides Maby with Jackson, you had Bruce Thomas with Elvis Costello, Pete Farndon with The Pretenders, and countless one-hit wonders; I'd go further and say that a lot of those songs were made by the bass line.

[Richard W]

Don't forget Bruce Foxton with the Jam as another terrific bassist from that era. The other element, especially with Joe Jackson (and the Jam to some extent) is how prominently the bass is positioned in the mix. They really carried the song equally--and sometimes predominating--over the guitar.

 

I've been trying to learn from Bill Wyman lines from the early Stones--it's shocking how buried the bass is in those mixes. You can barely hear it. I've read interviews with Wyman where he's complained about that.

[Oscar Petticoat]

Norman Watt-Roy, of Ian Dury and the Blockheads.

 

I've recently discovered/rediscovered him. While looking up youtube videos for the British late-'70s new wave/punk-era guitarist Wilko Johnson and his band Dr. Feelgood (which really is neither punk nor new wave, methinks--just kinda got lumped in there), I found a more recent youtube vid of a live Wilko trio outdoor gig with Norman Watt-Roy on bass. I think this is a permanent unit.

 

 

Norman is best known for his time in Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and was inspired to create his bubbly line for Ian's "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" by seeing Jaco live with Weather Report. Back in the day he used a maple-board P-Bass to which he later added a Jazz pickup (both visible in Dury TV appearances on youtube).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6idHmoe5EM

 

Norman still plays with the Blockheads--they still have several original members (keyboardist Chas Jankel is one), and I believe Steve Howe's son Dylan Howe on drums, along with a new singer to replace the late Ian Dury. And some kind dude (actually, a few of them!) made a youtube video of himself playing along with Norman's "Rhythm Stick" line, so we can all dig on it. A new waver with chops!

 

 

I don't feel like a geezer, but I guess I am...kids these days don't know how lucky they are to have access to youtube. Back in the day, which was only about 15 or 17 years ago, we had to buy bootleg videos from collectors to be able to see this stuff. Ten years earlier, in the pre-VCR days, we went without, and just dreamed. To find that Django Reinhardt "hotel room" video on youtube--to hear AND SEE Django Reinhardt play--and with just two fingers!--was just breathtaking. Too bad no one filmed Charlie Christian, or (to the best of my knowledge) James Jamerson, Wilbur Ware, Pops Foster, etc.--what a shame.

 

Check out the stunning two-fingered arpeggio at about 2:52:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV6AB3WsNcM

 

Also--unfortunately, rwells, Bill Wyman didn't really become audible until the "Some Girls"/"Tattoo You" era (what I call the "New York Stones"). Too bad, cuz he swings wonderfully in a boogie-woogie-type style on much of that early material and on the Chuck Berry numbers on the live LP "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out." A close listen will reveal that the rhythm section had three, not two, members--Wyman, Watts, and the criminally underappreciated Ian Stewart--perhaps the greatest rock 'n' roll rhythm section ever.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z7E78bdyhA

[Bottom End]

+1 on Bruce Foxton, he was another bass player who made me notice and appreciate bass lines long before I started playing. Again, take his bass lines out of the songs, and the songs really don't sound so great.

 

Norman Watt-Roy, another guy who should get a feature in BP, beyonf "Rhythm Stick", he's laid down a lot of great lines.

[JBFLA]

Too bad no one filmed Charlie Christian, or (to the best of my knowledge) James Jamerson, Wilbur Ware, Pops Foster, etc.--what a shame.

 

If you seek it, you will find it. "What's Goin' On". James is Front and Center at 1:25 into the vid and several points thereafter.

 

And if you REALLY want to hear "What's Goin' On" - here's the isolated track; no video:

 

 

[Richard W]

A close listen will reveal that the rhythm section had three, not two, members--Wyman, Watts, and the criminally underappreciated Ian Stewart--perhaps the greatest rock 'n' roll rhythm section ever.

 

Just finished reading Keith Richards' book and he goes on at great length about Ian Stewart and how important he was to the band--really a founding member of the Stones who made them what they were.